Major League Soccer’s disciplinary committee is in a bit of a pickle. It’s about Clint Dempsey and an incident in Saturday’s match against FC Dallas, one televised nationally on NBC.
Watch the first-half incident (below), where Dallas’ Peter Luccin earns a yellow card for tripping Dempsey. But then watch as the Sounders’ U.S. international kicks his opponent from the ground.
MLSSoccer.com’s Simon Borg, on his excellent, weekly review of the iffy, the dodgy and the controversial among MLS refereeing decisions, said it deserved a straight red. I’m not quite as certain, but it’s certainly worth talking about.
When it comes to retaliatory kick-outs just like this one, I always go back to the most famous of reds. David Beckham (back when he was just David Beckham, and not “global soccer icon David Beckham) was famously thrown out against Argentina. In a World Cup elimination match, no less, at World Cup France ’98. And his kick-out packed less menace than Dempsey’s.
Here’s that one, in case you haven’t seen it.
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Back to Major League Soccer’s Disciplinary Committee, and to its impending pickle:
For me, this probably isn’t enough to issue a retroactive red. But there is something there, enough to be considered. And the DC appears to be in a “can’t-win” situation on this one.
If they suspend Dempsey, mark that down as “huge blow” to Seattle in a match they are desperate to win, preferring not to go hang-dogged into the playoffs on a seven-game winless skid. Plus, as we talked about yesterday, teams are fairly desperate to avoid those fourth- and fifth-place positions.
(MORE: Why teams are desperate to dodge fourth- and fifth-place)
Seattle already has depleted attacking forces, and Dempsey’s absence would pour more injury woe into CenturyLink Field.
On the other hand, if the DC passes on issuing action here, there will surely be cries of favoritism, an “unseemly lean toward the one of the league’s favored sons and toward the league’s highest-paid man,” that kind of stuff. It’s a tough one.
Here’s the moment in question:
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