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Marquez suspended for three games

RafaMarquez (ISIPhotos.com)

 

New York Red Bulls midfielder Rafa Marquez always figured to face some sort of suspension for his actions in last weekend's match against the San Jose Earthquakes. On Thursday, Marquez and the Red Bulls found out just how stiff a punishment he will face.

MLS announced on Thursday that Marquez will be suspended for three matches after injuring San Jose midfielder Shea Salinas with a bearhug and slam that resulted in Salinas suffering a broken collarbone.

Marquez was also issued an undisclosed fine for his actions. He wasn't the only player suspended by MLS on Thursday. San Jose midfielder Marvin Chavez was issued a one-game suspension for a reckless tackle on Roy Miller.

The suspension means Marquez will miss the Red Bulls' upcoming matches against Eastern Conference rivals D.C. United and New England, as well as a high-profile road trip to the take on the Los Angeles Galaxy.

The suspension is just the latest in Marquez's checkered tenure in MLS. He was suspended for the start of the 2012 season and the Red Bulls' final playoff game in 2011 for his role in a skirmish with the LA Galaxy. Prior to that, Marquez was suspended by the Red Bulls for making critical comments of teammate Tim Ream to the media.

Here is the play Marquez was suspended for in case you had yet to see it, or if you just want to watch it again:

 

What do you think of the punishment? Think it's fair or do you feel Marquez deserved an even longer suspension?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. This is the single dumbest comment I have ever read on this site. You are stating that in “real-life”; criminal charges shouldn’t be brought against somebody unless a police officer witnesses the crime? …… and you throw in a Soviet reference at the end?

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  2. So if I chase you down full speed studs up into your leg bones but you somehow emerge fine it’s 1 game but if I accidentally fall on you in a corner kick tangle, break your collarbone, and you’re out 8 weeks, I get 8 weeks too? I’m more worried about headhunting, I want the guy getting 8 weeks to have committed 8 weeks’ worth of foul. Mullan, maybe….I still think that’s excessive…..but multigame for getting tangled up? At least some of this is him being punished for (a) being unpopular Rafa and (b) hurting Salinas, even though that’s an unusual outcome for players tangled up in the box.

    In college I once got tangled up with the feet of an opposing player going down the sideline, and basically one arm tackled him to the ground as we fell. Yellow, stayed in game, no suspension obviously. Right play this might be a borderline red. But 3 games? Reminds me of when NCAA decided one season to card people for cussing, even at one’s self…..first game I get a card for cussing myself for hitting a 20 yard shot over the bar. Two weeks later the directive loses steam and no one cares. I’m not a fan of trendy approaches to reffing/punishing.

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  3. I’d be interested to know if the broken collar bone was caused by the fall or the kick. Either way Marquez has been a terrible, over-priced, under performing, misguided, disruptive acquisition for NYRB.

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  4. The Disciplinary Committee’s power are too broad and it is being overused. It should only be able to give out suspensions/fines for infractions the actual game ref spotted and issued a card for. In society, you don’t expect to be convicted of a crime without being caught and charged by police. If the police aren’t catching the crimes, improve the police department. You can’t possibly implement this system fairly. Players aren’t going to want to come play in this league. Fans, eventually, are not going to want to watch the league. You are messing with the very competitive balance of the game. This will quickly make MLS look like the USSR of soccer leagues.

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  5. …and to add. There is nothing wrong with a properly executed scissor tackle. A guy named Maldini perfected it and had a great career utilizing it. He passed it along to his son that made a career at it; won multiple CLs with it. Now the grandson applies it quit nicely in this video too.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrMz_qm9s_Y

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  6. And just in case it wasn’t clear, yes I’m joking. He deserves at least five games, and frankly I wish the NYRB would just sell him to a USL side.

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  7. In Marquez’s defense, he’s always had problems with American players, so being in MLS must be driving the guy absolutely bonkers.

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  8. I still believe if the league wants to stop these cheap plays they need to make a rule that the attacking player is out for as long as the injured player is! 3 games is a vacation for him. WEAK AGAIN MLS!!!

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  9. Wow,….as a RBNY supporter I was hoping this clown would get 10 games. He is trash. Plain and simple. What he did was not your typical pushing, pulling, jostling in the box. It is obvious he intended to fall on Salinas and he did exactly what he hoped he would do injure his opponent . The sooner they offload this piece of crap the better. He is a disgrace to the uniform and the league.

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  10. Wow, that’s an absurdly light suspension. My inner conspiracy theorist believes MLS went easy on him to appease the Mexican television demographic.

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  11. This isn’t the worst or even close to the worst foul MLS has seen recently. But Marquez has done stuff like this before–punishment is supposed to escalate. And he severely hurt a player. I’m not saying anyone who injures someone gets suspended. But it’s clearly a foul (even if there is a lot of clutching and grabbing on corners), he clearly kicks him, the player is out a while and Marquez is a repeat offender. 3 games is too little.

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  12. That’s not an accurate description of Chavez’s tackle. It was a scissor from more the side than the back. No studs. 1 game is fair.

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  13. Agreed 100%. The league is trying to reduce injuries through malicious play. But to suspend players for pedestrian fouls that happen to cause an injury is a bit extreme.

    Where does it stop. Does every injury require a suspension of someone? Where do we draw the line; charlie horses, cramps, hurt egos?

    Were not talking about some wild malicious tackle here or some sort of indoctrined “bounty” system. It was a clumsy play, give him a 1 game suspension and leave it at that.

    Everyone needs to take a minute and settle down.

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  14. I am surprised at the tone of this comment string. Watching this in real time I saw a foul that in most games would go without a call let alone a card or suspension.

    Defenders all around the league an the world are taught to wrap up forwards in the box on set plays at an early age. No one, players included (except for Ronaldo perhaps)ever complain about it for more than a few seconds after the ball is cleared.

    Salinas broke his collarbone, a product of the awkward way the two players fell. 9 out of 10 times he would have bounced up without issue and the game would have gone on.

    I am not a Marquez apologist, but all the whining on this board anytime he touches another player is annoying. He is a rough player, but that is a role this not foreign to Defenders/defensive midfielders throughout the sport. SBI has a column today on the SKC’s “bruiser”, Collins. Perhaps it is just because he is Mexican? Either that or LD has alot of free time today and is trolling the boards under a number of usernames.

    The kick after the play while perhaps unintentional, was at the very least reckless and a game suspension for the whole incident is warranted. But to those of you who are calling for him to be thrown out of the league? Really??? Would you prefer that we adopt AYSO rules at the pro level? That would make for one hell of a great sport, wouldn’t it.

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  15. I think this is displaced anger towards Marquez in general and about Salinas getting hurt. People don’t usually completely wrap you up or end up collar-boned as a result but people are in the broader sense grabbing and tugging in the box like this every day. I’ve gotten a yellow before for pulling and tugging on a player running down the sideline, and then clumsily running up their back like Marquez did. It looks like a football tackle but I hope no one actually thinks it was a designed football tackle, and the supposed face kick is so innnocuous I think it basically reflects tangled players getting back up. Trust me I once kneed someone prone who took me to ground in a college game, if he meant to kick him in the face there’d be windup coming in and probably blood afterwards.

    It’s not a positive situation because Salinas got hurt and is out, but the penalty should reflect the intended crime and not the result. Because if we’re suspending people for this why not awkward, unintended tackles that hurt people? Cause if the lead factor is that Salinas is out x games then that should be the lead factor when someone accidentally knicks an ankle or knee and that player’s out. In reality, it should be a suspension reflecting the intent…..game at most here reflecting a taboo takedown that was not all that intentional. Yellow most days, red on an unusual one, one game suspension MAX.

    Bear in mind we have punishment inflation now because MLS is taking all this to heart this year.

    Personally I think Marquez is a massive waste but I’d prefer a more objective system of punishments and less of emotional campaigns to punish player x for unsightly things caught on camera, which in reality are common everyday soccer. Save this for the Mullan tackles.

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  16. While Marquez’s name may have put people in the seats 5 years ago and since he played at the “hallowed” Barcelona. But anyone that has seen his forgettable performances in MLS would never say I am spending my money on a ticket to see Marquez. As a New Yorker that is waiting for the return of the Cosmos (especially considering how the metrobulls have historically been run), I would spend money to see Henry and Cooper this year. Last year Henry, Luke Rodgers added excitement when he played, and Tim Ream.

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  17. Not that Messing isn’t wrong, but I’d be careful about aligning myself with ol’ Shep. Nice guy, but about as sharp as a bag of wet mice.

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  18. I see what you’re doing there!
    You’re taking Realist’s emotionless, factual representation of the incident…and ignoring it. So what you’re saying is…it’s not fair? Got it.

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  19. Me too. Why would he kick the guy unless — in whatever indefensible, lunatic, egomaniac state Márquez was in — he thought the guy did something to “deserve” it.
    I don’t think Rafa is a legitimate sociopath. Big difference between being that and just being an entitled prick.

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  20. As much as I dislike Marquez, he spent most of his professional career playing for arguably the best club team in the history of football (Barcelona), and he helped them win every single trophy there is to win. Hard to argue against that.

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  21. for every feel good story or hero there’s a villian. Mullen and Marquez are it. Mullen may not put alot of people in the seats but i bet you marquez does.

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  22. Worst DP ever? I know there were worse guys on the field, but Marquez is not only a mediocre to bad player, he’s also a publicity nightmare and, I would say, the most hated player in the league and (probably) on his own team.

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  23. We’re quibbling here, folks. There’s no significant difference between three games and five games for Marquez because except for defensive gaffes and hard fouls he’s generally invisible on the field anyway.

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  24. As an RSL fan I am glad RSL played RB while Marquez was suspended. He decides to lash out at random times. The three games is about right though and RB have to be assessing their options now. How can a team pay someone so much money to only have them get suspended so often?

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  25. Very well said (the only thing you can really suspend him for is the kick after Salinas goes down. Holding during a corner is not grievous enough to suspend a player – or we’d have one suspended every game):

    “Yes — and I imagine that’s why he got the suspension. The injury was a freakish result from the kind of in-the-box clutching and pushing that goes on during every kick.

    As I wrote before, I doubt Rafa meant to take Salinas down. In fact, the kick suggests that Rafa was pissed at Salinas for going down, probably thinking that Shea was angling for a PK call.”

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  26. he certainly has a history of rashly stupid decisions, added to the fact that he can’t play anymore and he’s just dangerous.

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  27. And why does the fine need to be undisclosed? Transparency please. That guy is making a ton of money; how much you fine him means something

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  28. This is a joke. But what is even worse is that NY would bring a guy like that to MLS in the first place. How do you not know what that guy is about unless you are clueless about your market in the United States.

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