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Parkhurst: Luiz Adriano “should have left field limping”

By IVES GALARCEP

Michael Parkhurst is a pretty mild-mannered guy, but if you bring up the controversial goal scored by Shakhtar Donetsk’s Luiz Adriano against Parkhurst’s Nordsjaelland in Champions League play on Nov. 20th, you will hear a different side of Parkhurst.

The U.S. National Team defender still sounds angry several weeks later at a play that left soccer fans around the world disgusted and scratching their heads. A play that drew a one-game suspension for Adriano, who scored a goal after pouncing on a long ball intended to be a return pass to Nordsjaelland after an injury stoppage.

“I was just utter shock when it happened, I remember thinking ‘what the heck is this guy doing’,” Parkhurst said. “It’s just a disgrace. You look around and no one on his team is moving, they’re all thinking the same thing we are.

“When he puts a goal in you’re like “What do we do now?” It’s just a shame. I’ve never experienced anything like it. I don’t think anybody on the field had.”

Parkhurst admits to having wanted to exact some revenge on Adriano for the goal, and the fact that no other Nordsjaelland player went after Adriano left a sour taste in his mouth.

“That was what I was most upset about after the game in the locker room,” Parkhurst said. “I was looking to get the opportunity myself, and I’m not that type of player but I was thinking about it the whole game. I never had the opportunity because he stayed in the middle of the field.

“I was really upset afterwards that no one got after him,” Parkhurst said. “In my mind he should have left that field limping or on a stretcher or being carried off. He should have been taught a lesson.”

As for the claims after the match from Shakhtar that they let Nordsjaelland score soon after? Parkhurst wasn’t buying that one bit.

“I think their coach is full of you know what,” Parkhurst said. “If he wanted their team to let us score then he would have pulled the team over and told them what to do and we would have walked down and put the ball in the net.

“A few of the guys on their team were okay with us scoring and a few were like ‘What’s done is done, we might as well keep playing’.”

And Luiz Adriano’s apology and claim he didn’t know what was going on when he scored the goal? Parkhurst isn’t trying to hear that either.

“Absolutely not,” Parkhurst said when asked if he believed Adriano’s excuse. “He came out with that excuse after UEFA said they were looking into it. He was just trying to save his own butt.”

Parkhurst isn’t spending too much time thinking about the play anymore, but does say that the punishment issued by FIFA was weak and will hardly be a deterrent.

“A one-game suspension for a game that doesn’t matter,” said Parkhurst. “Of course any player would do that so I don’t think the punishment was strong enough.”

Comments

  1. I said it at the time and I will say it now. They should have dealt with Adriano on the field, that day. Anything short of a straight red would be acceptable. If no else on my team took care of it, I would have found a way to get in his area of play and taken care of business. No defender should ever let that go without a response. And to you people that are so offended by my commemts, It is not just a game when it pays the bills. Business is business, if you don’t take care of it, you lose it.

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  2. Yeah, Parkhurst is right. Everyone who states that everyone else is a horrible person if they contemplate using violence is being way too judgmental. They have their way of seeing the world, and they have just decided everyone else needs to follow their vision. I like others have a different opinion, and non-violence is not always the best answer. Hurting someone for doing something that is terrible can be justice, especially when you know the person will just be able to get away with it. I am tired of a society that continues to allow jerks to screw other people and get away with it as long as what they do isn’t violent. People who act like jerks sometimes need to get hurt, so that they stop acting like jerks. If you don’t do anything, then they will continue to walk all over other people because they know that they will never get a stiff official punishment. Plenty of good players have had their careers ended by dirty, classless hacks, why not have one of those jerks get a taste of their own medicine.

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  3. I would have snapped his ankle in half. Period.

    He didn’t just commit a bad foul or anything of that sort. Adriano did something so egregious that FIFA hadn’t even thought to add a rule prohibiting it. And he did it in a major competition that can cost the team millions of dollars in needed revenue.

    It was the ultimate of d0uchery.

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  4. Luiz Adriano was an idiot for his actions and Parkhurst now is an idiot for his words. Both are classless on their own way.

    While I don’t condone aggressive action, I don’t buy into the big macho speech AFTER the game is done either. The excuse that ” I never had the opportunity because he stayed in the middle of the field” is just PATHETIC.

    The guy scored a HAT TRICK on your team, with TWO of those goals coming after the initial incident. I guess Adriano was shooting from the center line… 🙂

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    • +1,000
      Big talk out of Parkhurst, but no action.
      If he felt so strongly about it, he would have found away to get to him at some point
      in the game.

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  5. Let’s not forget that Parkhurst, despite his comments, had enough sense and self-control not to act on these words in the moment. I think he’s just using strong language that he and his team should have expressed more outrage. Give him some time to cool down.

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    • I would think 3 weeks is enough time to cool down.

      That being said, being angry about it and claiming he should have left in a stretcher is not the same thing as doing it. Overly harsh words, sure, but just words. He wasn’t injured then.

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  6. Normally I am not for this kind of thing and not sure Adriano deserved it for that truly classless act. However, there have been times. . . like When Rafa Marquez seemed to go out of his way to try to injure US players or once when Carlos Ruiz did the same in a particularly dirty way. Ruiz was playing in the MLS then and I kept hoping an American would give him some payback for what he did while playing for Guatemala, but alas.

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  7. What Adriano did was absurdly bad form, but he didn’t hurt anyone or do anything that might have hurt someone. The notion that he should have needed to have been stretchered off is ridiculous and immature. The last thing sports needs is more intentional violence. Parkhurt’s team scored their gift goal immediately thereafter, Adriano got his game suspension (which does seem a game or two light), and that should be the end of it exepct that the rules need to be changed so that the ref can call a foul if that happens to prevent the goal from counting.

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    • Agreed…no need to physically injure a player as “payback.” Next thing you know, you’ve blown out someone’s knee and ended his career because the player did something that was bad sportsmanship? No thank you.

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  8. if you don’t do it yourself, you can’t be upset at others for not doing it. He coudl have easily found payback on a corner, set piece, away from the ball etc.

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  9. Hate to say it, but I kind of wish Parkhurst had gotten a chance to do it to Adriano. I would have felt the exact same way in his position.

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  10. “In my mind he should have left that field limping or on a stretcher or being carried off. He should have been taught a lesson.”

    eesh. i thought what adriano was classless, but that’s not the right way to respond.

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    • well nate although I do agree with you, this was a player that was in a field of battle. An important game that decided the fate of his club in a tournament that rarely showcases a club like Nordsjaewhatever. So parkhurt’s response is very understandable. It is also a once in a lifetime experience for most of the players involved in his squad.

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    • I’ve played my entire life and although its not the PC answer, I would be thinking the same way and a lot of others who are playing for something as big as the Champions League or even your rec championship would do the same. Its not “right” but its the reality of the game and the heat of the moment.

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    • wow. kind of thought the only negative reaction to my comment would be along the lines of “obviously you’ve never played” or “get off your pedestal”…can’t believe people are actually defending/excusing him.

      “very understandable”? “what choice is there”? “it’s the reality of the game”?

      that’s awful. doesn’t matter what level you’re playing at, intentionally injuring someone can’t be okay.

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      • you’re wrong: my whole soccer ‘career’ was spent playing enforcer/destroyer, and i had to be rough and, at times, dirty (i.e. make a ‘statement’ tackle, or take a red to stop a goal). but i would never be okay with setting out to intentionally injure someone.

        and this isn’t parkhurst saying that, in the heat of the moment, he wanted to take him out (it would still be wrong, but i understand that you can’t always control the rage). this is weeks after, and he still wishes someone had injured adriano so bad that they’d have to stretcher him off.

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