Update on refs

Well, I did a little checking up on this Robert Evans guy, and apparently he's a real referee, and pretty high up in the FIFA referee rankings. So if the document from a couple days ago is by him then it needs to be taken seriously.

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Justice is done

Los Angeles beat the New England Revolution yesterday in the MLS Cup final, and thank goodness. As much as I dislike the Galaxy and their über-whiner Cobi Jones, anything is better than a team that plays like the Revolution. You've seen my comments there, of course.

The one thing that I absolutely loved, though, about the Galaxy win, was the look of sheer joy on the face of Carlos Ruiz after he put the winning goal past Adin Brown in overtime. Too often in this league, the foreign players don't seem to be taking the whole thing seriously, like MLS is just something to do to get out of wherever they were playing before. But the look on Ruiz's face was one of the sheerest outpourings of emotion I've ever seen on an athlete's face... and this was for a U.S. soccer final! It is SO nice to see the foreigners take this stuff seriously here... big kudos to Ruiz and the Galaxy.

Granted, I hope he doesn't continue that look at Crew Stadium on Thursday when the Crew takes the Galaxy on in the U.S. Open Cup finals, because the Crew needs to win their first trophy!

More Shame on MLS... maybe

Interesting that I wrote that last Blog entry on the referees' inability to control a game... now it's beginning to appear as though they're not being given the chance to control a game.

Please read this article by Robert Evans, reportedly a long-time FIFA Referee and Referee Instructor. The name "Bob Evans" gives me pause, though there's not any reason in the world that a person couldn't actually have that name.

Read it yet? Good. I'll continue.

A sport is nothing without its rules, and more specifically the un-biased and fair interpretation and execution of those rules. And if this is true, MLS has been bending the rules to benefit the bottom line, supposedly.

Here's a quote:

Major League Soccer is encouraging and instructing referees to violate the Laws of the Game. The motivation for this appears to be an attempt to eliminate controversial decisions, and to protect star players from disciplinary action that would normally be taken by a referee fulfilling his/her duty to the game.

First of all... how do not calling back-tackles, denial of goal-scoring opportunities, modification of the offside rule to benefit the defenders, removal of key extra time, not handing out cards for dissent, allowing play to continue when the ball strikes an official, and not handing out second yellow cards even when deserved eliminate controversial decisions?

Newsflash for MLS: The fans know this game. You're not pulling in many non-soccer fans, what you're doing is you're attracting soccer fans who up till now haven't been paying attention to the domestic league. These folks are watching the English or other European/South American leagues and only occasionally coming to an MLS game. And the fans who have watched it all along also watched foreign and international play before watching MLS. They KNOW what a call is and they KNOW how it should be called. You're creating more controversy by having your refs not call penalties and distribute cards like they're supposed to do.

And protecting star players? Why are these players protected more than anyone else? How did they become star players in the first place? By coming up through the ranks and making a name for themselves in the league. So as soon as MLS deems them a star player, suddenly they're immune to the rules of the game? What about that other player who got a penalty because of his actions against a star player, or as usually happens DIDN'T get a call because they were fouled by a "star" player? He might be a star of the future... but if you keep holding the current stars up to a different standard than the players who are up-and-coming, you eliminate the future stars.

And you also push fans away from the game. We're not dumb, MLS. We know how this game is supposed to be played.

Shame on the Revolution, Shame on MLS

Well, another MLS Cup Semifinal round has come and gone for the Crew, and the Black and Gold return home empty again. This is an old story for Crew fans, who have been to three different MLS Cup Semifinal series and have come up short each time. So why is it that this one hurts just a tad more than the infamous DC United series of the late 1990s?

Perhaps it's because this time we were the better team on the field.

Warning - for those of you who rankle at the columns of a certain Paul Gardner, you may want to avert your eyes from this column because it's going to be full of opinions about what is "good" soccer and what is "crap" soccer. You have been warned.

Throughout the first two games, I had all sorts of folks telling me that there was a conspiracy against the Crew - that MLS wanted the Revs to win to ensure a home-field team being in the final. And honestly, I have no problem with that. MLS is a struggling league and a high ticket sales count for the Championship game would certainly be a wonderful thing, revenue-wise. The league management can want as much as they can get... As long as that's as far as it goes.

However... there were at least FOUR separate occurrences of fouls in the New England box that should have resulted in penalty kicks, two in the second game and two in the third. I watched Carlos Llamosa stand in front of Dante Washington and hold him away from getting to a ball, with referee Kevin Stott standing there watching. I saw time-wasting, faked injuries, pissing and moaning around, and never once did I see an actual call made to yellow card the Revs for their actions in these games.

This is why MLS fans hate the referees so much. They have no concept of controlling a game to make the teams actually play soccer. All these tactics are the kind of stuff that over-competitive kids' travel team coaches pull to win in tournaments (to the detriment of their players development). And any referee worth his salt should see this and make the appropriate calls and keep the game moving. Get the stretchers out on the field and get the "injured" players off. Card players who consistently waste time getting the ball into play on free kicks and throw-ins. Card players for dissent when they pick up the ball on an opponent's free kick and walk off with it. This is NOT soccer... this is acting and unsportsmanlike.

There's nothing wrong with playing to slow the tempo of a game down. It makes for boring soccer, that's for sure, but it's legal and sportsmanlike. Lots of passing through the back, perhaps some probing forward to keep the other team honest and spread out, that's fine. A defensive game like the Kansas City Wizards played in the 2000 MLS Cup game against the Chicago Fire was actually fairly entertaining... the talented and quick KC defenders were simply well-organized and collapsed on the ball well. But it was tactically sound and never once relied on cheap histrionics and piddly time-wasting to get the job done.

The difference here, though, between the 2000 Wizards and the 2002 Revolution? Talent. The Revs have nearly NONE on their team. I'll admit, you can't deny Taylor Twellman is a goal scorer extraordinaire, and Adin Brown had a wonderful series (until the Crew found the back of the net too late in Game 3). But that's pretty much where it ends. The rest of the Revs team was a crying, cheap-shot, holding, clutching, cheap-tackling, and unsportsmanlike bunch of babies.

Normally when it comes to the finals, I cheer for whatever team knocked the Crew out of the playoffs. I like to think that it took the top team to take down the Crew. But this year, I'll be cheering for the L.A. Galaxy. Because the Revs won the MLS Semifinals not by playing soccer, but by doing everything they could to avoid playing quality ball against a quality attacking team.