It's been a while since I put my soccer thoughts out into the nerdiverse so I'll have to do a few short updates to catch up and vent what's been kicking around in my head.
First off congrats to Machester United for their 2-0 UEFA Champions League Semi-Final leg win on the road. I can't wait for the return trip to Old Trafford!
Keeping with the UEFA theme Lionel Messi is a stone cold killer anywhere near the net, end of line. His brace in the Barca game showed just how icy he is. I rarely show support for my favorite Spanish Club, but today I'm wearing my Barca jersey that I bought in Italy in 1993.
Speaking of scoring a brace...WOOOOOO Clint Dempsey scores two yesterday and sets Fulham's EPL scoring record! Congrats to one of the hardest working, and one of my personal favorite, American soccer players out there!
One more US cheer for Real Salt Lake and their fans for an incredible run in the Champions League, one goal shy of making it to the FIFA World Club Cup where the winners of every Champions League come to shine. RSL and their fans did the MLS proud.
Now for the big news of the day... but first a little backstory: On Friday, April 22, 2011 Seattle Sounders versus The Colorado Rapids, during the 3rd minute of play Brian Mullan lost the ball and thought he was
fouled in the process. After hitting the pitch and looking to the referee for a call he quickly bounced back up and tracked down Steve Zakuani who had corralled the loose ball and started his way up the left wing. Just your typical soccer play until Mullan committed one of my cardinal sins of soccer... Never tackle with emotion. You could see the frustration and anger at not getting the foul call. You could see the dogged determination that he WAS going to recover that ball and that's where things went wrong. Brian came in from Steve's right side, left his feet, missed the ball, and destroyed a bright young player's season. I won't get into the sights and sounds and emotion when it happened, I've seen and heard a lot of injuries in person and on TV and I knew this was bad even before the slow motion decided to test my stomach. Mullan got the straight red, Zakuani got the stretcher and the game continued 11vs.10. The game was ugly for Seattle, but I can't blame them you watch your buddy go down like that and who really gives a shit about soccer at that point, but you're a professional so you do your best. Seattle would score and win an ugly 1-0 game...Steve would go to the hospital and have surgery for a broken Tibia and Fibula in his right leg, and Brian would try his first attempt at an apology. Hopefully Zakuani's surgery went over better than Mullan's apology because that was an epic fail. Now fast forward almost a week's time, Steve is in recovery, Mullan is seeing a shrink and has been at practice and we finally have an answer, yep the MLS disciplinary committee took 6 full days to mull this one over the results? The MLS handed down it's stiffest penalty to date for a run of play foul. Brian Mullan received a 1 game red card suspension, an additional 9 games suspended (only the 2nd time this has happened in MLS), and a $5,000 fine for his reckless tackle. If you haven't seen the tackle or heard about it by now, it's an easy internet search. I warn you now however this tackle is not for those with weak stomachs, there is a compound fracture and yes the microphones on the pitch picked up the popping sound.
Now that the verdict is in, the debate continues to rage on too harsh, too soft, and calls for heads on pikes from some corners of the soccer world. I honestly feel that a 10game ban and $5,000 to send a message about reckless tackles is appropriate. Mullan isn't a dirty player, hell the guy only has 1 other red card over a 5 year MLS career, and there's the kicker, he's a veteran he knows better. Do I want his head on a pike, nope I'm not one of those guys. Do I think he needs to learn a lesson, no he's having to deal with that horrific moment over and over in his head just like Zakuani is, I'd say lesson learned. Do the other guys in the league need to see what's coming if they have reckless challenges like this, yes, sorry Mullan but you're the example being set. I wish both Steve and Brian the best as they recover from their physical and emotional injuries.
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