A Brutal Day

The story of the day in MLS is cards. In 7 matches this Saturday, refs handed out 44 cards. Of those, 7 were red (4 straight red, 3 as a result of a player receiving a second yellow). Only 3 matches saw 5 or fewer cards, and as many as 11 cards were given in a single game (8 yellows and 3 reds in the Superclasico match between LA Galaxy and Chivas USA). Normally when this many cards are given out, it's a matter of poor officiating, but in the 3 matches I watched today, most of the cards were deserved. Obviously something has to change, but I'm not sure it's fair to blame the officials outright for how out-of-hand things are getting on the pitches across the MLS.

In a rare event, 2 redcards were handed out today for "denying a goalscoring opportunity". One was received by Kasey Keller, GK for the Seattle Sounders, in the 29th minute of their match against the Kansas City Wizards at Qwest Field. Keller slid in to stop a breakaway, but unfortunately for him, he slid right past the 18-yard line and out of the box, where he blocked the shot with his hands, earning himself an automatic redcard. The second such offense was committed by Gregg Berhalter of the LA Galaxy when he pulled down Chivas' Alecko Eskandarian after the striker beat him and broke toward the net. This is a rare foul, and for two to be committed in the same day is an unusual occurance in the league, but it warrants discussion, since many fans are certainly confused by this rule. The premise behind "denying a goalscoring opportunity" is that when a player is in a clear goal-scoring situation and a defensive player commits a blatant foul against that player to prevent him from scoring, what would normally constitute a normal offense becomes more serious due to circumstances. In the case of a goalkeeper, intentionally handling the ball outside the box in order to save a shot always constitutes this kind of offense. This was shocking rookie mistake from a veteran like Keller, and will have everyone in the Emerald City scratching their heads, as it led to their loss to Kansas City at home and means he will miss their match next weekend against Chivas (the only other team who had won every game going into this weekend). This breaks the charm for Sounders, who had been in perfect form until tonight, but now the shine is off both their invincibility at home and their goalscoring streak. Fortunately for Sounders, Chivas will be without MF Paulo Nagamura, who received 2 yellowcards against Galaxy and has been the top performer for Chivas so far this season.

In other news, both New York Red Bulls and Houston Dynamo continue to underperform, playing to a scoreless draw, with no real signs that we should expect much improvement in the immediate future. Conor Casey followed up last week's hat-trick with a goal in a 1-1 draw against Columbus Crew. The real high-lights of the day are the Chicago Fire and Real Salt Lake. Falling behind San Jose 3 times, Chicago rallied back each time to salvage a point from a hard-fought game and remain undefeated on the season. That said, Chicago's 8 points come from 2 wins and 2 ties, so we've got to remember, although they're getting results, they're not quite dominating. RSL fell behind DC United home at Rio Tinto in the 38th minute, but answered back 2 minutes later in the 40th minute on a header from D Jamison Olave, then went ahead in the 80th minutes later on a goal from Argentine MF Javier Morales. Robbie Findley picked up assists on both goals, to follow his hat-trick last week against the Crew - expect more from him in the coming weeks. Considering Seattle's bellyflop tonight and Chicago's aforementioned scrappiness, RSL (2-0-1, 7 pts) appears to be the best-tuned team in the league at present, winning their first 2 home games to set up perhaps an even stronger homefield advantage than last year. Their only loss came at Seattle in RSL's season opener in a game in which RSL outplayed Sounders for most of the game, but failed to get the result. Coach Jason Kreis has got his team playing together very well, and I think we can expect big things from this side. With a game-in-hand as a result of their first week bye, RSL is in good position to move toward the top of the standings with a win against an abysmal Red Bulls side in the coming week.