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Mid-Day Ticker: RSL-SKC ends in brawl, Crew signs Serbian midfielder and more

RSL_Primary_COL   SportingKClogo

It's only preseason, but there's some bad blood brewing between Real Salt Lake and Sporting Kansas City.

According to multiple reports, the two teams had a bench-clearing brawl in their friendly in Casa Grande, Ariz., Tuesday night, and the game had to be abandoned before it was completed.

Roger Espinoza reportedly came in hard with a two-footed challenge to take out Javier Morales to start the trouble. No injuries were reported.

The score was 2-2 at the time of the melee, with Alvaro Saborio and Fabian Espindola scoring for RSL and Kei Kamara and Omar Bravo tallying for SKC. The two teams have a match featuring reserves scheduled for 1 p.m. ET today.

Here are a few more items from around the soccer world:

CREW SIGNS MIDFIELDER

The Columbus Crew signed 31-year-old Serbian midfielder Dejan Rusmir.

Rusmir, who had been on trial with the Crew in Arizona, has spent his 10-year career in Romania and his native Serbia. He most recently played for Farul Constanta in Romania, where he scored six goals in 37 matches over the last two seasons.

REPORT: SCHALKE BOARD OUSTING MAGATH

In a development that could facilitate Jermaine Jones' return to Schalke, manager Felix Magath is reportedly being pushed out by the team's board of directors at the end of this season.

Jones fell out of favor with Magath, who demoted the American midfielder to the team's reserves for disciplinary reasons. Jones was loaned to Blackburn, which has the option to purchase his contract outright.

Magath's current contract with Schalke isn't up until the end of the 2013 season.

PLAYER RED CARDED FOR TACKLING STREAKER

Dorchester Town player-coach Ashley Vickers thought he was doing everybody a favor by tackling a near-naked streaker who had entered the pitch during his team's nonleague match with Havant & Waterlooville. Instead, he got sent off for his deed.

Vickers was given a straight red card for violent conduct and his team went on to lose, 3-1.

And you thought Robin Van Persie's red card was bad.

Here's video of the incident:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qzQ3qjzomo]

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What do you think about the RSL-SKC brawl? Think Rusmir can help the Crew this season? Hope to see Jones stay in England or return to Germany? Can you believe a player got sent off for tackling a streaker?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Bravo is probably the classiest Mexican nat. Back when he was playing regularly for Mexico he was the only player who would shake hands with the US players after the game.

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  2. Of course that guy got sent off. The rules apply to anyone on the field. You can’t attack anyone, even a streaker.

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  3. I’kk go along with that. Same porblem the Earthquakes have. They wind up by passing the midfield some games and it gets pretty boring

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  4. A lot of uncertainty here.

    The game was abandoned. The game was completed? An official saw Omar Bravo come back on the field to kick Javier Morales in the head. Everyone else says it didn’t happen? The game was in Casa Grande. The game was in Phoenix? I made this post. Maybe I didn’t make this post?

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  5. Considering I have also failed because I am commenting on this too, but this needs a special congratulations for being both nonsensical and contrarian just for contrary’s sake.

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  6. How do you know how they are going to play this season? They lead the league in shots and shots on goal last season and when on, they played as exciting as anyone.

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  7. On what basis was he given the red card? What soccer rule punishable by a red card did he break? While I could see the league retroactively fining him or suspending him if they thought it was appropriate (I don’t), I don’t see how a red card is in anyway appropriate.

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  8. exactamundo. The line is where the stands end, my friend. The second you step onto to that pitch, you are a criminal (it’s illegal in the US anyway). So, yes, I not only think it’s appropriate, I think it’s wrong NOT to do anything. It’s exactly why these nut cases think they can get away with it.

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  9. Give me a break. Its not like he hit this bozo, he just took him down so that the stewards, who are all obviously NOT fit, could take him into custody. Any reasonable ref would see this as helpful. There have been plenty of occasions where players have helped run down pitch invaders with no comment by the ref at all (that we know of). If only the ref had the common sense to see that this allowed the game to proceed in a timely fashion.

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  10. Bad example. Artest went into the stands. This fan invaded the field of play and was interfering with the game. Two different things.

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  11. Sorry guys: violent conduct is violent conduct–regardless of whether it is directed at an opponent, teammate, referee, or any other person.

    Yes, the pitch-invader was causing a disruption to the game, and he is probably banned for life for his trouble. Yes security was doing a poor job of corralling the pitch-invader. But think this through: no matter how ‘justified’ it may seem, do we really want to encourage player/fan altercations? That’s a bright line in sports, and players cross it at their peril. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacers%E2%80%93Pistons_brawl .)

    As a professional, the player’s job is to focus on the game, not the disruption, and let security do its job.

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  12. This is the second time Roger Espinoza started a a fight in preseason in Arizona. He made a two-footed hard tackle on a player against the Dynamo last month. Espinoza was sent off. And he and a Dynamo player grabbed each other’s necks. Dynamo players called Espinoza all kinds of names.
    And Espinoza was ready to take on all comers.
    It was a crazy heated moment.

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  13. Seems to me that the stewards were having trouble corraling the near-naked pitch invader and the game was going to be stopped for a good bit of time. The player just had enough of this idiot and terminated the episode. The pitch invader was tackled by his head which makes sense. What else are you going to grab? His naked arse? The pitch invader walked off without any obvious injury. Ridiculous red card.

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  14. Wow, it’s hard to take that red card/ref seriously. Those security guards need to do their job if there is going to be disciplinary action for a player trying to get the game going. That one just pisses me off.

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  15. Boring? I’m no fan, but RSl plays some of the most attractive footie around. KC, on the other hand, is like watching an NCAA match fromt he mid-70s

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  16. I gotta say, this brawl is a great marketing move. I’ll watch their rematch when I wouldn’t have previously. Both teams are quite boring imo, this adds a potential story.

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  17. KC better watch out. OLAVE will come hungry next time. I get the feeling I, and the rest of MLS outside of KC, is going to hate Bravo even more after his time in MLS. Leave the kicks to the head in Mexico with your drug lords…

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