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MLS East Notes: Red cards upheld; McCarty out; and more

Brad Davis

BY DARRELL LOVELL

Any hope for Jeff Larentowicz and Brad Davis to see the field in the next game was dashed Wednesday afternoon.

Both midfielders appealed red card they received for transgressions on the weekend. Unable to get a unanimous vote from an independent referee panel, both red cards were upheld and both Larentowicz and Davis will be made to serve their one-game suspensions.

Larentowicz saw red for bringing down Andrea Pisanu when the Chicago Fire faced the Montreal Impact. The midfielder fouled Pisanu just outside the penalty area and denying a scoring opportunity. The midfielder will serve his suspension May 11 versus the Philadelphia Union.

In Davis’ case it was stoppage time that did him in. The U.S. international saw a straight red card in the 95th-minute for a sweeping tackle on Nathan Sturgis after receiving a yellow four minutes before for dissent. After the game, Davis talked about losing his head and dealing with what he called inconsistency in refereeing. Andrew Driver, who has started every game since March 30, is the likely replacement on the left when the club travels to LA for an MLS Cup rematch with the Galaxy Sunday.

Here are some more notes from around the MLS Eastern Conference:

COLUMBUS CREW

The Crew made it through the first two months of the season in healthy fashion. That was until their win over D.C. United when Agustin Viana injured his hamstring. Now the Crew will be without a regular starter for the first time this season. Making matters worse is that the club will face a strong New York Red Bull attack this weekend without the defender.

Also the Crew made a bit of father-son history this week with Konrad Warzycha made his debut for the club under his father, Robert, watch. The pair is the second father-son combination to appear for the same club along with Alex and Teal Bunbury in Kansas City.

“I knew coming in that I was going to have to let my play speak for itself,” the younger Warzycha explained. “In the few reserve games we’ve had, through preseason and stuff like that, I kind of took it upon myself to work hard and work myself into the team.”

D.C. UNITED

Another week, another loss for D.C. United, this time it was a 3-0 loss to the Columbus Crew. Dropping to 1-6-1 United continue to look for answers to turn their season around. While the answers have been elusive, General Manager Dave Kasper provided some insight into what has ailed United through their rough start.

“The thing is, we haven’t had our full group together to really see how it’s all going to gel,” Kasper said. “[Scouting coordinator] Kurt [Morsink] is out in Europe now, and we’re preparing for a number of different possibilities, but we really need to get our group together, hopefully in the next 3-4 weeks, and get going here so we can fine-tune really what our main targets will be for the summer time.”

MONTREAL IMPACT

The Impact routed Toronto FC in the Amway Canadian Championship 6-0 Wednesday night to move on to the final. However, they may have suffered a loss with loanee Daniele Paponi came off in the 38th-minute, and again in the 61st-minute, with an injury after scoring the second goal of the evening. His replacement Marco Di Vaio picked up the pace immediately scoring just six minutes after coming on. Read the full game story here.

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION

Revolution head coach Jay Heaps is going to find out if his formation switch has staying power when his club faces the streaking Portland Timbers Thursday night. In a 2-0 win over the Union Heaps decided to move away the traditional 4-4-2 and pack the midfield in a 4-1-4-1. Getting his creative players, such as Lee Nguyen, Kelyn Rowe and Diego Fagundez, on the field at the same time added some scoring spark.

“I thought we put a lot of confidence in Kelyn and Lee to step up there and be two kinds of playmakers, with Kelyn trying to penetrate, pick up loose balls, and Lee to be more of the playmaker in the terms of with the ball at his feet,” Heaps said.

The question is does the shift have staying power?

NEW YORK RED BULLS

Just as the Red Bulls are hitting their stride they will have to deal with the loss of one of their most influential players as Dax McCarty has been ruled out for this weekend’s game.

The holding midfielder tore his right quadriceps and according to head coach Mike Petke is hopeful to come back against the New England Revolution May 11.

The Red Bulls fared pretty well in their first match without McCarty, with Tim Cahill and Eric Alexander playing well in central midfield.

SPORTING KANSAS CITY

SKC has called several teams out for bunkering in and killing off games against them. Last weekend the Portland Timbers gave them what they wanted and knocked them off 3-2 at Livestrong Sporting Park. After, Sporting was left to face the reality of what happened.

“We’ve been begging for teams to come here and come at us,” goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen said. “They did, and we didn’t have an answer for it.”

PHILADELPHIA UNION

Jeff Parke asked to be sent home and the Seattle Sounders obliged. Needing salary cap relief, the Sounders struck a deal with the Union to send the Chester, PA. native home for allocation money and a first-round pick in this year’s supplemental draft. Now, the center back is set to face the team he helped lay the foundation for when the Union take on the Sounders.

“I was grateful to be sent home,” Parke said in a conference call Wednesday. “I have another four years maybe left in my career, and I always wanted to play in Philly and end my career. Seattle was a great place. Family came first and that’s how I organized it, and that’s how I asked for it to happen. And Seattle was very accommodating.”

Comments

  1. At least someone different in Canada will get a shot at Concacaf Champions League…Toronto doesn’t really offer much in the way of competition in the tournament so hopefully Montreal can make it in and give MLS another shot at the cup.

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  2. Love that quote by Jimmy Nielsen. We need more MLS teams like Portland. Unfortunately, with expansion, there are a lot of teams that simply don’t have talent to match up with better sides, so they bunker down which makes for a lot of unattractive soccer.

    Reply

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