To quote author Richard Powers and his introduction to “Galatea 2.2,”: “It was like so, but wasn’t.” Union Omaha had the lead after 90 minutes, even after playing down a man for 35 minutes. The three points were within grasp, victory was a mere five minutes of extra time away, and then it happened: in the 90+1st minute, second-half substitute Marky Hernández threw himself into a goal-line scrum and forced the ball over the line and into the goal. Chattanooga earned the draw, salvaged a point, and maintained a striking distance to the top of the table with two games in hand.
Prior to Saturday, Chattanooga had never made a trip to Omaha. The Red Wolves weren’t greeted too kindly, either. As the team bus pulled up to the stadium, a Parliament of Owls fans gathered to welcome them with smoke bombs and chants. If the visitors thought this match was business as usual, the welcoming committee made sure to let them know that this was not going to be your regular 90 minutes. A third-place team visiting the first-place team certainly warrants a meaningful evening.
The first half seemed to be a completely one-sided affair, but not in the fashion you’re expecting me to describe. In a largely back-and-forth occasion, the left side of Union Omaha’s field carried most of the labor. Chattanooga kept the majority of their possession on the same side of the field, as well. In fact, both teams combined for eight successful dribbles on that side of the field. What about the other half of the field? One, which belonged to Union Omaha. Of those eight successful dribbles, Union Omaha left back Dami Viader owned five of those dribbles. His contributions to the offensive efforts were valuable and paid off in the 36th minute.
After earning a corner kick on the right side of the field, Dami Viader lined up for another in-swinger. Rather than opting for his usual lob into the box, Viader played a short pass to midfielder Conor Doyle, which opened up space for Viader on the flank. When two Red Wolves defenders quickly applied pressure to Doyle, he returned the ball to an open Viader, who crossed the ball to midfielder JP Scearce while he was waiting at the back door. Scearce didn’t waste any time in heading the ball to the top of the six-yard box, where forward Greg Hurst was waiting to bury the ball inside the near post. Chattanooga’s marking was horrendous and they practically handed the goal to Omaha. The Owls showed great adaptability and recognition of an obvious gap in their defense. As the teams left the field for halftime, there was an air of content and hope among the 3,880 fans inside Werner Park. They were all in for a major surprise in the second half.
Within ten minutes of the second half of the match, the trajectory of the match was thrown upside down by center referee Samantha Martinez. In the 54th minute, Union Omaha had an opportunity inside Chattanooga’s box, but their goalie, Tim Trilk, was able to win the aerial battle against Union Omaha midfielder JP Scearce. Both players went to the ground and Martinez had already blown the whistle to preserve Trilk’s safety, which is entirely acceptable.
While Martinez approached the box to award Sceare a yellow card, Chattanooga defender Jason Ramos was communicating strongly while standing over a sitting Scearce. As Scearce stood up, contact was made between the two players and Ramos threw himself backwards in an exaggerated fashion and laid on his back, mere feet from where Scearce had just been sitting. After Martinez arrived on the scene, she showed the yellow card to Scearce, turned to check on the safety of Trilk and Ramos, then re-approached Scearce to deliver a red card. Werner Park was immediately filled with confusion, anger, and taken aback by Martinez’s decision. Let’s analyze this and see what we can gleam for everything.
The initial aerial challenge between Scearce and Tilk resulting in a call for Chattanooga comes as no surprise. Referees try to take care of goalkeepers. The amount of bodies flying at the goalies while they are focusing on the ball can easily lead to injuries. When Scearce attempted to win the ball, his body was traveling toward the Tilk. When a player challenges a goalie for a ball in the air, the player has to make sure they are jumping straight up and down. Having any lateral movement to the jump dramatically increases the chances of the player receiving a warning or a card. Prior to this challenge, Scearce had only conceded two fouls. Martinez must have taken this into consideration upon seeing the battle with Tilk because she wasted no time in reaching for a yellow card. There’s very little room for dispute in her judgement in this case. What follows next is where the controversy begins.
As stated above, while Scearce was sitting on the field, Ramos was standing directly above Scearce, even bending over him for more intimate communication. This lasted almost two seconds. Tilk was already standing and approaching, though his intention seems less known. Maybe he was there to get between Tilk and Scearce, maybe he was there to add his own input to the intimidating situation. We don’t know and I won’t speculate any further. What is clear, though, is that Ramos showed no intention of ending his testosterone-and-anger-riddled trash talk.
There was almost three seconds between Martinez blowing the whistle and Scearce getting to a standing position. As Martinez approached Ramos and Scearce, she was approaching from a head-on view of the two players, rather than a profile vantage point. When Ramos threw his body backwards, Martinez likely interpreted the events as a result of retaliation. Make no mistake about it, Scearce did not stand with enough velocity to make Ramos’s body move in such a manner. Was there contact between the two of them? You bet. Was it intentional contact? Sure, but it looked more like the typical sly, passive aggressive contact you see in any sport (shoulder bumps, leaning into a player, etc.). What was Scearce supposed to do: Log roll to the side until Ramos was out of the way? Continue sitting on the ground while a player was bent over him and talking to him? Or ask the player to move? Scearce looked as though he was simply standing up and his shoulder made contact with Ramos. It’s kind of difficult to stand up straight and avoid physical contact when a player is bent over you.
Rather than conversing with her Assistant Referee on the sideline to see what she may have seen from her perspective, Martinez skips the discussion and awards a straight red card to Scearce. Martinez should have recognized the disparity in her perspective and checked with her Assistant Referee. That raises another issue, though: the Assistant Referee was on the opposite side of the field, close to thirty yards away. While she may have had a profile view of the interaction, she may not have had a great view of everything. Nonetheless, it was irresponsible of Martinez to award a hard red to Scearce when she did not have a good line of sight. If she wasn’t 100% sure of everything that happened, she should not have made the calls she did.
What’s more irresponsible is her complete negligence to talk to Ramos, at the bare minimum. He was guilty of unsporting behavior, yet did not even receive a yellow card, much less a verbal warning. I understand that Martinez was distracted by the congregation of Union Omaha players in front of her, but if she was confident enough to issue a hard red card to Scearce, she should have recognized Ramos’s role in the skirmish, as well. Her failure to do so was a great disservice to the integrity of the match. Her decisions had a direct impact on the outcome of the match, as Union Omaha played down a man for 35 minutes, plus extra time. Scearce should not have received a hard red. Martinez should have separated the players, issued a yellow card to Tilk, attempted to verbally warn the players of further behaviors, and restarted the match with a direct kick for Chattanooga in their own box. Her interpretation of the events was poor and she deserves a review. It would also be nice if Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was employed at USL League One matches to give the referees another tool to utilize in their quest for a legitimate defense to their calls, but that’s another story.
Union Omaha did a great job of fending off attacks from Chattanooga and deserve a great deal of credit for their performance after Scearce’s dismissal. They sat back, absorbed attacks, made clearances, and even found opportunities to create chances on the other side of the field. Dami Viader had a wonderful strike late in the second half that slammed into the crossbar. I’m still not sure which was louder: the ball ricocheting off the crossbar, or the crowd reacting to the shot. Alas, there was no winning shot in the dying moments to save the day. Instead, it was a Chattanooga goal following a chaotic sequence inside the six-yard box.
The draw keeps Union Omaha in first place, Chattanooga in third, and the space between the clubs in the standings, as well. Union Omaha has a bye week in Week 14, while Chattanooga welcomes FC Tucson to East Ridge, Tennessee on Saturday, July 10th at 6 PM (CST).
Union Omaha will host Forward Madison on Friday, July 16th at 8 PM (CST). As usual, the match will air on ESPN+, so if you can’t make it to Werner Park, tune in for another exciting battle for the Owls. While the Owls are resting, recovering, and preparing for the Flamingos, we’ll continue to give you great content to read. Keep checking back for more episodes of the podcast and articles.
Who Gives A Hoot? 