A Way With Words

Luis flags something Fire Head Coach Denis Hamlett said in his post-game comments on Saturday:

2. Hamlett saw a handball: Denis Hamlett believes the Revolution's Kevin Alston should have been called for a handball in the box on Saturday. "I've seen that get called a handball 99.9 percent of the time," Hamlett said. "You could see it hit Alston's hand. It's a PK. No discussion."

That's not really a fair representation of how Hamlett framed the non-call. He actually said that his team hasn't been getting any breaks lately -- whether it's finishing good chances or getting calls -- to the point where a handball that gets called 99.9 percent of the time didn't get called. In my view, that's actually a pretty clever way of criticizing the referee without actually criticizing the referee. He's really bemoaning the notion that his squad is in the 0.1 percent, but smacking down the ref in the process. If MLS tries to fine him, I think he's actually got a good defense.

Hamlett seems to get a bad rep from the media on his quotability, but I think they may be selling him short.