Sports

RBNY’s Angel, Osorio rips refs as “stupid,” and racially-biased; Johnson breaks foot

John Wolyniec saved the Red Bulls tonight, his 88th-minute equalizer salvaging a 1-1 tie. But after seeing Carlos Johnson suffer a broken foot on a play that didn’t earn a card, then having Jorge Rojas sent off moments later, Juan Carlos Osorio and Juan Pablo Angel both ripped the refs.

After Rojas was rightly sent off in the 35th-minute, RBNY has been hit with four red cards in just ten games. All have been shown to players of Hispanic origin, and Osorio implied refs were discriminating racially. Angel wouldn’t go there, but called them “stupid” after getting a yellow for dissent, despite wearing the captain’s armband.

“They’re just stupid; absolutely stupid,” fumed Angel, who said the club has had issues with ref Baldomero Toledo before. “I was asking him why we always have problems with him, and he said I wasn’t allowed to talk to him. I said “What is the captain here for? My responsibility is to talk to you and find out what is going on.’

“He didn’t want to, so he chopped me down. I kept talking to him in a very respectful way, and he just gave me a yellow card. He’s one of those.” Osorio’s seaming complaint was less personal, but far more damning _ that the league refs are treating Hispanic players in a different fashion. I’ve had players tell me as much privately, but to hear a coach intimate it in public is a different story.

Now, to be fair he didn’t deny his Red Bulls had lost their poise _ and after Rojas’ elbow-leg whip combo, how could he? But he implied they were pushed over the edge by Houston’s typical physical play. After Brian Mullan had been climbing on top of Rojas all day, the Venezuelan swung his arm around and then as they tumbled to the ground appeared to bring his foot up by the Mullan’s head as well.

“I have my take on that particular instance,” Osorio said. “I want to see the replay. All I can say is I saw it coming. Not the red card but something like it. Not necessarily with Jorge but with other players. It’s the nature of the game when you play Houston. Unfortunately we overreacted. That’s all I have to say.”

Houston was clearly the more physical team all night, actually committing 17 fouls to New York’s eight.

“That answers a lot of questions,” Osorio said. “Of course (I expected that). And unfortunately we overreacted. It could’ve been handled in a different way.”

By that point, the Red Bulls had already seen Johnson _ who has been hit with two of their four red cards _ get knocked out of the game. The 24-year-old fullback had picked up a card on Stuart Holden in their trip to Houston, and last night Holden broke the Costa Rican’s fifth metatarsal with a 21st-minute tackle.

While Johnson could be out for months, Holden didn’t get a card of the red or even yellow variety. Minutes later, Rojas got sent off, and was slow leaving the field after Houston keeper Pat Onstad had something to say to him. Now Rojas runs the very real risk of an added game tacked onto his automatic one-game suspension for the red card, the team’s fourth of the young season.

“Right. All Hispanic players, right?” Osorio said. “I told my team what I thought coming into this game. Unfortunately we were too quick to react a couple of times.

“But to be fair to everybody…prior to their goal, there was an incident. There was a bad tackle to Seth (Stammler) _ and Seth is not Hispanic _ and he reacted. And that’s all my comment. I won’t say anything else.”

Now Rojas will miss next Sunday’s game against Chicago, and after letting himself be goaded into an arguement that Angel desperately tried to steer him away from, he might miss another league tilt after that as well. But he’s likely to start Wednesday’s U.S. Open Cup qualifier against D.C. at RFK Stadium.

For his part, naturally he denied any intent. Must’ve been a muscle spasm.

“I received the ball and I felt something on my back. He was really strong on my back and when I started falling, my arm opened and unfortunately hit his face. It was not my intention to make any aggression. I’m not that kind of player,” said Rojas, who sure looked like that kind of player for about two raging seconds.

“I hold my feelings in. I feel bad for that right now, to leave the team with 10 men in such a complicated game.”

Think there is something to Osorio’s implications? Think Rojas was out of line, or provoked? Want to see ineffective, struggling Khano Smith next week or have Danleigh Borman make the move back to left wing? Hollar at us here….