Angel City owner Julie Uhrman fined by NWSL after confronting referees

The latest Angel City drama went a bit too far

The NWSL has fined Angel City FC owner and president Julie Uhrman for a confrontation with referees on Saturday.

The undisclosed fine was issued, per a league statement, “for approaching the officials at the conclusion of an Angel City FC match on May 13, in violation of Section 12.4.5 ‘Approaching Officials’ of the League Operations Manual.”

The incident came moments after the controversial ending to Angel City’s 1-0 loss to the Washington Spirit. Referee JC Griggs called Angel City’s M.A. Vignola for a handling offense after she blocked a shot attempt from Marissa Sheva just inside the box.

Four minutes into second-half stoppage time, Washington’s Ashley Hatch fired home from the spot, leaving the home crowd fuming at the outcome.

The call itself was not straightforward: Sheva’s shot hit Vignola in the ribs and bounced up into her flailing arm as she jumped.

Asked by a pool reporter present at BMO Stadium, Griggs acknowledged that deflection, but said that he made his call because “there was a secondary motion of the arm. This movement of the arm was at/above the shoulder making the body unnaturally bigger blocking the path of the ball.”

Notably, Griggs’ initial call was backed up by both an assistant referee on the field, who could be seen flagging for it immediately on replay, and by a VAR review.

However, none of this made anyone at Angel City feel better about the call, with players remonstrating during the VAR check.

Angel City coach Freya Coombe, who appeared to obstruct Uhrman’s path to the refereeing crew at full time, told reporters that she was “still confused as to why that would be a penalty shout. Yeah, the positioning of the arm..I don’t know where we are expected to put one’s arm when the elbow’s tucked into the sides and you’re turning your back as you’re clearing a ball.”

“When I watched it back on the big screen, it looked like it hit the side of her,” added midfielder Dani Weatherholt. “Super unfortunate for another VAR called to not go our way, but I think it is what it is at this point.”

Late drama and tough calls for Angel City

Weatherholt’s point on VAR hints at why this particular call brought such a reaction from Angel City. Obviously there’s the proximity to full time, and in the case of Uhrman, BMO Stadium has some seating that is separated from the pitch by nothing more than a single strand of rope. It’s not actually very hard for someone to get on the pitch, which opens the door to this kind of incident.

However, Angel City has seen some tough calls go against them this year. Jun Endo’s brilliant 40-yard lob of Abby Smith in their opener was called back after a long VAR check bafflingly found that Weatherholt — with her plant foot being clipped by NJ/NY Gotham FC’s Kelley O’Hara, rather than the other way around — had committed a foul.

In a 2-0 loss to the San Diego Wave on April 23, Angel City saw another goal scored on them in controversial fashion. Alex Morgan ran into Paige Nielsen outside the box as the Wave broke forward on the attack, and Sofia Jakobsson ended up scoring seconds later from space that Nielsen seemed to be heading towards before being knocked over. That goal, which drew some since-deleted tweets from Nielsen after the match, ended up being the game-winner.

They’ve also been used to extraordinary late drama, both for and against their cause. Angel City’s seven league games so far have seen four goals scored from the 87th minute onward, and all four have changed the result of the game in question.

On April 2 they got their first win of the season on Katie Johnson’s goal 10 minutes into stoppage time of a 2-1 victory at the Orlando Pride, and on April 15 sealed a two-goal comeback draw on Savannah McCaskill’s 87th minute goal against Racing Louisville.

The flip side of that coin has come more recently: Hatch’s goal four minutes into stoppage time handed Angel City a loss, while a 3-3 draw at the Portland Thorns was going to be a triumph for the LA-based club until Bella Bixby’s backheel in the seventh minute of stoppage time made her just the second goalkeeper to ever score in NWSL play.

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