Pre-Match / Match / Post-Match Thread - Toronto FC at FC Dallas - April 19, 2009 (R)

Well, time to move on, folks. Really, we have the top club coming into BMO on Wednesday. Chivas is bound to lose sooner or later, and an angry TFC could be the team to do it.
The fact that they got themselves out of a 2-0 hole on Sunday gives me some hope. It's a long season, so no point dwelling on a very agrivating game.
Send the Goats back to LA with their first loss, boys!

 

Who said sarcasm is dead?

 

I agree. Look, I will try to give Carver and Barrett, and Harmse and Brennan, and Iggy a little breathing room. It is just very difficult to watch this team game in, and game out, doing the same things over and over again. I know, that guys like me, are very hard to please, but most of you will be clamouring for real changes in the off season, because unless the team changes course very quickly, this season is lost. They will struggle to beat Montreal and Vancouver again, and once again, Mo will be promising us new things to come in 2010.

 

I don't think I've ever seen an indirect free kick in the penalty area for a handball - in fact, I don't think that's even a possibility in the rule book. A handball in the box is always a penalty.

I think I'll go as far as saying it was definitely a handball, and it was definitely a penalty in this case.

 

thats harsh to say about the goals surrendered. stopping a header off a free kick that is that quick is almost impossible. and Kenny cooper put a perfect ball in the corner. Thats what a striker does. Perfectly placed.

Not sure if you played goal before..but i have and do....recreationally but ive been in all those situations. You cant watch the goals that go in (unless they are really bad mistakes) but watch how he approaches the way he keeps his team positioned, his positioning, and his fearless ability.

 

The rule is ambiguous. Referees must use their discretion. The ambiguity lies in the word "deliberate". Was Marvell's handball deliberate in Sunday's game? I can't see how the referee can possibly argue that it was. You often here referees talk about whether or not the hand or arm is in an "unnatural" position to determine intent. Again, I have trouble seeing how Marvell's hand/arm position could possible be interpreted as unnatural. He was running and a certain amount of arm movement should be permitted... unless you are a freak of nature like Arjen Robben.

That being said, what's done is done. Two bad penalty calls against Toronto this year have cost us at least a point... maybe as much as 4. The flip side of this is that the football gods really do owe us one. Hopefully, it comes when we need it most.

 

Ya I'd have been really surprised if it wasn't called. It looked like a ball bouncing off a baseball bat. When it's blatant like that, the rules don't matter, it will be called. There's no time to put it thru a board of inquiry ...