By FRANCO PANIZO
The hammer has come down hard on Fabian Espindola.
MLS announced on Thursday that its disciplinary committee has handed Espindola a six-game ban for confronting an assistant referee following D.C. United’s postseason elimination. Espindola, who will serve the suspension at the start of the 2015 season, was also punished with an undisclosed fine.
D.C. was knocked out of the playoffs by the arch-rival New York Red Bulls in the two-legged Eastern Conference Semifinals. After the second game on Nov. 8 concluded, an irate Espindola aggressively confronted sideline official George Gansner before being restrained by teammates and members of United’s staff.
The Argentine forward was given a red card for his actions, automatically giving him a two-game suspension going into the 2015 campaign. The MLS Disciplinary Committee tacked on four more, however, for coming in contact with Gansner.
Espindola issued an apologetic statement through the club:
“I am very sorry for my actions at the end of the playoff game against New York. My emotions got the best of me. I want to apologize to assistant referee George Gansner, to my teammates and to the organization. I look forward to being back on the field with my teammates soon.”
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What do you think of Espindola’s suspension? Is it too harsh? Fine with it?
Share your thoughts below.
Pretty sure that ref could’ve taken Espindola, anyway.
Got what he deserved.
Where’s Dempsey’s suspension for grabbing a referee from behind and pulling him?
The NBA cracked down on complaining to the ref, and the league is much better off for having done so. MLS needs to do the same.
deserved but I give him credit for being apologetic.
STILL nothing for JONES………..
If only the league (the refs) would really crack down on dissent, not to mention the other bad behaviors the better leagues don’t tolerate — the various types of gamesmanship and cynical/dangerous tackles. Perhaps we could all put it on our Xmas lists.
Better leagues don’t tolerate dissent? I hope this was sarcasm. Have you watched any Spain or Netherlands games in the past 8 years? Watch a Real Madrid or Barcelona game, especially when they play each other and when 6, 7, 8 or more players surround a referee and badger him, tell me they don’t tolerate dissent. When the best teams and best players treat referees with utter contempt and get away with it, what do you think is going to happen?
Agreed. The reality is that the only way to stop the confrontation issue is to start doling out red cards like sticks of cherry flavored gum. Within three weeks, we’d never see it again. However, for those three weeks, we’d see 7 v 8 games all around the league. And that’s the worst case scenario for the MLS or any other league, because now you’re getting into fans getting upset at not getting their money’s worth on the soccer pitch.
Referees at the highest level are instructed quite heavily to tolerate as much confrontation as they can bear for precisely this reason. They are part of an “entertainment product” and their job is not to diminish said product. Yes, this is ironic. These guys work for 10, 15, 20 years learning to enforce the laws of the game, then they get to The Show, and they’re told “let the lads yell at you.” Referees are a pitiable lot, and this cruel irony only makes it worse.
Wait. Are they trying to distract us while the stadium at Buzzard Point somehow doesn’t get built?
“After the second game on Nov. 8 concluded, an irate Espindola aggressively confronted sideline official George Gansner before being restrained by teammates and members of United’s staff.”
Keep trying guys. Aggressively confronting the ref wouldn’t have earned him this suspension. He ran up and pushed the ref. Hard. If it was against a player during the game, it would have been an easy red for VC and a three game suspension. Against a ref after a game, doubling that sounds fair.
This is good to see. Espindola had always been a thuggish player inconsiderate of those around him, so I for one am happy that his actions have caught up to him and he is seeing a hefty punishment. I hope it was a large fine.
Now how about Eddie Johnson?
Time to let it go…
I thought a red got you an automatic one-game suspension. Is it two here (befoe the DisCo’s add-on) because it was a post-game confrontation, so that Espindola was tossed from the game he was (sort of) already in — the season opener — with an automatic suspension for the next game?
Wow, that is a lot of games. Glad to see toughness when deserved.
I think the refs should quit putting up with any massive arguing/showing anger. Players and coaches screaming at the refs, calls the ref usually calls correctly, just isn’t right and not the way we should want our league to go. Start throwing cards around, it will stop immediately…which it should.
Hopefully that is what MLS is doing.
ps. plus the next thing…we all have to read is some guy whining about the MLS reffing being worse than the rest of the world.