CHESTER, Pa. — As Gregg Berhalter left the media room at Talen Energy Stadium on Wednesday night, the Columbus Crew SC head coach cracked, “I’m not as entertaining as Mike Petke, huh?”
He came pretty close.
Four days after the Real Salt Lake coach’s epic postgame rant, Berhalter had one of his own after two of his players were sent off with straight red cards in a 3-0 loss to the Philadelphia Union.
“I can’t wait until August 5 when VAR is put into place,” Berhalter fumed, as he sat down.
The Crew SC head man took umbrage with “the whole performance by these referees,” but believed the two ejections in particular stood out. Jonathan Mensah was whistled for the first when he took down C.J. Sapong at the edge of the box in the 35th minute, getting carded for DOGSO (denial of a clear goal-scoring opportunity). But Berhalter said he wasn’t “even sure if it was inside the penalty box.”
Columbus went down to nine men in the 76th minute when Lalas Abubukar was sent off by referee Ismail Elfath for making contact with Ilsinho's face.
“Ilsinho’s trying to block Lalas from getting the ball and playing on so he does a swim type of move to get around him and he gets a red card,” Berhalter said. “Ilsinho should be ashamed of himself. That has no place in soccer, that type of acting.”
Berhalter was also upset with one play he thought lacked sportsmanship, in that Philly pressed a throw-in too closely for him.
But the coach directed none of the postgame ire toward his own team.
“The guys didn’t quit,” he said. “They kept going, they kept fighting, they kept working. They did more than I could have asked of them, and I’m proud of them for that.”
Rebounding from Wednesday’s loss may not be easy, considering two center backs — Mensah and Abubakar — will be both be suspended for Saturday’s game at Real Salt Lake (8 PM ET | MLS LIVE). But Berhalter is confident the team will “regroup,” pointing to the fact that they have five center backs on the roster and “all of them didn’t get red cards.”
He also said the club is likely to appeal Abubakar’s red, adding that he believes the rookie is “getting scapegoated because he’s so strong and because he’s a rookie.”
“We’re putting the result away,” Berhalter said. “I already told the guys after the game, ‘We didn’t get beat by Philadelphia tonight. We got beat by the three men in red.’ We’re OK. We’re gonna be fine. The morale’s gonna be fine.”
