Surrey United 2(PK's)-1 Westside
First off and most appropriate, congrats to Westside for a good hard fought battle. Secondly, someone has to do something about the officiating. I am so pissed off. The central focus of a game should be the players, NOT THE REFEREE! This official is supposed to be one of the top three. Then there truly is a problem.
The two yellow card rule in this years BC's and then a suspension is questionable in the first place, ESPECIALLY when you have a referee like today who was throwing them around in RECKLESS abandon. Disgraceful! It's a semi-final match man! We have been playing like that our whole frickin careers, and you come along and decide we should change......today! As a result of this referee's actions today, we played half the game with ten men, and the entire overtime with nine men. We also will be missing at least four players in the final next week due to his irresponsible actions. Some of you may be thinking, hey Ballbaby, it was your team's irresponsible actions and not the refs. I can assure you that this is not the case. Anyway, enough of that.
Game started out a little scrappy on our end but our left back Randy Carmichael scored on a left footer from about 30 yards out that the keeper had no chance on. It was a beauty! The game was pretty even and I believe we were more creative in their third. They scored on a crossed ball that evaded our keeper. Kudos to our keeper Dave Ellenwood who filled in admirally for our regular keeper who was away baptizing his daughter. The game was very hard fought but we squandered some good chances, yours truly.........again! We played a man short in the second half when one of our players retaliated. However, we kept going at them, and going at them. Every once in a while there would be a counter attack by Westside, but I felt like we still dictated the play. I could sense that they were getting tired but I am the one who had to be subbed just before the end of the game suffering from calf cramps.
At the start of the overtime, we went down to nine men when Randy Carmichael was shown a second yellow for a very minor infraction. Kelly Bey then surcumbed to cramps and I went back on. All we could do was absorb the pressure but we actually had the better chances to score. Westside should have ran the ball right at us and forced us to make a decision but they opted for the long ball in the box. I believe that was due to fatigue. No one wanted to run the ball and really, we did defend very well. Quite a few blocked shots at the top of the eighteen.
On to penalties. It got to the sixth shooter and we won, and that's that! My penalty was not the greatest but it went in.
Kelly Bey ran miles and miles in the midfield and our back line was as solid as ever. Aves and Reeder played outstanding and Mark Hughes was incredible. Everyone played hard and well on both teams. We sure have grinded out a few games this year aginst a lot of adversity but we somehow find a way to win. Even with nine men, I had that feeling that we would squeak it out. In some ways, even with the lousy ref, I thrive off these kind of games, rather than a 3-0 score.
Well done Westside. Well done Surrey U!
First off and most appropriate, congrats to Westside for a good hard fought battle. Secondly, someone has to do something about the officiating. I am so pissed off. The central focus of a game should be the players, NOT THE REFEREE! This official is supposed to be one of the top three. Then there truly is a problem.
The two yellow card rule in this years BC's and then a suspension is questionable in the first place, ESPECIALLY when you have a referee like today who was throwing them around in RECKLESS abandon. Disgraceful! It's a semi-final match man! We have been playing like that our whole frickin careers, and you come along and decide we should change......today! As a result of this referee's actions today, we played half the game with ten men, and the entire overtime with nine men. We also will be missing at least four players in the final next week due to his irresponsible actions. Some of you may be thinking, hey Ballbaby, it was your team's irresponsible actions and not the refs. I can assure you that this is not the case. Anyway, enough of that.
Game started out a little scrappy on our end but our left back Randy Carmichael scored on a left footer from about 30 yards out that the keeper had no chance on. It was a beauty! The game was pretty even and I believe we were more creative in their third. They scored on a crossed ball that evaded our keeper. Kudos to our keeper Dave Ellenwood who filled in admirally for our regular keeper who was away baptizing his daughter. The game was very hard fought but we squandered some good chances, yours truly.........again! We played a man short in the second half when one of our players retaliated. However, we kept going at them, and going at them. Every once in a while there would be a counter attack by Westside, but I felt like we still dictated the play. I could sense that they were getting tired but I am the one who had to be subbed just before the end of the game suffering from calf cramps.
At the start of the overtime, we went down to nine men when Randy Carmichael was shown a second yellow for a very minor infraction. Kelly Bey then surcumbed to cramps and I went back on. All we could do was absorb the pressure but we actually had the better chances to score. Westside should have ran the ball right at us and forced us to make a decision but they opted for the long ball in the box. I believe that was due to fatigue. No one wanted to run the ball and really, we did defend very well. Quite a few blocked shots at the top of the eighteen.
On to penalties. It got to the sixth shooter and we won, and that's that! My penalty was not the greatest but it went in.
Kelly Bey ran miles and miles in the midfield and our back line was as solid as ever. Aves and Reeder played outstanding and Mark Hughes was incredible. Everyone played hard and well on both teams. We sure have grinded out a few games this year aginst a lot of adversity but we somehow find a way to win. Even with nine men, I had that feeling that we would squeak it out. In some ways, even with the lousy ref, I thrive off these kind of games, rather than a 3-0 score.
Well done Westside. Well done Surrey U!
