Tim Howard has said that he doesn’t think the officiating was too fair in the loss vs Mexico yesterday.Says SI.com:
“It seems like when we come to a place like this, the most intimidated person in the stadium is the referee,” said goalkeeper Tim Howard after the USA’s 2-1 loss to Mexico. “The bar was probably tilted in their favor, and that’s unfortunate because it was a hard-fought game. We went in hard, they went in hard, and for some reason, we keep coming out with the foul.”
I don’t like to blame the Ref’s usually, just because its not the right thing to do and you can’t fix it or really prove anything, but the fact that we lost Onyewu for the next game is very frustrating. Also we have to deal with the fact that its everyone against the US in every aspect of our games.
Stars and Strikes 
I already said my piece on the referees and I will reiterate it was one of the worst called games I have ever seen in my life. Mexico clearly had possession of the ball more but the refs where definitely help them to keep it. They were somehow awarding the ball to Mexico when they were the ones commiting the fouls on the Americans. I specifically remember 3 instances. Ching got called for running to a ball, Onyewu was elbowed and pushed down by Dos Sucksos and Mexico got the ball, and Davies went for a ball outran his man then got called for a foul. It was utterly disgusting and I 100% agree with Howard on this one. The ref was either bought off or was incredibly intimidated by the fans.
It is not unheard of for refs to “help” out a team that is popular when they are struggling to make the World Cup or in some sort of important competition. A lot of the calls the ref was making or not making definitely had me thinking something fishy was going on.
I remember specifically Mexico’s first goal was the exact benefit of a no call for USA. Donovan was running down the middle of the field gets his shirt tugged on that knocks him off balance then another mexican takes out his legs and Donovan looks at the ref waiting for him to make the call… Ref lets it go. Blanco takes it then passes to the wide open space in the middle thanks to Donovan being leveled and out of the play, and bang Mexico scores. While mexico won they definitely had every advantage, the biggest being the NO BALLS ref.
I got a question is it possible for CONCACAF to call in refs from another area like from South America or something like that where there will be no intimidation or bias?
I don’t know if they are not allowed or if they just don’t do it but I’ve never seen it…
In other news, Lando’s got swine flu…
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/grant_wahl/08/13/donovan.flu.ap/index.html?eref=T1
Landy Cakes should have stood up and continued playing. He just stood there with a look of disbelief as Mexico ran down to score the goal. I am not saying that he was not fouled, because he was, but foul or not you need to play the whistle. (I think I here my U-10 coach saying the same thing, and my U-11…)
http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=ro-usamexico081209&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
Great write up on the ref and fans during the game. No excuses, the US played horrible, uninspired soccer and the scoreline reflected it… But still, even my 56 year old mother who knows nothing of international soccer thought a FIFA ban against games in Mexico City should be enforced after hearing about the USMNT bus being pelted with rocks before the game even started.