The referee review from US Soccer is out. I'd recommend that everybody go read it themselves, but in a nutshell:
1) If Weyland hadn't dilly-dallied when Berhalter delayed the restart, all of this could have been avoided.
2) Berhalter deserved an immediate yellow for delaying the game.
3) Riley shoulda let the ref handle it. Since he didn't, he got yellow for "unsporting behavior."
4) When Riley made contact with Magee above the head, he correctly got red for "violent behavior."
5) Magee was the "third man in" who increased the aggressiveness of the situation, and should have gotten yellow for this. What actually happened was that he got yellow for dissent.
Question: Does this mean that the dissent caution should have been the second yellow and he should have been sent off? I can't see how it can mean anything else, but they don't say that. They also don't even mention Magee's above-the-shoulders contact on Riley at all.
Referees are never named by name in these, but there is fairly direct implied criticism of Weyland for not adapting his refereeing to conditions on the pitch or asserting himself more forcefully. They also say/imply that dissent the should have been the last thing he dealt with after taking care of everything else, rather than a first priority the way it was.
Everybody else who read this, does that sum it up?
I guess I feel vaguely vindicated, but I also still feel this kind of simmering, angry disappointment in the end result, given that even though US Soccer says the Galaxy punishments SHOULD have happend, they never will. And yet Riley got both a yellow and a red.
Sigh. (Or maybe it's more than sigh. Maybe it's more like, "lie down on the floor and throw a short kicking-and-screaming tantrum like I'm two." Because I'm pretty sure that would make me feel better.)
Still, at least it's not a whitewash, or a ringing endorsement of the refereeing. So plenty of reasons to feel positive.
And this is probably it for me for the next week or so. I am heading out tomorrow to Italy for a week. (I know, poor me, huh? Seventy-five and sunny? Sheer torture.)
I am going to try to get up my Fan of the Week post before I go because she has been So. Damn. Patient. with my procrastination and is probably techincally the "Fan of the Last Three Weeks."
After that, my co-blogger Steve will take care of you through the Dallas game and beyond. (Remember, I won't be able to watch the match, so I'll be relying on you and Steve to tell me what happens. So be sure to stop by this page before, during and after the game and leave lots of comments.)
My flight is scheduled to arrive back in Seattle a few short hours before the Colorado game. If the customs people take their sweet time and don't let me get home in time to see the game, I don't think I should be held responsible for what happens.
So if you work in customs at the airport on the 23rd, be on alert.
(But they have TV in the jail, right? KING and KONG? Maybe even FSN for the reruns? So I should be okay.)