DC United Vs. Colorado Rapids: Referee Terry Vaughn Is The Story

The DC United and Colorado Rapids match began like many matches have for United this season. United starts the match with a lot of really good possession. They scrounge up one or two decent scoring opportunities. Their opponents score on their first attempt. That attempt for the Rapids would come on a long free kick from Jamie Smith. The ball would deflect off of the back of Dejan Jakovic and land at the feet of Colorado defender Drew Moor who would put the ball in the back of the net.

DC would be hit with the injury bug before the half was over however. Both starting forwards, Charlie Davies and Josh Wolff, would exit with injuries to the hamstring (Davies) and groin (Wolff). They would be replaced by Santino Quaranta and Joseph Ngwenya respectively.

The Terry Vaughn show would begin just before halftime. Drew Moor would trip up Dax McCarty at midfield. Moor was clearly the last defender, and McCarty would have had a free run at Matt Pickens in the Colorado goal. Referee Terry Vaughn decided that the foul was only worthy of a yellow card. The DC crowd, players, and bench would erupt in anger at the decision, but that would pale in comparison to the anger in the 55th minute. Jeff Larentowicz clearly fouled Ngwenya in the box, and Vaughn signaled to play on. Ngwenya would chase Vaughn down the field to plead his case, but it would fall on deaf ears. 

Colorado fans would also get their bad call from Vaughn. Chris Pontius dribbled into the box in the 60th minute and lean his shoulder into Rapids defender Kosuke Kimura. Pontius would lose his balance and fall the RFK field. This is the play where Vaughn would attempt to correct his earlier mistake and call a penalty on Kimura. It was clearly a foul against Pontius. Pontius would take the penalty and convert to give DC the 1-1 draw.