The Vienna Metros are a good
team. We’ve always struggled with
them. However last night, under the
lights at Lake Fairfax Park, the Metros had help from league appointed referee. Help they didn't particularly need. We don’t chart
the games or track the calls and we don’t have instant replay. When appeals to the ref don’t seem to have
any effect, we have no other recourse but to talk about things like, “Field
Justice”. And expecting to win a game on field justice
alone is like Al Pacino trying to win a case in Judge Rayford’s court room…it just
ain’t gonna happen...
After the ball rolled out of bounds
and the ref didn’t blow his whistle, and the Metro’s continued down the field
to score their first goal, I thought to myself as I appealed to the ref, this
is going to be a long game. After I picked myself up off the ground for a
third time I looked over at the ref for a call, and he waived me off as if I
was “out of order” for even asking…I thought to myself, ”I’m out of order, I’m
out of order…this whole game is out of order.”
And so it would be a loss for the Orangemen…in a game where we could
have hung on…perhaps not won but hung on.
Instead we were handed, by the court of referee “I’m never going to blow
my whistle, instead I’m going to make a motion with my hands but you’re not going
to know what it means because I’m only going to talk in whispers”, another
humiliating defeat. The final score was 7 to 2 at the hands
of the Metro’s and their midfield holding style of play.
No other team in the league holds the
midfield like the Metro’s do. They win
every ball in midfield. They consider it
a humiliation if during a goal kick they don’t win the ball the air. They’ve be winning balls in the air for as
long as I can remember. Ben, gave them a
pretty good run for their money in the air, but the rest of us stood flat
footed and watched them step up, step in, or step through us (without a call)
to win just about every cleared ball.
They played well. I can’t fight
the feeling that on dry night with a dry ref, it would have been a different
story.
We did score two, Jose finished a
penalty kick in the first five minutes of the game for a clear hand ball in the
box…the first of only two calls that went in our favor last night. And Andy, our visiting striker from the “Indoor
Champion’s of San Diego” charged in on a long shot from Ben that was tipped by
the keeper and off the crossbar that dropped onto his charging run. This should be a lesson to all strikers to charge
into the box no matter where they think the ball is going. This of course was call number two, as the
ball hit the lower cross bar with appeals from the Metro’s that it struck part
of the goal that was out of play.
Everybody played well last night…I
didn’t notice any major mistakes. The
Metro’s had three goals that were unstoppable.
They had a couple goals the came from scrambles in the box, as a result
of striking the wood work and being able to finish what was left, and Gene
missed a few that he would have covered on a dry night with a dry ball. That very quickly adds to seven. On balance, field justice didn’t come close to
saving us last night.
Finally, I want to thank everyone for
keeping their cool. Nobody yelled at the
ref or took their frustration out on the other team. We are still in a building year…and we’ve
had a look at some good players and had some moments of brilliance that will
manifest later this season. Don't forget next week is family night.
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