Boston at Washington [R]

Just got back from the game that was horrible.

I can't say that the Freedom deserved to win, because I think that Boston played better. Usually I like to review the tape before commenting, but some things need to be said.

First, Giving up 2 first half goals, while having perhaps your best defender on the bench (at least your only national team defender) is unconscionable (sp?).

Second, why isn't the other international player, Kelly G, starting? An infusion of speed is what this plodding team needs.

Third, congrats to Steffi on her first WUSA goal.

Fourth, Tony Russo (the ref) is a boob. How did Skylar get red-carded for putting her head into a head lock and throwing herself down with Hucles?

Fifth, Tony Russo (the F%$#%^$%& ref) is a G!@#$^ D@%^# F@#%#$^ boob) for running Abby. From where I sat, it looked liked a shoulder to shoulder charge (perhaps her arm came out - but a red card), please!

Sixth, Our defense can't seem to clear the zone. Perhaps, a calming force in the back with international experience would help.

Seventh, Is Gabarra the biggest moron in not only women's soccer but Men's soccer as well? I think that the Freedom win despite his managerial "brilliance".

I'd like feedback from people who can review the tape on the 2 red cards.

 

Mod can you please merge this thread. thx.

 

what national team defender was on the bench besides the foreign girl who just got here?

 

Yes, bad ref job on this game, but the Freedom played bad regardless. We'll see what they can pull out in Carolina. Best of luck, girls. They pulled out of the 5-2 slump last time... they can come back from this!

 

From today's Washington Post:

Freedom Ejected From First Place
Breakers 3, Freedom 1
By Brian Straus
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, June 9, 2003; Page D03

It sure would've been nice if Mr. Straus would have described the two incidents that led to the two Freedom ejections.

While I may dislike Gabby...us Beat fans could learn a lesson from him when it comes to crappy calls from the ref....

 

1) When Abby gets fined for yelling at the ref, I think I know some people who can put together some money to pay it off. She deserved to yell a bit today and thoroughly deserved the standing ovation as she left the field. She missed a chance in the second half and let out this massive scream near Section 139 and I just thought, "Go right ahead." And she tends to play quite well when angry in my opinion. I saw her after the game and told her she deserved to let loose and she thanked me. Gerardo was there BTW and she misses the game but seems pretty happy with her new life .

2) Is there any reason why we played what looked like a 3-4-3 today? And is there any reason for Kelly Golebiowski to not start seeing as no one else can get the ball to Mia and Abby and she's got one heck of a vertical leap?

3) I was told twice by fans to stop drumming and once by a security person to sit down, along with a few others in Section 139. I consider myself lucky that I have a thick head when it comes to such things because it was a real tough day for the Crusaders as half of us were in Richmond. Some day we will be redeemed......

 

Well that sucks! The stadium nazi have reared their ugly head again. Dr. Lane brought a sign to Bobby Dodd in the first season..something along the lines of turning off the music that was played all the time during Beat home games...and he was told not to display it. Bastards!

This should probably go in the "6/11 Freedom v Courage PRE-GAME" thread...

We are minus Skylar and Abigail on Wednesday due to the one game suspension as a result of the reds issued. So I wonder what Jimmy will do to the front line...will Mia be bumped up top alongside Jacqui? Or will he put in Milburn up there?

 

Nah, that's just a result of the kind of atmosphere Ms. Morgans wants. Had everyone not been in Richmond today life would have been better.

 

saw it on webcast. she put her head there, to drive hucles into the ground. she deserved the red for that, i didn't think hucles deserved anything for being skylar's wrestling partner.

abby's red was more debatable.

 

Well, here's my second attempt at writing a reply. First attempt was somewhere exited and I may have forgotten a thing or two and I will just reply to what Joe Soccer Fan said first because that's as far as this thread went when I started. Anyway, I'm sure you all will have noted what I will say anyway so if I repeat you will all understand.

Okay. Well, that was an interesting game. One of the things I was impressed by in this game was the fact that both teams used their wingers well. For the Freedom that meant Mia, who technically wasn't a winger for most of the match, and Jacqui Little who did get open at various spots throughout the game. As for the others, Siri had a pretty good game. A couple of fine saves. First goal was tough. The second was unfortunate and as for the third, the speed caught her off guard. One should not let in a goal on the near post like that. If it were slower, she'd probably would have stopped it. So I feel your pain, Siri. Anyway, Steffi Jones had a pretty good game. If she wasn't hurt and were it not a possible first game for Minnert, I would have kept her in throughout the game. Stoecker and Lindsay underperformed in this game. Golebiowski should have started. She is a good playmaker, great hustler with speed and as an excellent shot. When she came into the match, the Freedom played better. Defensive line for the Freedom played fairly well. However, the Breakers were able to get open far too often. Stephanie and Kristine both add large areas of open space to them when the ran out on the wings. And Grubb seemed more and more invisible as the game went on. She should be taking all of the free kicks except for those close ones where Mia might try a shot.

I was impressed with Emmy Barr's runs down the field and into the Breakers' area. She runs quite well with the ball for a defender. Moore and Little both did a pretty good job of marking in this game. Two solid players. But they are going to have to cover their players even better next time. Mia didn't have the best game for shots. She makes her runs from the wings into the center of midfield and then tries a shot or crosses it in. But she needs to get more shots. For all of that, the offense still seemed to be Wambach-driven. There were few blasts downfield for Wambach to run into space for anyway. Something like the passes that Pichon gets from the Charge's defenders. Something over the top. Of course, Abby doesn't quite have the speed of Pichon but she can fend off the defenders. Barr and Grubb both can do this well and I think the Freedom should try this out more. There was a good one a minute or so before the wrestling match but Abby was called for a foul. That being said, the Freedom need another forward uptop. I suggest Kelly. When she came into the match, things changed and she would be great uptop.

Now for the situation involving the cards and fouls. By the time, things boiled over in the second half between Hucles and Skylar, there were several bad or mis-calls by the ref. And watching the match, one could sense that both teams were getting upset with the calls or lack thereof. Cards should have been handed out before this incident happened. Something was bound to happen. Abby's red card was justified and it wasn't. Abby should have received a yellow earlier in that match for one of her five fouls. The ref should have warned her after a couple of fouls. He didn't and so when she fouled Heather in extra-time, a red card was handed out. The projection of Heather's leg made it a foul for me. A little late, yes. But Abby ran straight into the middle of the leg and and her body and not her foot to stop the ball and it was a hard move anyway to do in extra-time of a match already lost. Why do that? I think the announcers said something like "All the Freedom want is for the final whistle to blow and to run into the locker room." just before then. However, this should not have been a straight red. A second yellow would have been more appropiate. That being said, the WUSA should have refs look more closely at the quandary that happens every time a Wambach, Prinz, Hooper or Mia(Just kidding) plays. That is, is the forward fouling the defender or is it a show of strength by the forward that causes the defender or midfielder or whomever to fall down? Many Abby fans agree that she is being punished for being strong and big and this is no doubt true in many cases. However, it is up to the refs to decide on this and to ask themselves about the incident in question and say "Would this have been a foul if it involved somebody else?" So Abby got the red card and didn't make things better by arguing. Go on and accept it. Can't change it. Same things for coaches. No purpose in yelling. If there's a card on one of your players, the ref is probably thinking that you'd be upset. No point in yelling.

Brava to Mia for her peacemaker stint in this game. How did Mia get called for the foul when Maren half-nelsoned her, I don't know Perfect segue into one of those moments of women's sports when real tough guys say idiotic things like "Damm, those chicks are rough". I made that up but I'm sure somebody out there said it. Not that this was a incident that any fan of the WUSA should remember fondly. Now from my memory both players seemed have reasons to feel slighted on the play. Little probably felt that Hucles pushed her down first when they were scrambling for the ball. Then Hucles ran towards the ball with Skylar at a half-prostrate stance with Hucles' body into her side That's a tough move. You see if often enough and you may expect it but it still doesn't feel pleasant. Okay. Now from Skylar's p.o.v. not only did Angela run into her side but her arm was around her head. In that split moment we can understand that. Now there the play was actually called dead. You can see players just standing around. It would appear that the ref would call the right call(considering the rest of the game, that's up for debate) in giving the Freedom a free kick because it appeared that Angela had pushed Skylar down.(That is debatable. It didn't look too forceful). Anyway, the whistle blew. Skylar felt slighted because Hucles had put her arm around her head. She probably didn't hear the whistle. Neither, it would appear, did Angela. They both continued. Skylar then does the tackling which was retalilation(in her mind) which is always caught by the ref. It happens all of the time. I also wonder if Skylar had her head bumped a little before the tackle when Angela's arm was around her. But after the tackle, it is clear that she hurt her head going down. I stopped the tape at the moment that Skylar lost control. She is getting up and Hucles' arm is around her head whether on purpose or not it's hard to tell. She then puts her arms around Angela and knocks her down. Looking at it again, it seems that Angela can't plead total innocence on this. Her arm is around Skylar's head for too long of a time for me to see it as a total fluke. Also it would appear to be a foul by Hucles not for the push(?) but for a foot on Skylar's foot or for kicking out Skylar's foot like you would kick out a leg on a chair to make the person on it fall off. Combo of the two most likely. Also the arm seems to be pushing Skylar's head downwards when they are making the turn. It's so difficult. It may even had been a squeeze by Angela. Hard to say. Angela may have been totally innocent after the original foul. Not that the ref could have seen this but Hucles did cover Skylar's face with her hand. Maybe the 4th official who was there told him that. It all depends on what may had actually hurt or what the players themselves thought at the time. It's open for debate. Angela's natural movement may have caused her arm to move that way and Skylar thought she really was putting the squeeze on her.

Bravo for Jim for his comments after the game. However, during the game he was not a wallflower on the sidelines. Also I don't like drums during the game. I like loud fans cheering. I don't really like the music. Rousing classical music would be better. Or anything not as loud. I must say that things are better music-wise at RFK then they are at Villanova. The difference being the considerably less times that music is played at RFK during a game.

What don't indentations work in this forum?

 

From the 6/9 Washington Times:

Breakers bounce Freedom from first
By Ken Wright

 

For the moment, at least, you can see a clip of the second goal and the Little-Hucles march here.

 

The referee is a fat bahstahd. The Wally Bruckner clip should be shown to referees as to what can happen when a) you lose control of the game and b when you lose control of the game.

No punches were thrown, right? No studs up?

No red, then.

As for stadium security -- fatter bahstahds. Who is selling 139 tickets anyway?

 

would have been more appropiate. That being said, the WUSA should have refs look more closely at the quandary that happens every time a Wambach, Prinz, Hooper or Mia(Just kidding) plays. That is, is the forward fouling the defender or is it a show of strength by the forward that causes the defender or midfielder or whomever to fall down? Many Abby fans agree that she is being punished for being strong and big and this is no doubt true in many cases. However, it is up to the refs to decide on this and to ask themselves about the incident in question and say "Would this have been a foul if it involved somebody else?" So Abby got the red card and didn't make things better by arguing. Go on and accept it. Can't change it. Same things for coaches. No purpose in yelling. If there's a card on one of your players, the ref is probably thinking that you'd be upset. No point in yelling.

Well said. The worst part of WUSA refs is not being even handed... no question that aggressive forwards are being carded an awful lot.

 

Thanks for that reference. Now I can see what everyone's talking about.

As a totally disinterested observer I think they both deserved the red card--as did the ref. Little was using her head and shoulder to keep Hucles away from the ball and then grabbed her around the waist, and then Hucles wrapped her arm around Little's head and pulled her to the ground. Hucles could have just held her arms up. That head-pulling looked dangerous to me.

 

"The worst part of WUSA refs is not being even handed... no question that aggressive forwards are being carded an awful lot."


Irony for me saying all of this is that I am not a big fan of those 3 players that I mentioned and their strength and all. But the maxim in a match for the ref is to be consistent. You can be bad or good but you have to be consistent.

 

That is pretty wimpy giving red cards for that pseudo wrestling match. I am sure there were far worse situations in the run of play.

 

Nice clip, SCF.

The Hucles thing should have been two cautions - not send-offs.

You can see a smile of resignation on Hucles face just before Little blindsides her. Hucles heard the whistle for her push. At that point Hucles was not fighting to the ball, she had relaxed. Then Little wraps her arms around Hucles and Hucles retaliates. As someone else said, no punches - two cautions and a serious AC.

 

"serious AC"?

 

Is there a chance I can get a copy of this?

 

"a$$ chewing"

 

Under M$ Windoze, right click on the link and select "Save Target As".

You looking for a training tape for the Bleat?

 

hahahahaha

sooo funny... as a matter of a fact no. I want to see the game, I'm a Freedom fan also, I even like Boston too!

 

Sorry. I thought you were looking for the WWE film clip, not a complete tape. I'm in the same boat, not having Comcast in my town.