Worked two “adult league” games this past Sunday. Since we’re in the middle of the World Cup (WC) right now it is the topic of choice on and around the field before, during, and after the game. The problem for grunt referee’s, like my self, with this are the FIFA referee’s that everyone has been watching on TV. They all see the dubious penalty called against the US, and the cocked up offside calls against England. And they are more than willing to paint me with the same brush. I’m thinking that the next player that says something to the effect of, “. . . but at the World Cup that was a yellow card!”. I’m going to have to kill him. Right then and there. Grab him by the neck and strangle him.

A friend of mine that has season tickets for the Chicago Fire was able to get tickets for the “public safety” test match of their new stadium on June 11, 2006. It was unreal to attend this match. I remember going to see the Chicago Sting at different baseball and football stadiums in Chicago when I was a kid. Even when the game was well attended there were a lot of empty seats. For this game there were 14,000 people about 2/3 full. It made for a great atmosphere. We sat behind of of the goals next to “Section 8″ the ultras seating. The stadium itself is great. Your close enough to the field to hear the players. Nothing to cut down site lines. Next time I go I want to check out the upper level and someday watch a game from the executive suites.

The game was not all that great. Well that’s not fair, Chicago did great for 90mins. It was the last 3mins that pissed me off. Up 2-1 after the 87min I thought they would have a win for their first home game. In the first minutes of added time it’s 3-1, Chicago. We’re done . . . Right? Nope. Final score 3-3. The last 2 minutes were like watching a spring college game. Directionless, inexperience, reckless. How do you screw something like that up in just 2 minutes? That was Sunday. Monday just made my mood worse after watching the US vs. Czech Republic. That was so pathetic that I had to leave the house rather than see the final 15mins. I went back to work in a very sour mood. Luckily no one had to talk to me the rest of the day.

I was really glad to see that Marco Rodriguez, Mexico, got the nod to work the England vs. Paraguay match. I thought he did a fine job putting his authority on the game. Halfway through the first half with Paraguay a goal down and England pressing, things were getting a little chipy. Two yellow cards, Steven Gerrard (ENG) 19′ and Nelson Valdez (PAR) 22′, put done to that kind of play. I think both teams realized what the limits would be at that point work worked with it from there on out. I didn’t really see the reason for the Crouch (ENG) yellow in the ‘63. It was consistent with the fact that Crouch had been called quite a few times for using his arms but I think he was getting undercut by the shorter defenders. It was an unlucky card. Over all the officiating was fine. England looked weak in the second half but Paraguay didn’t pick it up enough to challenge the result. I really can’t see Paraguay beating Sweden, we’ll see.

Shamsul Maidin, Singapore, got the match the everyone figured would be a walk, Trinidad and Tobago vs. Sweden. T&T wasn’t supposed to be able to play with Sweden. Then their number one keeper gets hurt during the warm-up and the 37 year old back-up keeper gets put in with little warm up. THEN they have to play almost a full half down a man. John Avery (TRN) picked up his first yellow card ‘15 and his second ‘46, both cards well deserved. John Harks, the ABC color man, didn’t seem to think the second foul warranted a yellow. I’m sure that if he or a team mate had been on the receiving end of that tackle he would think differently.

The card to Dwight Yorke ‘75 was also well deserved. With the score still at 0-0 and Sweden pushing to score, Yorke steped in front of a free kick while Sweden was trying to do a quick kick. Maidin was quick to the scene and cautioned Yorke. Within the next minute Maidin also had to have a talk with the T&T keeper Hislop, for time wasting. I was kind of suprised that there was only 3 mins of added time in the second half, when there had been 4 in the first half. The second half had more substitutions and a few injuries. I was thinking at least 4-5 minutes. I’m not sure if the added time would have helped Sweden. In last 10 minutes of the game they were obviously frustrated and T&T were playing for the 0-0 tie. At the end of the game you would have thought that Sweden had just lost the match by the reaction of the Swedish and T&T fans. Everyone expected a Sweden win, even the T&T fans, so a 0-0 final was a victory for T&T. It now looks like England will finish the group at #1 with #2 open for anyone, this should be fun.