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.

Since my last entry we have won our first game (2:0 at Western Mass), but also lost our first game (1:0 at Bermuda). It sounds ridiculous, especially if you just look at the results, but we actually played much better soccer in Bermuda than against Western Mass and we probably deserved more to win the Bermuda game than the Western Mass one. But this is soccer. One of the most famous German sayings goes “Der Ball ist rund” (The ball is round) which is as simple as it gets, but holds a lot of truth.
Anything can happen in a game of soccer.

In Western Mass we scored with our first and only chance in the first half. At Bermuda the opponent scored with their first chance.
In Western Mass we are able to put another in 30 seconds into the second half, basically destroying all the hope Western Mass might have gathered during halftime. At Bermuda, we show great effort and create tons of chances, but can’t put the ball in the back of the net.
In Western Mass, Bulow gets in behind the defense to chip the ball nicely over the keeper. At Bermuda, Burke’s similar approach gets stopped by the keeper.
In Western Mass, Deli is able to run between two defenders, keep control of the ball and put it in a corner. At Bermuda, Deli has an open volley shot from 25 yards with no defender or goalkeeper in the way, but he misses.
Also, in Bermuda, Hunter’s two shots are cleared of the line twice, one of them by one of our own players facing the wrong way. Also, in Bermuda, we are able to swing nice crosses in to Mbuta who is able to redirect the ball to goal from 5 yards, but both times, the goalkeeper is somehow in the way. I say somehow, because at any other place near him, he wouldn’t have been able to make a save. I don’t even think the keeper would have been able to avoid getting hit by the ball if he wanted to.
In Western Mass we are able to win despite being outshot, but at Bermuda we loose despite 11 shots more than the opponent.
In Western Mass we score two goals with seven shots. At Bermuda we score none with 21 shots.

This is how soccer goes sometimes and it’s hard to find an explanation. There are so many things that determine what happens in each situation on the soccer field and all we as players can do is keep working and make sure we do the best we can do at every time.
We only have 5 points out of 4 games, obviously less than we expected to have by now. The good thing is though that our play is not bad. I still remember last year when we played early in the season against Baltimore and Charlotte, when we deserved to loose by a couple of goals and played horrible. Last year we still managed to finish the regular season tied for first. I have a feeling that this season will be similar.