After such a good game between Pomona and Dakota Ridge yesterday, I was hoping for another great game Tuesday evening between Golden and Evergreen.  Unfortunately it was not to be.  In fact, it was one of the ugliest games I have ever seen from youth soccer all the way up to Olympic and Pro level.

Let’s start off with the officiating.  First thing that happened, I set up a good 6 to 7 yards off of the end line, where the day before the officials said I could shoot from.  In fact, I have had a couple officials tell me to shoot from the end line instead of the sideline so they would not run into me, or players warming up would not be in my way.  Anyway, one of the officials, one who could barely walk due to a knee issue, comes over and tells me I can not shoot from the end line.  I politely told him the for the last three soccer games I have shot at NAAC, the officials suggested I shoot from the end line, and I am sitting further away from the end line than I was shooting Team USA soccer and the Colorado Rapids.  He was not happy, but let me stay there.  Then, right off the bat, a player goes down on a slide tackle and comes up with a bloody leg.  High School safety rules stipulate that if there is any blood, play is halted until that player leaves the field and can not return until the blood is cleaned up and the bleeding has stopped and is bandaged.  This player, pictured above, was never asked to leave to clean the blood up and continued to play with his knee bleeding.

And the officials were just awful.  There was a play where one of the players gets tangled up with another player and as he started to go down he locked both his legs around the other player and whipped him to the ground.  It looked more like a wrestling move than a soccer move.  Did he get a foul or a card issued to him?  Nope.  But the guy he through to the ground got a yellow card.  There were a ton of yellow cards in the game, and I was surprised that with all the yellow cards that none of them turned to red cards.

And every yellow card issued the ref, no matter where on the field he was, would run over to the coach of the team that got the card and explain why the card was issued.  He was treating the coaches and teams like they were all 3 year olds.  It took forever, and isn’t that what team captains are for?  Tell the team captain and then if it is not an obvious reason for the card the captain can relay it to the coach?

And now the play of the game…..oh my gosh.  It was honestly one of the worse games I have ever seen played.  most of the touches were just blind kicks back and forth between the teams.  It was almost like a game of pong.  There were a couple players on both teams who could play, and it was obvious that they were ballers, but for the most part it was just ugly.  And the few times one of the teams would string together a couple passes the official who could barely run due to his knee would call them offsides, even though they were onside by 5 to 10 yards.

And even the headers, not one direct header connected.  They were all played off of bounces.  And to top it off, the weather and air was awful.  The game started out with perfect weather, but come halftime the air started getting polluted with asphalt smoke and dust from a construction area on the street outside the stadium, and dark clouds were starting to roll in.

The game went all 80 minutes without a score, so we went into sudden death overtime.  Again, there was no score in the first OT, so they went to a second OT period.  And, again, there was no score.  So I was ready for a shootout…..I mean full time tie, 1st OT tie, 2nd OT tie, break the tie with a shoot out, right?  Nope.  Game ended a tie.  What?  If there is not a shootout, why have overtime?  Again, weird Colorado high school soccer rules.

So Tuesday’s game was a huge letdown from Mondays game.  I am getting ready to head back out to NAAC for a couple cross country meets, and maybe another soccer game.  I may not do the soccer game since the second cross country meet starts at the same time, and we are expecting, and have had, gusts of wind up to 50mph today.

To see more photos from this game, please go to MaxPreps