Nemeth Receives Suspension From Disciplinary Committee

MLS' disciplinary committee came out with a number of suspensions and fines from the 2015 MLS Cup playoffs, one of those suspensions involves Sporting KC's Krisztian Nemeth. Nemeth received a one game suspension and an undisclosed fine for violent conduct that endangered the safety of an opponent in KC's loss to Portland in the Wildcard Round. In the 75th minute, with KC down 1-0 to the Timbers, Nemeth fouled Portland forward, Lucas Melano. Melano went to ground and the whistle was blown. Nemeth though, after the whistle had gone kicked the ball into the head of Melano. The play caused an uproar on Portland's bench and in the stands as it occurred right in front of the benches. Nemeth was only given a yellow card on the play. Nemeth will now miss Kansas City's opener to the 2016 MLS season.



The action of the disciplinary committee, while justified has set off some anger among Kansas City fans about why more action wasn't taken from the game. Specifically KC fans are wondering why no punishment was handed out to Rodney Wallace or Fanendo Adi for their actions in the game. Wallace was carded in the 69th minute for clipping Tim Melia's head as he raced onto a ball. Some KC fans are arguing that Wallace left his foot hanging low in an attempt to catch Melia on the play. The second incident occurred later in the game when Adi and Matt Besler were jostling for a high ball in the air. Adi brought an elbow up and caught Besler in the nose causing a bloody nose for Besler. Neither incident though was met with any comment by the disciplinary committee.

Disciplinary Committee Fines Dwyer, Suspends Espinoza

MLS today announced disciplinary actions from this past weekend's games. KC's name appeared on the report three times this week. First Kansas City and Houston were both found to have violated MLS' mass confrontation policy in the 44th minute when Dom Dwyer challenged Houston goalkeeper, Tyler Deric for a ball in the air. Deric didn't appreciate Dwyer challenging for it when Deric was easily winning the ball. Deric got in Dwyer's face and nudged him with his forearm. Dwyer went down like he'd received a two handed shove. This brought both teams together in Houston's box and referee Jorge Gonzalez handed out a yellow card to both Dywer and Deric for the incident. Dwyer was also fined for his actions in the incident for embellishing the contact made by Deric.

The third incident on the report involves Roger Espinoza and occurred in the 67th minute. Espinoza was racing towards the box after a ball played over the top. Deric came off his line looking to clear the ball, Deric got to the ball first just outside the box and cleared it away. At the same time, Espinoza was lifting his foot to try to touch the ball, over or around Deric. With the bottom of his cleat exposed, Espinoza caught Deric in the shin with his exposed cleats. The disciplinary committee deemed that Espinoza endangered the safety of his opponent and gave Espinoza a fine and a one game suspension, ruling him out for this weekend's clash against Toronto FC along with Dwyer whose yellow card was his fifth of the season.

Speaking of Toronto it appears that they will have forward Jozy Altidore available for this weekend's game against KC. Altidore had been sent off with a red card in Toronto's last game against New England for kicking out at Jose Goncalves. The match report listed Altidore's red card as being for violent conduct, which last year had carried a two game suspension by the league (Toni Dovale had been suspended for his elbow against Alex Lopez of the Houston Dynamo). It appears that is no longer the case and Altidore will serve just the one game suspension and be available for selection this weekend.

Seattle's Alonso Suspended for Game vs Sporting

The Seattle Sounders will be a little shorthanded for their game this weekend in KC against Sporting. Already without Brad Evans due to his call up to the US national team and Clint Dempsey's wife close to giving birth to their fourth child, they found out today that midfield designated player, Osvaldo Alonso will be suspended  for Saturday's game for kicking out at Felipe Martins late in Seattle's 2-1 win over the Red Bulls. The kick, which came after Martins had already knocked the ball away, was awarded as a foul during the game, but no card was given. After review, the Disciplinary Committee deemed that the kick was violent conduct and endangered the safety of his opponent, giving him the one game suspension.

Alonso's loss may be the biggest loss of the three ahead of Saturday's game. Alonso is the Sounders midfield general, and a hard-nosed defensive midfielder. With him out that could allow more space for Benny Feilhaber to operate in the midfield on Saturday. KC will need a lot from Feilhaber on Saturday with call ups and injuries taking their toll on KC's forwards, KC may have to run the old 4-6-0 formation.

Carrasco Supended by Disciplinary Committee

The MLS Disciplinary Committee came out with a number of decisions from this past weekend's games today. Two of those announcements will affect this weekend's game between Sporting Kansas City and the Chicago Fire.

The first decision will affect Sporting KC, as midfielder Servando Carrasco was handed a one game suspension and a fine for violent conduct in the 52nd minute of the 4-4 draw with Houston. After Matt Besler and Kevin Ellis combined to foul Dynamo forward, Giles Barnes. Brad Davis took exception to the situation and some of the players came together. Carrasco, a former Dynamo player struck Davis in the head as the two had a headed argument. Davis had to be pulled away from the situation by his teammates. Also KC was warned for mass confrontation in the game.

The suspension means that Haitian Soni Mustivar could very well earn his first start of the weekend on Sunday against the visiting Fire.



Meanwhile, Chicago will be without midfielder, Matt Watson. The Fire midfielder was suspended for a 27th minute tackle on NYCFC forward Adam Nemec. The tackle at the time had only earned Watson a yellow card, but the Disciplinary Committee saw it differently. He'll also miss this weekend's game.

Suspension and Fines Handed Out From KC's Game in Dallas

Today, the MLS Disciplinary Committee came down with two announcements regarding this past weekend's game between Sporting KC and FC Dallas. Sporting KC's fitness coach Mateus Manoel was suspended for one game and giving a fine for entering the field of play and kicking the ball.

That sounds a lot worse than it actually is. In the 64th minute, a shot by Kansas City went wide of the goal and out of bounds. It bounced off the sign boards and rolled towards the corner flag, eventually rolling back into play. Manoel, who was in the corner working with KC's bench players, jogged quickly onto the field and kicked the ball back to Chris Seitz. While it seems innocent enough, it's something that the league is looking to cut down on this year apparently, as Dallas' fitness coach was hit with the same suspension and fine after the first week of games. Manoel will now miss this weekend's game against the Portland Timbers.



The other incident involved FC Dallas substitute, Kyle Bekker as he was fined for violating the league's policy about hands to the face.. In the 89th minute, Bekker and KC center back, Kevin Ellis tangled in KC's end of the field. A ball was played up the field towards Bekker, but Ellis beat him to the ball with a sliding tackle. As the two game together, Bekker didn't seem to fully try to jump over Ellis. When that happened, Ellis grabbed Bekker's ankle. Bekker took exception to this while Ellis was on the ground, as Ellis tried to get to his feet, still holding Bekker's ankle, Bekker ended up grabbing Ellis by the face and throwing him to the ground.



There was no mention of any of the other incidents in the game mentioned by Simon Borg in his Instant Replay segment on the league's website. But that doesn't necessarily mean that there won't be action, a lot of times the league will get the obvious violation of rules (like entering the field of play and hands to face) early in the week and then get the more debatable stuff later in the week.

As for the referees in the game, PRO does not announce if there are any suspensions for referees, but Jair Maruffo, the center on Saturday, assistant Eric Boria, and the other two referees were given no assignments for this upcoming weekend's games.

Juliao Suspended for Season Finale

Sporting Kansas City's defensive issues just got worse ahead of Sunday's game against the New York Red Bulls. Today the MLS Disciplinary Committee announced that starting right back, Igor Juliao was suspended for one game and fined for his actions in KC's 2-1 loss to Philadelphia.

In the 55th minute, Juliao cleared a ball up field just in front of Philadelphia forward, Andrew Wenger. Juliao followed through on his kick, which didn't appear to be necessary and his cleats went into Wenger's midsection. The Disciplinary Committee stated that he "endangered the safety of his opponent," leading to the suspension.

It'll leave Kansas City with limited options against the Red Bulls. If Matt Besler is available, Peter Vermes could choose to play Kevin Ellis there, even though he's spent most of the season at center back. The other option, especially if Besler is still unavailable would be for Vermes to slide Jacob Peterson back to right back again. Peterson has played the outside back position for Kansas City a couple times already this year so it wouldn't be a shock move for him. Another option would be to put Sal Zizzo there, as he played there with the Portland Timbers. But based on Vermes use of him this year, that seems unlikely.

Claros Suspended?

Earlier this week, the MLS Disciplinary Committee came out with their fines and suspensions for games this past week. Included in that was a fine for Igor Juliao for hands to the head/face of New England. The only suspension announced was on Colorado Rapids midfielder, Carlos Alvarez for entering the field of play and leaving the technical area as he celebrated a goal by teammate Gabriel Torres.

Then today ahead of Sporting KC's game against DC United, on the Disciplinary Summary on the MLS site stated that Sporting midfielder, Jorge Claros was suspended for 3 games for "inappropriate comments." Shortly after the suspension was pointed out, the suspension disappeared from the league website.

For Sporting's game tonight, Claros was not in the 18 for Sporting, a surprise if he was not suspended. With Aurelien Collin battling a nagging ankle injury most people would have expected Claros to start in midfield with Lawrence Olum starting next to Matt Besler in central defense. Instead Olum was in midfield with Kevin Ellis partnering Besler.

There does appear to be some sort of discipline handed down to Claros even though it's not been announced as coach Peter Vermes answered a question about it when he was asked about it post game tonight. Vermes saying he doesn't know the length, or the reason of the suspension to me feels like a flat out lie. If I'm the head coach of a team and one of the players that I expected to contribute in a game on Friday is suspended, the first question I'm asking the league representative on the phone is "Why?". And being a pain to them until they answer that question. From there my next question would be for how long the player is suspended. I just can't see Vermes not demanding answers to those two questions from the representative of the league who made the call on the suspension.

As for the suspension itself, there are only two things that I can think of that would lead to a suspension for "inappropriate comments." Either Claros said something that was homophobic or racist. Other than those two things I'm not sure that there's something that the league would suspend a player for three games for saying. If the three game suspension stands, Claros' regular season at least is over. Counting tonight's game against DC United, KC had four games left. The Honduran though will miss next Friday's game against the Chicago Fire. The Disciplinary Committee has stated that missing a game on national team duty does not count double as part of a suspension. That means that if the three game suspension stands, the only game that Claros will play between now and the playoffs is the trip to Costa Rica to play Deportivo Saprissa.

Juliao Fined by Disciplinary Committee

Sporting KC right back, Igor Juliao was fined today by the MLS disciplinary committee for an incident after KC's 1-0 loss to DC last weekend. After the game, the two teams came together on the field as a scuffle occurred. The video that MLS shows of the incident does not show what caused the scuffle to occur, it just shows Juliao getting his hands into the face of DC midfielder Davy Arnaud. The hands to the face is what led to Juliao's fine which is not being disclosed by the league.

See the video below.

Wingert Picks Up an Extra Game Suspension for Challenge on Kamara

Real Salt Lake defender, Chris Wingert missed the final 24 minutes of his team's 2-1 loss to Sporting KC this past weekend after picking up a second yellow for pulling back on Soony Saad as he went past him. Many Sporting KC fans though felt that the red card came 65 minutes too late. Just a few seconds into the game Wingert and Kei Kamara went up for a long ball from Ike Opara. Kamara got caught in the jaw by Wingert's shoulder on the challenge.  When viewing replays of the challenge Wingert didn't even appear to be looking at the ball.

Today MLS' Disciplinary Committee agreed with the Sporting fans.  They handed down an extra game suspension to Wingert for the challenge.  The committee said the challenge by Wingert "endangered the safety of his opponent" for the challenge to the head/jaw. So for his "violent conduct" on the play, Wingert will miss Salt Lake's game in New York this weekend due to his red card suspension. He'll then miss RSL's game against Colorado on August 3rd.

Here's the challenge:

Nagamura Suspended by Disciplinary Committee

MLS' disciplinary committee came out today with suspensions and fines from this past weekend's game ahead of tomorrow's slate of games. Unfortunately for Sporting KC, they'll be without Paulo Nagamura now for tomorrow's game against the Seattle Sounders.  Nagamura was retroactively suspended for stepping on Edgar Mejia's fingers in the 52nd minute of Sporting's 4-0 win on Sunday.

The question will be who KC will insert in Nagamura's spot.  Is KC going to go with Sunday's lineup, just inserting Benny Feilhaber for Nagamura and sliding Peterson Joseph back? Or does Peter Vermes change things up and possibly drop Graham Zusi back to midfield.


Seattle though avoided further absences as Eddie Johnson did not face action for his knee to Antoine Hoppenot's chest in second half stoppage time. The disciplinary committee's actions just always seem to not be consistent in action, the same is true for KC as I thought Claudio Bieler would have been suspended at least once for elbows in games for KC this year.

See both plays in the video below.

Is Bieler Starting to Get a Rep?

For the second time in the last three games, Sporting KC forward, Claudio Bieler has been the center of an incident on the field involving Bieler striking an opponent.  A few weeks ago it was a forearm/elbow to the throat area of Brandon McDonald in KC's 1-0 win over DC.  Then this past Saturday night against the LA Galaxy, another incident occurred. In the 89th minute as KC was down 2-0 and won a corner, the ball was played into the box.  Bieler was matched up with AJ DeLaGarza.  As Bieler and DeLaGarza raced to the middle of the 6 yard box, the ball flew over the two.  As Bieler turned to follow the ball, he raised his left elbow right into DeLaGarza's face/neck area.  You can see the play starting at the 3:30 mark of the video below.



There's been no comment from the league's disciplinary committee regarding the elbow, although they have made an announcement already this week on another suspension (giving an extra game and further fine to Juninho for kicking the ball at Jimmy Nielsen).  So unless the committee makes another announcement later this week, Bieler may not earn a suspension again.

But while the league may not have made any moves regarding Bieler, you  have to wonder if Bieler is going to start to develop a rep at least with other players on the field.  Roger Espinoza and Aurelien Collin both developed reputations as dirty players (at least according to Grant Wahl's survey). With that bad rep could come some cheap shots Bieler's way and potentially an injury. He's shown so far that he can play in this league, he can deal with the physicality and he can still find goals, but it'll be interesting to see how his play evolves with his style of play and how players start to play him if he continues with the high elbows.  On the other side of the coin if Bieler continues the behavior it's also only a matter of time before he does hear from the disciplinary committee.

Should Bieler be Suspended?

Sporting KC came away with a 1-0 win over DC United on Friday night to improve the team's record to 3-1-2 on the season thanks to an 89th minute goal from Claudio Bieler.  Some DC players though felt that Bieler shouldn't have even been on the field at that time to score the winning goal.  The argument is that Bieler should have been sent off in the 25th minute for an elbow to the chest/throat of DC United defender Brandon McDonald.

The incident occurred shortly after a Sporting KC restart for an offside call on DC United. As Sporting worked their way back up the field, finding CJ Sapong.  Sapong had the ball touched away from him by a United defender into the path of McDonald.  McDonald cleared the ball one time up the field while under pressure from Bieler.  Bieler turned and made a small jump looking to block the ball, but did not.  As Bieler then turned to head back towards the defensive end of the field, he raised his elbow with McDonald behind him.  Play was stopped shortly after as McDonald had gone down clutching his throat.

The DC United players were calling for a red card for Bieler at the time.  The referee, Armando Villarreal seemed to get a look at the play during play, but did not make a call.  After McDonald stayed down, Villarreal looked to his linesman though who was making a hand motion that seemed to indicate that there was nothing in the incident. After a discussion with him, Villarreal did not produce a card of any kind for Bieler.

Post game, the discussion of the no call continued, McDonald said that Bieler "punched me in the throat," which based on the replays doesn't appear to be the case.

McDonald also compared Sporting to the LA Lakers and getting special treatment if the league does not suspend Bieler for the incident.

I could certainly see Bieler being handed a suspension for the play if and when the Disciplinary Committee takes a look at the play. The committee has given suspensions and fines for less in the past.  But I'm just not sure that they will at this point.  A suspension would leave Bieler unavailable at least for next Wednesday's game in New York against the Red Bulls.

You can see a replay of the incident below starting at the 15 second mark, where Simon Borg believes Bieler should have seen red. But in the videos in this series that I've watched there should be about 1 red card in each game played according to him.



So should Bieler get suspended for his elbow on McDonald?  Will he be suspended for the elbow?

Henry Suspended and New York Tifo Failure

Not directly related to Sporting KC, but some news from Wednesday night's game against New York.

Henry Suspended

It wasn't in the match highlights, but in second half stoppage time as Kansas City was making a substitution before a New York corner, Thierry Henry started to make a run across goal.  When he went past Kei Kamara, he appears to knock heads with Kamara.  Both players go to ground, Kamara holding the side of his head, Henry for some reason, holding the back of his head.  The disciplinary committee reviewed the play today and handed down a 1 game suspension and undisclosed fine for violent conduct that endangered the safety of Kamara.



While the highlights that the league posted as a whole are inconclusive of the contact, the actions and reactions speak quite loud.  First when you watch the highlights, no one else is moving, the play is dead as KC is making a substitution, even the player taking the corner for the Red Bulls is not lined up to strike the ball.  Yet Henry starts to make a run into the box like the ball will be played any second.  He also makes little to no effort to really avoid Kamara while at the same time trying to make it look like he is, similar to the red card he picked up when these two teams met at Livestrong Sporting Park last year when he bowled into the back of Roger Espinoza seeming to lower his knee into Espinoza.  Henry grabbed the back of his head is the second give away, the back of Henry's head was no where near the point of impact with Kamara. There just seemed to be little reason for Henry to be making that run at that time and the way he did unless there was intent.  And that's probably what the DisCo saw.  While the actually headbutt itself is a little inconclusive from the video, the actions and surrounding actions, speak for themselves.

The bad thing about this whole situation may be the reaction of the Red Bulls.  Their game tomorrow is on the road at Gillette Stadium, on turf.  In Henry's time in the league, he's only once played on a field with turf, so the likelihood of him playing tomorrow anyway were already slim.  In fact Hans Backe even said today that he wasn't going to play Henry tomorrow.  So Henry's suspension is for a game he was going to miss anyway.

Tifo Fail Goes Big

For the game in New York, the Red Bulls Supporters had created a minor TIFO for the game, saying "Yo're not in Kansas anymore. SKC no heart, no brain, no courage.  No Wizard can save you now." And yes that spelling is correct as you can see in the above picture.  The Red Bull supporters who made the TIFO misspelled you're.  Just holding it up would have been hilarious to those KC fans in attendance, and the staff that was there for the broadcast of the game, but then the banner got hung at midfield so that it was seen over and over again during the game.  The spelling mistake got picked by multiple different outlets that are poking fun at the sign.  It's been on Yahoo, Deadspin, and was even in ESPN's Not Top 10 this morning.

Remember kids always spell check your work.

Renteria Suspended by Disciplinary Committee

The MLS disciplinary committee came out with one announcement today regarding a retroactive suspension from this past weekend's games.  The one suspension announced is from KC's game against Columbus.  Columbus Crew forward, Emilio Renteria has gotten himself a 1 game suspension for his head butt on KC midfielder, Paulo Nagamura.

On the play, Nagamura fouled Renteria, earning himself a yellow card.  Renteria got up and got in the face of Nagamura, heading butting him.  Credit to Nagamura, he didn't take a dive on the play staying on his feet after Renteria head butted him.  At the time, the referee only gave Renteria a yellow card, but the disciplinary committee saw it differently.  See the play below.

Gaddis Suspended for Espinoza Tackle

It's never good to dwell on the past, especially when it's the past that involved a 4-0 loss on the road.  But you have to wonder how the game this past weekend in Philadelphia could have ended up if things had been a little different.

That little difference?  A red card to Raymon Gaddis in the 24th minute.  Yesterday, the MLS Disciplinary Committee came out and handed the Philadelphia back a 1 game suspension and a fine for his tackle on Roger Espinoza.  With the game only 1-0 at that time, a red card would have completely changed the momentum of the game.  With KC up a man that would have created more chances, had more possession.  They might not have won the game, but the tone certainly would have been different after that incident. 

That would have also been the second red card in 2 games for a tackle on Espinoza.  The previous Wednesday in Seattle, Alvaro Fernandez picked up a red card for another tackle on Espinoza.  Speaking of Fernandez I'm surprised that there's been no word from the disciplinary committee on that tackle, I thought he would have gotten 1-2 more games for that tackle.  But I guess an announcement could come today.

Here's the play with Gaddis.

No Suspension, Yet, for Busch

Today, MLS' disciplinary committee made announcements regarding retroactive fines and suspensions for activities this past week.  Three players received suspensions, Mike Magee and Michael Stephens, both of LA, and Lionard Pajoy of Philadelphia for their actions last week.  One name that many Sporting KC fans expected to be on the list, but was not, was Jon Busch. 

For those that don't remember the long discussion that occurred on Sunday night, Monday, and much of Tuesday before the Open Cup game, Busch allegedly slapped one of the ball kids behind the goal, late in KC's 2-1 win over San Jose.  Multiple reports game in from people around the incident, basically describing similar situations but differing in some details.  What the story basically is, is that the ball kid was taking his time returning the ball to Busch as he was yelling for it to try to get the game restarted.  The question comes in the next part, some people have said that Busch grabbed the ball out of the kids and gave a quick slap.  A second story that has been around is that the kid dropped the ball at the same time that Busch went to grab it and slapped him as a result of the ball not being there.  A third version of the events is that the kid dropped the ball and as Busch picked it up he then slapped the kid.  After the game, the ball kid, or someone claiming to be the ball kid, called in to the post game show on Sports Radio 810.  He confirmed that he was trying to kill time to help KC late on.  He did confirm that Busch hit him in the arm. 

It's surprising still that Busch has not been given a suspension yet.  There is one thing that could be delaying the announcement though.  Since the action involved a someone that was not a player, it's possible that there may be some sort of police action that is being waited on before an announcement was made.  It's also just as possible that Busch doesn't get a suspension and the contact is seen as accidentally.  IF Busch does end up getting suspended there are two previous instances that can be looked at for examples.  The first was Colin Clarke earlier this year calling a ball kid in Seattle an F'ing Faggot.  Clarke received a 3 game fine for his actions.  The other occurred in Switzerland, where a player slapped a ball kid post game.  That player received an eight game suspension for his actions. I personally still expect some league action to be taken for Busch's actions on Sunday, but we'll have to see if that actually happens.

Hedrick Out with Surgery

Cyprian Hedrick will miss the next four months of action after he had surgery on his fractured fibula. The surgery took place today.  With the injury to Hedrick, the announcement the other day of the signing of Kyle Miller makes total sense.  I'd wondered at the time why KC had made the announcement when they did, but with Hedrick being out of the next 4 months, the signing of the local product makes more sense.

Espinoza and Vermes Appear to Avoid Disciplinary Committee

Today the MLS Disciplinary Committee announced the suspensions and fines for the past week.  Brek Shea and Mamadou Danso picked up suspensions for actions this past week, but two names were absent from the list.  Roger Espinoza and Peter Vermes were both missing from the list.

Espinoza had picked up a red card for an elbow to Sebastian Grazzini while going for a ball.  Originally KC thought that they might appeal Espinoza's red card but decided against it.  What likely saved Espinoza from a 3 game suspension was the fact that while Espinoza's elbow was extended, he didn't move the elbow, it stayed in the position it was in.  If he'd had moved it out towards Grazzini more I'm definitely sure he would have gotten a longer suspension.

The one that I may be more surprised about though is the lack of a fine for Vermes for his comments immediately post game.  On KSMO immediately after the game, Vermes had some very critical comments of the referee for their loss to Chicago, saying he'd made the game about himself and called him the man of the match.  No fine though has been announced by the league though.

Should KC Appeal Roger Espinoza's Red Card?

Plenty of discussion has taken place over the calls made in Sporting's 2-1 loss to Chicago last night at Toyota Park.  A lot of that discussion has centered on the foul by Roger Espinoza on Sebastian Grazzini when the two went for a 50/50 ball and Espinoza's elbow hit Grazzini in the face.  Rookie referee, Jose Carlos Rivero made no hesitation going to his pocket and producing a red card.  Grazzini definitely made a meal of the challenge, especially considering he was almost immediately right back on the field, but watching it again you can hardly argue that Espinoza went into that challenge recklessly.  See it again below.



Fast forward now to the end of the game, immediately after the game finished, Peter Vermes was interviewed by Sporting KC's television staff on the field.  Vermes was certainly frustrated and had the adrenaline flowing with the end of the game, and came out saying that Rivero had made himself the center of attention, that he'd made the game about himself, and that he had been the man of the match. 

Reading his quotes in the post match press conference, he'd seemed to calm down, but not much, say: 'The referee is there to ref the game, not to be part of the show.  And today, that’s what he made himself.  He made himself part of the show.  And that’s disappointing, because players, they work hard, they are the ones who are the entertainers on the field, not him, and unfortunately that’s what the game was like today.  He changed the game.”

He continued to specifically discuss the red card, saying "...but the red card is not a red card." 

He compared Espinoza's red card this year to the one Omar Bravo got last year in this game. "Two years now here, in a row, we come here and we have two red cards which aren’t red cards, which completely changes the outcome of the game."

Vermes then goes into discussing the loss of Espinoza for the next game as well, although hints at appealing the decision: "So now we don’t only lose the player for this game, but we lose him for the next game, depending on whether MLS does and allows the appeal."

After that, Vermes is asked flat out if he will be appealing the red card.  “We’ll be watching it.  We’ll be watching what the angles are, what show it, because that’s a big part of the appeal and we’ll make a decision from there.  As of right now, it probably looks pretty darn good.  I saw it live.  Our guy clears the ball, and the other guy runs into him, it’s actually a foul on the other guy.  If there’s anything going on there.  Once a guy jumps, he can’t change his position, and he’s played the ball, not the other way around.  Just a first time referee in the MLS, makes a very, very poor decision.”

I don't know what Vermes saw live, but having the ability to watch replays on TV from the comfort of Quick's BBQ last night, I don't think it looks "pretty darn good."  Espinoza jumped into the challenge and led with his elbow.  To me that's a definite red card due to the reckless nature of it.  To me personally I think Espinoza is going to be earning himself at least 1 if not 2 extra games for that challenge. 

So to me it's a no brainer that you don't put an appeal on this red card, it doesn't make sense.  It especially doesn't make sense once you read about the appeal process.  Teams are allowed 2 unsuccessful appeals during the course of the season, the part that worries me, is the third part of section 1, regarding frivolous challenges.  Similar tackles to Espinoza's have earned multiple game suspensions and I could see a challenge of this being deemed frivolous.  Should that happen, KC would be unable to appeal red cards for the rest of this season and all of next season, and the suspension is automatically doubled.

The decision to actually challenge the red card on Espinoza has already been made by the team, as the appeal has to be made within 24 hours of the completion of the match.  As of this posting, that time has surpassed.  So we will see if the team did choose to, but do you think that KC should appeal Espinoza's red card?