Saturday night the men’s soccer team played host to the Seattle Pacific Falcons. In recent years these two teams have developed quite the rivalry, as both teams are usually battling for top spot in the GNAC by season’s end. This time around SPU were second and SFU were fifth, but that didn’t diminish the intensity of the game, in part due to some questionable officiating. None of this stopped the Clan, though, and they eventually won the game 1–0.
“The refereeing wasn’t very good tonight, and I don’t mind saying that”, said head coach Clint Schneider after the match. “It allowed the game to go the way it went. Both teams had to deal with it unfortunately. I don’t think either team handled it very well to be perfectly honest, but rivalry games do get intense that way.”
SFU got off to an fantastic start. Mamadi Camara scored in the 15th minute, burying the ball into the bottom right corner. He is in the form of his life, scoring two goal in the last match and the game-winner in this one. From then on, the match was defined by its physical nature. Both teams traded physical challenges, and surprisingly no yellow cards were handed out. SPU’s first good chance of the game came in the 32nd minute, when the forward fired a low shot right at Watson. The half ended 1–0 to SFU.
“The refereeing wasn’t very good tonight, and I don’t mind saying that.”
The second half started with more physical play, as both teams were carried away by the emotions of the rivalry. Adam Jones almost added an insurance goal for SFU, but missed the net. The first yellow card of the game was given to Pascal Schmidt of SFU. It was surprising that the first yellow was given this late, as there were a number of hard challenges before it. After that, four more were given out. SFU held on to their win thanks in part to defender Callum Whittaker. After missing Thursday’s match due to a quad problem, he came back and effectively organized the back line against a potent SPU attack.
Schneider wasn’t done with the officiating after the match. “It wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t consistent for both sides. The referees here in Canada don’t know the GNAC rules, and it’s a huge issue. It needs to be addressed, sooner than later. It’s supposed to be already addressed, it’s embarrassing.”
Despite the scoreline, there is still room for improvement, according to Schneider. “We got to be better. We got to be able to keep the ball and play the way we want to play. Be organized, work hard, those kind of things. Things that we can control, we have to be better at. Until we get to that point, we’re not going to be a team that win the big games.”
The team’s next game will be Thursday, when they play host to Northwest Nazarene.
