By CALEB SONNELAND
With an injury unfortunately similar to Steve Zakuani's of the Seattle Sounders, Real Salt Lake midfielder Javier Morales suffered what looks to be a season-ending injury in RSL's match against Chivas USA. After a nasty challenge from Marcos Mondaini, Morales immediately went to ground signaling for medical help.
The bad news marred a 1-0 Real Salt Lake victory over nine man Chivas at the Rio Tinto Stadium.
Early in the match, Chivas defender Andrew Boyens was booked for bringing down Alvaro Saborio in what could have been a goal scoring opportunity in the 15th minute. Salt Lake players immediately surrounded referee Paul Ward demanding red, but only a debatable yellow card was given.
Real would get its wish, however, as Boyen was carded for a second bookable offense only nine minutes later after throwing a shoulder into Saborio in an off-the-ball run.
To be fair, the Royals didn't challenge Chivas keeper Dan Kennedy a great deal in the first half, and one of the better chances came in the 32nd minute when Kyle Beckerman latched onto a through ball behind the Chivas back line. But his whipped ball across goal was just behind Saborio, and Chivas could breathe again.
The talking point of the half came five minutes later when Marcos Mondaini brought down Javier Morales from behind. The tackle itself didn't appear to be malicious rather than just reckless and unfortunate. Mondaini will undoubtedly face a suspension, the question is simply for what length?
Chivas, then with nine men on the field, was able to hold a scoreless draw going into the half.
After the break, RSL pressed forward searching for a goal to break the deadlock. Saborio went close in the early minutes of the second half, and on 56 minutes Nat Borchers had a free header that he sent wide of Kennedy's right post.
Defender Chris Wingert also had an effort well saved by Kennedy, but Real could find no way past the Chivas keeper.
After spells of possession and probing runs, Real Salt Lake finally got their breakthrough late in the game in the form of Will Johnson on the 87th minute.
Johnson met the cross of Arturo Alvarez at the back post to give RSL the lead and eventually three points.
Still, the injury to Morales will make the headlines, and it is an unfortunate injury for the Argentine midfielder which could very likely end his season.
Supporters will be quick to cite the disciplinary actions taken against Brian Mullan of the Colorado Rapids as a reference for the suspension undoubtedly coming Mondaini's way.
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How many games do you think Marcos Mondaini should be suspended, if any? Were Andrew Boyen's yellow cards warranted? What does the Morales injury mean for RSL going forward?
Honestly, I don’t have a good answer. The whole “offending party should be out until injured player returns” argument is ridiculous. I didn’t think Mullan’s punishment was unfair. But gauging intent or malice is not necessarily a simple thing. The challenge was certainly reckless, but this wasn’t Roy Keane ending that dude’s career in a clear act of retaliation. Or Marty McSorley taking a stick to Donald Brashear’s head.
I guess what I am saying, more than anything, is that punishing something like this is not a simple thing, and that knee-jerk reactions to an incident because it was disgusting aren’t usually the best ways of determining a fair punishment.
Not arguing with you, but I am just curious: What do you think the punishment should be for this tackle?
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Okay, after watching the replay several times from a different angle…yes this tackle was pretty messed up and probably deserves a harsher suspension than 3 games. The ball was two yards ahead of Morales and Mondaini was nowhere near the ball either.
ugh, that photo. brutal
Mondaini can rot in hell!
A lot of comments on this board are blaming MLS, but the reality is that Mullan got a longer suspension than he would have in other leagues. EPL gave de Jong nothing for breaking someone’s leg. In the end the refs and league can only do so much. It is up to the players to not make these tackles.
Here’s what RSL said on their Facebook page:
“Latest update on our friend Javier Morales … suffered a fracture dislocation of his left ankle and accompanying ligament tears, according to Team Doctor Andrew Cooper. Surgery is scheduled for Monday and recovery time is expected to be around four months.
Let’s rally behind Javi and send him your thoughts as he deals with this unfortunate injury. Get well #11!”
I am so glad most of the people commenting on here aren’t running the league. Yes, this sucks tremendously that three of the most entertaining players in MLS are out for awhile because of terrible tackles. Yes, the offending parties should be punished. But some of the ideas about what is or isn’t warranted for the punishment are ridiculous.
The deeper issues here are inconsistencies with referees and the way they control games. Which is a huge problem worldwide. Brutal challenges will unfortunately happen, from Sunday league on up. They will never be totally eradicated.
Here’s a picture of Mondaini “touching” Morales’s ankle: http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f331/slcboz/RSLBoz2011/Real%20Salt%20Lake%20v%20Chivas%20USA%205-7-11/morales_ankle_boz.jpg
Care to retract your statement, Juan?
What he deserves is the same suspension as Mullan. That should be until the injured player returns, or at least until the end of the season, but unfortunately it probably won’t even be the 10 games that Mullan got….
I take it you’re not a huge fan of the NFL, ice hockey, rugby, etc.
I’m bummed to read this news as I wasn’t able to catch the game. Why are all these good players going down on posession minded teams? It’s like a clash between a new style of play that a few teams are playing vs the traditional rough defensive minded play, MLS has been in the past.
5-7 games sounds right but I can see MLS going 7 or 8 to show it can’t afford it’s best players to get hurt in this manner.
I frankly don’t understand how people can say his intent was not malicious.
It was impossible for him to get the ball, and he clearly knew that. Not only was he too far away, but there was a player in between he and the ball. His solution? Wreck the player.
Clear malicious intent is the only reasonable inference.
Sad. Makes soccer seem kind of meaningless. Is it really worth these kinds of injuries. The idea of doing what you can get away with is not sportsmanlike.
This is a disaster. Such a great player. Stupid challenge.
And did anyone else notice that all three of these season-ending injuries happened in a nationally televised MLS game? Great advertising campaign, MLS. WTF. And, again, the telecast shows no respect for the player, playing the replay over and over and over again. It was like a snuff film. And, don’t tell me, “Hey, it’s news.” No excuse for poor judgment on Telefuturo’s part.
He did not mean to hurt Morales, but he disregarded his safety. His goal was to take down the player and he did.
We’ve set a precedent and MLS must stick to it if it’s going to get into the players heads that it’s not acceptable to tackle with disregard for your opponents safety.
10 games.
He should be suspended 10 games. I saw the malicious intent in his eyes.
5-7 games is my prediction.
I really don’t get it. I play aggressive soccer and I can see going for the ball when you’re beat and getting too much of the player. That’s reckless to me. Mondaini was running behind Morales for a few steps and the ball was out in front of Morales. He had time to think and he tackled Morales’s legs without coming anywhere near the ball or having any reason to believe that he could get anywhere near the ball. This is more than reckless.
I’m glad Garber and co. has been proactive in directing refs to shut down this thuggish behavior and pumping more money into referees. Pshhhh
Meanwhile he’s worrying about his worst fears of having a hooligan riot at an MLS game.
“he didn’t even touch the ankle”???
Is your last name Mondaini!?!?
Three games WTF??? It was not malicious, it was stupid. He should have never tried that.
That’s ridiculous. The ball was far enough out in front of Morales that Mondaini can’t be said to have been going for the ball. He tackled Morales’s legs intentionally. It’d be one thing if he tackled the ball through Morales’s legs, but he didn’t! He had no chance for the ball. That’s malicious! Just because he didn’t go in with the speed that Mullan did doesn’t mean it wasn’t malicious. If fact, I’d say it’s even worse.
How can anyone say the tackle wasn’t malicious?! He had NO CHANCE to get anywhere near the ball!!! He hacked down Morales pure and simple. His intent was to foul Morales. Did he want to break his ankle? Surely not. But it wasn’t a just a “reckless” tackle. Reckless is going for the ball without regard for the player. Mondaini can’t be said to have been going for the ball at all. He deserves even more time than Mullan in my opinion. At least Mullan was making a play on the ball when he intentionally hacked down Zakuani.
Another reason to avoid watching MLS
its funny that as as soon as garber talks about protecting the skill players we see a rash of terrible, season ending injuries. It sucks to see the stars of the league being taken out from behind for the most part. I don’t know how much more the MLS can do at this point
Ref never had control of the game.
I was there, I’ve watch the video 3 or 4 times now, and I’ll tell ya, it WAS mallicious! I say they toss him out until Morales is back playing games! These guy’s have already had warnings about this type of play. If the league wants this to stop? They will suspend the players for as long as the injury is suffered! This is (AT LEAST) 10 games + 1 for the card, and $10,000.00 fine!!! The punishment should be increased if the league is serious about this crap play! MLS needs to stamp this out now!!! Watch the video- 1. It’s from behind 2. The ball is on the other side of Morales from him. Complete crap!!!
Intent or not (there was no malice there), recklessly endangering someone’s career through such gross incompetence warrants a pretty hefty punishment. That was a horrifically amateurish tackle – late, out of control, from an awful angle, with no hope of cleanly winning the ball.
On the RSL post game show they talked about how this is not good for MLS with three brual injuries against three players who people pay the money to see and from a PR standpoint this not good for the league…
Not to mention he had no intent at playing the ball when he pulled Morales down….the replays show that….
They think the Mullen precident will hurt him more than it might had this been a stand alone injury….
Discipline Committee will meet on Thursday and they said to expect a big suspension similar to Mullen’s….
Yeah, the refs have to get better. Refs need to be able to somewhat manage a physical game. It would also help if they don’t make obvious calls into a judgment calls.
As far as a ban, who knows, but 3 games seems a little light to me right now. 5 games would make me feel ok.
+1
this is getting ridiculous. 3 of the best players in the league now done for the season due to questionable tackles. MLS better get their sh!t together quick or there will be a mass exodus of skilled players. total bush league
As a fellow RSL fan, I see the latter happening…if nothing else because of the rash of these serious injuries this year and the league needing to send a message and frankly a PR nightmare if this continues and a Beckham or Henry is hurt this bad…
Oh and fix the ref problem…its better the past five years however, still not good…
Forgot to say looks like season ending injury a smiddgen of hope he could return late in 2011, but not real likely….players pretty devistated over the injury…I’ve gotten to know allot of these guys including Javi and they are a tight group and a great bunch of guys….
Javi is a great guy…great family man..and funny…
3 game ban would work for me. It was reckless but no intent to injury Morales. Anything more than that would be overkill.
I could see MLS going for a Mullan like suspension to make an example out of these reckless challenges.
MLS set the precedent when it handed down a light repercussion for Mullan.
Just heard that David Beckham was in a car crash on the 405 fwy!
My guess is it will take one more break, DeRo maybe Landon or Montero, before Garber takes action.
You can call this a MLS / Mullan foul. MLS is quickly becoming a hack league and only has itself to blame. Expect some DPs or quality players like Teemu to go down next.
Mondiani got beat and he threw himself at Morales’ legs. Nothing good can come out of such challenge. I find it very hard to believe he didn’t know that.
This is pathetic. Three of the more attractive players gone. No shortage of thugs left.
Doctor Cooper (RSL doctor) is on RSL radio post game…said it is a break and dislocation of the left ankle…looking at 3 months for the fracture/dislocation to heal…at the earliest he coudl return in 4 months…more than likely 5-6 months….will have a surgical repair in the next few days….also talked about the mental apprehension he will have to overcome…expects a full recovery…said Morales is a really positive person…
Fair enough, but I disagree…he may have ended Morales career who is 31 years old and may not be able to return and if he does more than likely nowhere near where he was…to me intent should have nothing to do with the suspension….it was an awful tackle and late and should be suspended as such…
Time this league puts a stop to this sort of stuff….
This really sucks and I feel bad for the whole RSL family and especially hope and pray for a quick recovery for Morales…for those that watched the play like I unfortunately did through telefutura…Mondiani although bad and late fool DID NOT maliciously went at Morales like Mullan did…he didn’t even touch the ankle…the play showed he fouled him and as they were falling his ankle got the bad part of the play and thus it looked like it snapped…just wanted to make that clear
Oh and the ref was horrible…lost control of the game early and then blew it on the initial call on Morales…should have been a straight red regardless of the injury….
The officiating in this league has got to get better and this game only accents how bad it is…he is responsbile for protecting the players and had he done so earlier this more than likely would not have happened….
I don’t think his suspension should be on par with Mullan’s. I’d favor a 3 game suspension for Mondaini and maybe a $1500 fine. The tackle on Morales had a pretty disastrous outcome but I don’t think it was malicious.
To set the record straight…Its not a leg break, according to RSL radio announcers and Jason Kries in his post game press conference….its a broken & dislocated ankle….
It was a stupid late challenge that should see at a minimum the same suspension as Mullen in my opinion…
wow so many leg breaks recently
That was pretty ugly!