Rapids & Referee Keep Wizards from Full Points

I don't like to blame referees for their performance in games, cause I'm a referee too and know the troubles that they deal with during games. Well last night is definitely the exception to the rule. The best games for referees, is when you don't remember who he was. If you remember his name, you know he did something that was controversial. Tim Weyland will now be booed any time that he ever comes back to KC after his performance last night.


Nine yellows and a red card, at least 2 other challenges by Colorado players that could have been red cards, a questionable PK, and an utter lack of keeping the game under control. Colorado took the game to the Wizards for the most part at the start of the game, but in the 24th minute minute, a great through ball from Sasha Victorine found Davy Arnaud on the wing. Arnaud cross into the box was met by Eddie Johnson who beat Boune Coundoul near post to give the Wizards the lead. The goal was Johnson's 11th of the season, tops in MLS. The Wizard continued to have the run of play until the 42nd minute, when Weyland made himself known for the first time. As Herculez Gomez was heading towards the box, he got bumped by Jimmy Conrad, and even though Gomez had no chance of getting to the ball ahead of the onrushing Kevin Hartman, and that the foul likely started outside the box, a PK was called. The 4th PK against the Wizards this year, all of which have gone in.

Less then a minute later though, Arnaud had a shot go off the post, right to Johnson who put the ball in the net to make it 2-1 Wizards. Weyland made himself heard as the halftime whistle blew. As the whistle went, Rapids midfielder Mehdi Ballouchy landed a direct elbow in the throat of Victorine. Looking at the replay, how Weyland only gave Ballouchy a yellow for it is beyond me. It looks just as bad as the Andy Herron elbow on Jay Heaps earlier this season.

In the second half there was at least one blown offsides call as Johnson raced in for his 3rd goal of the game. Weyland's next mistake was in the 62nd minute, when Johnson raced in on Coundoul, Coundoul tripped up Johnson, but as the last defender, Coundoul only received a yellow. Then in the 67th minute, Jose Burciaga was red carded for a scuffle in the box with Coundoul. While I don't have a problem with the red card on Bruciaga, he deserved it. The problem though was that Coundoul did not even get a yellow card himself for his part in the situation. Colorado was finally able to take advantage of the man advantage in the 77th minute to level the score.

The refereeing was so bad that both Curt Onalfo and Nick Garcia are likely going to be fined by the league this week due to these comments after the game on Metro Sports. Thanks to Lucid on bigsoccer for posting them.





3 Stars of the Game
1. Davy Arnaud - KC - While his late opportunity left something to desire, Arnaud was all over the field causing CO problems.
2. Eddie Johnson - KC - All he does is score goals. In his last 4 games with KC, he has 9 goals. In those same 4 games, the rest of the team has 1 goal.
3. Carlos Marinelli - KC - Despite having Pablo Mastroeni hanging all over him all game, Carlos still found plenty of space to work with, and certainly needs to be rewarded with another goal soon.