Tag: Hernan Losada

MLS Madness™ as double-VAR goal helps CF Montreal stun Philadelphia Union

Did you know VAR can VAR itself?

It’s safe to say that Jim Curtin didn’t enjoy the late, er, show at Stade Olympique on Saturday.

The Philadelphia Union boss was left baffled after his side threw away a 2-1 road lead to fall 3-2 at CF Montréal. Julián Carranza was sent off in the 69th minute, and the Quebecois club turned a seeming loss into a stunning win thanks to a goal that went through two different VAR checks, and a 98th minute Romell Quioto winner.

It started well enough for Montréal, who took a third-minute lead. Mathieu Choinière’s shot was handled by Jakob Glesnes, sending Quioto to the spot early. The Honduran had no trouble converting the penalty, giving Montréal their first goal of the season.

The Union weren’t happy with their first half, and wasted no time getting level. Mikael Uhre shot home after just 20 seconds following excellent work from Leon Flach and Dániel Gazdag.

Philadelphia then produced a lovely second, passing their way around the characteristic high press of Hernán Losada’s teams. A series of headed passes fell to José Martínez, whose clever lob opened the game up.

Gazdag then essentially produced a carbon copy of Martínez’s pass, taking advantage of an odd hop off the Big O turf to send Uhre in alone for a brace.

However, Carranza picked up a second yellow card nine minutes later, crashing into Joel Waterman well after the ball was gone.

It was a golden chance for Montréal to break out of a season-opening three-game losing streak, but even as Losada threw in a quadruple substitution to try and get his team some kind of equalizer, shots for the home side were hard to come by. The Union were showing their experience, and seemed set to kill the game off for a hard-earned win.

Montréal had seemingly one last push, though, and produced an unconventional equalizer in the 90th minute. Waterman, a center back, ended up in space on the right wing, and served in a hopeful cross. Choinière, a wingback, found himself in the goalmouth, and despite the attentions of three Philadelphia players, floated a header back against the grain.

The Union were bailed out, as the ball clipped off the crossbar and away from goal. With the game up for grabs, Chinoso Offor simply wanted it more than Glesnes, winning a shoulder-to-shoulder challenge to bundle the ball across the line.

VAR held up referee Nima Saghafi, though: Offor and Sunusi Ibrahim were possibly offside as Choinière’s header went towards goal.

Replays seem to point to a goal coming back, but even after Saghafi booked Losada for urging the game to restart and then checked the monitor, no conclusion came. Saghafi left the monitor after less than 30 seconds, calling the goal off. Montréal captain Victor Wanyama pleaded with an official, and before play resumed, VAR called down again.

The overturned call needed to be checked again…by the guy who had overturned it.

Saghafi took another look, and this time the goal stood. Unsurprisingly, the two coaches had differing takes.

“Luckily for the beauty of the sport and for us tonight they could come back and make the right decision because at the end they made the right call,” Losada told reporters after the match.

Union boss Jim Curtin felt somewhat differently in his remarks, saying “the word s—show comes to mind,” adding that “I’ve never seen anything like that in my life.”

Answering a question sent by a pool reporter after the game, Saghafi explained the situation:

On the initial review, the defender holding [Offor] onside was off screen. After the initial review occurred, prior to play restarting, the VAR discovered an angle that clearly showed that [Offor] was in an onside position when the ball was last touched by a teammate.

Back to the game, which wasn’t over. Losada’s D.C. United teams were known for going all-out for wins, whether or not that was the wisest course of action. With a home crowd roaring and a short-handed, fatigued opponent, though?

You probably already know where this one’s going: in the eighth minute of stoppage time Choinière was involved yet again, looping a cross to the back post. What started as a battle between Quioto and Union right back Olivier Mbaizo ended with the former easily shedding the latter, and Quioto turned the resulting free header into a dramatic, last-gasp winner.

[lawrence-related id=15873,15783]

Ex-D.C. United goalkeeper Chris Seitz told a sad and strange Hernan Losada story

The goalkeeper, who retired earlier this year said that an incident with the club’s former coach left him at “rock bottom”

During his brief tenure as D.C. United head coach, Hernan Losada was widely known to be a stickler for fitness.

Losada asked his DCU team to press almost constantly, aiming to put opponents under pressure all over the field and win possession quickly after losing it.

In order to play such an uptempo style, Losada ran his teams hard in training and also monitored every element of his players’ diet, conducting regular weigh-ins at the team’s training facility.

Some players responded well to Losada’s regimented style while others did not – including Paul Arriola, whom The Athletic reported left the club in large part due to Losada.

Losada was fired early this season after just 15 months in charge. Perhaps a different coach would’ve been given more time but the Argentine had clearly rubbed many within the organization the wrong way.

Seitz says Losada left him at ‘rock bottom’

On Tuesday, former DCU goalkeeper Chris Seitz told a story that elucidated some of Losada’s methods on Twitter.

Seitz, who retired earlier this year, said he was confronted over, of all things, a photo of his wife and kids having a picnic.

“One day I came in early to practice to do my run and our strength coach came up to me,” Seitz said. “It was Mother’s Day the day prior and I posted a photo of my wife sitting at a picnic table eating a sandwich with chips with our kids, I was not in the photo & the photo was from 2 years prior.

“He told me the coach had pulled him into the office to talk about the photo I had posted and why I was eating poor food choices. It was a picnic at the park and there was sandwiches, chips, and waters and sodas on the table.

“I thought he was joking, I was working hard, damn near starving myself, and doing everything he asked of me, to be who he wanted me to be.

“This was right when I got benched and after a poor start to the season from myself and the team so this broke me. It put me in a place [of] self doubt and depression.”

Seitz added that his wife would later remark that he had become a different person, adding that he knew he had hit “rock bottom.”

The 35-year-old went on to say that his wife and nutritionist helped save him from injury and that he “realized that life, happiness, family, mental health, and everything outside of the sport was so much more important to me than making one coach happy!”

Read Seitz’s entire thread on Twitter