Photo by Nick Turchiaro/ISIphotos.com
Chivas USA's Marcos Mondaini has been suspended four games and fined $1,500 for his tackle that broke Real Salt Lake playmaker Javier Morales' ankle over the weekend.
Mondaini came in with a sliding challenge from behind, and Morales immediately went to ground clutching his lower leg. He has been ruled out until at least October after having successful surgery this week.
Mondaini received an additional three-game suspension and $1,250 fine tacked on to the automatic one-game suspension and $250 fine for being red-carded. His punishment is far less severe than the one given to Brian Mullan, whose tackle that broke the leg of Seattle's Steve Zakuani resulted in a league-record 10-game suspension and $5,000 fine.
What do you think of the punishment handed down by the league? Fair? Too harsh? Not harsh enough?
Share your thoughts below.
+1000
he didnt play the ball!
It doesnt matter what their background is…a stupid hack is a stupid hack
Lose a goon and take out a star…It’s worth it!
They were both equally as bad. Mondaini had no chance at the ball from the angle he took.
This is awful…It seems as if MLS is now encouraging these goons for ratings. This one should have been 10 games minimun. Way too light. It’s going to happen again.
One of the biggest problems with Mullan’s tackle is he had a chance to play the ball and clearly made little attempt to do so.
Have you seen both tackles? I’m not sure why we have to keep rehashing this, but Mullan clearly had little intent to the ball.
Mullan’s crime wasn’t lesser at all – Mondaini got off incredibly easy and should have received a similar suspension based on precedent.
Agree with jb…All this argentine on argentine violence must stop immediately.
The fines are similar in terms of a % of each player’s income.
Mullan $190,000 $5,000 approx 2.5%
Mondiani $45,000 $1,500 approx 3%.
I do not know how the game suspensions work. Do they get paid? I would have expected the number of games in the suspensions to be a little closer, though.
DUH!! Coaches and players get their own fines, and suspension’s from comments about the individual players. Believe me RSL isn’t happy about this punishment. Half the players believed it was worthy of the same as Mullan got, and believed that would be the result. You should hear the local radio/TV stations and public in Utah. Since the announcement the league is considered a joke now! NO ONE thinks the MLS ruled fairly here!
It’s obvious the MLS needs a new discipliary committee! What a joke!!! I’ve lost all respect for the league. There was NO intent to get the ball on that play, it was worse then Mullan’s tackle, and should have had an increased suspension, and fine. This will just keep happening- I just hope Mondianni’s leg is next!!!! MLS SUCKS!!!!
No, not true! I heard Dr. Andrew Cooper immediatly following the sugery. He can’t start to do soccer activitys for four months, kicking, running, etc. That’s September. Morales will not be match fit until the end on October-PAST the end of the season! So it is a seson ending injury.
Well done! It’s especially appropriate so close to the anniversary of the Kent State killings.
Horror tackles and Garber fiddling,
Hacks and thugs free to roam
This summer I hear the snapping
Four legs in MLS
Gotta get down to it
Talentless hacks are cutting them down
Should have been banned long ago
What if you saw him
Lying crippled on the pitch
How can you play on when you know?
Kreis’ comment was made immediately after the game. I’m sure he hadn’t had time to view the tackle on film before he made that comment.
I guess Telefutura is a local channel? Hmmm. I guess it is local in Boston, San Antonio, and some random stupid town in Georgia where I had family watching the RSL game. And you didn’t need a close up to see Morales foot going completely sideways unless your blind.
Hard to believe a 31 year-old-with a history of left ankle problems, now broken, will be back in 5 months.
Or something at least even in the neighborhood.
Mullen obviously had a shot at the ball, and as many here have noted, appears to have gotten a piece of the ball. Nor did he go in from behind.
Not saying it was a good tackle at all. I’m saying the Mullen and Mondaini category or at least generally in the same category, and again as many here have noted, the Mondaini tackle was arguably worse, in some respects.
He should have been given the exact same penalty as Mullan.
Jason also stated this without having seen a replay. After seeing replay of the tackle, he stated he no longer agreed with his initial statement.
I agree with Jason. I saw this happen live. There was so much going on on the pitch at the time of the tackle that if you blinked you probably missed it. It wasn’t until I saw a replay after the game that I understood that it was a horrible tackle with all the wrong intentions.
Or, he could never regain his previous speed and flexibility of that ankle, effectively ending his career. There is no way to tell except to wait.
The MLS simply cannot afford to have its few real stars to be sidelined by thuggish tackles. I can accept the ‘sh** happens’ line when we’re talking about 50-50 plays, but plays like this one and the Mullan one were illegal and intentional. They should be handled even harsher. For the good of the league.
I’m not a fan of any of the teams involved in these arguments, but I have to say that MLS is infuriating in regards to this issue. This quote from Nelson Rodriguez (MLS executive vice president) on Mullan’s tackle says it all: “it showed utter disregard for his opponent’s safety and APPEARED to be driven by anger.”
Mr. Rodriguez you cannot read minds. You’re telling me Mullan gets a worse punishment because something APPEARED to be?
Infuriating stuff from the front office.
The larger problem here is that MLS does not hire it’s own refs. That has got to change.
You can judge intent on these guys have been playing soccer at a higher level then most of us for a long time and that they know it is against the rules and you risk ejection for takinig a player down if you don’t go for or get the ball.
If neither guy is hurt a red and 2 games should be automatic, add more if the guy is hurt.
As one of the whiny stalkers, it should have been the same for mondaini’s. The MLS needs to protect the attacking players, because we don’t need to see more games like Philly has been involved with. They sure are exciting
Mullen had no shot at the ball, or at least chose not to go after the ball. If he had gone for the ball he might not have broken Zak’s leg.
An unprofessionally executed professional foul.
The key to stamping this out is better/consistent reffing (I Know dream on). The league can’t be afraid of issuing more reds as a deterrent. Maybe there would be a glut of reds at first resulting in some strange games.
Making the teams pay through lost points will definitely get their attention and improved behavior.
Mullen’s punishment was not double but rather triple Mondaini’s. Both were ejected, but Mullen then got 9 additional games off as opposed to Mondaini’s 3, and a $5,000 fine as opposed to Mondaini’s $1,250.
Got me. Or certainly not a reason for a disparity as great as in these cases.
I’d completely agree it was clumsy. But the ball was not near him, or his path.
The thing is, it’s a challenge that we’ve all seen so many times without the victim getting severely hurt.
Of course, it was a bad foul. But Morales was extremely unlucky to get so badly injured.
With Zakuani, his injury seemed to be the logical consequence of Mullan’s attack.
For me, that is the difference.
I find the fine and suspension pretty fair. Maybe one or two days longer would be more appropriate to send a clear message to cut out that type of play/
Schmid said the same things about Mullen’s tackle, though. So it’s just another aspect that’s similar between the 2 situations, leaving the question of why the punishment was so different.
“How in hell can you judge intent?”
I believe you’ve misread me. As I said, I do _not_ agree with folks who are concluding that there much more intent, or much more malicious intent, on the part of Mullen than on the part of Mondaini. I said even if I _did_ buy their arguments, from the perspective of consistency, I would see no more than double the punishment as being reasonable. Yet the punishment was triple.
Instead of blamming the whole thing on MLS, Why dont u guys put some blame on Jason Kreis? He said it was a sloppy tackle and did not have bad intetntions behind it.
How in hell can you judge intent? Mullan seemed upset because he didn’t get the call by the ref but Moldaini was just embarrased, twice, by Morales, and yet that doesn’t equal intent in your eyes? I think we can judge motive, but not intent here.
The fact that the ball was playable on Mullan’s tackle FROM THE SIDE as opposed to Moldaini’s impossible attack from behind should go a long way towards determining punishments, but apparently it does not.
He’s not gone for the season, prognosis is back in October with the possibility of an even earlier date if things go better as planned.
You also don’t have certain bloggers/tweeters/network contributors calling for Moldaini’s head the way they were with Mullan. I’m not sure if that was because Seattle was the victim or because everyone felt cheated that Colorado won the title last year.
I expected more but I am still not happy that Morales is out. I’m tired of the pontificating. The MLS is notorious for sending mixed messages. This was another one.
Emotion aside, I hope this type of rhetoric doesn’t spill out into,the stands. The last thing the league wants is a witch hunt.
My prayers are for Morales to have a full recovery.
The BS here is that Mullan recieved twice the punishment of Mondani despite his crime being lesser. Sorry that Zak’s leg got broke, but there’s no way Mullan’s slide from the side was as bad as this monster foul from behind.
This just proves that you shouldn’t punish tackles based on outcomes.
Could not disagree with you more. Those were both horrendous challenges and Mondaini got off quite easy in my opinion.
Look we agree that MLS needs to have a standard set of rules and punishment that they clearly don’t have, as seen with all three tackles. Now why is there such a disparity between all these punishments? Is there a reason?
+1
I think you have a good point here about original MLSers struggling with the recent influx of technically skilled players. However, and please correct me if I am wrong, I am pretty sure this is Mondaini’s first year in MLS, so I am not sure if it applies to him in this case. Mullan and Leathers though, absolutely. Two grinding, workhorse type players that are neither athletically or technically gifted.
Sorry have no idea what you wrote…. My point is that a tackle from behind should never be permitted. When a player has no play on the ball, goes airborne, and lands on another player leg, that should not be permitted.
As I said before, if Zakuani’s leg wasn’t broken, would a player get an extra ban for a similar tackle? Was it a red card offense yes, but MLS punished the fact that Zakuani’s leg broke. As bad as that tackle was, Mullen did have a chance or play on the ball, unlike the tackle on Ferreira or Moralas.
What a load of s#!t. I have no idea what the MLS is thinking.
+1
Professional soccer players should have enough control over their body to nudge/clip someone down from behind without crashing through the victim’s weight-bearing leg if they are intending to make a professional foul.
There’s a bonus spot given to the 3 leagues at the top of the UEFA fair play table. That would be Norway, England and Sweden, as of the last ranking. Along with all the hoop jumping I mentioned above, England also has to maintian it’s spot in the top 3 when the final rankings come out.
and Fulham…top three countries in the UEFA’s respect fair play get an extra slot in Europa along with the other 3 spots England gets.
“Look either way the two tackles from behind should have been punished just as bad, if not more severely, then a tackle that a guy could have gotten the ball.”
???
Wait, so now you’re saying that Mullen’s deserved, if anything, a _lesser_ punishment? His was not from behind, and he could have gotten the ball, so…
Important question: why don’t you see Mondaini type tackles in the english game or european leagues? Most of the examples I can think of in the last few years, while “reckless” certainly, were nowhere near as stupid as Mondaini’s. Who leaves their feet to tackle from behind like that? Leaving out the obvious frustration of being beaten on that play, few players would do that unless they had the experience of making similar challenges and having them rewarded by breaking up play and not being punished.
Some of the tackles you see in the MLS would result in fights if they happened in recreational leagues. They are outright muggings. I think this is due to a “macho” (don’t have a better word) attitude in the game that includes referees which is worse than the physical play in England.
Stamping out this type of play is about calling dangerous tackles that DON’T result in injuries. We need to call out the announcers who after a foul that includes contact insist on saying “he made a meal of that.” A foul is a foul and its a shame that players feel they need to go down to force the issue with the refs. As long as rough play remains within the enforced rules, coaches will encourage players to push the limits.
*Note: I realize that there are grey areas around this and I strongly support yellow cards for diving.
I’m sure most of us know it since it happened 2 years ago with Fulham.