PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Sky Blue FC defeated FC Kansas City 3-2 in a thrilling match chock full of goals with plenty of other chances to score even more. There were opportunities for either side from start to finish, setting up a fantastic match on the night the Jersey Girls set history by becoming the first club in United States women’s club soccer history to play 100 regular season matches in a single league.

But it was a play in midfield at the stroke of halftime that shifted the momentum of the match from the visitors, who were up 2-0 when it occurred, to the hosts, who used a hat-trick from Sam Kerr in the final 12 minutes to salvage a win.

Sky Blue centerback Erica Skroski lost the ball in midfield to the Blues’ Shea Groom, leaving plenty of space in behind for Groom to exploit. Skroski elected to go for the professional foul, knowing she was likely to pick up a yellow, a sacrifice she was willing to make in order to prevent her side from going down 3-0 at the half.

When she did so, Groom reacted by putting her hands on Skroski’s face, forcing referee Amber O’Connor to convene with one of her linesman to discuss the play. The two ultimately decided to give Skroski a yellow card for her foul and Groom a red for her reaction.

As a result, Sky Blue controlled a majority of the second half and eventually wound up getting the three points, much to the displeasure of Kansas City head coach Vlatko Andonovski.

The Macedonian manager went off on a minute-long rant when addressing the media about the sequence. Here is the transcription of his comments in full:

“I think it was a great game. We came out in the first half and dominated the game and scored two goals and then you saw what happened in the last minute. First, that call, instead of being the other way around, red card for them and yellow card for us, this is what the referee did. I know I’m usually at least trying to be quiet and not say anything but, this league has some very good referees but some of the referees are the worst in the whole world. Unfortunately, if we want this league to go forward, if you want good players to come to this league, if you want people to come, something needs to happen because it happened to us last game. Last game we were here in Jersey, the goal that was taken away in the 88th minute, clear goal. It happened against Houston at home, it happens now.

“We have a second yellow card, easy second yellow card they don’t call. I don’t know what to do. I keep motivating the players, keep motivating and saying we can’t change anything but it gets too much. You can only do so much. I think that I’m proud of them, I’m proud of them trying to overcome all the challenges that were in front of them. Obviously I don’t want to take anything away from Sky Blue and those beautiful plays by them and I congratulate to them on the win but at the same time, I cannot be quiet anymore about the way that the referees are reffing these games. Like I said, this is our thirteenth game and we’ve had some great referees, we’ve lost games. We lost in Chicago, we lost in north carolina, great refereeing, can’t say a word. But when things like this happen, we’re not talking this game.

“I’ve talked to six, seven coaches in the league, everybody agrees that something needs to happen because this is the best league in the world, hands down, there’s no question. The referees are not even close to that. I’m not talking all the referees. Like I said, we’ve had some great ones and even in the games that we’ve lost, but tonight was one of the worst ones.”

Andonovski managed to throw in one last jab with his final comment: “We have to start practicing playing a man down because we’ve played three of our first 13 games a man down.”

Sky Blue head coach Christy Holly said he didn’t see the play, but based on what he was told, he believes the call was correct.

“I got to be honest, totally honest, I didn’t see it,” he said. “I‘m not going to run away from it. I’ve heard what happened and the referee got it right.”

Asked if the time it took for the referees to make the decision, he admitted it was a cause for concern.

“That was concerning, I’m not going to lie, that was a little concerning,” Holly said. “But if they’re just going through their due diligence, fair enough. I think that was, as I said, we got a second chance there. That was maybe a level of maturity, I think she’s a fantastic player and that level of aggression that she brings to a game, I personally actually like, but there’s plenty of reactions, and unfortunately for her, she fell on the wrong side of it. But I do admire as a player so I’m not going to badmouth her.”

Here is Skroski’s view of the incident:

“We both went at it, kind of like a one-v-one, things got physical and then she kind of grabbed me in the face a little bit and it played out like it did.”

Groom wasn’t able to be tracked down for an interview after the match.

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