By AVI CREDITOR
D.C. United goalkeeper Bill Hamid is in just his second MLS season, but he's already been involved in one of the more bizarre sequences the league has seen in recent years.
Hamid was twice called for being off his line after Portland was given a penalty kick in the second half of D.C.'s 3-2 win on Sunday.
Hamid guessed correctly on both of Kenny Cooper's attempts from the spot, only to have his saves be nullified by the linesman.
"After looking at the replay, I can see why he gave the first one," Hamid told SBI on Wednesday. "The second one is something you see everywhere around the world."
Hamid appeared to creep up a little off his line on Cooper's first attempt more so than he did on the second. Cooper also feinted a bit in the run-up to the second penalty, throwing Hamid's timing off a bit.
"With Kenny stutter-stepping — and almost stopping — that didn't help the situation," Hamid said.
Jack Jewsbury replaced Cooper for the third attempt and converted; however, replays showed that a Portland player encroached on the successful make — something that is as rarely called as a goalkeeper stepping off of his line during a PK — but no call was made.
Jewsbury's goal knotted the score at 1-1, but a Chris Pontius penalty and Josh Wolff goal cemented D.C.'s road victory and the first home loss for Portland in league play this season.
"I didn't know what was going on, but we ended up winning and that's all that matters," Hamid said.
In case you missed it, here's video of the penalty kick sequence:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrog6d7GR5E]
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What did you think of the calls? Was the linesman right both times? Should Jewsbury's make have been waved off for encroachment? Ever seen anything like that?
Share your thoughts below.
They also need to start calling traveling and carrying-over!
All I’m saying is that if you’re going to be a stickler for the rules, like they clearly were with Hamid coming off his line, you’ve got to be a stickler for all of them. Trifling or not.
sorry. watch the vid. there is NO Portland player entering the penalty area before the kick. If you are referring to the Portland player on the “bottom” or “left” of the ball, he is leaning in extremely far, but does NOT cross over until it is kicked. There is a DC player that infringes into the area a split second before the kick “above” or to the “right” though.
if that AR had been in charge of the England-Portugal shootout in WC’06, it would still be being played…ridiculous calls (espec’ly the 2nd one). not sure if the officials in MLS this year are just attention-starved or what…this kind of stuff has to stop
I thought it looked like about 2 feet in the first one and 1 foot in the second one. Neither was egregious compared to what you see all the time.
In leagues like the NFL and NBA, if a rule like this is being ignored too often, they announce prior to the season that refs will be paying particular attention to enforcing the letter of the rule. Then all refs make the call throughout the season–they don’t randomly have one guy make quixotic crusade. I don’t mind them enforcing this but they should start at the beginning of the season and do it league-wide.
I also think if they do consistently enforce this, given the feint on the second one, you would see at lot of players trying to fake the keeper off the line before shooting just to draw the call to get a freebie (just as Cooper did) and making PKs a fake out contest instead of a shooting contest.