Wrapping up a day of MLS suspension chatter

Since MLS suspension talk is very topical, let’s throw a little more wood on this roaring fire:

Seattle Times soccer writer Joshua Mayers talked to Alvaro Fernandez about his recent suspension for embellishment. High marks here to the Sounders midfielder for accountability. Essentially, Fernandez said he needed to adjust and not do that stuff anymore.

The Washington Post’s Steven Goff spoke to Brandon McDonald about his retroactive suspension, which MLS announced yesterday. McDonald isn’t happy, but all in all, everyone around RFK sounds fairly reasonable about things. Manager Ben Olsen told Goff that consistency in the league’s updated approach is the key.

But, do I agree in principle that we need to stop some of the stuff that’s hurting some of our better players, some of the tackles that are keeping guys out and embellishing and all that stuff? Yeah. So we’ll see how it goes.

Even U.S. manager Jurgen Klinsmann weighed in, addressing the topic on today’s media conference call.

The U.S. manager’s thoughts on the MLS usage of video evidence to issue retroactive action is all German pragmatism: “I think it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “It’s an educational process. I’m not saying you’re going to fix everything. People make mistakes, and you are accountable for making mistakes, so it’s the right thing to do.”