I'm probably more embarrassed for the center ref because he created the environment where Dallas' bush league tactics were able to work. I expect him to trade jerseys with someone from FC Dallas, and he'll probably go get Denilson's autograph after that. I don't think his assessment will go too well.
Dallas employed a new time wasting technique. Carlos Ruiz was subbed out in extra time, and then wandered around the field trying to find someone to take the captain's armband. The Hoops followed that up by having someone from their bench take the ball on a Seattle throw-in. Dario Sala should get an Oscar for his performance rolling around after some non-contact on a sliding tackle attempt by Seattle's Tomlinson. As the Seattle announcers said, you just look kind of silly when you do this while the big screen shows that you weren't touched on the challenge.
The large crowd in Seattle was not amused by this ridiculousness. It's always funny to me when the bigger team has to employ the childish tactics.
Seattle cut the score in half in the last minute of regular time, and of course Sala threw the ball away. When the Sounders grabbed the second ball by the goal, Sala then threw one out on the field to hold up play even longer. The ref should've had about three minutes of stoppage time added, but barely added any.
The Hoops win 2-1 after all of the cheese. They'll host New England in the Open Cup final. The Revs won their semi over Carolina in extra time 2-1.
3 comments:
See, even though I've really gotten into soccer the last few years -- this is one of the things I still absolutely HATE about it. Who the hell ever originally thought up this running time with time added should have been smacked in the head. Sports need to be all about precision, exactness. If there was any preciseness to it, it'd be one thing -- but it's just so subjective (or more likely, usually just appears to be random).
Like in your account of this game. Like in the 'Backs game the other night. Second half added time was FOUR minutes (where the hell he came up with THAT much time, I have no idea -- I only remember some interchanges, but not THAT much). Then Buete went down with an injury for about two minutes, with the trainer coming out all the way across the field, and he blew the whistle probably at around four minutes -- I wasn't timing it, but it seemed like it wasn't more than four. What, you can add injury time to the end of the game, but no injury time DURING injury time can be added? Time during the 45 minutes is precious, and must be added to the end -- but once it's in added time, it's perfectly fine to waste it?
And when was the last time you ever saw the whistle blow for time when a team was attacking the goal? It happens -- but I've seen a lot of games, and I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've seen it done. Whatever time they've announced just happens to fall whenever a team is attacking goal, but they won't blow the whistle until the ball is cleared to center or out of bounds, then they blow it immediately. I couldn't begin to tell you how many times I've seen that. Again, TOTALLY subjective.
Too much at the whims of the ref, if you ask me. The clock should be actually stopped during the game when necessary, and NO added time. But I'm sure traditionalists would say that I just want to shit all over the game -- but just because it's tradition, doesn't mean it's actually a good idea.
I guess I just don't get it...
It's an interesting discussion, and I'll be curious to see if others weigh in on this.
When I played in high school, we used the stadium clock as the official time of the game. The ref only stopped it for serious delays or injuries.
In the A-League in the mid to late '90's, they did the same thing. It has its good points and its negatives. I think I'm just so used to way things are traditionally done, it feels weird any other way.
I think you could see more time wasting tactics if the stadium clock was official. The ref (or more likely 4th official) would have to stay on top of things to prevent it from being an issue.
The problem would be the fields and stadiums that are unable to run this sort of clock. It'd be difficult to do things one way in some places and a different way elsewhere. I think that's one of FIFA's reasons for doing things the way they do, to try to increase the uniformity of the game and way the rules are implemented around the world.
Refs have gotten more strict on stoppage time over the years, it used to drag on longer because a team was attacking and the ref refused to blow the whistle. It happens every now and again now.
Was at the match on Tuesday. Dallas's tactics were embarassing. An MLS team that has to resort to diving, time-wasting and the like against a USL Division team is just sad. Overall, Seattle outplayed, outhustled and outclassed Dallas the entire game. Here's a tip for FC Dallas. When you "go down" with an injury, make sure you grab the leg that was touched.
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