LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Louisville City FC manager Danny Cruz isn’t one to talk much about officiating. But after a 2-1 loss at Hartford, he had a few words. His team had played two-thirds of the game a man down after Adrien Perez was sent off in the 29th minute.
The call came shortly after what LouCity thought was a missed penalty.
LouCity still went up 1-0 after the ejection, but could not hold off Hartford, which got a pair of goals from Mamadou Dieng in the second half. The loss to the team which sat in 11th place in the 12-team USL East standings, ends a five-game win streak for LouCity.
“I was extremely proud of the mentality of the group, the work rate,” Cruz said. “It's never easy to be down a man for 60 minutes. Obviously, you know, I felt, certainly, that the level tonight from the crew, the referee crew, was below the level of expectation of a professional league. And this, for me, is a huge problem.”
And Cruz, who was shown a yellow card in the 29th minute and sent off with another after the 66th minute, wasn’t finished.
“You had a referee tell Adrien Perez to (expletive) off. I got sent off for literally clapping and telling Aiden (McFadden) that he done well to earn the foul in the corner,” Cruz said. “I didn't say a word to the fourth official until the 20th minute, 22nd minute, to be exact, and got officially warned. This is not a standard that I think is acceptable at our level. At the end of the day, I don't ever talk about the referees in these press conferences. I don't ever want there to be excuses for a poor result, but I did feel that my group left everything they could on the field, and they were hard done by tonight.”
When the teams met in Louisville, the home team had its way, cruising to a 6-0 victory. And LouCity got the advantage on a goal from Taylor Davila, scoring from long range, in the 37th minute.
LouCity still holds a record of 17-5-2 and remains in control of its conference. It will travel to face North Carolina next Saturday at 7:30.
Cruz says he thinks Saturday’s experience will only make his team better.
“The messaging is we need to respond like we have all season,” Cruz said. “We need to make sure that we keep a good mindset. I think we’ll be better off having gone through this moment. I do hope and feel that this will make our group stronger and better. . . . Under no circumstances am I okay losing the game, but I do hope and feel that this will make our group stronger and better. I thought the players certainly put in a shift.”
As for the officiating, Cruz said he’ll definitely follow up with the league.
“There is a process where we go through to report,” Cruz said. “I've had really good dialog with PRO (Professional Referee Organization) over the last few weeks. I have felt that there's been improvement in certain areas, you know. But again, the fourth official tonight, 20 minutes into the game, I had not said one word to him, and I get a warning after asking him about a call. And all that I was looking for was communication on what the call was. And you know, there was, for me, a clear penalty in the first half. I've already looked at it, looked back at it three times, but it seemed that our players couldn't get a call tonight, and for an (assistant referee), for the AR two to tell a player to (expletive) off. I have a real problem with that. I have a real problem with that. And we're going to file the report, we're going to go through PRO, we're going to go through the league, see what comes of it. But ultimately, I don't believe that that the crew was up to the standard that it needed to be at a level like ours.”
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