Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been punished for his behavior for the first time since arriving in MLS.
Major League Soccer’s Disciplinary Committee has suspended Ibrahimovic two matches for actions in last weekend’s loss to NYCFC.
Ibrahimovic was bumped into by NYCFC goalkeeper Sean Johnson in the 87th minute last weekend and retaliated by grabbing the keeper by the throat, leading to an incident where both players fell to the ground.
Both players were given yellow cards in the match while NYCFC walked away 2-0 winners.
According to the reports, Ibrahimovic will miss Sunday’s home date with the winless Colorado Rapids and next weekend’s road match at Orlando City. He has scored nine goals in 10 league appearances this season after coming back from an early-season injury.
Last weekend’s altercation with Johnson was the latest by Ibrahimovic this season. He made headlines after an incident of trash talking with Real Salt Lake defender Nedum Onuoha back in April.
Ibrahimovic entered the RSL locker room after that match to speak to Onuoha, who refused to speak to Ibrahimovic and ripped him in multiple post-match interviews.
The Galaxy are currently third in the Western Conference with 22 points through 12 matches. They have lost three-consecutive matches, being outscored 8-3 over that span.
The last game the Galaxy were without Ibra they played very well. Watching the Galaxy this year I see why the Swedish national team left him off their WC squad. He is so good and such a dominating presence that you can’t ignore him and he ends up being the center of the attack. The downside is that the offense becomes static and predictable. Basically, the defense crowds the middle, forcing the ball down the flanks, then surrounds him on the crosses. Because he no longer has any real speed, the Galaxy can’t play quickly or fast break much. This is where they really miss a speed guy like Kamara, who they had last year. When they last played without Ibra, they moved the ball quickly, made a lot of one touch passes, involved more players and moved the ball around more, creating holes in the defense. Since their next two opponents haven’t done very well up till now, it will be interesting to see how well the Galaxy do over the next two games.
Glad someone else has noticed this
I am curious about how many of Ibra’s past altercations have involved Black players. The last two have, and most are probably aware of the infamous Oguchi Onyewu practice incident. Starting to wonder if there is a pattern here.
Wow… way to turn this into a racial thing when it’s just not there. All you have to do is go on youtube and search “Zlatan fights” and you will see that he is an equal opportunity fighter. Clearly he can be a major a-hole with opponents, but I doubt it has anything to do with their race.
So the one that provoked him (Johnson) isn’t getting any punishment? You’re now allowed to bump into people and provoke them if you are fouled. New rule.
Welcome to the real world. This happens all the time in sports. It’s usually the second guy who gets punished. At least in this instance Johnson got a yellow. The other thing is that hands to the face or head is an automatic red whereas Johnson threw kind of a body block into him, which is almost always treated more leniently than even taking out someone’s legs.