"Near the 68th minutes, New York goalie Ronald Waterreus appeared to have handled a back pass. Many among the 14,000 plus at Rice-Eccles Stadium thought so."
[SNIP]
"It was a back pass, it really was a back pass," said [Real Salt Lake defender Eddie] Pope afterward, still burning over the non-decision. "One week you get punished for it, the next it doesn't go your way. I spoke to referee, and he he didn't think it was a back pass, either. and that's the problem. You've got to be on same page here."
- Salt Lake Tribune (who should hire a copy editor), 5.9.07 (LINK)
Who knows? Maybe I would have nodded along with Eddie had I not spent the week reading how Real Salt Lake owed their equalizer to a little something dubious of their own (from Soccer by Ives):
"Apparently RSL midfielder Carey Talley had been on the sidelines changing his bloodied jersey and was waiting to be waived into the game by the match official, Ricardo Salazar, but fourth official Brian Hall told Talley to get back on the field before Salazar ever acknowledged Talley. Talley proceeds to intercept a pass by Clint Mathis intended for Hunter Freeman and starts the play that gets the ball to Chris Brown, who scores a beautiful goal."
Best to keep scrutiny of the referee at a minimum Eddie. Even if Red Bull players and (you kiddin' me?) the coach aren't whining, most of what I've read suggests they believed Carey Talley to be out of the play, which makes the whole thing sound a little sleazy. That said, it also sounds like Talley is fairly innocent here; he was, after all, waved on...not to take anything away from the goal itself, which was pretty groovy.
(#######)
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