Sour Apples and Greg Louganis?

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30 August 2005

 David Ahlgren

 It was the best of times, it was the worst of officials.  The game was like this piece of sour apple Bubblicous I’m chewing on as I type.  It was nice and sweet at the beginning, but the more I chew on it, the more sour it becomes, until there is no taste left and it turns bitter and I just want to throw it away.  Haha, okay enough of the similes… so what exactly happened yesterday?

 The game started very well with the opening kickoff.  The Firecrackers planned before the game to come out fast and really press the Mundialitos.  The first 7 passes were all crisp, and really spread out the defense.  As Brian Montejano was making a forward run with the ball, one of the defenders was able to get his foot on it and passed it back towards the goalie.  The goalie made an interesting play on the ball with his feet, and allowed the ball to bumble its way into the net.  Just like that the Firecrackers were up 1-0 after less than a minute.

 Not ten minutes later, Thomas Andalon was given a great ball from Franco Benevento.  Thomas had time to look up and see the goalie was out of position, and he fired a shot easily over his head from ten yards outside of the goal box.  It was a great head’s up play by the both of them, but it was really a culmination of great passing by the whole team.

 Then the wheels fell off.  In other words, the referee hamstrung us.

 I could sit here and analyze the Mundialito breakaway, but I’ll recap it instead.  One of their players received a through ball and got a good jump on the defense.  Travis did a good job of cutting off his angle.  However, as he dove for the ball, he caught part of the forward, and of course he went down like a little girly-man.  The ref blew his whistle, and casually walked towards the goal.  No one saw what happened next coming.  Red card to Travis.  Ten minutes into the game…  With two defenders heading towards the goal mouth, Travis was hardly the last defender.  He barely touched the forward, who looked more like he tried to run into Travis than anything.  In any case, the ref strolled on over, handed Travis a straight red, and awarded a penalty kick.  Ronnie jumped into goal, but the bad guys scored.  "The way he was walking up to me, I thought I wasn't even going to get a card," said Travis about the call.

 Brian Sturges then made his debut as the Firecrackers goalie.  He played very well, and has earned himself a spot as backup goalie.

 The rest of the first half went well, aside for the millions of calls going unnoticed against the Firecrackers.  At halftime, the Firecrackers spirits were still up and they planned to still go after the Mundialitos.

 The second half was fought hard by each player who donned a yellow jersey.  However, as the half wore on, the firecrackers injuries mounted up.  David Ahlgren had both legs swept out from behind him and he landed directly on his thumb.  That thumb is now twice as big as normal and all purple.  Ronnie Jenkins did something to his ankle and had to leave the game.  Neither incident warranted a free kick.  The daft ref, who was standing less than ten feet from both infractions (and who is clearly biased against us) said simply, "I didn't see it."  Yes, he hides behind that lame excuse quite a bit.  Hopefully we'll never see him again.

 In injury time, the officiating turned from bad to laughable.  As Brian was gaining possession of a ball in the box, he was knocked by one of the Mudialitos and lost control of it.  In the scrum that ensued, the Mundialito players started acting like their hero, Greg Louganis, and took dives all over the place.  Eventually, the refs took the bait and called a PK.  Neither of them knew who committed the "foul".  It didn't matter, their small little minds were made up and the call remained.  The Louganis wannabes finished the PK and the final whistle blew after that.

 Man, talk about taking the wind out of our sails!  Everyone played well last night.  Playing 80 minutes down 1 man can be discouraging and difficult, but we all pulled though.  I appreciated the effort and tenacity of the defense, despite a constant barrage of breakaways.  The midfield held its own as well, distributing the ball with great skill.  The forwards had a great start, and did very well, considering they were shorthanded for the most part.

 We have a week off now, so enjoy Labor Day!  Send an email out if you would like to have a kickaround sometime during the down time.    

Red Card Infraction: Bianchi 12'

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