YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — Seoul American’s girls soccer team’s fourth-place Far East Class AA tournament finish was ordered vacated, along with any All-Tournament nominations, by DODDS-Pacific officials for what they termed "extreme misconduct" after Friday’s match.
Kadena was awarded a 1-0 victory and third place.
With 16:40 left, Seoul American assistant coach Steve Kennedy was given a second caution and sent off by referee Mike Chase for "dissent," and was ordered to leave the game area.
Kennedy halted at a tree line about 50 meters from the field, still in sight of Chase, five minutes after he was ordered to leave. Chase then whistled the match over, bringing Falcons players and head coach Lori Rogers off the bench in a firestorm of protest.
Chase’s after-action report, a copy of which was obtained by Stars and Stripes, cited Falcons players for using vulgar language toward referees, and one — sophomore sweeper April Matthews — ran after Chase and had to be restrained.
Rogers, pregnant with her third child, also raged at Chase but collapsed on the field seconds later. She was revived and taken by paramedics to Yokota Hospital, where she was treated and released Friday evening.
DODDS-Pacific’s Far East Activities Council chair Don Hobbs said he consulted by phone with tournament director Bonnie Seeley and Yokota principal Richard Schlueter about the incident.
"I ultimately made the decision," Hobbs said. "It’s a matter of putting our foot down and letting people know that this sort of behavior won’t be tolerated at Far East activities."
Kennedy said he’d asked an official not involved with the match how far away from the field he had to go, and said he was told "I could stay by the trees." Chase said the official who told him that was incorrect and that Chase’s decision was final.
Reached at her quarters on Yokota by telephone, Rogers called Hobbs’ decision "the wrong thing to do" and said "all the referees had been rude to us all day."
"I think our team got cheated," Rogers said, adding that if her players misbehaved, it was because they saw "their coach fall to the ground. They didn’t know why the match was called off. They were emotional, confused. I think it was very poor judgment."
Rogers also called the decision to vacate any All-Tournament selections "a shame," saying that midfielder Sarah Eades would have likely been selected, and that freshman Liz Gleaves was in the running for Outstanding Goalkeeper.
