May 28, 2005   Timbers game. Another tie. Still undefeated, but that's starting to lose its luster. Never has being undefeated been so frustrating, unfulfilling.

I won't say the night sucked, being the crowd was great, but as for the game... The frustration can best be conveyed via what happened at the very end. The score was 2-1, Timbers lead. With only minutes left, the ref gave Virginia a penalty kick for what was, at most, a soft foul, if a foul at all. Virginia made the pk, tying the game, then their players ran to taunt and mock the Timbers fans.

Can you say pathetic? They didn't even deserve a penalty kick, then they act like total asses afterwards. And did the ref do anything about their antics? No. The ref did see fit, however, to give one of our guys a yellow card for poor sportsmanship earlier because he whipped off his shirt to celebrate a goal. So, taking off your shirt to celebrate a goal? Poor sportsmanship penalty. Taunting and flipping off your opponent's fans after a goal? Perfectly acceptable. Arrgh!

What's interesting is that a Vancouver fan saw video of the game and was so disgusted by what happened that he posted to the Timbers board about it. And when fans of other teams talk about how crappy the ref was, you know its bad.

Even more interesting, he said the same thing happened when Vancouver played Virginia a few days ago. End of the game, Vancouver was ahead, and the ref gave Virginia a dubious penalty kick. After seeing the same thing happen twice in a row, the Vancouver fan is wondering if the refs are going easy on Virginia because they have one of the worst records and their franchise is struggling. Seems far fetched but, after the game fixing scandal in Germany, these things cross your mind. But the more plausable explanation is that the ref needs to have the tequila bottle taken away from him.

Despite the tie, it was great just going to a game, since it had been 2 weeks since the last one, and there won't be another home game for 2 more weeks. The withdrawl sucks, but at least this time the Timbers will be playing (on the road), rather than having no games at all. And maybe they'll even win.

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