This soccer screwjob Canada had dropped on them vs. the Americans last night in the Gold Cup semi-final is a really a gift in disguise.Canadians get to direct some self-righteous schadenfreude southward after seeing the Americans look like the most sheepish winning eleven ever after the ref, Benito Archundia (ya, him again), waved off Canada's tying goal in the final seconds on a chintzy offside call. Team USA, playing at home, has been less than convincing all tournament and should have won by more than 2-1, except Landon Donovan pulled a Bode Miller and tripped over something invisible -- perhaps his team's overinflated rep -- and missed a chance to put the U.S. up by three goals, taking Uncle Sam's boot off Canada's collective neck.
It's still a wicked burn. The Americans needed the refs to jam Canada in order to win. Hey, we do have more than one-10th the population of the U.S. and our summer lasts almost three months now.
(Off-topic: The timing for whipping up an us-vs.-them patriotic fervour is great. After all, the NHL draft begins tonight, and an American, Patrick Kane, might be the first player taken by the Chicago Blackhawks. Where was this game played? Chicago.
Conspiracy abounds. OK, not really, and besides Kane plays junior hockey in Canada, and he's from Buffalo. You know Buffalo. It's the city that makes Brantford look like Paris.)
It's berserker how it went down. The Great Soccer Swindle began before the disallowed goal. There were plenty of bad calls, but what Archundia did to Canada in the 32nd minute was just as brutal. Canada had a free kick from the top of the box, a great chance to open the scoring and Donovan took a free run at Julián de Guzmán before he kicked the ball, like a defensive lineman who guessed wrong on the quarterback's snap count by about two "hut-huts." Archundia, who handed out six yellow cards, didn't give one although Donovan was only about five yards off the ball -- instead of the mandatory 10 -- when de Guzmán put foot to ball. It was cheating, as far as this soccer dilettante's understanding goes. Canada went offside, the U.S. regrouped and scored both their goals before the break.
Anyway, it's Canada losing to the heavily favoured U.S. on American soil with the quote, unquote help of Archundia, who eighty-sixed our shot at making vthe last World Cup when he handed Honduras a gift road tie in qualifying with a couple of sketchy late calls in September '04. It's also nuts the refs missed the ball glancing off the American defender's head before Atiba Hutchinson (pictured) scored what was clearly a good goal and not offside.
(Not to stereotype, but if this was South America, wouldn't someone be running for their life after that call?)
Really, there's no vile American-led conspiracy. Archundia is highly regarded enough to have been assigned the Germany-Italy semi at last year's World Cup (and Italy fans are obsessed with refs like no other in the world). In this tournament, with Mexico in the other semi-final, CONCACAF couldn't assign him to his own country's game. Sportsnet play-by-play man Gerry Dobson seems to be more bang on, pointing out that this is about FIFA creating their own crisis "by making (an offside) rule which is tough to get right."
Creating a confusing rule ... Sepp Blatter apparently has nothing on Gary Bettman, which should bring this home for many Canadians. The reality that a lot of Canadians will make that connection today and want Benito Archundia to suffer the same fate as Jason Jones in those Molson Canadian ads -- left in the trunk of a deserted car -- running on TV these days is probably good in the long run for our soccer.
(Deadspin has a thread going, and the comments are hilarious and good-natured. Tucker Carlson, eat your heart out.)
Related:
Sickening way to lose (Gerry Dobson, sportsnet.ca)
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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25 comments:
i got home and caught the end of the game and was absolutely dumbfounded by the call. and to watch the americans bolt off the field after the final whistle was proof enough that they flat-out stole the game, which the refs were their willing accomplices.
kudos to craig forrest for censoring himself just enough to not cost him a job at sportsnet. i thought he was going to really lose it.
Sorry this didn't go your way, guys. This has not been the best officiated tourney in general.
Part of me, as an American, wanted to see Canada do well...for the sake of the region. With more Canadians plying their trade in Europe (and the rise of Toronto FC), it certainly bodes well.
If you guys can play like this during qualifying, I could easily see Canada making it to S. Africa in '10...and making a little noise.
your comment about the NHL draft seems to imply that more than 1% of Americans care about hockey...that is simply not true. (see TV ratings, Stanley Cup finals)
Where the hell did you get that from? It was obviously in jest. Go back to Grade 9, where you can learn how to read.
Was impressed with how well Canada has played throughout the Gold Cup, but for the first 89 minutes of the match, the Leafs had close to free reign to take a shot at anyone in white.
The match was poorly officiated start to finish. The last call was bad, but there were about 20 others before it that probably should have resulted in at least one red and a yellow for Canada.
Probably was offside, but it was also past the 4 minutes of indicated stoppage time. I know it's not always exact to the minute, but the whistle could have easily blown before Canada even had a chance to go "offsides". Don't forget about that.
Valid points: The officiating was generally, uh, open to interpretation... the play at the end inevitably is going to overshadow it all, you can see how that's the spin in Canada.
Bocanegra's tackle on De Guzman should have been a straight red and injury time is a MINIMUM. As for Canada having free rein to hit the Americans? Maybe you were confused by Landycakes flying through the air. No one was actually touching him.
It was clearly a good goal and the sadsack refereeing of CONCACAF screws Canada again. I can't wait to see how they rob us of a chance to
I agree. When the final whistle blows, there's no time left to make up for any mistakes that happened earlier.
It'll be interesting to see who can underwhelm more in the final, US or Mexico.
I've had enough of this please sign the petition concacaf if a fucking joke.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/concacafisajoke/index.html
"Team USA, playing at home, has been less than convincing all tournament"
winning the group stage while not conceding a goal is not convincing?
You guys got screwed but that sentence would not get you your grade 10 down here, Ricky.
TPB reset
I'm from the USA, and I think it was a good goal. The refs screwed it up pretty bad. Also, Bocanegra's tackle was a straight red and possibly suspension, it was terrible. However, bad calls are part of the game. We've seen our fair share on larger stages than this, see USA-Ghana, 2006 World Cup.
Canada is looking up and should make a strong push for the '10 World Cup. I'll be pulling for them, too.
Also, Hejduk now missed the final because of De Rosario's actions and Hume goes unpunished for his. There were plenty of awful calls and no calls in that one.
Mogadishu wouldn't make Brantford look like Paris. Try again.
The free kick in which Donovan ran and deflected was indirect. Therefore, a Canadian player rolled it before DeRosario could strike on goal. Therefore, once the ball was touched, the US was free to run at him. Happens all the time.
But that last no-goal....whoooo, what a doozy!
Excuse me, I meant DeGuzman in that previous post
Paris Ontario or Paris France?
The one in France... wanted to use Oshawa but I know Brantford better, unfortunately.
I was there last night and even though it was on American soil, during the second half as more and more Mexican-Americans were filing in the crowd was very hostile towards the American team. Chicago has the second largest Mexican population in the US and they turned out en masse. I would estimate that by the 75th minute the crowd was close to 80% pro Mexico and they made me and my wife feel like we did when we were at Soldier Field as Browns fans against the Bears back in 2001.
Hume should have been out of the game before he scored his goal, but whatever what does it matter. Sometimes you get screwed.
Also the game should have already been over. Way too much extra time was awarded (4 minutes), and even that was surpassed.
I was at that game, and I can assure you, the crowd reaction to that goal being disallowed was uproarious (which was a good indication as to how few American supporters there were in the crowd.) The call was a bad one, I agree.
That being said, your analysis of the rest of the game is completely asinine. The US has been convincing? What would it take to convince you? Double-digit wins? The Americans allowed 1 goal in the tournament up to that point.
On top of that, it's not like the US was enjoying all the calls. The end of the second half was a hackfest, and the Canadians did more than their share of the hacking (although I will admit that LDonna's diving is getting absurd.)
I'm not expecting anyone to sing the praises of the US, but it was abundantly clear that the better team left the game with a W, even if they did attain it through shoddy officiating.
Read the AP dispatch:
"The Americans can’t have been happy with the finish, either. This was the second straight game they gave up a late goal — Panama scored in the 84th minute in the quarter-finals."
The American players' body language said it all.... they had the look of someone who got away with something. They were just good enough to win.
The unfortunate thing is that Soccer Canada officials seem to be shrugging it off as only an unfortunate mistake (that coincidentaly gave A US-Mexico final that will be a much better gate and TV draw). A msitake from a mexicn official that they have had trouble with before. Soccer Canada needs to protest, officially and unofficially as loud as they can, to put the wold on notice that thay want this nonsense to stop. If our leaders won't make the effort on behalf of Canada, why would our players bother to make it either; r Canadians bother taking an interest in soccer.
I've just looked at the tape of the game, and played over the relevant part multiple times.
IMHO, with over two decades of experience as an official, the Canadians have no gripe - it was the correct call.
The Assistant Referee's flag went up when the shot was made from outside the box. It was at that moment that the Assistant Refereee judged the Canadian player to the right side of the penalty arc to be offside.
Whether or not the ball deflected off of the U.S. defenseman is immaterial - the call had been made, and made correctly.
Offside is called when the ball is played, and not when the player receives it.
It is unfortunate to see such rancor surround this result; there's an obvious bunch of shoulda-coulda-wouldas to go inside this game, and this particular Game Referee has had some regrettable dealings with the Canadians in the past.
But all that said, the offside call was correct. The tape proves it.
Well, the game announcers felt differently, and so did a couple people I was watching the game with who have a similar amount of soccer experience. It'll all come out in the wash eventually, and the U.S. probably on average did deserve to win.
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