Josh Doughty has scored two of Cascadia’s three goals in the 2018 Footba World Cup but he will miss today’s crunch tie with Tamil Eelam after a red card awarded after the final whistle.
He and Barawan forward Aryan Tajbakhsh were both shown red after a post match bust up that happened in front of the two benches. Tajbakhsh is the Turkish/Iranain forward born in Hendon with no apparent ties to either Barawa or even Africa that somehow qualifies for a team claiming to represent the Somali diaspora and a region in the south of the East African country.
Meet Cascadia’s opponents Barawa
According to Doughty however, he was very passionate for the Barawan cause:
“The ball was in the corner at the very end. The guy turns, punches me in the face plainly. I just let it go. He does it again maybe 10, 15 seconds later, hits me again in the face.
“So at that point, I just lost my head and gave him a little shove. He hits me for a third time in the face and we both get red carded. I think we’ll try and appeal it and see what we do.”
However Prost can reveal that Cascadia will not be appealing the red card after reviewing footage and talking to members of their team that saw the incident.
Much as they can confirm Doughty was provoked and punched, his retaliatory shove was high up enough on Tajbakhsh to fall into the category of offences for which a red is normally shown. There is apparently a risk of a one match ban becoming two if an appeal fails and the team felt that it wasn’t worth the risk.
It seemed to be the consensus that Doughty is so crucial to the team’s fortunes that they wanted to ensure he is fit and available should Cascadia proceed to the knockout stages.
Doughty being congratulated by Yuri Farkas (19)
Photo: Ali Gilmore
There were other factors that played into the decision not to appeal.
Doughty has played two full games in three days and may have needed to be rested for today’s game against Tamil Eelam anyway. Calum Ferguson who has played forward is keen to drop back into the playmaker role if needed, although he too has played both games. That would probably see the bulky and hard to handle Jon Nouble play as centre forward, and at least add some needed height to the forward line.
Furthermore, the CAFF administration were secretly and in a very laid back Cascadian way very angry about the late addition of Mohamed Battamer to the Cascadia squad not only after the May 15th deadline but also even after the Barawans had played their first game.
As ConIFA apparently signed off on the inclusion, it appears that the organisers are flouting their own rules with one source telling us that a ConIFA official merely said “he’s a worse player than the original so why are you bothered?”
Well the ‘worse’ player scored Barawa’s only goal and was among their better performers but again, that’s hardly the point. 15 squads are obeying the rules and Barawa are making a mockery of them. Although Cascadia have not lodged a formal appeal, you can bey they will reconsider should Barawa finish ahead of them in the group. At least under FIFA rules, a forfeited game should be a 3-0 loss to the disqualifed team.
That is no consolation or Doughty whose altercation with the Iranian from Hendon sees him excluded from today’s game.
