"[Kenny Cooper] broke his leg, which is unfortunate, but I don't think the tackle itself was a red-card foul. At the time the referee took out his yellow card and then he had a conversation with the linesman and he came back and gave me the red card."
"If it was an inch higher it would probably be a little shakeup and that's it, but on the tackle, our shin guards collided. It's unfortunate."
Never mind the injury: was Tyrone Marshall the last defender between Cooper and the goal? Yep. That's a red-card foul, right? Fold in the cheap-shot/professional nature of the thing and you've got your three-game suspension. No mystery there.
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2 comments:
"Fold in the cheap-shot/professional nature of the thing and you've got your three-game suspension."
Maybe I'm wrong (or biased.) There's always that possibility. But I watched this replay several times and the impression I was left with was of an exhausted, injured Marshall who went into the tackle trying to clear the ball without even really being aware of where Cooper was.
Should he have known? Of course. Bad tackle? Yes. Worthy of a red card? Definitely. Cheap shot? Three game suspension? I'm not so sure.
Good case for the defense, and a fair one. The fact different people can view the same event in different ways is one of the things I most value in soccer. Put another way, I'm not about to say you're wrong. I interpreted the tackle as a "holy shit; Cooper is about to break in alone on goal." I think the righteous tone of the title suggests I viewed the tackle as malicious. Not in the least. I don't view Marshall as the most talented defender, but I also don't view him as a thug; that personal history is what leads me to interpret the tackle as a professional foul. So, cynical - and inadvertently dangerous - yes, but malicious, no.
The thing is, I hate professional fouls and believe they should be cracked down on vigorously. But I'd also never wave anything darker than a yellow card so long as the foul was clean. Marshall's was anything but: it was sloppy and, therefore, dangerous. The foul itself was a red-card offense straight-up (last defender and all that); the decision to employ, as I perceive it, a sloppy professional foul warrants the suspension for me.
That said, I would have been content with one bonus game.
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