You decide … Penalty or not
Sometimes soccer can be frustrating … very frustrating … like last Saturday in Maryland when 30 minutes into the game, Mike Burke appeared to be taken down in the penalty box. He had an easy 1v1 with the opposing keeper and it seems that a defender pushes him from behind. “Appears” and “seems” because the referee did not call a penalty.
In the process of arguing the no-call Mike Burke and our assistant coach Jesse Myers were thrown out of the game with red cards, both well deserved. However, in a split second the game changes from us having a penalty to go up by 1:0 and a red card for the Maryland defender because of his last man foul to a one man disadvantage for us. A situation like this is so frustrating, especially in a game like soccer, where one goal often decides the outcome of a game or an early red card gives one team a huge advantage.
Here is the incident for you guys (double-click on the video for full screen). Leave a comment and tell me what you as a referee would have called and why.
Tags: Game report, Pro, Referee
June 17th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Hahaha, wow. Sure looks like a penalty to me. Gotta love the “commentary.”
June 18th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
I think in some states there is a law against that.
June 20th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
I have watched it in slow motion multiple times. The foul occurs on the very right edge of my field of vision generated by the camera, which makes assessment fairly difficult, but it looked very much like the defender extended his arm into Burkie’s back and ran into him.
Egregious. Unforgivable. Just like the non-call in the early minutes of the championship match the year before last with the Harrisburg City Islanders. The Times-Dispatch write-up before the game emphasized how physical the City Islanders played, and the extent to which the match’s outcome could be determined by how much the ref enforced clean play. He did not, and he cost us the league championship in a game where we were the better team.
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:48 am
play on…………