It’s reassuring that when the New England Revolution returns to Major League Soccer action after a month’s break, nothing has changed. All it takes is defeat to prompt Coach Steve Nicol into expressing a forthright opinion on the referee, and now the habit is spreading to the rest of the team.
The Revs lost 2-1 at home to the Fire, forfeiting a 1-0 lead in the game’s late stages after Shalrie Joseph was sent off for delaying a restart. “You know, they say the best refs you never know they’re there,” Nicol told Monique Walker. “I guess [Saturday] you could turn that on its head and absolutely say that what happened with the referee produced the outcome of the game.” Referring to a play when a tackle from Fire defender Gonzalo Segares on Sainey Nyassi earned him a yellow card, Nicol asked, “When did we change the rules that you can clearly just go for somebody and hit them and stay on the field?”
It was Segares who went on to score the equalizer shortly after Joseph was dismissed. Meanwhile, Revs goalkeeper Matt Reis had an explanation for the game-winning goal he conceded in the 86th minute from Wilman Conde. “I had both hands on the ball and he [Conde] came in straight-legged — cleats showing,” Reis said. “Anywhere else on the field that’s a foul and I don’t think he [the referee] was in a good position to see it.”