I agree partially with playa - MP DID do a pretty good job with the overview of the game, but I disagree with the assessment of the Refs. I thought they did a perfectly acceptable job of controlling the game – in fact, that is probably the statement the center judge was making when he issued an Irmo player a yellow card in the first few minutes of play. No, I did not agree with every call, but there were no calls I would say were horrible. I did question at least one offsides call against Irmo, where the Wando keeper and a fullback were standing ON the goal line – not sure how you can be offsides in that situation. Overall, I felt it was a well-called game.
And, thank you Getinthegame - I am quite often surprised by the criticism heaved upon officials by people in general, and definitely by people who don’t seem to be even fairly knowledgeable of the rules.
I was on the end of the field closest to where the Irmo PK was awarded (Getinthegame, thank you again for your rules explanation). As the Irmo player was going past and to the outside of the Wando player (I’m guessing this was Semsar) the Wando player shoved the Irmo player to the ground, from behind. It was not a horrible push, but a push, nonetheless. ccrchs1atk said himself “Semsar shoved the foward [sic], and it was probably a foul…” He was just not aware that what he witnessed WAS a direct free kick offence – in the box, PK.
As to the Wando goal that was called back, I believe the linesman called the ball OUT of play – that is why a corner kick was awarded to Wando.
I felt the game was fairly evenly matched. Irmo possessed the ball more and had a better passing game BUT made a lot of bad passes. That may sound contradictory, but it’s not – Wando played more long balls – Irmo passed more – just made too many bad passes. Wando definitely came out to win, though. Their pressure was most likely why Irmo made so many bad passes.
Irmo and Wando both have players whose throw-ins have a huge impact on the game because of the distance they throw the ball. Interestingly, the Wando player who takes most of the big ones is one of their smallest players.
It was a great game – just a shame that it had to end with PKs, and also that these two teams could not meet further down the playoff road.
