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The Morning After: Revolution at Red Bulls

Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz

Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz

Questionable refereeing reared its ugly head once again as the New England Revolution were forced to settle for a 2-2 draw against the New York Red Bulls on Saturday at Red Bull Arena.

Here are a few stats, facts and assorted potpourri surrounding the Fotis Bazakos Show:

-With the draw, the Revolution’s chances of making the postseason took another hit. Despite leapfrogging the Crew on the table to take seventh place, the Revolution now have a 17.7 percent chance of reaching the playoffs, down from 21.6 percent going into Saturday’s contest.

-If you thought you’d seen Bazakos at the center of controversy not all that long ago, it’s because you did. Bazakos refereed the Revolution’s 1-1 draw in Toronto on Aug. 30, a game in which a call for handling by a Toronto player inside the Revolution area was missed prior to Andrew Wiedeman’s 45+2 minute goal. But he also waived off a Steve Caldwell header late for what can only be considered a very soft foul on Jose Goncalves in front of frame.

-Despite the late Andy Dorman red card, Bazakos does not have a particularly strong reputation for sending players off. The Dorman ejection was only the third red card issued by Bazakos in 13 games this season.

-The Revolution’s most accurate passers breaks down like this: Matt Reis (100 percent), Diego Fagundez (88 percent) and Lee Nguyen (85 percent).

-The Red Bulls’ most accurate passes breaks down in the following manner: Lloyd Sam (93 percent), Dax McCarty (89 percent) and Jamison Olave (88 percent).

-A stat that makes you go hmmmm: The Red Bulls won 85 percent of their aerial duels.

-A.J. Soares was particularly active on Saturday, leading Revolution defenders with six clearances. On the other end of the pitch, Markus Holgersson collected a game-high nine clearances at Red Bull Arena.

-Revolution coach Jay Heaps’ take on what unfolded in the final minutes of Saturday’s match: “I don’t like talking about officiating and I won’t, but I’ve never seen a player being asked to leave the field on the last play of the game. You give a red card, I can live with it, you don’t call a penalty on the second one – I can live with the calls of the game. I can’t live with you [the referee, Fotis Bazakos] taking our guys off the field on the last play of the game. Go back and look, show me tape on when in the world when you’ve already got a red card you take another guy off. It’s impossible.”

-Red Bulls coach Mike Petke wasn’t particularly pleased about the officiating, either. From bigapplesoccer.com: “I don’t want to get fined here. All I know is the second I congratulated Olave for making the playoffs there was a giant ball mark pretty much on his chest, inside, right inside shoulder. I just told him to give it to the laundry room to get that dirt off of there. You guys heard what I said, right? That’s all I said. There was a ball mark on his chest area.”

-Tweet of the evening:

 

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