Playing with a chip on its shoulder, maybe, but …
What many University of Louisville fans at the north end of the field will remember about the soccer match with Ohio State was the effort to intimidate Colin Rolfe, UofL’s All America junior forward.
Early on, Rolfe is the target of a punch by OSU defender David Tiemstra, the blow knocking the 175-pound Rolfe to the turf. No yellow cards, no penalty kicks, no accountability. Just a few words.
Minutes later, Tiemstra is at it again, forceably holding Rolfe’s hands behind his back. Unseen by any official, of course. Admonished by fans, Tiemstra throws his middle finger at the UofL partisans.
No surprise, few fans feel sorry for Tiemstra going down after bumping heads with a Louisville player in the second half. There are, in fact, more than a few smiles in the crowd. Tiemstra has it coming, couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
UofL coach Ken Lolla expected an aggressive style of play from Ohio State. But he was not about to criticize the officiating. He focused instead on the positive things in UofL’s 2-1 win that put them into an Elite Eight match Saturday against UCLA at Cardinal Park.
“We had a tremendous week of practice and it showed in the game,” he said. “We were focused on doing all the right things. We defeated a very good team tonight.”
Wanted to get motivated about UofL soccer? Catch Ken Lolla after the win:
As a former referee with some experience at the college level, my view is that the referee lost control of the match when he did not yellow card Tiemstra after the push-down of Rolfe in the first 5 minutes. That sort of thing should be an automatic yellow, especially that early in the game. A yellow card to both players – although one to Rolfe would have been a bit harsh – would have been preferable to no card at all. The message he sent was basically that “anything goes,” and from that point forward, about anything did. It was a horribly officiated game – inconsistent, all kinds of rough stuff going on unpunished, and instead a bunch of silly nitpicking over the positioning of throw-ins and free kicks. Counter to one of the absolute key principles of effective officiating, which is to be strict at the outset and don’t “let them play” until they’ve shown they can do so without taking undue advantage and creating a dangerous game for the participants. Here’s hoping we don’t see this particular official again.
Thanks for your input, Andrew. Quite frankly, I was shocked at some the actions that were allowed. Ken Lolla was too but he was very diplomatic in his response to questions. My guess is this guy has disqualified himself from further officiating.
I did some research on the referee. He’s frpm Ohio (Cleveland area) – for whatever that is worth. He’s a national-level referee and has worked MLS games and even some big-time friendlies, such as a Dallas FC-Chelsea match a while back. So you might have expected better from him. On the other hand, he’s also been the subject of some serious criticism in post-game stories…