Reo-Coker Criticizes Teammate, Draws Coach's Ire

Nigel Reo Coker and Darren Mattocks celebrate a goal on Saturday. (Vancouver Sun)

Vancouver forward Darren Mattocks had an......interesting weekend.  He put his side up 1-0 with a great goal in Houston last Saturday, but failed convert on a second half chance when he possibly should have passed instead of taking a shot.  Had he scored, the 'Caps would have gone up 2-0, as it was, Houston came back to win the game 2-1.

Former Premier League man Nigel Reo-Coker, who was wearing the captain's armband for Vancouver, spoke out after the game, saying that he had informed the youngster that he should have passed...

“I said to Darren after the game, ‘With the level we’re at now, those are the small margins that we can’t let pass us by.  We take our second chance, the game’s 2-0. It would have been very difficult for them to come back.

“That’s the difference between playing a higher level of football and a lower level of football. You take your chances. You might only get once chance away from home and you must learn to take that one chance that you may get.”

That's all well and good, and even Mattocks said that he welcomed the comments from his veteran teammate.  However, Vancouver head coach Martin Rennie was not as impressed.  He didn't mind that Reo-Coker made his feelings known to Mattocks, but he was not pleased that he aired his comments to the media.  When asked about Reo-Coker's comments he said,

“That’s not something we’ll be doing too much of.  In terms of communicating directly within the team, yes, that has to be clear what we expect. But publicly, no."

Rennie went on to say that generally it's not something he gets into immediately after a game.  He said that dealing with these kind of issues is better after a couple of days so that emotions aren't running as high and everyone has a clear head.

What do you guys think?  Should Reo-Coker have made his comments public?  Personally, I think that speaking in public about something like that is probably the coach's job.  As for the play itself, I saw it live and thought Mattocks should have passed.  It should be noticed that Mattocks didn't actually miss, he just forced a rather easy save out of Tally Hall.  At any rate, sound like the 'Caps might be on their way back down to earth a little bit.