2004striker,
Since you don’t seem to want to let this go, then I will add some further commentary. If I could use an analogy from American Football, maybe it will allow many to understand how Lexington players/fans might feel.
The Gamecocks are playing for the National Championship in College Football against the Fighting Irish from Notre Dame – noted for their rock-solid defense. Notre Dame gets a score early and then bunkers in, allowing their defense to win it for them, just like it has all year. As the game wears on USC is beginning to make some first downs and starting to find some seams in the Irish defense. No scores result but Gamecock fans are optimistic that Coach Spurrier will find a way to get something generated eventually. Then late in the fourth quarter the Irish coaches are catching on to what the USC coaching staff is doing with their passing game, and decide that with their tiring defense they will need to insert an extra defensive back to try to slow down the Gamecocks. The problem is that someone forgets to tell the middle linebacker that he will not be on the field for the next series, and he enters the game anyway. The referees don’t notice it, and Notre Dame shuts down USC for a “three-and-out”. During the commercial break the TV folks pick-up on the error and everyone back home watching on TV now knows that the Irish were playing with twelve men on the field during a critical juncture. Soon after the Gamecock fans in the stadium find out what happened, and well, you can imagine the feelings in the stadium at this point. Coach Spurrier then gets irritated and he chews on the head referee to point that he is flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. So not only is there no penalty on Notre Dame but they get fifteen yards of field position to boot for an error that their own coaching staff made. Wow!!! Of course, the players now know what happened, which causes them to lose their focus and eventually the game – even though they had one more possession to try and get a score – albeit with much worse field position.
Do you honestly believe that The State Newspaper is NOT going to produce a “overly-sensational” story at this point? I can hear the quotes from Coach Spurrier now, “We thought it seemed pretty tough to complete a pass on that second-to-last series, but none of us ever thought to count the defenders on the field. I guess we assumed the referees would be doing that. Their coaches must have felt that was the only way to win the game, and they got away with it.” Of course the Irish fans would be saying something to the effect of, “Geesh folks get over it. I mean, come on, that drive lasted all of 37 seconds. What were you doing the other 59 and a half minutes of the game? Coach Weis would never willingly cheat just to win. It was just a mistake. They happen all the time in sports.” And of course, Coach Weis, “I noticed we had too many people when they were coming off of the field after that series. It was just one series, there were dozens of other mistakes made in that game too.” How do you think Gamecock fans would feel if the NCAA said that The State Newspaper and Coach Spurrier owed Notre Dame and Coach Weis a public apology? After all, Notre Dame should be allowed to enjoy their championship.
Mistakes happen, the game is OVER, and the championship is definitely decided, and I believe that has been stated on here (it least it has by me). However, some on here feel like there needs to be closure. I don’t!!! It’s just another lesson that both Lexington AND Wando will just live with (and, if it’s the worst that happens to any of them, then they can consider themselves extremely lucky). I, for one, really don’t care if Wando is “allowed to enjoy” their championship or not. That’s up to them, not me or any other Lexington coach/player/fan. Do you think that Seahawk fans no longer question whether Roethlisberger actually crossed the goal line? Do you think that Gamecock fans readily admit that Clemson receiver Rod Gardner really didn’t push the defender off when he made his game-deciding catch? Fortunately, it’s just sports!!! But, please don’t be delusional!
Some on here don’t seem to be able to deal with the fact that the sideline referee (most notably), along with the Wando coaches and players made a mistake – a mistake that has virtually NO penalty for the offending team. As a for instance, if in my scenario above the referees DID happen to catch ND with too many players on the field, it would have been a 15-yard penalty and an automatic first down – DRIVE EXTENDED, CHANCE TO SCORE INCREASED!!! Of course, that is what some of us relatively new to soccer have come to expect from a sport that is willing to decide its WORLD champion with something as ridiculous as PK’s!!!
