The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup fourth round match between Portland Timbers and RSL had a lot of fireworks, but it was the visitors who advanced in the tournament.
In all honesty, last night is what I thought every Timbers game would be this season - tons of offense and no defense anywhere within several blocks of PP. I just didn't expect it to come from such a heavily rotated lineup!
Not going to spend a ton of time analyzing or thinking about this game, there were some decent individual moments and it was nice to see Blanco play a half and score a goal, but otherwise, well, T2 guys are T2 guys for a reason. They showed some promise, but also showed that they still need some cooking time as it were. I'm looking forward to seeing a few of those guys in a year or so after some regular playing time, for sure.
Yep, that sure was an open cup game. With that midfield and backline there’s not much you can expect. If we had a fully healthy midfield we’d be rocking with a rested Paredes and Ayala in there most likely, maybe Caliskan. Bingham likes to hit it long too much, we were very impatient after the 75th minute. Two of our goals came from some nice play though, Caliskan looked alright in the middle and did quite well for the Rasmussen goal. Outside of that... yeah, it’s whatever really. Griffith had two good chances, Paredes would’ve had a banger if it weren’t for a spectacular save, and Loria had a shot also saved from close range. We had the better of the chances overall. Really wish McGraw would’ve come on for Mabiala at halftime, or at least at the 60. I also think Mosquera could’ve come on earlier, but I understand resting our starts. Oh well, it’s the open cup
Seattle lost to a terrible Galaxy side. Just how the competition goes. The important games are still to come, we can focus on those. Correction, we NEED to focus on those. Big month and a half stretch coming up for the team
I could easily forget all about this game if we can get it together in league.
"Bingham likes to hit it long too much, we were very impatient after the 75th minute." Yes absolutely, long and not well targeted balls from Bingham and other long balls that just didn't cut the mustard (this is an area where turf probably does come into play). The impatience was frustrating to watch, but we've seen this for a while now, like there is too much desperation play from the Timbers and they can't relax and just play.
Loved all the goals (even their golazo - hard not just to shake your head at something like that…) and nice to see Seba being Seba again.
I guess I need to accept that at 1.09 ppg in the league this club can’t afford to burn matches in these Cup ties. I don’t have to like it, but that’s just where we are.
What is kind of irritating is how the whole “defending is too hard for us” thing seems to be a Timbers feature, not just a Cup tie bug. How long have we sat thru these “Mabiala (or Clegg, or Rasmussen…) is ballwatching/caught upfield/skinned/lost…” derps? It’s not like the FO can’t tell we have some pretty big holes in back. And yet…there they are, game after game.
So it’d be nice to be able to feel confident that the club could count on defending a lead, to enjoy those goals without the nagging worry “when do we ship the equalizer/matchwinner..?” Even a makeshift midfield and backline you’d think could be organized and disciplined (and individually skilled) enough to make three goals stand up.
I dont' think so. It was frustrating to see both Rasmussen and Bonilla play poorly. Rasmussen was making poor defensive decisions and letting his player get by him, and Bonilla wasn't able to connect his passes. I think Paredes and Caliskan did okay in the midfield, and I'm hopeful that Caliskan can provide minutes in regular games. Obviously we were okay on offense, but the defense really needs help.
The enigma to me is Gutierrez. I keep seeing flashes of potential with the kid, but then he makes a terrible pass. I feel like he has a great feel for the game and puts himself in the right position, only to not finish what he was tring to do. Am I just seeing him with Rose colored glasses, or do others see potential there?
Benno - I'm hoping Gutierrez turns out to be like Paredes. I could not stand Paredes in his 2nd and 3rd season with us. His only successful passes were back passes - anything forward was more than likely a turnover. Paredes has improved so much from that time. I'm hoping Gutierrez will follow suit.
Just hard to watch. I mean there were a couple of really good goals, but mostly really bad defense.
I have been listening all day to "Mabiala, Mabiala Mabiala" and yeah - he isn't what he used to be and was never exactly fast ... but I hate to break it to the haters, he was also the best player on the back line on the night. Rasmussen slightly redemed himself by scoring, but was horrible defensively. Bonilla looked lost all game long - out of position, missing passes, poor defense and even worse offense. Clegg - welp, derped up the first goal and was generally pretty poor, added nothing to playing the ball out of the back (either long or being fast enough on the ball to find the outlet.
Just all around a mess in back, but despite the reflexive blaming of Mabiala, I don't think anyone else would have done much better with the incompetence all around.
Mabs is not a good centerback, and when he's with the first team he's usually the WORST centerback, so I think a lot of that is reflexive "OMFG Mabiala!!!!"
But I agree; if I HAD to kick someone in the pants for defending it'd be Rasmussen; he was gawdawful, constantly getting skinned. His side was open all night. Clegg was what he looked like - a T2 guy, and Bonilla was his usual self.
I think what bugs me is that defending isn't THAT hard. Destroying is easier than creating; it doesn't take soccer genius, just organization and discipline. But the gaggle in back had NO organization and no discipline - three of the four goals we shipped came from pure "WTF???" running randomly around as RSL passed through the random Timbers.
Seems like even a bunch of meh players like these guys should be able to do better than that. But I guess it IS too big an ask...
Agree with this. It was beyond disappointing not to win that game, at home. Rasmussen must have failed geometry or has an overestimation of his speed because his angles were atrocious. Once, ok, but learn from your mistake.
Clegg, same thing. I hope he doesn't go to ground ever again in the box unless he is sliding a breakaway. I hope he learns, too.
I like what I see from Bonilla, though. These are good games for him because he won't see the field with Mosquera ahead of him. He actually is controlling the ball fairly well and advancing it, etc.
Agreed, in both the USL/Orange County game and the RSL/RSL2 mixed team games, Mabiala did well. I also agree he was the best defender on our back line for the RSL/RSL2 game. I'm not a Mabiala hater, nor a Mabiala fan. However, like Niezgoda, Mabiala only seems to shine during lower competition level team games. For a veteran CB like Mabiala, we would all expect him to do well against lesser ability players. I cringe when both Mabiala and Niezgoda are subbed in for 1st team games.
Mabiala played well last weekend. He’s lost a step and it’s genuinely scary when he gets caught up field. But he’s acceptable as a fourth choice (if ever we got that 1A CB promised every window). And he’s not as bad as his ‘guy we hate and blame everything on’ reputation may suggest these days.
The Timbers almost always concede multiple goals when Mabiala starts. It didn’t help any on Wednesday to be playing without Zuparic and McGraw in the starting lineup. I think that Rasmussen should be a midfielder, probably on the wing, since he was a midfielder in college, can shoot, and looks more comfortable on offense. He works hard, but Gomez was a difficult opponent (he entered the game with a goal and 3 assists for RSL in MLS play). Rasmussen should never have tried to make diving tackles. Clegg also struggled against Gomez, and needs more experience, probably with T2. Just too many back-up defenders and not enough starters against RSL.
I know this is the open cup thread but it’s the most recent Timbers thread, so I’m sharing my highlights of Boli vs Austin here. I’ll also just copy/paste my analysis
I thought Boli had a decent game, he's still adapting to the league and players and I think that's okay -- he was never going to or was ever supposed to be a world beater. I noticed while making this that he's quite good at pressing. He does very well to cut the field in half, which is one of the first things you are taught as a striker in terms of pressing. This can be seen best at 2:39 where he forces Cascante to pass to his right instead of to his left, which seemed to be where he wanted to go. Then a few seconds later, the Austin player that had the ball (idk who that is) tried to pass to the left again, but Boli was aware and dropped back to block that passing lane. As a result, the player had to make a more dangerous pass forward to Zardes, which then resulted in a turnover. This is a great example of intelligent pressing, not just "go and run after the ball." He does similar things throughout the video too, this was just the best one. In fact, most of the clips show him pressing because that's probably what forwards do most; they aren't on the ball that much usually, especially for our team.
A few timestamps to analyze: at 2:02 I don't think Boli should've taken a touch here, I think he had a better shot at trying to wait for the ball to drop a little and take it first time. At 3:51, Boli makes a really great run that opens up a wide open space right in the middle of the box. A great, unselfish striker run that would've been perfect if Evander ran into that space instead of drifting to the far post where Moreno already was. Then of course Loria plays a pass to no one, but that could've been a really great chance. Another example of players still not quite meshing with Boli yet, but the intelligence is there. 5:05 is just another good run that isn't seen from Loria. 7:17 there is yet another great run no spotted by Yimmi. I do want to point out that these runs would take an Evander-level pass in order to get the ball to Boli, but we have Evander on the team, and Boli is making these great runs. At some point, they should connect. Boli makes a lot of really good runs. Then on the goal at 7:23 it's a little thing, and perhaps I'm giving him too much credit here. But if he's not there and being physical with the Austin player right there, then I'm not sure Bravo gets the shot off. Their #8 clearly wants to step up to Bravo, but because Boli makes contact and occupies him, he must stay on Boli. It's just good to have a center forward who makes defenders think about him. He's a problem they must solve. I think he does a lot of good things people (including myself) don’t see initially
I also just want to point out that I love how passionate Boli is, he celebrates like hell on our goals and he's only been here like a month. Love to see it
It was disappointing not to be moving on, and I think they should have moved on given that it was at home, and the odds were with them and they could have done it if they wanted. Not that Gio didn't want to win the game, however, he played it conservatively with an eye on Saturday. Still, they had the lead and momentum and let it go to pot.
One reason was Paredes left the game. I will bang the drum for him all day long and twice on Friday. Yes, we need him for Saturday, but again, he always seems to be in the mix of a winning side.
Another reason is taking out Fogaca. At least I got some of what I wanted to see with Fogaca and Niezgoda working together. Niezgoda can work with anyone, but it was nice to see Fogaca's layoff to Niezgoda and his clinical finish. I am very high on Niezgoda right now. He's scoring goals, he looks fit, and he is dialing it up for other players as well. He deserves a start over Boli IMO. I don't think that will happen, but a guy can dream. Fogaca didn't get a ton of service but he did pretty good with what he got. I still think he would be better out on a wing due to his dribbling and ability to get shots off. It's not that he can't in the middle, but I'd like to see that guy with more touches and creating out on the wing.
Asprilla was a big disappointment. Loria was pretty awful, except for the one cross to Asprilla he put on a PLATTER. Not for just that miss, but he seemed off. Fogaca probably won't play Saturday, so why take him out? Oh, to give Asprilla some fitness minutes. That just didn't work out. Also, the strategy seemed to be just launch up to Asprilla for desperation flicks and kicks. Not a good sustaining strategy.
In other notes: Awesome goal number two - great team goal and nice finish by Rasmussen. It shows that Gutierrez is good in final third and Caliskan has some chops too, and Loria was smart to dummy it.
We simply don't have the depth to play in Open Cup this year, like many years before. It's a blessing to be out now and focus on points. As it is, Paredes and a few others will be recovering for Vancouver already. At least we didn't go to extra time! If you thought our defense was bad, picture Mabiala at minute 105.
Our offense really showed some life last night, when we actually got the ball past midfield. It was frustrating to see how hard it was to move the ball past their well-organized defense.
Our defense on the other hand was shocking, just shocking. 3 of the 4 RSL goals were shots that were completely unmarked (or in the case of the last goal a step behind). Did we actually have a defender out there?
But it was so nice to see how the energy of the game changed when Dairon and Santiago came on. I felt we were unlucky not to get the equalizing goal. Even if it was a frustrating match at times, it was entertaining, though frightening every time RSL attacked our non-existent defense.
Are we ever going to get that top central defender we so badly need, and have for years?
Was there ever an explanation as to why the Nathan PK was rescinded? We were at the game and couldn't figure it out. Sure look like the keeper purposely cleaned him out—no attempt to go for the ball at all.
In real time I said aloud "that is an awful PK call" because the keeper got the ball (and not by going through Nathan to get it).
I think the CR knew he had been much too quick on the PK and already knew he made a mistake. I suspect his conversation with the AR was all for show with him saying something like "I messed that one up, just pretend you are giving me other information because I am waiving this off".
Didn’t look like a pk but they had approximately zero good replays of any play all night. Nathan was going out of bounds, hard to say who got to the ball first but to me it seemed like the keeper made a fair play on the ball and it would’ve been a very harsh pk call
They showed the replay in the stadium, and we couldn't see if the keeper got a hand to the ball. It looked as if the ball had already gone past and the keeper got there just in time to upend Nathan.
The braodcast only showed one replay from what I remember, and the announcers thought that after talking with the ARs the keeper got his hand on the ball before Nathan was taken out. I couldn't tell from the replay, so the call on the field was going to stand regardless. It was closer than it looked in real time.
In all honesty, last night is what I thought every Timbers game would be this season - tons of offense and no defense anywhere within several blocks of PP. I just didn't expect it to come from such a heavily rotated lineup!
Not going to spend a ton of time analyzing or thinking about this game, there were some decent individual moments and it was nice to see Blanco play a half and score a goal, but otherwise, well, T2 guys are T2 guys for a reason. They showed some promise, but also showed that they still need some cooking time as it were. I'm looking forward to seeing a few of those guys in a year or so after some regular playing time, for sure.
Yep, that sure was an open cup game. With that midfield and backline there’s not much you can expect. If we had a fully healthy midfield we’d be rocking with a rested Paredes and Ayala in there most likely, maybe Caliskan. Bingham likes to hit it long too much, we were very impatient after the 75th minute. Two of our goals came from some nice play though, Caliskan looked alright in the middle and did quite well for the Rasmussen goal. Outside of that... yeah, it’s whatever really. Griffith had two good chances, Paredes would’ve had a banger if it weren’t for a spectacular save, and Loria had a shot also saved from close range. We had the better of the chances overall. Really wish McGraw would’ve come on for Mabiala at halftime, or at least at the 60. I also think Mosquera could’ve come on earlier, but I understand resting our starts. Oh well, it’s the open cup
Seattle lost to a terrible Galaxy side. Just how the competition goes. The important games are still to come, we can focus on those. Correction, we NEED to focus on those. Big month and a half stretch coming up for the team
Definitely an open cup game for sure! Lots of positives to take from the game and hopefully we can sustain the offensive output moving forward.
I could easily forget all about this game if we can get it together in league.
"Bingham likes to hit it long too much, we were very impatient after the 75th minute." Yes absolutely, long and not well targeted balls from Bingham and other long balls that just didn't cut the mustard (this is an area where turf probably does come into play). The impatience was frustrating to watch, but we've seen this for a while now, like there is too much desperation play from the Timbers and they can't relax and just play.
Well…it was something, that’s for sure.
Loved all the goals (even their golazo - hard not just to shake your head at something like that…) and nice to see Seba being Seba again.
I guess I need to accept that at 1.09 ppg in the league this club can’t afford to burn matches in these Cup ties. I don’t have to like it, but that’s just where we are.
What is kind of irritating is how the whole “defending is too hard for us” thing seems to be a Timbers feature, not just a Cup tie bug. How long have we sat thru these “Mabiala (or Clegg, or Rasmussen…) is ballwatching/caught upfield/skinned/lost…” derps? It’s not like the FO can’t tell we have some pretty big holes in back. And yet…there they are, game after game.
So it’d be nice to be able to feel confident that the club could count on defending a lead, to enjoy those goals without the nagging worry “when do we ship the equalizer/matchwinner..?” Even a makeshift midfield and backline you’d think could be organized and disciplined (and individually skilled) enough to make three goals stand up.
Or am I being too harsh..?
I dont' think so. It was frustrating to see both Rasmussen and Bonilla play poorly. Rasmussen was making poor defensive decisions and letting his player get by him, and Bonilla wasn't able to connect his passes. I think Paredes and Caliskan did okay in the midfield, and I'm hopeful that Caliskan can provide minutes in regular games. Obviously we were okay on offense, but the defense really needs help.
The enigma to me is Gutierrez. I keep seeing flashes of potential with the kid, but then he makes a terrible pass. I feel like he has a great feel for the game and puts himself in the right position, only to not finish what he was tring to do. Am I just seeing him with Rose colored glasses, or do others see potential there?
Benno - I'm hoping Gutierrez turns out to be like Paredes. I could not stand Paredes in his 2nd and 3rd season with us. His only successful passes were back passes - anything forward was more than likely a turnover. Paredes has improved so much from that time. I'm hoping Gutierrez will follow suit.
It was a thing all right.
Just hard to watch. I mean there were a couple of really good goals, but mostly really bad defense.
I have been listening all day to "Mabiala, Mabiala Mabiala" and yeah - he isn't what he used to be and was never exactly fast ... but I hate to break it to the haters, he was also the best player on the back line on the night. Rasmussen slightly redemed himself by scoring, but was horrible defensively. Bonilla looked lost all game long - out of position, missing passes, poor defense and even worse offense. Clegg - welp, derped up the first goal and was generally pretty poor, added nothing to playing the ball out of the back (either long or being fast enough on the ball to find the outlet.
Just all around a mess in back, but despite the reflexive blaming of Mabiala, I don't think anyone else would have done much better with the incompetence all around.
Mabs is not a good centerback, and when he's with the first team he's usually the WORST centerback, so I think a lot of that is reflexive "OMFG Mabiala!!!!"
But I agree; if I HAD to kick someone in the pants for defending it'd be Rasmussen; he was gawdawful, constantly getting skinned. His side was open all night. Clegg was what he looked like - a T2 guy, and Bonilla was his usual self.
I think what bugs me is that defending isn't THAT hard. Destroying is easier than creating; it doesn't take soccer genius, just organization and discipline. But the gaggle in back had NO organization and no discipline - three of the four goals we shipped came from pure "WTF???" running randomly around as RSL passed through the random Timbers.
Seems like even a bunch of meh players like these guys should be able to do better than that. But I guess it IS too big an ask...
Agree with this. It was beyond disappointing not to win that game, at home. Rasmussen must have failed geometry or has an overestimation of his speed because his angles were atrocious. Once, ok, but learn from your mistake.
Clegg, same thing. I hope he doesn't go to ground ever again in the box unless he is sliding a breakaway. I hope he learns, too.
I like what I see from Bonilla, though. These are good games for him because he won't see the field with Mosquera ahead of him. He actually is controlling the ball fairly well and advancing it, etc.
Agreed, in both the USL/Orange County game and the RSL/RSL2 mixed team games, Mabiala did well. I also agree he was the best defender on our back line for the RSL/RSL2 game. I'm not a Mabiala hater, nor a Mabiala fan. However, like Niezgoda, Mabiala only seems to shine during lower competition level team games. For a veteran CB like Mabiala, we would all expect him to do well against lesser ability players. I cringe when both Mabiala and Niezgoda are subbed in for 1st team games.
Bad players can have good games. Mabiala's good showing Wednesday does not make him a good player overall.
Mabiala played well last weekend. He’s lost a step and it’s genuinely scary when he gets caught up field. But he’s acceptable as a fourth choice (if ever we got that 1A CB promised every window). And he’s not as bad as his ‘guy we hate and blame everything on’ reputation may suggest these days.
The Timbers almost always concede multiple goals when Mabiala starts. It didn’t help any on Wednesday to be playing without Zuparic and McGraw in the starting lineup. I think that Rasmussen should be a midfielder, probably on the wing, since he was a midfielder in college, can shoot, and looks more comfortable on offense. He works hard, but Gomez was a difficult opponent (he entered the game with a goal and 3 assists for RSL in MLS play). Rasmussen should never have tried to make diving tackles. Clegg also struggled against Gomez, and needs more experience, probably with T2. Just too many back-up defenders and not enough starters against RSL.
https://youtu.be/m60B22r2MCo
I know this is the open cup thread but it’s the most recent Timbers thread, so I’m sharing my highlights of Boli vs Austin here. I’ll also just copy/paste my analysis
I thought Boli had a decent game, he's still adapting to the league and players and I think that's okay -- he was never going to or was ever supposed to be a world beater. I noticed while making this that he's quite good at pressing. He does very well to cut the field in half, which is one of the first things you are taught as a striker in terms of pressing. This can be seen best at 2:39 where he forces Cascante to pass to his right instead of to his left, which seemed to be where he wanted to go. Then a few seconds later, the Austin player that had the ball (idk who that is) tried to pass to the left again, but Boli was aware and dropped back to block that passing lane. As a result, the player had to make a more dangerous pass forward to Zardes, which then resulted in a turnover. This is a great example of intelligent pressing, not just "go and run after the ball." He does similar things throughout the video too, this was just the best one. In fact, most of the clips show him pressing because that's probably what forwards do most; they aren't on the ball that much usually, especially for our team.
A few timestamps to analyze: at 2:02 I don't think Boli should've taken a touch here, I think he had a better shot at trying to wait for the ball to drop a little and take it first time. At 3:51, Boli makes a really great run that opens up a wide open space right in the middle of the box. A great, unselfish striker run that would've been perfect if Evander ran into that space instead of drifting to the far post where Moreno already was. Then of course Loria plays a pass to no one, but that could've been a really great chance. Another example of players still not quite meshing with Boli yet, but the intelligence is there. 5:05 is just another good run that isn't seen from Loria. 7:17 there is yet another great run no spotted by Yimmi. I do want to point out that these runs would take an Evander-level pass in order to get the ball to Boli, but we have Evander on the team, and Boli is making these great runs. At some point, they should connect. Boli makes a lot of really good runs. Then on the goal at 7:23 it's a little thing, and perhaps I'm giving him too much credit here. But if he's not there and being physical with the Austin player right there, then I'm not sure Bravo gets the shot off. Their #8 clearly wants to step up to Bravo, but because Boli makes contact and occupies him, he must stay on Boli. It's just good to have a center forward who makes defenders think about him. He's a problem they must solve. I think he does a lot of good things people (including myself) don’t see initially
I also just want to point out that I love how passionate Boli is, he celebrates like hell on our goals and he's only been here like a month. Love to see it
Again, thanks for the video. Great job! What I saw:
Yes at 2:00: first time; 5:15: clear header can't get it on frame; 5:30 Bravo misses him in the box; 7:43: everything but the finish
All the rest a lot of hustle.
also, that touch to retain the ball in traffic at 5:21 was...whew
My thoughts:
It was disappointing not to be moving on, and I think they should have moved on given that it was at home, and the odds were with them and they could have done it if they wanted. Not that Gio didn't want to win the game, however, he played it conservatively with an eye on Saturday. Still, they had the lead and momentum and let it go to pot.
One reason was Paredes left the game. I will bang the drum for him all day long and twice on Friday. Yes, we need him for Saturday, but again, he always seems to be in the mix of a winning side.
Another reason is taking out Fogaca. At least I got some of what I wanted to see with Fogaca and Niezgoda working together. Niezgoda can work with anyone, but it was nice to see Fogaca's layoff to Niezgoda and his clinical finish. I am very high on Niezgoda right now. He's scoring goals, he looks fit, and he is dialing it up for other players as well. He deserves a start over Boli IMO. I don't think that will happen, but a guy can dream. Fogaca didn't get a ton of service but he did pretty good with what he got. I still think he would be better out on a wing due to his dribbling and ability to get shots off. It's not that he can't in the middle, but I'd like to see that guy with more touches and creating out on the wing.
Asprilla was a big disappointment. Loria was pretty awful, except for the one cross to Asprilla he put on a PLATTER. Not for just that miss, but he seemed off. Fogaca probably won't play Saturday, so why take him out? Oh, to give Asprilla some fitness minutes. That just didn't work out. Also, the strategy seemed to be just launch up to Asprilla for desperation flicks and kicks. Not a good sustaining strategy.
In other notes: Awesome goal number two - great team goal and nice finish by Rasmussen. It shows that Gutierrez is good in final third and Caliskan has some chops too, and Loria was smart to dummy it.
We simply don't have the depth to play in Open Cup this year, like many years before. It's a blessing to be out now and focus on points. As it is, Paredes and a few others will be recovering for Vancouver already. At least we didn't go to extra time! If you thought our defense was bad, picture Mabiala at minute 105.
Our offense really showed some life last night, when we actually got the ball past midfield. It was frustrating to see how hard it was to move the ball past their well-organized defense.
Our defense on the other hand was shocking, just shocking. 3 of the 4 RSL goals were shots that were completely unmarked (or in the case of the last goal a step behind). Did we actually have a defender out there?
But it was so nice to see how the energy of the game changed when Dairon and Santiago came on. I felt we were unlucky not to get the equalizing goal. Even if it was a frustrating match at times, it was entertaining, though frightening every time RSL attacked our non-existent defense.
Are we ever going to get that top central defender we so badly need, and have for years?
"... you would of hated this game...."
...would "have" hated this game.
I'm fighting a losing battle to prevent "losing" from becoming "loosing," "have" from becoming "of" and more...
It is fixed! Was trying to keep up with all of the action and missed those. My apologies.
All good. It's a common vernacular thing. I'm being pedantic. Thanks for the write up and work.
No worries at all, it was my first time helping STF with Timbers coverage :)
Had a blast seeing all the fireworks.
Thanks for the support, means a lot to us.
Hopefully they can get the job done this Saturday.
"wooda"
Was there ever an explanation as to why the Nathan PK was rescinded? We were at the game and couldn't figure it out. Sure look like the keeper purposely cleaned him out—no attempt to go for the ball at all.
In real time I said aloud "that is an awful PK call" because the keeper got the ball (and not by going through Nathan to get it).
I think the CR knew he had been much too quick on the PK and already knew he made a mistake. I suspect his conversation with the AR was all for show with him saying something like "I messed that one up, just pretend you are giving me other information because I am waiving this off".
Didn’t look like a pk but they had approximately zero good replays of any play all night. Nathan was going out of bounds, hard to say who got to the ball first but to me it seemed like the keeper made a fair play on the ball and it would’ve been a very harsh pk call
They showed the replay in the stadium, and we couldn't see if the keeper got a hand to the ball. It looked as if the ball had already gone past and the keeper got there just in time to upend Nathan.
The braodcast only showed one replay from what I remember, and the announcers thought that after talking with the ARs the keeper got his hand on the ball before Nathan was taken out. I couldn't tell from the replay, so the call on the field was going to stand regardless. It was closer than it looked in real time.