DC United did not get the result they were looking for late Saturday night after a 3-3 draw with Toronto FC at RFK Stadium. Since the first match against United this season, Toronto has gone through a full makeover. In fact, the only Reds starter from the first United/Toronto match this season to start this match as well was keeper Stefan Frei.
The first half had barely begun when keeper Bill Hamid came out of the box and looked to clear a ball out of bounds. Unfortunately, instead of clearing the ball, Hamid de-cleated Eric Avila and sent the Toronto player flipping forward which resulted in referee Jasen Anno reaching into his pocket and handing out a red card. Whatever tactics Ben Olsen had prepared for this match were shot with his starting keeper ejected and United forced to play with ten men for the remaining 84 minutes of the match. Ten minutes later though, Dwayne De Rosario shot a bullet past Toronto keeper Stefan Frei to put DC up 1-0, a score that stood going into halftime.
If the first half was normal, the second half was anything but. In the 52nd minute, Toronto leveled the score after DC’s back-up keeper Steve Cronin punched a cross into one of his defenders, which let Peri Marosevic easily tap it in the open net. It was just one of those unfortunate goals that you could only see at an RFK Stadium match this year. But the United fans were cheering again after De Rosario collected a cross by Pontius and put it past Frei to give DC a 2-1 advantage in the 64th minute. Even with ten players, everything seemed to be going alright until the 69th minute when Brandon McDonald went down with an injury and DC was forced to sub in Ethan White. Toronto had the throw-in, and as soon as White stepped on the field, Toronto threw the ball in while the ref was still waving the substitute to come on. Every DC player stood shocked as referee Jasen Anno did nothing to stop play while White got situated, and de Guzman scored a shocker from outside the box (and in all honesty was a nice goal). Olsen ran onto the pitch furiously and was ejected while the Toronto players celebrated the questionable goal. After the crazy events in the 69th minute, the game was never the same. Toronto dominated possession and DC’s play reflected their disgust in the ref’s decision. The fans at RFK didn’t hold back either, and if you don’t believe me, go see pictures and replays of the thousands of middle fingers and chants of “REF YOU SUCK” heard over the TV monitors.
I’m not quite familiar with the rules regarding an injury substitution so I cannot give my own educated opinion on the matter, but after watching the replay multiple times, it seemed like something was not right. When an entire team is dumbfounded, the fans are all in unison with an anti-ref chant, and a coach like Olsen is mad enough to run onto the field and get ejected, something does not seem right. Ethan White swore that the 4th official was screaming at Anno to stop play and restart the throw-in, and Anno’s own report after the match did not give any reasoning for the strange events.
After everything was situated and the dust had settled, the score was 2-2 with about 15 minutes left in the match. Toronto dominated the possession and gave DC little chance to score a game winner. In the 87th minute, Toronto seemed to have scored the game winner off a corner as Danny Koevermans finished a chance to give Toronto a 3-2 lead. Not more than a minute later, Reds defender Andy Iro (who was having a howler of a night) took down Austin de Luz in the box to give De Rosario the PK chance, which he converted for his hat trick. Iro’s foul could have resulted in a red card, but it wouldn’t really have altered the match, and after his performance against DC, there is that possibility that coach Aron Winter won’t play him anyways in the next match. The end result was a disappointing 3-3 result for the home team, and what may have been saving grace for Toronto.
With many United fans still furious over the call on Saturday night, there were a few positives to take away from this match that I think DC fans can enjoy. One is that De Rosario is a beast. He has scored five goals in the last two matches and has been burning up as of late. Also, DC played valiantly for being down a player for almost the entire match. Very rarely does a team experience that and come out with a draw or victory. Quaranta, especially after being out for over two months, came up big after putting in a full 90 minutes. Lastly, DC has to play their next match without Ben Olsen or Bill Hamid, but guess what? It’s Vancouver. I just hope that this next match ends better and without controversy. When controversies happen like this, the teams and players aren’t the only losers. The fans and league are losers as well. It’s a no win situation.
“Many of the best teams in the world — how should I put it? — cheat when they have the chance to do something.” – Julian de Guzman after the match.
(image courtesy of Tony Quinn/dcunited.com)
