Deja Vu

Before I go into that one, you may want to read the previous post. Woke up Sunday morning and could barely walk, my calf hurt like a mother f---er. Some Icy Hot, Motrin and just walking it off made it feel better. Jesse and I decided to ride up together despite the fact I had a double header and Jesse was scheduled for one game.

We arrived at the polo fields and had this overwhelming need to hit the head. As I was just going, a certain National Referee called me over in the manner of "Here boy!" His first mistake. I was scheduled to AR for him on my second game. He wanted me to take his center. There were a few reasons I wouldn't do this for him. One, I'm injured and by all rights I shouldn't even do lines that day. Two, one team I issued a red which is still fresh in their mind. I told him I barely had enough for my AR spots and my calf was sore, and my groin muscle was nagging. He said he had a nagging, not excruciating pain. He had a pro match he wanted to save himself for. He tried, but I bottom lined it for him. I made it clear I was not taking any centers. He asked me if I was handicapped. His second mistake. I just replied, "Look who's talking." It's not the first time he pulled this crap. Last year he was scheduled to be in Alaska and he missed his flight which caused an uproar in the car rental department, not to mention money spent down the drain. There are also rumors he does crap like show up to MLS matches in less then 30 minutes. Needless to say, I don't respect him. Great referee, but not who I would call a respectable referee.

So Jesse decided to do back to back centers. I felt bad for Jesse. The first game was Sons of Italy and SF Celtic. Turned out to be a good game, and Jesse had the teams well under control despite the complaints from the Italy coach.

The second game, I'm not going to name teams, but call them Red and Black. This is the same Red team I had a month ago in the middle. Jesse kept things pretty much under control for doing back to back games. Late in the first half Jesse pulls his first yellow. Unfortunately I couldn't tell if it was #10 Red or #6 Black. A minute passed and Jesse shows #10 the yellow then the red card. I guess it was # 10. I couple minutes passed and then I thought wait a minute! That's the same guy I sent off a month ago. The deja vu was in my match he got a yellow, and then got his second yellow in the next minute, just like Jesse's. Apparently it was still fresh in their minds because the other AR mentioned one of the teams asked Jesse, "Did you guys talk about us prior to the team?" as they realized I was the one who sent #10 off earlier.
Second half, Red got a goal despite playing with 10 players and the Black team was demoralized. Red scored another goal and Black was basically "dead man walking". According to Jesse I was adequate enough for him, but he said he noticed I was limping the second half of the second game.
Even though the WCYWS policy makes the referee who issued a red buy the beer, I broke the rules and insisted on treating.