Arace: A tough week for the Columbus Crew, MLS and the Statue of Liberty
Crew forward Cucho Hernandez is having a tough week. He took a double-yellow/red card during the Crew’s 1-1 tie with visiting New York City FC last weekend and must serve his one-game suspension Saturday, when the Crew play in Portland on the final matchday before the MLS All-Star break.
Crew fitness/rehab coach Federico Pizzutto is having a tough week. He came off the bench to spray water at an assistant referee, while said assistant referee’s back was turned, late in that NYCFC game. Pizzutto got a red card after a VAR review. Then, the league hit him with an additional two-game suspension and an undisclosed fine.
Crew coach Wilfried Nancy is having a tough week. Normally a paragon of composure, Nancy might have been more frustrated than his fitness/rehab coach when the NYCFC match reached its boiling point in the 88th minute. Angered by another in a string of curious calls and/or non-calls, Nancy stepped onto the field and directed some fierce body language toward the central referee. It’s a no-no for a coach to step on the field, especially with fierceness. That’s a red card. Later in the week, Nancy had an additional game and an undisclosed fine tacked onto his suspension. This struck him as grossly unfair. Obviously, he does not know the commissioner.
Nancy will miss the Portland game and he will miss the Hell is Real rivalry when first-place Cincinnati visits the new Crew Stadium on Aug. 20. Man, that hurts.
Sergii Boyko may have had the toughest week of all.
Boyko was the referee in the middle of the Crew-NYCFC game, and he gave Cucho the first yellow card for “dissent,” a normally honorable word that is FIFA-tized for soccer. He threw new Crew Stadium into an apoplectic rage that would make George Carlin cringe. One can say this about Boyko: He didn’t seem to mind the dissent. Amid the din, he handed out 10 yellow cards and three reds. He looked like the Statue of Liberty of booking.
Indeed, Boyko’s arm doesn’t tire. Wednesday night, he braved another hostile crowd in Nashville – where more than a few water bottles flew out of the stands – and he raised five yellow cards and three reds. Nashville lost to visiting Philadelphia (here come the Union, folks) in a major, midsummer, mid-week, Eastern Conference match between Eastern Conference heavyweights.
We can talk about the relative merit of any of Boyko’s calls. By and large, most of his yellows and reds were merited. That said, Boyko lost control of two internationally televised games in a span of five days. If Boyko was doing his job well, midfield wrestling matches shouldn’t be inevitable.
“There are a couple things there were very influential in the game tonight,” Nashville coach Gary Smith said after his team lost 2-0 to the Union. “Finishing was a difficulty. The other one was obviously the officiating. I think it was very, very easy for everyone to see in the crowd that this inexperienced referee – I think he has (worked) 10 games in MLS – looked way, way out of his depth here tonight.”
It’s not the calls that rankle, not necessarily. It’s the lack of consistency. It’s the non-calls. It’s the capriciousness of the arbiter that everyone can feel, be they on the field, on the sideline or in the last row of the upper deck. When bookings are the only tool a referee uses, everyone is screwed.
That, in so many words, is Nancy’s problem with Boyko – a failure to communicate.
“In the beginning of the year we have meetings to talk about communication,” Nancy said Wednesday. “It has to go both ways. It happened in the past many times and I said nothing and I did nothing. In this moment I had to do something because it was unfair. I can accept a lot of things, but this, I cannot accept. …
“How can we stay calm, knowing that we tried to talk to the referee (and got) no answer? Nothing. And the only way he was doing his job is to book, yellow card, red card. No communication. (He’s a) human being. Impossible to talk to. If we don’t have communication, how can you do your job? Impossible. There (are) a lot of ways to help and to develop our sport. If we want to move forward, there are a lot of ways we can improve. Everyone.”
Wikipedia says, without citation, that Boyko is a Ukranian who moved to the United States as a refugee from the war with Russia. He is FIFA certified and has years of experience. The website for PRO, the professional referee’s organization in North America, says Boyko made his MLS debut in April. Already, hardcore MLS fans have been tracking Boyko’s assignments like rubberneckers looking for traffic accidents.
We all need to improve. Everyone – especially the league, which is handing out fines and suspensions just as fast as Boyko can pull a card out of his pocket.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Arace: A tough week for the Columbus Crew, MLS and the Statue of Liberty
