DC's streak is over
As hard as it is to believe this, Real Salt Lake beat DC United tonight, but the game was not without controversy. Both of Real's goals were the result of penalty kicks awarded after fouls by sub John Wilson. These two fouls happened within 7-minutes of each other with the final one happening moments before the end of the match.
The last foul I'm sure will cause some talk. Did Wilson go in late and cleats up or was it a dive by Chris Klein? On my little web window it looked like a good call.
All and all, DC did not look good (for them) tonight. I wonder if all the 'record' talk has caused this team to relax a bit. I also wonder why Nowak went defensive so early in the second match.
Finally, I hope we get to hear what coaches Nowak and Ellinger were saying to each other after the match. It looked interesting from my end.
The last foul I'm sure will cause some talk. Did Wilson go in late and cleats up or was it a dive by Chris Klein? On my little web window it looked like a good call.
All and all, DC did not look good (for them) tonight. I wonder if all the 'record' talk has caused this team to relax a bit. I also wonder why Nowak went defensive so early in the second match.
Finally, I hope we get to hear what coaches Nowak and Ellinger were saying to each other after the match. It looked interesting from my end.
Labels: DC United
posted by Mike H at 10:56 PM
2 Comments:
I watched the United-RSL game on a full TV screen. Actually, it was the first penalty, in the 89th minute, that was the more questionable foul. Wilson hooked his foot under the player (I think it was Klein), but it looked like a dive ,just inside the top of the box. The second penalty was controversial only in that the official pointed to the penalty spot. The RSL player was moving away from the goal, and had already passed off the ball, when Wilson flat-out chopped him down. I don't know what Wilson was thinking, but I'm not sure what the ref was thinking either. A more appropriate call would have been to give RSL a free kick inside the box. Not every foul in the box has to result in a penalty kick. I think this was the rare circumstance where an obvious foul in the box should not have become a penalty-spot kick.
The reality, though, is that United played horribly. Their back line was getting beat over and over again. Wilson came on for Adu, early in the second half, to bolster a shaky defense. Ironically, it was Wilson's Paul Bunyan act that blew it for DC...
For more on United, and tonight's game head to: http://fischfry.blogspot.com
I was at the game, and watched replays on the big screen replays in the stadium. The first foul (89th minute) didn't look like a dive by Balouchy, at all. He has no history of diving (Harris is the guy on our team who falls down if an opponent looks at him crosseyed). The second called penalty looked a bit 'divey' and if it hadn't been called, it wouldn't have surprised me. I've seen worse not called, and lesser called. However, I think that the 'official' (in quotes because he was simply horrible all night) had not called a few moments earlier another take down by Wilson of Worthen who had the ball in front of the right side of the goal facing the goal. The crowd called for the penalty then, also. I have a feeling the second penalty was because it was two fouls in the box on players that were handling the ball on their own in very dangerous positions, likely scoring positions, and, most importantly, both were by Wilson.
In summary, 3 fouls by the same player, all in the box on players that had the balls in scoring positions resulted in two penalty kicks. I'm wondering how Wilson was still on the field at the end of it.
Wilson was acting like a thug that DCU might do better to do without. It is arguable that he is solely responsible for DC losing, even though DCU played rather poorly against a hard driving RSL team.
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