Chilean team loses it

My assistant coach and his family were at the FIFA U-20 semi-final game last night between Chile and Argentina. The game went Argentina's way early, and the Chilean team lost the game, their composure, and their common sense, not necessarily in that order:

Two Chilean players were ejected during the loss. The game was an ill-tempered affair with nine yellow cards — seven to Chile and two to Argentina — in addition to the two red cards. German referee Wolfgang Stark called 53 fouls — 30 against Chile.

When the final whistle blew, several Chilean players tried to get at the officiating crew. Others stepped in to keep them away. Two police officers escorted the officiating crew off the pitch, but they stopped as they neared the tunnel, eyeing the angry crowd.

Eventually they made a run for it, dashing to the safety of the tunnel below the stands.

The Chilean soccer officials should be scrambling to apologize to FIFA, to the Argentines, the officials, and to the Canadian hosts.

In other soccer news, the Pirate finally chalked up a second win of the season, although in a not-very-proud fashion. Opponents Canadian Legion were just barely able to field a team, with only seven players. The Pirates were in the same boat, but had several players arrive after the game started.

The Pirates went up 1-0 in the early going, but within ten minutes were on the wrong side of a 3-1 tally. As the game started to get out of hand, we had to start taking advantage of our numbers . . . by the final whistle, 12 Pirates were playing or available for substitutions, but Canadian Legion still only had their starting seven. Numbers eventually told, with a final score of 10-5, but Canadian Legion never gave up . . . still fighting hard for scoring opportunities up to the final whistle.

Legion will get a chance for revenge on Monday night, as the schedule pits them against the Pirates in consecutive games.