St Thomas discipline

[gbpuckfan]

http://www.fox9.com/news/ncaa-publicly-reprimands-3-ust-soccer-players-for-unsportsmanlike-behavior

[Gregory Sager]

Here's the link to the official NCAA press release concerning the reprimand.

From my recap of the game in question:

The first 65 minutes or so from NPU was textbook soccer, as the Vikings had a rather ridiculous 16-1 shots advantage at one point early in the second half, and UST didn't even put one on frame until the 61st minute. But after that it was hang-on-by-your-fingernails time, as that very good Tommies side threw everything but the kitchen sink at NPU, drawing a plethora of close-in free kicks that really put the pressure on the Vikings. But the Tommies got a little overeager on their best chances, once having a would-be goal disallowed by interfering with NPU keeper Mattias Stulen while he was on the ground and on another occasion shoving him backwards into the goal with the ball in his hands. And while both sides were getting mouthy with a ref that had a very liberal whistle today (as Mr. B pointed out, 46 fouls were called -- and he wasn't calling them in a consistent manner), in the end it was the Tommies that blew their cool. Tommies star forward Tyler Oliver got called for an ordinary tripping foul with about five minutes left and came up off the turf screaming abusive language, first at the NPU player with whom he had collided and then at the ref, at whom he loudly directed a ripe epithet that included "f___ing" used as an adjective to personally describe the ref. That'll get you dead red every time, especially with a ref who has already been harangued the entire game and has shown with his bookings that he will tolerate no excessive backtalk. Once Oliver was shown the gate, it was basically over.

North Park holds on for a 1-0 victory to advanced to the final four for the first time in program history.

Congrats to North Park! Well deserved.

It was a very hard-fought game (with lots of fouls -- 46 in all -- and seven yellow cards and one red card).  Very exciting game with lots of action on both ends. I was impressed with the excellent play by both goalkeepers.

Update: looking at the box score, two more Tommies players got red-carded at the 90:00 mark, so a total of ten cards were handed out in the contest.

Yes, there was some outstanding goalkeeping today at both ends. North Park fans are beginning to get spoiled by sophomore Mattias Stulen, but I was really impressed by UST junior Aidan Hogan. That kid was standing on his head out there. He single-handedly kept the Tommies in the match.

The other two reds were handed out after the contest was over as a formality. The two UST players who were dealt them, All-American Shae Bottum and Pierce Erickson, are both seniors and thus will never play another minute of college soccer, anyway -- which I guess gave them license to tell the referee in the handshake line that he had ruined St. Thomas's season and that his mother knits doilies for ISIS.

... and a follow-up comment:

Whatever was going on, both teams started to boil over down the stretch. It was entertaining to watch, and I actually thought the ref did a decent job keeping a lid on the game.

I think that he did what he had to do to manage the game as far as bookings were concerned, aside from booking the wrong guy in one instance (NPU's Peder Olsen got a yellow in the 82nd minute that his teammate, Shatil Khoury, should've gotten instead). I didn't think he called a consistent game, foul-wise, although he was very even-handed in his inconsistency. I'm just happy that the craziness after the match didn't result in somebody in a purple kit taking a swing at him. You can see just a glimpse of it if you watch the game replay on NPU's Facebook page before the producer cut to the other camera, but when Shae Bottum verbally unloaded on the ref in the handshake line he looked like he was about to imitate the guy in the movie Scanners whose head exploded.

But does a public reprimand really mean anything, though? All three UST players cited were seniors, so there won't be any suspensions handed down to individual players. And the NCAA press release makes it explicit that this is a reprimand, not sanctions. It does mention that there were "penalties levied by St. Thomas on the men's soccer program," but it doesn't indicate what they were -- nor does UST have anything posted about those penalties anywhere on the school's website.

[blooter442]

But does a public reprimand really mean anything, though? All three UST players cited were seniors, so there won't be any suspensions handed down to individual players. And the NCAA press release makes it explicit that this is a reprimand, not sanctions. It does mention that there were "penalties levied by St. Thomas on the men's soccer program," but it doesn't indicate what they were -- nor does UST have anything posted about those penalties anywhere on the school's website.

I remember your commenting on this at the time, but didn't realize that it would lead to anything. That being said, I am not sure that it does, particularly given their class standing. Regardless, interesting that Bottum -- USC National Player of the Year -- will (possibly) have this attached to his legacy.