I is Stupid Red Card

After reading up on it a bit, it appears that Pablo Mastroeni was sent off for throwing the ball to a teammate of his.

For those who don't know, Pablo (the only Rapids player on the US International Squad) got his first chance this year to play in an international match versus Argentina. Thanks to spectacular play by goal keeper Tim Howard and a nice save by the post off a header from Oguchi Onyewu, the US tied number 1 ranked Argentina 0-0.

Pablo played well, but earned a yellow card for an inauspicious tackle in the 60th minute. After another ten minutes passed, he was given a direct red card and ejected from the game. But for what?

Well, if you watch the replay, Maurice Edu commits a foul, which did somewhat deserve a yellow card. His number is 26. His name was written down. Literally seconds after that, Argentina was lining up for a free kick because of the foul commited by Edu, but they were also making a substitution. During this, the ref ran to Pablo, number 25, and flashed a direct red card.

This is what Pablo had to say regarding the incident on MLSnet.com:

"The reason why he said he gave me a second yellow was for throwing the ball to a teammate of mine," Mastroeni said. "It was really strange because they were making a substitution and it wasn't like they could play the ball fast or anything."

So, it appears he was given a second yellow for tossing the ball to a teammate.

However, this is ripe with stupidity.

Beyond the ref generally calling a bad game; there was more at play here. Why did he show a direct red card, rather than showing a yellow, followed by a red? Even if it was for what Pablo said it was for, that would result in yellow, red. This means one thing to me and most people that watched the game; the ref thought that he had booked Pablo when he booked Edu, written the wrong number, and then thought he missed the second yellow and bam, he got the red. Either way, it was an incorrect call. Tossing the ball to a teammate shouldn't be a second yellow, even if they were trying to play it fast. But the free kick was just outside the 18, they would've taken time to set up the play. On top of all this, the play wasn't really hampered anyways because it took place when the ref was writing Edu's name in the book.

Basically, the ref screwed up bad. Real bad. Like, shouldn't be allowed to ref for awhile. Like a timeout or something. Go sit in a corner and think about what you've done.

The US generally doesn't draw much in the way of good reffing. The Italy game during the last World Cup showed that (ironically, another game Pablo was ejected with a red card....hmmmm...).

Don't worry Pablo, even if the refs don't like you, you'll always have a fan in me.