What can I say, it is time for the US Soccer Federation and Major League Soccer to really step up and look at their officials. The way Baldomero Toledo called the Vancouver Whitecaps-New England Revolution match was a pure joke. The game ended in a furry as Ilija Stolica tied things up late for the Revs after Eric Hassli put Vancouver up 1-0 earlier in the game on a penalty kick.
Baldomero Toledo Headlines Vancouver Whitecaps-New England Revolution Tie
But the fun in this match wasn’t the late goal or the penalty kick. No, it was the six yellow cards and three red cards that made this game more about Toledo than the players playing the game.
Sure, Hassli’s two yellows were stupid, and honestly you can’t fault Toledo on either of those. The Frenchman has to know better than to give an elbow to someone’s face and also to know better than to remove a jersey after scoring a goal.
But the other two were nothing more than a yellow to me. The first straight red to Vancouver’s Gershon Koffie was a tough call. Two players go in the air to challenge for a ball and Koffie’s arm smacks a New England player right in the face. At first the call seemed reasonable as it looked worse in live action than it did on replay. But watching it two or three times more it was nothing more than a yellow to me. Koffie did not extend his elbow like I first thought.
The other red card in question went to New England rookie A.J. Soares for his challenge against Vancouver's Atiba Harris. A ball was sent into the offensive third for the Whitecaps and Harris was speeding down the flank to get it when Soares came over to challenge for the ball. While Harris went flying after the tackle by Soares, which got a fair amount of the ball, Toledo inserted himself into the game again by giving a straight red to Soares. It wasn't even a goal denying opportunity for the reasoning on the foul as Harris had no clear shot in on goal.
I hate seeing games go like this, especially given the fact that up until the first red card, this was a pretty entertaining game. Toledo injected too much of himself into this game and fans deserve better, and certainly players deserve better.
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