Leaning on the Scales
The Indy Eleven season came to a close this afternoon. They lost 2-3 against Rhode Island FC in the USL quarterfinals at home. I was there, and although it's a huge bummer to lose and have the season end, it was made way more frustrating by the referees leaning on the scales.
Earlier this season, we faced Tampa Bay at home with this same referee crew, and we lost. The same thing happened. A really lopsided threshold on what constituted a foul for each side. A yellow card in a situation where I have video of the "offending" Eleven player not even touching the Tampa player. Et cetera. This ref crew has a thing against Indy, for some reason.
If Indy was going to win today, there were going to have to win by a lot for the final score to actually reflect that.
But then, this afternoon, it was the same story. Blown calls that heavily favored RIFC. Nonsense yellow cards against Indy. A goal that was taken off the books due to supposed offsides that was immediately contradicted by the video replay. Tons of flops by the other team that killed time that didn't seem to be reflected in the extra time at the end. The final score was 2-3, but in any reasonably fair contest it would have gone to PK's.
Winning today would have required an overwhelming win in order to overcome an inherently unfair situation.
Anyway, the election is on Tuesday. It's hard not to see parallels.
Edit, 2024-11-06: well, crap.