I’ve watched a lot of soccer, I’ve coached a lot of soccer…….I have never never seen a game as poorly referee’d as this one.
We lost 2-1. We deserved to lose, but man, when the other team is shoulder blocking you and flat out tackling you and nothing is called, the whole flavor of the game changes. And our kids didn’t respond well to the challenge.
Matthew started (and I think we’ll see him more and more) on defense again and was solid and played pretty well during his stint up front as the 1st half ended. The one goal we scored was a total fluke….the other team’s goalie was really cocky, to the point that he came down and put the ball in play for the corner kick. Too bad he wasn’t smart enough to not kick the ball right at our goalie, who caught it and calmly kicked the ball the length of the field into the wide open net.
Not a fan of the all-whites…..think there should be some red highlights since red is the primary team color.
Matthew’s adventures (mis-adventures?) in goal continued in the 2nd half; he volunteered to do it. They scored their two goals within 5 minutes of the 2nd half beginning. The first one was off of a corner kick, the other team headed it in. Matthew described how this goal happened after the game (“I had my hands on it and the guy headed it out of them”) and I had to show him the tape later to show, that, like last night, he started out to get the ball, but stopped and didn’t get there, and he only got his hands on it after the kid had headed it towards him. I’ve tried to explain that the only thing that happens when he goes out and decides to go back is that he cuts down his reaction time to whatever’s going to occur in front of him; just keep going if you think you can get it.
Oh well. The second goal he probably could have stopped as well but I think he was leaning the wrong way.
The end of the game was marked by our coach finally losing it over the officiating. No foul is called as our guy is standing in the ‘box’ with the goalie and defender both on the ground grabbing at his legs and not letting him get a shot off. This should have been a penalty kick; instead it was nothing and I admire Matthew’s coach for giving the referee the business for it. Eventually, he earned a yellow card for his sarcasm, but man, I’m completely on board with it. Classic Popeye “I’ve had all I can stands, I can stands no more!”
