All over the world, football, or soccer as we Americans refer to, is known as the beautiful game. It soars with speed and agility taking the players and fans on a roller coaster ride of attacks, counter attacks, dazzling the eyes with amazing goals and miracle saves.
What the world saw on Mother’s Day in Seattle, however, was not the beautiful game. It was a slog of brutality that was an ugly thing to watch. The play was thuggish and the referee was, in a word, pathetic.
All fans, players, and coaches complain about the referee, usually for one or two missed or bad calls. It’s a tough position to be in, the only one with a whistle on the field and a different colored uniform. Other sports overdo the number of officials and still get calls wrong. Talk to a fan of any sport and sooner or later the subject of bad calls comes up. I’m a Seattle man and the travesty of the 2005 Super Bowl or game 7 of the Sonics in Phoenix in 1993 will always be with me. I can see the images when I close my eyes.
Most fans, players, and coaches understand that an official is human. Good officials are not noticed during a game. If a good official is noticed, it’s because people are saying they called a good, fair game. That is all the people want. If the official is calling holding, for example, on the offensive line, and he calls it on both teams, then fans can feel like it is being called fairly. Call it against one team all day and not the other only reinforces the opinions of the extreme fans, the conspiracy ones that believe the NBA had it in for the Sonics that day in Phoenix since they wanted the dream matchup of Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan to face each other in the 1993 finals and not some upstart, but better, team that was dominating the guard play and … deep breath … okay, that’s better.
Article comments
1 - Matthew T. Sussman
Sounds like the MLS borrowed refs from the NBA for a weekend.
2 - Jordan Richardson
Or the Chicago vs. Vancouver playoff series. Yeesh.
3 - Douglas Mays
Yeah, I was at that match. Out of control... LA just played for a tie.
4 - Douglas Mays
Casey Keller had a good comment after the game. He said that in Europe the referee is trying to keep players in the game. In the MLS they are trying to kick them out.