PBP: 2019 NWSL Week 23 Discussion

Houston got screwed by the ref. Dunn fell down - no foul by Mewis-and earlier in the game, even though Chapman initially pushed Hinkle, Hinkle did bring her down in the box.

 

That was one of worst PK foul calls on Houston that I've ever seen. Compounding the injustice the ref didn't call an obvious PK on NC when Huerta was pushed down in the box.

Houston deserved a tie. They played a tight defense that stymied NC. However, Houston had to win this game to have any possibility of making it to the playoffs and Houston never became aggressive on offense. I don't think Huerta took a single shot, nor had a single opportunity to shoot.

A few mostly irrelevant comments.

Hinkle is the smoothest runner in the league. She looks like she's loafing along -- while she's leaving others behind. But she disappeared in the second half. All the action was on the opposite side of the field. Why?

Sam Mewis may have the hardest strike in the league. The ball comes off her foot like a rocket.

Ally Wagner and Dalen Cuff are a good broadcasting team. Good chemistry

 

I was wrong on the Hinkle play - Small Chief points out that it was Huerta, not Chapman. I believe Hamilton's high boot to Chapman's jaw was Dangerous Play - some would say that Chapman bent down to head the ball, (also dangerous) - Dangerous Play is an indirect free kick offense. Penalty kicks are not awarded for indirect free kick offenses. However, per FIFA:
Playing in a dangerous manner involves nophysical contact between the players.If there is a physical contact, the action becomes a offence punishable with a directfree kick or penalty kick.In case of physical contact, the referee should carefully consider the high probability that misconduct has also been committed.

This angle shows Chapman did lower her head, which might be a reason not to call the foul.

I’d yell at the ref, but my jaw hurts. Horrible officiating. pic.twitter.com/8ZgOil3P1g

— Allysha Chapman (@allyshachapman) September 18, 2019

 

I would have to watch the video, but I have a pretty good sequence of stills of the Hinkle/Huerta play and shooting it live I was actually somewhat surprised that nothing was called, and the photos don't make it obvious that the referee was right. The actual PK call was at the far end, and I only have a shot at the end of the sequence, but the positioning of the players, plus the fact that they showed the reply on the video board immediately afterwards made it pretty obvious that it was a bad call.

I actually got to see the pool reporter/referee questionnaire, but apparently rules forbid taking photos of it. Needless to say the questions about those two plays were less than enlightening.

I'm not sure that Houston "deserved the tie" in as much as Jane Campbell did, but the Dash definitely have a beef about the way that the game was called.

Other than the PK shouts, I think the referee was technically proficient, but his game and player management skills aren't really up to the professional club level, yet. He was regularly drawing the ire from both teams - even when he was getting the calls technically right. Nobody was happy on the sequence where Daly shoved Mathias down, but he got it right. Mathias had fouled Daly, earning Houston the free kick, then the shove got Daly the yellow card. I think the game really needed a couple cards in the first half where players only got a couple talking tos. Ohai almost pulled Debinha's arm out of her socket and the ref just had a couple comments to her, then Ohai pulled someone else a few minutes later and nothing. It was a chippy game, and the ref didn't reign it in.

 

Quite possibly the most crucial game in determining who gets into the playoffs and Mother Nature says "Nope. No fun for you."

 

Wow, Merritt Mathias isn't holding back:

 

I did feel kind of bad for Houston having that call go against them when it happened. I don't feel that way now. I hope Portland wrecks them this weekend.

 

I do feel bad for Mathias.

 

That's too bad about Mathias -- but she's no shrinking violet when it comes to physical play. I looked at the video. I don't see any intent by Daly to hurt Mathias. It's a push. A foul certainly. But nothing out of the ordinary. It was a struggle by two aggressive players.

ACL's just happen. It doesn't have to be anybody's fault.

 

I feel bad for Matthias having a ACL but the play against Daly was an accident.

Matthias needs to look back at all her violent conducts on the field in the past before she spouted those words.

 

Mathias played on after that foul, and Daly went out of her way to shake Mathias' hand. Neither player is a saint, but Mathias has a much worse history than Daly does. Her flying off the rails like that against Daly on Twitter is possibly the most immature thing I've seen from and NWSL player in the history of the league. I hope she recovers well but, man, I don't think I have any sympathy if that's how she handles situations like that. Karma.

PS - if she wants to blame someone, she should blame the ref for letting the match get as physical as it did. As others have mentioned, Daly's foul wasn't anything out of the ordinary in intensity or intent. Just one of many in a match that had too many go uncalled for too long.

 

The league or the ref association needs to instruct their refs to call more fouls to keep these things from happening.
I think someone up there feel like they needed to have more physical plays less they get looked down as a "girl" league.
That attitude is wrong. A foul is a foul is a foul. There are a whole lot stricter calls in EPL than the NWSL.

 

Players continue playing on torn ACL/MCLs all the time.

I watched Chris Klein play the last half hour of a game that ended up being the end of his season. Chris Armas, like Mathias, played about ten minutes after his injury against Uruguay that kept him out of the 2002 World Cup before he finally just sat down on the turf until he was taken off.

1) Houston's free kick was the right call. Mathias was unfairly impeding Daly.

2) Daly's yellow card was legit, and even red wouldn't have shocked me. While she was impeded, her after the fact kick and shove on Mathias was definitely "dangerous play", though maybe not "violent conduct".

I was within 15-20 yards of the play - on the field at the end of the Houston bench. The play was coming right at me. To be fair, in real time I didn't see the kick, I was more impressed with the force of the shove in the back.

But then the referee had a terrible night. He was more or less technically proficient, but he lacked consistency (the Hinkle/Huerta play vs the Mewis/Dunn play), and his game management was horrible. A couple early yellows (like when Ohai almost pulled Debinha's arm out of her socket) might have helped.

In the referee's defense, while the photo from Lewis that Equalizer tweeted during the game of Hamilton kicking Chapman in the face looks really bad, it's really hard to tell from a still photo whether it was a foul or not. Yes, Hamilton's foot is in Chapman's face. But know, it's not obvious which player was guilty of dangerous play. Chapman is leaning down and Hamilton is kicking up. In a vacuum, I'd say this should've been called on Hamilton, but I'm also very cognizant of how still photos can be misleading. I've not seen the video of this play, and I did not personally see it live as I was either looking somewhere else, or I was screened by other players.

 

I'm guessing that Mathias is going to get some grief from the league. Her language is inconsistent with the NWSL's guidelines on the use of social media, at least those listed in the several-years-old Players Manual that I have (which is incorporated into the Standard Player Agreement). These are not rules, but they indicate that foul language is not appropriate, and the F word certainly qualifies as foul language. Of course, what could the league do to her? She's out for the season, and they don't pay her enough to fine her.

 

They give her a fine and a ban which of course will be useless. But at least it would be a good example to show the League cares about disciplinary stuf.

 

I get that Mathias is frustrated and upset. A torn ACL is a brutal way to go out of a season early. I also get that Daly's shove and kick were a foul, and definitely yellow-card worthy. While it was a bit chippy, Daly's foul were within the realm of normal for the game of soccer. I don't see any malicious intent, and frankly for Mathias to tweet that, its a bit of a the pot calling the kettle black. Also its one thing to call out the refereeing or a team in general, but to call out a specific opponent? That just rubs me wrong.

 

I'm pet-sitting for friends this weekend, and haven't been able to figure out how to switch their TV setup so I can stream... but then I discovered NBC Sports Washington is showing the CHI-DC game! It won't help me for the rest of the games tonight, but I turned it one and saw Kerr->Nagasato for goal #2 three seconds in. X-D