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Officiating spotty; Casey masterful
You know when you head down to the Four Corners and you stand on that one spot so you’re in Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico all at once?
That’s how far Omar Cummings was inside the penalty area when he was tripped by Albert Celades just inside the hour mark of the Colorado Rapids’ match against the Red Bulls on Saturday in East Rutherford, N.J. Mehdi Ballouchy buried the resulting penalty kick to help the Rapids win 3-2. Conor Casey scored Colorado’s other two goals on headers.
Cummings was tripped, no doubt. Cummings was in the penalty box, barely. But he was traveling diagonally away from the end line and toward the middle of the field.
Celades’ outstretched leg might not have denied Cummings a chance to shoot or score, but it eliminated an opportunity for Colorado to work for a goal.
Referee Ricardo Salazar decided to award the second penalty kick, the second questionable one of the game. And his decision followed a bad non-call just minutes earlier.
The first iffy PK had its roots in the 44th minute. Cory Gibbs poked the ball from underneath charging Dane Richards. Gibbs made contact with the ball, but he also dropped Richards to the turf in kind of a clumsy-looking scene. It was that reason, perhaps, that Salazar saw a PK in the play. He awarded it, and Juan Pablo Angel spanked the ball past Rapids goalkeeper Matt Pickens just before halftime.
But those two calls weren’t the only spotty ones in the match.
Only minutes before Cummings was fouled in the corner, Jeremy Hall clearly pulled Cummings to the turf in the center of the box. Pickens had punted to Conor Casey, who flicked the ball to Cummings in the box. Hall grabbed Cummings’ right shoulder and spun him to the ground as the ball bounced harmlessly to New York keeper Jon Conway. No foul was called here, and it’s not a stretch to think that the PK awarded to Cummings moments later was a makeup for this incident.
Whatever Salazar’s motivation, the focus on him distracted from a wonderful performance from Casey.
He took over the league goal-scoring lead on a pair of beautiful headers that were borne out of determination. Casey has eight goals this season and has scored in three consecutive matches.
His second goal on Saturday, right after halftime, was the product of hard work on the left wing. After a long goal kick, Colin Clark and Jordan Harvey fought off two defenders in the left corner of New York’s end of the pitch.
Harvey slipped free with the ball, took off toward the net then slotted the ball back to Cummings, who deftly chipped the ball toward goal. When Cummings served the ball, two defenders and Conway were between Casey and the net. When Casey arrived at the ball, he had left the two defenders flat-footed, and he deflected the ball underneath Conway.
Casey opened the scoring early in the 25th minute. Clark crossed from the left wing to an empty spot at the far post. Casey slipped in behind four defenders and Conway to reach the ball first and pop it in the net.
Both goals were brilliant displays of determination, and they weren’t Casey’s only chances with his scalp on Saturday.
In the 39th minute, Clark crossed from the left wing to the far post again. Casey’s header squirted just over the crossbar. It easily could’ve been another goal from nearly the same spot. And in the first 20 minutes of the match, Casey had two other close calls with headers.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Casey.
SAVE OF THE GAME: Grizzly Pickens on Angel in the first minute. Angel was charging the ball from the right side of the penalty area, and Pickens dove to his right to knock away the shot. Pickens left a big, hairy rebound, but none of the Red Bulls was home to capitalize.
SAVE OF THE GAME, PART 2: Pickens dove to stop a wicked low liner on a free kick by Angel in the 72nd minute … but Salazar did not allow the play to stand because he hadn’t blown his whistle to allow play to begin. This lit the players’ fuse, which was short by this point, and it again took the focus off of the game. After Salazar moved the spot of the foul back about four yards, Angel shot again, Pickens made a save but allowed a rebound, which Danleigh Borman banged in to cut the lead to 3-2. It was a mistake by Pickens to allow the big rebound, but the situation was exacerbated by the spotty management of the game by Salazar.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS NEW YORK TEAM? Angel is one of the best finishers in the league. Macoumba Kandji has size, skill, speed and some imagination. Conway is more than capable, allowing only seven goals in six games before Saturday. Coach Juan Carlos Osorio led los Toros Rojos to the MLS championship final last season and is one of the league’s better tacticians. So why does the team have only two victories in 12 matches? Altitude analyst Marcelo Balboa honed in on New York’s lack of speed. The team’s decision making and buildup were too slow, allowing the Rapids to maintain a shape no matter where the ball was being moved. Borman’s goal sparked some effort in his teammates, but it was too late by that time.
UGH: I don’t mind the Red Bulls logo. The front of the jersey is basically the logo for the energy drink, but I do find it odd that the team also puts the crest, which is nearly identical to the logo, on the left breast of the shirt. The real tragedy of this kit is the neckline. There’s no collar, but there’s a red band all the way around the neck. When the band meets in the front, it dips about six inches, the way many hockey jerseys do when they have laces. But the Red Bulls don’t have laces; they have a zipper. Who’s gonna use that zipper? It’s just odd, and it makes an ugly jersey. It looks uncomfortable to wear, and it’s ugly. The white one is the worst jersey in the league this year.
A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA: The American Soccer News’ Red Bulls page has some interesting player grades for New York. Check them out here.
GOODBYE, MEADOWLANDS: Saturday’s game was the final match at the Meadowlands for the Rapids. It’s a terrible facility for soccer. Good riddance. Wow, that’s a harsh way to end the story!
George Tanner is a former writer and editor for the Rocky Mountain News; the Greeley Tribune; The Daily Independent of Ridgecrest, Calif.; the Durango Herald; and the Boulder Daily Camera. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado and an associate professor at Metropolitan State College of Denver. E-mail him at ColoradoSoccerNow@gmail.com.
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it’s not MLS if there’s no spotty referring. it’s always awful.
I think Mehdi deserves some credit in this match as well (I can’t believe i’m saying that this early in the year?). I thought he looked comfortable with holding the ball to draw defenders (instead of simply moving it automatically), knew when to move it quickly, found players in space and in dangerous positions, played good defense and just missed Clark on an early diagonal run that would have been a beautiful goal. I was quite happy to see him continue to grow.
i can’t agree more. in fact, i’ll go farther: i think ballouchy has played VERY well three games in a row. he has been resourceful and has made use of his opportunities with the ball, not just offensively. to his teammates and anyone watching the game, he is pronouncing himself a worthy option on the field.
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Our goal at ColoradoSoccerNow.com is to cover the sport in this state like no one else, from colleges to the Colorado Rapids, from the W-League to the U.S. men's and women's national teams.
About George: George Tanner fell in love with the Tampa Bay Rowdies and the North American Soccer League while living in the Tampa, Fla., area in the mid-1970s. He got his first taste of newspapering while following the Rowdies every day in the Tampa Tribune, and from there grew the seeds of a journalism career in which he has worked at the Colorado Springs Sun; the Daily Camera in Boulder; the Durango Herald; The Daily Independent in Ridgecrest, Calif.; the Greeley Tribune; and the Rocky Mountain News.
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About Jonathan: Jonathan Ingraham is a Colorado native, sports hound, outdoors enthusiast and Metropolitan State College student, working on a journalism degree. Outside of school, he works as a freelance photographer and is available for photographing places, people, events, games or artistic shoots for businesses or personal collections.
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About Tom: Tom Auclair remembers watching the New England Tea Men when he was younger and thinking what a terrible name that was for a sports team. He has worked for the Rocky Mountain News, Longmont Daily Times-Call and several newspapers in New Hampshire. He's currently working as an editor and photographer for a collection of Web sites. He can't believe how quick Omar Cummings is.
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