Sirk here, checking in with my first blog post in forever. But since I have some pictures to share, it just seemed like this was the easiest place to do that.
(EDIT: Since this entry is getting a lot of outside traffic, I should add the usual article disclaimer that this blog entry is 100% mine and that my writings are not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs. This entry is all “Steve Sirk” and not “Columbus Crew.” I was just using the blog to supplement eventual Notebook content for the website. I know most Crew fans know my role, but I never thought to add the disclaimer to clarify for our friends visiting from Seattle. I apologize for any confusion. Oh, and as I explained in my comment in the comment section, I do not blame Marshall’s crater for Guille’s miss in any way. However, that doesn’t mean that this wasn’t an interesting example of the “game within the game.” At least to me, anyway.)
As we all know, Guillermo Barros Schelotto’s shocking and uncharacteristic penalty kick miss was a major factor in the Crew’s 1-0 loss to the Seattle Sounders on Saturday night. Guille ripped the ball wide of the left post. Afterward, he expressed his remorse.
“It’s my fault, I know,” he said. “I feel terrible for the missed penalty. I shoot bad and put the ball outside. They broke the floor before the penalty, but it is my fault.”
They what? Broke the floor?
Like most classic Guille-isms, this one is rooted in a very simple truth. Some will insist that this is cheating, while others will insist that it was a brilliant piece of gamesmanship. No matter where one stands, one must tip their cap to Seattle for their flawless execution.
After referee Ricardo Salazar whistled Jhon Kennedy Hurtado for bodyblocking Eddie Gaven in the box, Hurtado and James Riley undertook a lengthy appeal. Hurtado and Riley remained in Salazar’s face for nearly a minute, keeping the referee occupied. It was the perfect diversion for Sounders defender Tyrone Marshall, who went to the penalty spot and got to work with his cleats. Marshall earnestly dug into the spot as if he were a slugger prepping for a crucial at-bat. He raked his cleats and back and forth, back and forth, over and over again. He jammed his heel into the ground when more force was needed. By the time he was finished, there was barely any evidence left of the white dot. There was a crater in its place.
It was a classic “pulling one over while the ref is distracted” move straight out of the scripted world of professional wrestling. Or like when a bank robber calls in a bomb threat across town to divert police attention before hitting up the bank.
Marshall’s act was not caught on the ONN broadcast, but what’s funny is that when the camera panned across the goal, you can see the clubhouse kids in the background, pointing straight out to the penalty spot while screaming to get someone’s attention.
Schelotto protested the “broken floor” to no avail. Before Salazar could even listen to Guille’s case, he was further distracted by Sounders repeatedly bouncing off of a motionless Steven Lenhart, who merely stood in place with his hands on his knees with his toe at the edge of the penalty area. The defenders obviously wanted to get goal-side of him, so they made repeated attempts to push him aside, then kept falling back as if he had done something to them. The scuffle eventually escalated and the Sounders were eventually able to push Lenhart from his spot, but that took a little more time. When all was said and done, 2 minutes and 16 seconds had elapsed between the penalty whistle and Schelotto’s actual attempt.
When Guille’s shot went wide, I couldn’t help but smirk at the success of Seattle’s brazenly blatant attempts to throw Schelotto off his game, between the two contrived confrontations and the digging up of the penalty spot. Points are precious at this time of year. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do. And agree with it or not, they did it brilliantly.
After the game, Dante and I were talking about it, when I decided to head out to the field to see what the damage actually looked like. Former Crew trainer Chris Baer made the common sense (yet overlooked to that point) suggestion that I take some pictures, so I flagged down Greg Bartram and took him out to the field with Tucker and me.
Thanks to Greg, here are two photos of Marshall’s illicit landscaping:
There used to be a white spot here…
And now for some depth perception. The crater was a half-inch deep and was more than wide enough to accommodate Tucker’s cell phone. If anyone’s pet hamster drops dead this week, the Crew have a burial plot available.
October 5th, 2009 at 8:30 am
The distraction worked on me. I recall the digging starting soon after the penalty was called. But I got caught up in the shoving match too.
We can’t cry about that play alone. We had other chances we could not convert. We are outplaying our opponents but need to put the ball in the net.
October 5th, 2009 at 9:10 am
Seattle = Cheaters
October 5th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Yeah, Guille needs to make the kick anyway. We all know it. He knows it. Heck, he even said it. To me, these delays and penalty spot head games were no different than icing the kicker in football. It doesn’t really work, but you have to try to do something. And when the law of averages catches up to the kicker and a miss happens, people attribute the miss to the “icing” of the kicker.
Guille missed. It was bound to happen eventually. But because he missed, and since he did make a passing mention of the “broken floor”, I became more curious as to how much damage Marshall had done to the spot, especially having watched his vigorous digging. I guarantee you that had Schelotto converted, Marshall’s landscaping would have received only a passing mention in the Notebook in a bemused “nice try anyway” sense, and that would have been it. I certainly wouldn’t have thought to go out to the field to have a close-up look. So in that regard, the miss spurred me into action. And that’s a shame, really, because make or miss, this was an interesting “game inside the game” moment to document. And that’s what this blog entry was about.
People’s opinions can run the gamut from “blatant cheating” to “brilliant gamesmanship”, and either way, I am in the “shrug it off” camp. Nine times out of ten, Seattle’s actions wouldn’t have mattered anyway. The one-in-ten miss makes it all seem more important than it probably was. Unintentionally, this blog might perpetuate that, but that’s not what I was aiming for. Rather, I just wanted to document an interesting subplot. I had never seen a player work on the spot like that before, and as we saw postgame, Marshall certainly did a number to it.
October 5th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
The stuff of LEGEND!
October 5th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Thanks for documenting that, Sirk. I had heard some about the “yardwork”, but it really hasn’t been talked about much outside of your blog. Gamesmanship is always interesting to cover, in my mind, and there is too little discussion of it generally speaking.
Here’s my question, though: Is what Marshall did illegal? Could he get fined or suspended or some such thing by the league?
October 5th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
To make it up to you, how about if we let your guy do the same thing next time you come to Seattle?
Oh, wait. We have artificial turf.
Good game to the Crew, though. Law of averages finally caught up to Seattle, where for once our guys played a relatively crap game yet won (as opposed to the standard loss or draw when they dominated.)
Also, kudos to your fans for their reception of Sigi. That was class.
October 5th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
P.S. Just reread my comment and realized that “that was class” could be perceived as sarcasm. Not intended that way AT ALL. Genuinely decent behavior on the part of Crew fans.
October 5th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
GBS didn’t even place the ball in the hole. He placed it towards the back where the grass was fine. The area where his plant foot landed was fine. The “yard work” had no physical effect on the PK with the exception of GBS having less space to choose from to place the ball.
Should read the other reports about the kick.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/soundersfcblog/2009996609_did_kasey_keller_perform_a_jed.html
“”We know that Guille likes to go down the middle when he can, and we said ‘Just hold your ground, hold your ground’ and forced him into making a decision.”
Schelotto had made 8 PKs in a row up until tonight.
“I kind of outthought him a little bit, and sometimes that works,” Keller said. “When a guy’s waiting for you to move and you don’t move, then he has to change his mind at the last second. I’ve been able to have that happen before.”"
http://web.mlsnet.com/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20091005&content_id=7337890&vkey=news_mls&fext=.jsp
“Schelotto, the league’s reigning MVP and one of the coolest of MLS customers, stepped up to take the potential late equalizer from the penalty spot. Keller stood just off center, maybe a step or a step-and-half to Schelotto’s left. It gave the Crew attacker just a little bit more to think about. Would Keller just stand there, reducing the chances of a shot to that side? Or would the cagey ol’ veteran goalkeeper take two quick little steps back to his own left, where he was inviting Schelotto to shoot?
Indeed, there was a moment where Schelotto seemed to hesitate and think about it just for a second. Then, one of the league’s best attackers ever, stepped up and missed his first MLS penalty kick in nine attempts, pushing the shot harmlessly wide to the left.”
So you can put a value to how much each event effected the kick. I think they all effected him mentally to some degree but nothing physically effected the kick except GBS.
October 6th, 2009 at 12:27 am
There was also a loogie that was spat by Riley just before the kick. It bounced off of Lennhart’s cleat, curved around the ref, then bounced off the ball and up into Schelotto’s left eye just as he took the kick. This caused GBS’s head to flinch to the left, which led to his plant foot to turn left at the very last second, which led to the ball going wide left. It is very clear on the YouTube clip (you need to click on the HD option to see the loogie).
An alternative explanation is that GBS was looking to shoot down the middle, and when he saw that Keller wasn’t moving had to change his kick at the very last second. Crazy thought that.
October 6th, 2009 at 1:11 am
That is the funniest excuse for a missed Pk ever, and pictures to boot.
October 6th, 2009 at 2:44 am
Unlucky bounces and bad finishing aside, I think the Sounders still win that game 3-2.
Concede the post to Gaven (1 CLB) and the PK to Guillermo (2 CLB).
Give the legit goal to Levesque (1 SEA), the post to Alonso (2 SEA), and Le Toux missing a gaping open left side of the net (3 SEA).
Two hard fought games against you guys this year, Crew. Hope to see you again in the playoffs.
And I gotta hand it to you, Columbus - outside of maybe Toronto, that’s the fullest I’ve seen an MLS venue on a Sounders road game this year. Sad for the rest of the league, good on you.
October 6th, 2009 at 10:34 am
I don’t think Marshall’s gamesmanship alone caused the miss. It might be a contributing factor to icing GBS before the kick.
I give a little more credit to Keller. He’s one of the best keepers the U.S. has ever produced. He reached deep down on his experience and his study of game film to come up with a winning strategy for a GBS penalty.
Anyways, it was a good game all round. We desperately needed the win. The Crew already has their ticket punched. Hopefully, we’ll see y’all in the finals!
October 6th, 2009 at 11:43 am
I love the research Sirk!
I don’t think this divot that marshall made had anything to do with GBS’s miss. I watched the replay, the ball wasn’t placed where marshall was digging his foot in - just behind. GBS saw what marshall did and moved the ball a tad.
I think it was a poor attempt at “icing”, like you said. Either way, that’s all on GBS. I wouldn’t even give marshall the credit he’d want on that. I don’t think it was good sportsmanship for seattle to do that, but it had no physical affect on the shot. I think GBS just psyched himself out.
October 6th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Really? The divot was to blame….
That’s something that in my years of college & professional refereeing I’ve never heard.
You missed, man up.
October 6th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Hilarious. Thanks guys. And ditto what others said about welcoming Sigi back.
Crew fans = class.
Looking forward to seeing the Crew back in Seattle.
October 6th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
It didn’t make a difference on the PK. We should have taken care of business prior to that scuffle. What dismays me is that a Sigi-coached team would resort to bs tactics. I hope he takes care of business in the locker room. That is classless behavior.
October 6th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
The bummer is that if we make it to the Cup final we’ll have to play on Seattle’s fake stuff. Yuck!
October 6th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
total hater-move by marshall but it didn’t “ice” schelotto. same with Keller, amazing veteran ‘keeper, but there isn’t any “icing” or “out-thinking” GBS… he just shanked it, hit happens to even the best every once in a while, no big deal.
(but man, it was infuriating!!)
October 6th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
The fact being overlooked here is the complete unprofessionalism of mls referees. That Salazar could be distracted for 2 minutes is rediculous. The “let me distract you while my mates give em the business!” routine should not work at this level. Its common to see mls refs lose control of the game and concentrate all their attention to one players complaints. Anyone remember Lenhart in the corner against Houston? The ref had no clue what was going on down the field. Guille missed the shot. We move on. The fact that Marshall damaged our field and the ref had no clue should be investigated a bit more.
October 7th, 2009 at 9:22 am
If only someone had their camera out when Marshall was doing his digging. If someone did catch the crime in the act, please come forward.
October 7th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
I haven’t seen anyone say GBS missed because of a divot. But all of the Seattle fans should be asking, if a divot doesn’t mess up the shot, why in the world did he feel the need to make one on the penalty spot?
October 12th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
@ Matt: Very simple, really. To get in GBS’ head. That’s it. Honestly, were I in your position, I’d be incredibly frustrated that we missed the PK (not that Fredy/Freddie need any help in missing PKs), but I’d still have to applaud the screwing with their heads. I think it’s incredibly simple and incredibly brilliant (not to mention funny as hell). But that’s me.
October 21st, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Hmmm. The MLS disciplinary committee just fined Tyrone Marshall and Leonardo Gonzalez $500 each for something unrelated to a yellow or red card. My guess is that the fines are for Divotgate.