Dynamo Draw With Sporting KC: First Verse, Same as the First

An early goal by none other than Dynamo Player of the Year candidate Brad Davis was not enough to seal the deal for our beloved Orange.  I wish I could honestly start off this column with love for Davis, but all the love I have for Davis right now is overshadowed and engulfed by extreme hatred at the continued incompetence of the officials who referee the MLS matches.  These officials are simply worthless.  Hell, I'd swap the referees and line judges from the Women's World Cup Final match for these pieces of trash the USOC continues to trudge out there for MLS matches.

Once again questionable calls, not all of the calls were questionable, and many missed calls, continue to hinder the flow of the beautiful game.  Once again we are left wondering what could have been, might have been, had the official not gone severely overboard on a foul I would gladly agree deserved a yellow.  The only way that foul deserves a straight red is if it had mal-intent behind it, which it clearly did not.  Sure, he was going in hard, but how many players from the opposite side went in overly hard in the first half.  Once again the Dynamo are left with one point at home, and once again they are thankful for it.

For those who didn't see the match or haven't read about it yet, Colin Clark was issued a straight red for a reckless challenge in the 51st minute.  He went in hard and he should have been issued a card, but red it should not have been.  Either way, the Dynamo actually looked more comfortable with 10 men as odd as that is.  They were playing better possession and opening up more chances for themselves.  At least until the 70th minute when a clearly frustrated Brian Ching was shown a straight red for a kick at the same player who drew the Clark red earlier in the match.

Brian Ching is not a man who lets his temper get the better of him.  To me, this would indicate said player having drawn two reds in one match, is some kind of low down dirty scoundrel of a player.  Certainly, Ching deserved the red he received for kicking at Aurelien Collin, and going down 9 men there pretty much sealed the Dynamo's fate but they still played valiantly.  Even still, for one player to draw two reds from a team not known for heavy challenges, it speaks to that player immensely.  I believe this player is probably dirty, and most likely has a knack for keeping his dirty tactics away from the eyes of the referee.  Did I mention he's French?  I believe that pretty much says it all right there.

Either way, the boys pulled out the 1-1 draw, happily leaving the SKC game behind them with a point and a result when the officiating clearly dictated neither.  A positive result I feel, which is sad to say considering they deserved to win.  I believe I saw some of our best play of the season, but it was all negated by the (and yes I must say this again) atrocious officiating.  I swear, does the USOC even conduct follow-up reviews or maybe some kind of performance review for the officials, or are they like international diplomats -- free reign to do whatever under international immunity?  This officiating sure seems that way to me.

What are your thoughts on the shift in formation a little bit from Dom prior to the reds?  What about Davis in the middle?  There was also the substitution of Boswell for Taylor at halftime as a "precautionary" measure.  Thoughts on that?  Did Boswell look stronger to you than before his pine-riding time?

By the way, the picture used for this story is of none other than Aurelien Collin upending Brian Ching early in the match.  Yeeeeeah, and that didn't deserve a red card, right?