MSU Red Cedar Message Board

" During the second half, with the U.S. frantically trying to speed the game up while attempting multiple comebacks, Wambach began running near referee Christiana Pedersen and counting off the seconds that McLeod held the ball. She said she often got to 10 and into even the teens.

"I wasn't yelling. I was just counting," Wambach revealed on Wednesday during an interview at the team hotel here. "Probably did it five to seven times."

The last time came in the 78th minute, with Canada trying to milk a 3-2 lead. McLeod made a save and Wambach began counting again.

"I got to 10 seconds right next to the referee and at 10 seconds she blew the whistle," Wambach said. "

The one thing I never understand about soccer is the timekeeping (granted, I don't watch much soccer). Why don't they just stop the clock when there is an injury or other stoppage? Adding time at the end of the match at the discretion of a referee seems like an easy way to fix games especially in a sport known for some shady officiating. What is the benefit?

Those who say the ref shouldn't have made the call are being shortsighted. How about saying "maybe those damn canadians shouldn't have kept holding the ball after being warned for breaking a rule?" Even easier than demanding that the ref ignore the rule book is demanding that the stupid goalie just kick the damn ball quickly.

Funny, one team says the Canadians got warnings, the other team says they didn't. I'll leave it to you to work out which is which.

Aw, hell, no I won't:

McLeod, the goalkeeper, claimed she had the ball a far shorter time and the ref shouldn't have included the few seconds it took for her to get up off the ground. She also said she was never warned by Pedersen herself; she merely was given a general reminder about speeding up play from a linesman at halftime.

"We feel like we got robbed in this game," McLeod said.

Wambach disputes that, saying that after she started the counting routine Pedersen continually told McLeod to speed up play and McLeod would acknowledge it by raising her hand to the referee.

Watched the game and both of those calls we're terrible. The ref should have yellow carded for time wasting far before giving an indirect free kick. I don't know if I have actually ever seen a ref make that call before. That being said, Canada did not get screwed out of the game and benefited from the poor officiating at times. Canada tried playing very physical in the box and that meant many very risky tackles. They could have legitimately been called for 2 or 3 fouls in the box that would have lead to penalties. The ref never had control of the game and chose to not blow the whistle in those instances. The fact that the Americans got a penalty was deserved even though the call itself was terrible. The better team won.

Were the Canadians complaining about "Biased officiating" during the 2010 Gold Medal Game between the U.S. and Canada in hockey?

Also, I don't seem to recall the global media being so up-in-arms when the US Men's team had that goal disallowed against Slovenia in the World Cup

you must not have seen or played much soccer

Golly, that's a beauty of a screencap. Well done.

It's a rule in the referee's toolbox. Just because it isn't often (ever) used, doesn't mean it can't be used if the goalie is obviously just going to ignore you in a situation where escalating to a card won't do any good either. It's basically a nuclear option, though.

What was the rest of the game like? Was it a bit chippy where having one player ignore the ref might make you have to give out cards in other situations to keep control?

I certainly agree that it was late to call it in that instance, but without watching the game, and probably without being the referee, it's impossible to know what led up to making that call.

Yeah,,,,,,,it's pretty tense around here today.........

Supposed to head out to the park and kick a ball around later, not sure if I want to risk it......

To be fair, Canada set up the ref with their comments about the US getting away with illegal physical play, then hammering the hell out of the US all game with hardly any calls. And while I hated the call for the delay, I thought Canada got the benefit of the doubt on at least 2-3 penalties prior in the box, so that to me evened out. They were grabbing, pushing, etc all game. The one girl who's name started with "T" had a card and over 7 fouls that were called (many more that weren't) before the end of regulation, she easily could have been sent off a number of times to make it 11 on 10.