When you’re driving down the highway, minding your own business, cruising at the speed of traffic, would you expect to be pulled over? You would not. Tonight, a referee just pulled us over for going 1 mph over the speed limit.
Mark Geiger will say he was following the rules. He was. But in soccer, and in life, being consistent is much more important than being strictly right. Well, unless you’re just a jerk. Or a cop.
Salihi did indeed encroach in the penalty area on De Rosario’s first penalty, but so did Sheanon Williams. As Kyle Martino tweeted, if De Ro had missed that, would Geiger have forced a retake? We’ll never know, but we’ll always know what we think about that.
The red card for Boskovic was another one of those, “Well he DID extend an arm at another player, so…” situations. He CAN give a red there. Should he? No. A yellow is sufficient.
Dudar’s red card was just stupid. He has disappointed consistently this season, and I am hoping that his contract for next year is not guaranteed. His style of play is just not a fit with the team, and his not being in the lineup is not a major problem. What IS a problem is what his absence does to the rest of the lineup.
Jakovic will slide back in the middle (THANKS BE TO BABY JESUS), but that means we get treated to round 2 of the Mike Chabala show. The first episode wasn’t very good, so I don’t think we need to see the second one so soon. Also, Ethan White becomes the only option of the bench in case of injury. We just got really thin, really fast.
In summary, Mark Geiger will probably sleep just fine tonight. He will consult his trusty dogeared rule book, read aloud from its text, and enjoy the smell of his own flatulence. You can be “right” and very wrong all at the same time, and we saw it tonight.
(Edit: I’ll bet he’s related to Matt Geiger, who is burned into my brain as sucking at basketball. Fixed, and thanks)
