SoccerAmerica - Fire's Klopas and Anibaba suspended 05/02/2012

[MLS SUSPENSIONS] MLS Chicago Fire head coach Frank Klopas and defender Jalil Anibaba for one game in the wake of incidents during a 2-1 loss to Seattle last Saturday.

Klopas was dismissed by referee Michael Kennedy for directing abusive language toward the officials. Anibaba was red-carded for a challenge in the seventh minute of second-half stoppage time, but he was not immediately sent off the field.

Anibaba and Fire midfielder Marco Pappa scuffled with Seattle’s Marc Burch and Osvaldo Alonso. It took five minutes for the teams to leave the field after the benches cleared.

The melee broke out after Anibaba’s challenge.

The league reviewed incidents in the game, and the only additional sanction after the fact was an undisclosed fine issued to Sounders forward Eddie Johnson for making an inappropriate gesture as he was leaving the field.

3 comments

Brent Crossland

commented on: May 2, 2012 at 7:44 a.m.

"Anibaba was red-carded for a challenge in the seventh minute of second-half stoppage time, but he was not immediately sent off the field." I'm confused. First, Anibaba wasn't "red-carded". According to the LOTG he was Sent Off and shown the red card. If he didn't leave the field in a reasonable length of time the league should have taken additional action against him. What was the Referee supposed to do? Physically drag him off?

Kent James

commented on: May 2, 2012 at 8 a.m.

In every serious game I've refereed, there are security guards. It's their job to make sure players sent off leave the field. As an experienced official, I'm sure Kennedy would make use of them. When there's no security, the ref just doesn't restart the game until the offending party has left (so usually the player's team makes sure the offending player leaves). This article is confusing; is the one game suspension on top of the automatic one game suspension? If not, why is this news (since there are red cards that carry automatic suspensions every week)? Whatever the case, it sounds like an ugly affair and one the league should deal with harshly.

Ric Fonseca

commented on: May 2, 2012 at 12:56 p.m.

I agree with both comments, however, it is my opinion that some players in the MLS have taken a "holier-than-thou" attitude going so far as to think they're the best thing that ever set foot on the pitch. Of comparative interest is that having watched countless La Liga and EPL, as well at Italian and Latin American games, whenever a player is red carded - in almost 99% of the time - the player sent off, walks off by himself until he reaches the touch line, and then a game official (not a ref) and or some security escort him to the showers. In this instance, Kennedy acted correctly, however, Kent James above, raises a very interesting point in the last two sentences.

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