There is an adage in sports about not giving your opponents 鈥渂illboard material鈥� to post in their dressing room.
Referees, presumably, have billboards in their change rooms too. Pacific FC head coach 颅Pa-Modou Kah isn鈥檛 hesitant to fill them.
The PFC bench boss is clearly not happy to be missing captain Jamar Dixon for tonight鈥檚 颅Canadian Premier League first-place showdown against Cavalry FC of Calgary at 7 at Starlight Stadium.
The sa国际传媒-capped midfielder will sit out tonight after being red carded in PFC鈥檚 last game on Saturday by accumulating two yellow cards in the 2-1 victory over FC Edmonton at Clarke Stadium.
鈥淛amar showed no malice. They were not horrendous fouls,鈥� said Kah.
Kah said that what he sees as a flurry of yellows being handed out this season in the CPL is 颅distracting from the play.
鈥淭he [officials] need to make it more of the players and not of themselves,鈥� he said.
鈥淭he referees need to keep the cards in their pockets and not make it about themselves. There has been just too much of the sending out of the yellow cards and not being in control of the games.鈥�
PFC players Josh Heard and Alessandro Hojabrpour are among the six players to have drawn a league-leading six yellow cards this season. A total of 46 CPL players have been booked for three or more yellow cards totalling 176 yellows. That total doesn鈥檛 include players on one or two yellows.
Kah has been no stranger to the blizzard of yellows, having been suspended for one league game this season to card accumulation, and also being yellow carded in PFC鈥檚 upset Canadian Championship first-round 颅victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer.
Gianni Dos Santos, meanwhile, will miss his third league game tonight as he finishes off his three-game suspension for his red card against Cavalry on Aug. 20.
Despite Kah鈥檚 reservations about their pockets full of cards this season, he said he has deep respect for officials.
鈥淭hey have a really tough job and I have a good relationship with the officials,鈥� he said.
PFC has won four of its last five games, including against the Whitecaps, with the only 颅blemish in that stretch a 2-1 loss to Cavalry on Aug. 20 at Starlight Stadium.
First place is on the line tonight as the Island and Calgary clubs top the CPL table with 9-3-4 records.
鈥淚t will be like a chess match with each club having to think outside the box,鈥� said Kah.
He listed the status of Marco Bustos 鈥� the clear leading candidate for CPL MVP before missing the last four PFC outings to injury 鈥� as game-to-game.
Tonight will be the 201st game in CPL history with the honour of the 200th going to Wednesday night鈥檚 fixture between Forge FC of Hamilton and Atletico Ottawa. The CPL, upon its launch in 2019 as the long-awaited Canadian domestic pro soccer league, couldn鈥檛 have imagined that two of its first three seasons would be played amid a pandemic.
鈥淚t shows what we have endured as a league to provide a place for young Canadian 颅players,鈥� said Kah.
He pointed to his club鈥檚 victory over MLS side Whitecaps in the sa国际传媒 derby of the Canadian Championship with two more such match-ups on tap in the quarter-final round with Halifax HFX Wanderers of the CPL meeting CF Montr茅al of MLS and York United of the CPL playing Toronto FC of MLS at BMO Field this month. Pacific鈥檚 quarter-final Canadian Championship game is against, who else, but Cavalry on Sept. 22 in Calgary as this rivalry continues to grow.
