Freddy Adu is sick of the label he’s gotten.
“I swear,I think that — and it sucks — but I think that my reputation with the referees in this league is that I’m a diver,” said Adu. “Whenever anybody fouls me and I go down, they’re not going to call the foul.”
Twice Adu was tripped up in the box in the second half of Saturday’s 2-1 loss to New England. Each time his pleas for a penalty kick went unanswered by referee Jair Marrufo.
Regardless of whether his pleas were completely merited — replays appeared to vindicate the 17-year-old midfielder, who drew contact from Revolution midfielder Khano Smith, the second time Adu said he tried to keep his feet and went down late after a slight clip by Revolution midfiedler Jeff Larentowicz. But it’s not the first time in his MLS career Adu hasn’t had calls go his way.
“I think, being fair to him, he didn’t get too many calls this year,” said United head coach Peter Nowak. “We’re talking about protecting players, different players, and you can see this kid doesn’t get any fair calls. Everyone is assuming he is diving. This is probably not right and not fair because he is doing his talent, and he’s pretty good at it.”
Adu’s frustrations were one of many during a game midfielder Ben Olsen called one of D.C.’s best offensive performances in a long time. United (15-6-10) outshot New England, 22-11, but the team’s defensive lapses must be fixed before the playoffs begin in less than two weeks.
“I get tripped and I’m off-balance and go down, that’s a PK,” said Adu. “I told the other guys, from now on I’m going to try 125 percent never to go down because I feel like unless it’s something real serious, the refs are never going to call a foul for me.”
