Roosevelt tops Coventry, 5-1

Roosevelt took down visiting Coventry on Tuesday night, 5-1, in a game that was largely unintriguing for both players and fans. Coach Mitchell recognized early on that Coventry's varsity squad was roughly equivalent to his JV team. Mitchell put in the "B" part of the varsity team in order to get some playing time and practice for some of the players accustomed to not getting a lot of it. The defense was solid all game. Coventry was able to take advantage a bit of weak left side defense, executing some nice crosses, but in general these gains were minimal. Passes were well timed, and fifty fifty balls more often than not were won by the good guys. Bradford was denied her fourth shutout mid way through the first half when Coventry poked one in from inside the box. Aw, we'll let her off this time (ha).

The only point of real, ahem, non tedium, was when Bradford, defending from the north side, slid out from the goal to try and knock the ball out. She accidently hit the Coventry attackwomen coming from the right, gutting the poor girl in her stomach. Bradford, to her credit, immediately went to the girl, upset over the hurt she had laid upon her. The girl got up soon enough. The ref gave Bradford a yellow card, (re the rules of the OSHAA), sending her off the field for one series of play. You would think Coventry would have been granted a direct PK, but no, the ref granted Roosevelt a goal kick, as the ball had last been touched in bounds by the visitors. Now, we in the Roosevelt stands, and the Coventry fans in their stands, were both like "Say what?" Boos echoed across the stadium and verbal tirades rained upon the heads of the referees, who in the words of Mr. Mitchell, "clearly hadn't played soccer in their lives." Mitchell said after the game he had never seen anything like it. Mr. Bialik in the stands blamed it on the poor institution of American soccer. And Paul Sampson just sat there, blinking in disbelief. Now, we'll take it, but let's just hope we don't get this field referee again. Mitchell, who's had experience with the errant ref in question before, said of past games with him, "He's consistent". Mitchell worried that a mutton headed soft in the brain call like this would come at a big time, say during a close match or a playoff game.

What's important  here, the broader point is (and there are rarely times to find broader points!), referees end up being responsible for outcomes of games. Just like our Supreme Court justices need to rule over American citizens with decency, respect, and a firm knowledge of the law, so too do referees need to have the same reverence for the rules of soccer when officiating games at any level. Just like we saw with Serena Williams in her U.S. Open tennis semi final loss to Kim Clijsters, refs determine a lot. They can swing a game. Referees need to make sure that when they do swing a game, one way or the other, they are doing them with full knowledge of the rules and customs of the game. This was ludicrous.