KC-CHIVAS USA Recap. Did you know that Anno means Ass in Spanish?
By: Herschel | May 26th, 2009I had heard little of Jasen Anno until last Saturday but I heard a lot said to him by the end of the game (my choice words included). Mr Ass, as I like to call him, due to my Hispanic heritage of course, took a game that was starting to warm up after a couple of goals in the 2nd half and just screwed it up majestically.
It was a scoreless first half that had me nodding off watching Preki tactically beat Curt Onalfo, Chivas having the bulk of the scarce scoring chances and Kevin Hartman earning his Man of the Match title once again. And then things started to pick up. KC took the offensive in the second half, with Roger Espinoza pushing forward, delivering better passes to Claudio Lopez, and Jack Jewsbury starting to take control of the midfield. It was during one of these attacks that Espinoza was taken down with a karate-like kick from a Chivas player (who got no card, by the way), and the subsequent free kick was buried beautifully by Lopez in the top left corner, leaving Thorton with no chance.
Just 8 minutes later a free kick by Chivas that was not cleared by the KC defense ended at the feet of the now always opportunistic Eduardo Lillingston who outmuscled Lance Watson and slotted the ball on the left side of Hartman (it seems to me that Watson has been involved in most opponents goals this year by being outplayed or outmuscled; hint, hint Mr. Onalfo). So I’m thinking, wow, 2 goals in 8 minutes, the game was heating up! Nope, whatever heat it was picking up was quickly smothered by Mr. Ass and his band of myopic moron linesmen.
Four minutes after the Chivas goal, a nice through pass was sent towards Josh Wolff who may or may not have been clipped by Chivas defender, Eduardo Trujillo (personally, I think Wolff needs to man up and not go down that easy at times, a la Landycakes, but that’s just me). Wolff took exception to that and after pleasantries were exchanged between players, Wolff “headbutted” Trujillo slightly, and Trujillo pushed him back. Now look, I’m all for ejecting players for violent behavior, but considering that Trujillo, an excellent showman (a la Mr. Blanco in Chicago), would have fallen, rolled on the ground and needed CPR to be revived had that “headbutt” been at all hard, and considering the fact that he proceeded to shove Wolff back, this was nothing that serious. It should have been a “yellow for both, next time I see you not playing nice you are done for the game” type of situation. But NO! Mr. Ass, with his band of Merry Morons assistants, after talking things over for what seemed forever, decided a red for Wolff and a yellow for Trujillo and one more to a KC player for “dissent”. Well, there went any chance of this game getting any better.
Let me be clear, up to that point in the game, Mr. Ass had shown 2 yellow cards, to Atiba Harris and Santiago Hirsig for not playing nice during a corner kick; because in Mr. Ass’ world, during corners, players are not allowed to jostle for position, and must hold hands and hug until the ball is in the air. Well, the game continued and it suddenly turned into a game where the free flowing of the ball back and forth was cut by the constant whistles of Mr. Ass, who now decided to be the enforcer instead of letting the boys play. Around the 83rd minute a nifty move by Sasha Victorine led to a trip by Santiago Hirsig and his ejection for a second yellow. I feel it could have been worth a yellow, but having seen the fouls up to that point that had not gotten cards, I’d have to say Mr. Ass screwed this one up also, especially considering that no one got a card for nearly decapitating Espinoza.
Well, at that point in the game, the Wizards were down to 9 players and in a purely defensive mode and Chivas was trying to take advantage of their numbers with no luck. And the end came with Mr. Ass leaving the field as some of us were singing his praises as he walked into the tunnel.
Player Rankings: Hartman 7, Watson 4, Conrad 5, Hohlbein 5, Besler 5, Arnaud 4, Hirsig 4, Jewsbury 5, Espinoza 5, Wolff 2, Lopez 6.
Subs Gomez 4, Harrington N/A, Kraus N/A
More Commentary:
On the Wizards: They got outcoached and were lucky to end the 1st half with a tie. It was not surprising that the same lineup that beat RSL last week was going to do little damage to a far superior Chivas team. It was not Wolff’s day, he missed 2 chances in the first half and should have been out of the game before his ejection and the ejection play, although harsh, was STUPID on his part. Josh, never give Mr. Ass a chance to show us his merciless power to change the game (and show us how much he sucks). Will the Davy Arnaud that started the season please come back, where are you? Chance Myers needs to get healthy now; Lance Watson has the heart but lacks the physical strength to handle MLS attackers and he has been involved (negatively) in half of the goals the team has given up since he has been starting; Michael Harrington anyone? Also, after all these games I finally saw Hirsig play a one-touch ball, it was with his head, but one-touch is one touch, right?
On the Ref: I don’t care how much the MLS grows game-wise, if the quality of refs keeps being inconsistent, the game will not advance. If you are a “quality player” whose last name isn’t Donovan or can act out the part like Mr. Blanco, you will get pounded week in and week out with little protection or calls. Yet MLS refs will have issues with players pushing and shoving in the area while doing nothing about serious tackles. Also if by any chance that day they do take care of that part of the game it will not be consistent or their level of rigorousness will be on and off at different times in the game, leaving players not knowing what ref will do. In other words their “strike zone” will be all over the place.
I like Don Garber, but to excuse HIS bad refs by saying that there are bad officiated games all over the world is STUPID. Let me tell you something Don, the “Blanco T-shirt Gate” that you have asked us to dismiss and forget would have probably cost an English or Spanish ref the rest of the season for the appearance of impropriety, but your “disciplinary” committee can’t do that because the ref involved sadly is near the top of a mediocre ref class; you bench him and we’ll be getting a lot more of Mr. Ass throughout the league; spreading joy and idiocy with his merry band of linesmen. I see how Laurie up in Seattle felt after the Tim Weyland debacle a few weeks back. Call me a bad loser (although we didn’t lose) but fans should get more from the refs; they are not part of the show, they should be there to help the show run smoother.
For the record I’d like to clarify that I know that Anno specifically describes a part of of the Ass. If you sound out the word itself you get the idea of what I’m talking about. Out of respect to the few who read this post I wanted to refrain from using the popular phrase but could not leave out my distaste for horrible officiating.
Here are the highlights:
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MLS Forums | KC Wizards Results |  |
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Category: Jack Jewsbury, Josh Wolff, Kevin Hartman, Lance Watson, Michael Harrington, Pre-/Post-Game Reports, Sasha Victorine
Tags: Claudio Lopez, Curt Onalfo, Jack Jewsbury, Jasen Anno, Josh Wolff, Kevin Hartman, Lance Watson, Michael Harrington, Pre-/Post-Game Reports, Sasha VictorineSubscribe
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Comments
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i believe it is mariano trujillo my dear friend
Posted from
United States
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Really. Calling a Referee “Mr. Ass” throughout your post and you want to be taken seriously?
Wolff does something stupid, gets red carded, and you blame the ref. When I screw up I like to look around at anyone else to blame, because really it’s everyone elses fault.
This wasn’t analysis, nor was it honest concern, which is what Laurie shows when she talks about referees. This was a joke, you made that clear within the first paragraph.
Posted from
United States -
I found it kind of funny. Dustin, you need to chill my friend. All I’ve read from you throughout the blogs is criticism of what other write, and you contribute little to conversations yourself. It’s really easy to find fault in other, while contributing little or nothing of value.
So what if this guy wants to write something on the lite side, specially when it comes to MLS referees. It people tried to take the MLS referee situation seriously they would stop watching the league after a few games because of how bad their are.
By the way, he did actually do a partial analysis of the game and he also did say that what Wolff did was stupid (or did he not).
Reading Laurie’s post I see that you also disagreed with ejecting the player coaxed Riley into his ejection. I see a pattern Dustin; it’s never the coward who coaxes and hits from behind first, it’s always the guy who reacts who is to blame… .
Also, in all fairness to Trujillo, he didn’t even flintch, not like the LA puss who looked like he had been shot.
Posted from
United States -
To John: You are right. I got Trujillo and Lillingston mixed up. I apologize
To Dustin: Sorry if you don’t like my sarcasm. I base my opinions on watching the full 90 minutes not the abbreviated 4 minute summary. Mr. Anno is an out of shape (fat) ref who after the 20th minute could not keep up with the pace of the game and was inconsistant at best. Example, Gomez got a yellow card for a shirt tug that Lance Watson did on a Chivas player during a breakaway, but Anno was so far behind he didn’t see it and gave the card to the wrong player.
Also,the title does say Recap and the body mentions the word “Commentary” not Analysis. That’s how I write my blog; I talk a bit about the game and give my opinion on things that I found relevant.
On the other hand I do agree (and I said it in my commentary), Wolff should known better. Never give a mediocre or bad ref a reason to kick you out. I personally hope he gets a 2 game suspensionTo Roger: I agree, you have to try and find humor in MLS refs, because most of them are horrible and bring down the quality and status of the league, especially when CONCACAF names them for international games; i.e Terry Vaughn who in an internation disaster and might have a price on his head in Costa Rica
Posted from
United States -
Roger, you can think it’s all criticism and no content if you wish but I explain the law and it’s interpretations most of the time. I believe that’s contributing, obviously it’s not up to the level of ad hominem attacks towards other people like this post was.
And yes I disagreed with Laurie’s post respectfully because the reaction was over the line. Yes you do see a pattern, it’s me defending referees who have their lives threatened constantly, are abused and assaulted by psychopaths. I think it’s irresponsible to incite anger against referees because they are the easy target. Rather than suggesting or working towards any real solutions to the problem as you see it of bad reffing. If getting mad at the referees helps Americans embrace soccer I don’t really see how.
You’re right though I took this post too seriously, it was pointless and wasn’t worthy of notice, my mistake.
Posted from
United States -
Hey Dustin, since you seem to dabble a bit defending refs, check out what Steve Davis from ESPN though about how your refs can’t get their act straight in the MLS:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=649817&sec=mls&root=mls&&cc=5901
“MLS commissioner Don Garber gets most things right. Bottom line, he’s been good for the league.
But he really lost credibility points last week when he proclaimed that all is well with MLS referees. “Nothing to see here, folks, just move along” was the message.
He’s correct that referees miss calls around the globe. But where MLS officials fail so regularly is in match management and overall tone. Perfect example: Everybody saw what happened two weeks ago when Los Angeles defender Gregg Berhalter picked up a ball to delay a restart. Madness ensued. A Seattle player was (rightly) ejected in the ensuing scrum, etc., etc.
So it approaches utter madness when the same thing happens with the same team in nearly identical circumstances, as it did Saturday in Dallas.
Saragosa’s boyish push on Lewis’ noggin was stupid, and the red card was wholly deserved. But it also was entirely avoidable through just a little bit of referee management. It all happened when Lewis picked up a ball along the sideline to prevent a faster restart.
He already had delayed a previous restart by kicking away a ball and attempted to delay another one by kicking a ball onto the field. If referee Paul Ward had had a quick word with Lewis on either occasion, none of the later sideline silliness would have happened.
The same night, Wolff’s ejection never would have happened if referee Jasen Anno had called Chivas USA’s Mariano Trujillo for using the bottom of his studs against the K.C. attacker. (For whatever reason, Trujillo seems to get away with that a lot.) That goes to “tone,” as MLS officials routinely ignore fouls in a misguided effort to maintain flow. It’s a “physical” league, as we hear ad nauseum.
Later, Anno seemed to count “one, two, three” as he showed Hirsig a second yellow. That would be OK, of course, as persistent infringement is surely a cautionable offense — except that Hirsig had committed just three fouls the entire match, with his previous infraction coming in the 13th minute.”
Justin Anno, from stud to dud.
Posted from
United States -
Was your entire post just quoting this Steve Davis guy? Who is Steve Davis? I’ve never heard of him being a referee or a referee assessor or and expert of any kind. Seems like just a writer with an opinion, who’s main goal is to get pageviews.
I’m not going to try and defend all referees screw ups. However I will defend the ones I understand, or the ones where they stood up against foul play that hurts our game. I also like defending referees, it challenges me, helps me learn more about the game and reffing it. Refs train and work and try their best, and sometimes they screw up. Calling them names and berating them, threatening them and attacking them is what I don’t like, and I’ll continue to fight against it.
Posted from
United States -
The problem of refs making mistakes is not the mistake itself, it’s the fact that in a “professional” league like the MLS there are only 3 full time refs. Garber needs to fix this and not excuse mistakes by saying that they happen everywhere. Yes, they might happen everywhere, but if refs are full time employees of the league you can hold them to a higher standard because you can discipline them if they continue to make mistakes. So Anno made mistakes, what are you going to do to him? Suspend him? Keep him away from the stipend he makes for showing up to a game? A stipend that he supplements his regualr 9-5 job. In a professional league you need professional officiating crews (like the NFL or MLB). That needs to be priority 1 for Garber. The problem with just “letting it go” and not complaining about the substandard performances is that he has no incentive for fixing it; he is more worried about getting recently retired Luis Figo to come to the MLS, than to make every ref an full time employee.
By the way Steve Davis is considered one of the best soccer journalists in the United States. He writes for ESPN.com and ESPN the Magazine as well as the Wahington Post and USA Today. He is the closest thing we in America have to a full time journalist that reports on soccer without having to live off his blog (like Ives who I also like).
Posted from
United States -
I don’t know Spanish, but according to the dictionary, the word you refer to is “asno”, not “anno”. “Culo” is the US pejorative form.
As to Roger’s second comment, I didn’t watch the whole game, but 77:08 where Hirsig rather clumsily stepped on and injured Marsch’s ankle, but no foul was called, possibly because Chivas had maintained possession. Anno held up two fingers at the time of the ejection, so it is possible he was combining just those two fouls into one second caution.
As to Roger’s third comment, there have been four full-time MLS referees since the start of the program.
Posted from
United States
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