Hooligan: I agree that both teams had to be at fault. I've played enough soccer games to know thats the case. But it can't be coincidence that "situations" often happen in Rochester, can it? One of my biggest problems was how your general manager handled it. It is no excuse that he was upset or worked up after the fight. Our GM and coach didn't say anything negative directly at one of the Rhinos. They really didn't say much negative in the media at all, just that it was an unfortunate situation. In the end, maybe no one will get sued, but the fact remains Gutierez has a broken face and will miss a month or more. No decent fan of the game should say an injury like that is justified or defend those who caused the injury.
It is very correct that it is unjustified that no one deserves to be injured like this. This is a fact that I dont think any of the Rhinos fans are fighting. I love the Rhinos just as much as the next man, and I feel horrible that he had to have reconstruction surgery and that he was injured. Good luck on the healing process Gutierez. The only points that I disagree with are the ones revolving 'Rochester started it', 'Rochester ganged up on him'. How many of us have ever played in a soccer game and seen tempers flare after a series of hard tackles, and things escalade from there? Both teams were involved in starting this fight. And the issue of 'ganging up' on one person. Soccer is a team sport, as is baseball, or hockey. When there is a fight everyone goes where they go and they do whatever they do. There was deffinitley more that one KC player pushing Tanner, so lets all get over the whole law suit. No one will get sued, and hopefully we can all be friends. lol
This is a little late on this subject, but having been at the game I must comment. First I would like to say that whatever happened there is no excuse for (repeadly) punching somone in the face period. However the brunt of the situation began with the officiating crew. Wilson probably played the best game of his career. Consistantly frustrating the KC defenders. He and Guitierez started getting on each other hard in the second half. about 80 min. after the ball went out for a KC goal kick, they were at each other again. At that point,right in front of the linesman, and me, Guitierez threw Wilson down and did a full force stomp on the outside of Wilsons ankle. A red card in any league. The linesman was looking right at it, I looked at him to see if he would raise his flag and he quickly looked away pretending he didn't see it. Then I looked at the referee. He too clearly saw it, began running over, then stopped and pretended he was going to talk to someone else. Guitierez should have been in the locker room at the end of the game, this wouldn't have happened. That is still no excuse for punches. If Wilson did start the brawl, he should face a serious suspension. The real tragedy of this game is sending amatuer officials to do a pro game. Especially with Rochesters reputation for tough play. The open cup commitee neglectfully endangered the refs, players and fans with this decision. This situation was ugly and had the potential to become a full scale riot. There are many places, right here in the USA I'd like to add, the fans could easily have lost it and gone on the field. This could very well have been a total tragedy. The league has sent MLS rated refs to all of our home games since then, but it's a little late.
FYI. I heard that the CR of the match, Kevin Barci, has volunteerily taken a year long leave of absence from officiating. That's the unofficial word.
It is still almost funny to me that a Rhinos season ticket holder would be allowed to ref a Rhinos game. Its the same concept as parents not being allowed to ref their children's games in high school, if they can handle this in HS, why cannot they be this smart at the professional level.
Final score: KC suspensions - 2 Rhino suspensions - 1 Hmmmm....... Those nasty Rhino's should be banned from Open Cup play huh? Videos don't lie. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/sports/rhinos/0825story2_rhinos.shtml
What video? The story says absolutely nothing about a video. Besides: Final score KC -2 Milwuakee -0 Meola back in KC for birth of his child. Oshoniyi and Guttierez suspended. We can beat A-League squads with our third string goalkeeper and without our best backline. O... and your match against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds/Kansas City Brass should be a lot of fun tonight.
Uh, well it doesn't say anything about Meola tackling one of our strikers in the middle of the game, but that exsited. How exactly do you think suspensions were decided on? Crystal ball? But you can't beat a mix of A-league 1st and 2nd string players who are outnumbered 11-10 with your 3rd string goalkeeper? 8/26/02 Rhino's:2 KC:0 Both goals came after a Rhino ejection (imagine that!!) Come on, let's hear the excuses........ but you may want to wait until you see who WAS on the field for your team....
You really embarrass the A-League by making a big deal out of friendlies. This makes A-League fans look like major hicks. Enjoy the matches, but quit reading anything into them. Especially since KC won the match that mattered. And you know it.
I am sorry, the game had a lil extra meaning for us because of the emotions that we experienced at the US Open Cup.. It was not real true redemption and those I talked to at the bar after the match knew it. But it still felt good to not blow a 2-0 lead this time.
Did you ever hear about something called "pride"? Are you telling me that if your beloved MLS team beat a Premiership team in a friendly that you wouldn't make a big deal out of it and be happy about it? Does every story only have one side where you come from? There's just no winning with these people. I thought the only area in the country with a bad educational system was the deep south. I'm learning differently.
By "your beloved MLS team beat(ing) a Premiership team in a friendly," do you mean something like this? http://www.chicago-fire.com/pressbox/gamerecaps/gamerecapstext.asp?gameID=45 No, I wouldn't make a big deal out of it, because I know that doing so would be embarrassing for all involved. I had fun at the game, and I was glad no one got hurt (though Frank Klopas took a cheap shot near the end of the match by the dude who got red carded). But id didn't give me delusions about myself or the team I support.
Dr. W., I guess the pride thing is the reason why the Rhinos and Riverhounds have the records they do. Back to last night's game...from my vantage point, KC management should be embarrassed that they sent such a team of vagabonds to play. They didn't even have names on their jerseys, nor was the roster in the program accurate. KC management violated the spirit of the agreement by sending sending faceless, nameless scrubs--that's where the bitterness lies. The Wiz may be first division, but they are certainly not first class. Yes, there was great joy in seeing the Rhinos win it and the score should have been much more lopsided than it was.
The spirt of the agreement for this friendly was to settle the compensation for a player that was signed from the Rochester roster that didn't even play a full season. If you want to blame anyone for having this game having a bunch of scrubs then blame your GM. He knew this was going to happen, but the dollar signs in his eyes blinded him. I personally talked to our GM and he said that he was trying to do whatever he could to get the date changed to one were there wouldn't be 4 games in 7 days, but there was a lot of resistance on the other end. Sorry this game is completely meaningless to us. No pride is at stake, this was completly a business deal.
No, I meant this universe. I see your ID mentions the Riverhounds. One aspect of winning is mindset is pride, too bad the Riverhounds and their fans haven't quite caught on to it. The RHs better get with it before they become downwardly mobile and go to D3 since they can't seem to cut it in the A-League.
dude, pride has nothing to do with this. What matters more to this team? Making the MLS playoffs, the semi-finals of the USOC, and possibly salvaging a bid to the FCC finals, or appeasing a bunch of whining, self agrandizing, bitter amatures? The choice was obvious, and thus the scrubs were sent. Not embarrasing, or shameful, just smart. The fact is, that the "friendly" deal was made by the Whinos soley for the reason of putting butts in seats, and in turn, money in the till. And that happened. Now quit your bitching.
Dude, the pride thing isn't really relevant to KC. I never expected them to care about this game because they are the upper division team. Read the posts a little slower next time.
should have used quotes, because I was responding to Bleacherbutt. He said we should be embarrassed, but obviously he doesn't know what it it like to support a real team with promise to accomplish real things, not pathetic little A-League trophys.
Uh, then why don't you get the ************ off of this section of the board if you think so little of the A-League. As if the MLS is any big deal.
My guess is the mad bishop gets all up in arms when somebody chooses to follow a "real" team in Europe vs MLS.
My guess is the mad bishop is not much of a soccer fan but a fan of the MLS brand name. If the MLS were a true first division with promotion and relegation and his team was demoted to the A-League, he'd just switch to following another MLS side insted of being a true supporter and following his team in the A-League.