Red Bulls fined $10,000
- by Soccer America , Jun 25, 2011
[MLS] The New York Red Bulls were fined $10,000 by MLS, which also handed a $5,000 fine to the Los Angeles Galaxy and a $1,000 fine to Charlie
Davies.
Erik Soler, the Red Bulls’ General Manager and Sporting Director, had released a statement criticizing the officiating during a 3-3 tie with
Portland. (Read Soccer America columnist Paul Gardner’s take of it HERE.)
“The statement released by Red Bull New York this week undermines
our substantial efforts to continue improving all aspects of our competition,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said.
The Los Angeles Galaxy’s $5,000 fine was for
violating MLS’s policy regarding injury reports ahead of their June 18 match against the Colorado Rapids.
MLS determined that the Galaxy deliberately omitted David
Beckham’s name from its injury report despite knowing that he would miss the game because of back spasms.
D.C. United forward Charlie Davies was fined
$1,000 for “putting the game into disrepute” because he fell to the ground as Real Salt Lake’s Chris Wingert slide-tackled studs-up for the ball.
MLS
ruled that, “Davies intentionally deceived the officials and gained an unfair advantage which directly impacted the match.”
The Davies-Wingert incident:
All three fines can only help professionalize MLS. In each case the offending club/player was guilty of unprofessional acts. It must be made clear that star status or the perceived importance of a team or individual player does not make them bigger than the game.
I didn't see the game live, but the clip shown is very inconclusive. First, it was not a "studs up" tackle. If WIngert got the ball (hard for me to tell), then it was an excellent tackle. If he didn't, and contact was made on Davies, then the PK is probably right. What I'm guessing happened (though the view from the AR would be the one to see), was that Davies got the ball but Wingert did not make any contact (so Davies created the penalty). So the fine seems in order (though it would have been nice to have either slow motion or a different angle to show that). But it is misleading to call Wingert's tackle "studs up"; he put his leg in front of Davies (not going at him) and never exposed the bottom of his cleats, so it was not a dangerous tackle (I would hope he was not cautioned for that).
Charlie Davies, super player, super comeback but what a disappointment on this play. Maybe that crap is OK with the sissie French Ligue1, but it's utter crap in MLS. You are a much better player than what you showed against Real.
@Chuck, you show your ignorance when you denigrate Ligue 1 as a "sissie" league but extol the "virtues" of the journeyman MLS. Ligue 1 has far more quality and world-class players than MLS has ever seen. I'd take Olympique Lyonnais or Olympique Marseille against any MLS team that could be mustered, including so-called "All-Star" lineups.