Caps Suffer Late Equalizer and Ridiculous Refereeing

I was lucky enough to attend the Vancouver Whitecaps FC first night match against the New England Revolution. It was my first MLS match and I truly couldn't wait to watch the Caps take on the Revolution, hoping for three points. While the experience at the stadium was fantastic, the match was a strange one. With three sending offs, three goals (one of which disallowed), and plenty of ridiculous decisions, the Whitecaps suffered from a poor referee and a late equalizer.

The match started a little nervously, with both teams slightly apprehensive at the beginning of the match. But little by little the Whitecaps became the dominant team. On the other hand the referee made strange decisions, awarding fouls for nothing, and handing out cards like cupcakes at a birthday party. Eventually, it all culminated (or maybe it all culminates later?) in the 45th minute when Ref Baldomero Toledo gave Gershon Koffie a direct red card during an aerial challenge.

Both Koffie and Phelan both jumped up for the ball, and Koffie's arms were held high for balance. Phelan's jump wasn't directly upwards, and therefore the NER player hit his head against Koffie's elbow. While I could understand maybe a yellow card for the incident which was completely unintentional, the referee decided it was worthy of a red. The Whitecaps crowd applauded Koffie all the way to the tunnel, while booing the referee with plenty of hate. And so, the Whitecaps went into the halftime break without a goal for all their efforts and a man down.

My view from the south side of Empire Field. The crowd was fantastic throughout the match.

While the second half I was worried, and hoping for a 0-0 draw, the Whitecaps showed amazing determination in the way the ten players took on the Revolution. Hassli was brought on for Wes Knight, allowing the team to play in a 4-4-1 with him up top along with Harris and Camilo on the wings. This quickly became a 4-2-3 when the Caps pushed forward, causing lots of problems to the New England team which was truly playing terribly.

In the 55th minute the Whitecaps had a golden opportunity to score. Camilo earned a penalty with his unpredictable dribbling, and substitute Eric Hassli stepped up to take it. Hassli chipped it through the middle, celebrating by taking his jersey off and throwing it into the crowd, to reveal another jersey underneath it. As soon as he took it off, I knew he would be off the field. Hassli had previously received a yellow card for a silly challenge, and even if he had another Whitecaps jersey underneath it, the action is still recognized by FIFA as a yellow card. With 35 minutes to go, the Whitecaps were a goal up and two men down.

While it would've been the perfect time for New England Revolution to push forward, the opponents seemed truly lifeless. The Whitecaps were the more dangerous of the two teams, coming close to scoring a second. So close, that New England player Soares had to pull off a late sliding tackle on Khalfan, which was sanctioned with a direct red from referee Toledo. While I might have given a yellow for the challenge, just a word with Soares would've been enough as the tackle had no malicious intent.

The match began to liven up with only 19 men on the field (not counting the card-waving maniac dressed as a referee). New England Revolution began to push forward more, and created a goal which was disallowed because of an offside (not sure about this decision, I didn't have a good view) in the buildup. The disallowed goal was an omen, because as the minutes ticked down, and Toledo gave four minutes of added time, New England Revolution equalized in the 93rd minute.

Another shot of the crowd at Empire Field. Quite a full stadium of 19,396 spectators!

The goal knocked the breath out of Empire Field. The team had fought so hard to maintain the lead with just nine men, seeing it all erode away like a sandcastle washed away by the water was devastating. The match ended among the boos and shouts aimed towards the referee.

In the end, the Whitecaps played a fantastic match and were truly unlucky to not win. A crazy referee impeded what could've been a much more enjoyable match, and I'm beginning to grasp that maybe what's holding the MLS back is the referee quality. A good point by the Caps which fought hard against a truly lifeless New England Revolution team which woke up in the final minutes.