OT: Clint Dempsey/Seattle Sounders meltdown

Submitted by MGoBender on

So rivals Seattle and Portland played in some tournament.

Seattle had a dude dismissed with a second yellow.  Then another guy was shown a straight red for an elbow.

This Dempsey did this (see embed below):

 

 

Seattle finished the game with 7 men (a couple injuries and all subs used).

AA2Denver

June 17th, 2015 at 11:41 AM ^

MLS referees? Officiating in MLS is garbage and makes the game almost unwatchable. I'd normally think a player doing something like this is poor form, but I'll assume Clint's actions are justifiable. 

 

Musket Rebellion

June 17th, 2015 at 12:02 PM ^

Clint is still going through his terrible twos well into his 30s. He was a whiny bitch at Fulham, I hated when they signed him to Tottenham and of course if he was going to sign with an MLS club he would sign with Seattle, home to the worst, most hostile and abusive fans in all of MLS. He fits their fanbase well. I mean, USA#1 and all, but that doesn't change the fact that Clint is an impudent and petulant child. 

Zarniwoop

June 17th, 2015 at 11:42 AM ^

That was the biggest failboat I've ever seen by a referee.

The guy who flopped should have been carded after a discussion with the nearest linesman.

Not sure where the meltdown was. Was the biggest non-event leading to a red card in the history of... history.

Edit: didn't see the card get torn. I'd give that points for disdain. But the ref absolutely blew that completely.

JamieH

June 17th, 2015 at 12:00 PM ^

that is the typical soccer pansy flopping crap that makes the game completely unwatchable for me. That Portland player is an unbelievable pansy.  He's barely touched and goes down llke he's been shot.  But it works--his flopping bullshit gets not ONE but TWO players from the other team kicked out of the game.  So what a great play huh?  You have no integrity at all, and you're an incredibly loser personally, but your team wins the game. 

As long as soccer continues to reward flopping as being the best play available, players will continue to do it. 

Want to end it?  Have video replay after the game and suspend pathetic f'ers that flop like that.  That guy should get a multiple game suspention and a hefty fine.  That would end his BS really quick.  But soccer has proven for years that they have no interest in actually fixing the problem.  

ak47

June 17th, 2015 at 12:19 PM ^

Do you watch the NBA?  Guys flop all over the place, flail their arms like they got shot and bitch to the ref after any layup with contact. Football Wr's ask for pass interference on about 50% of plays and nobody bitches more to umps than Tom Brady.

JamieH

June 17th, 2015 at 12:29 PM ^

hands out fines to flopers that escallate into suspensions for repeat offenders.  Why can't MLS or other soccer leagues do something similar?   Pretty easy soltuion.  It deson't fix the problem entirely but it certainly reduces it.  There is a ton less flopping in the NBA since the fines/suspensions were put in in 2012.



Anyway, it's an apples-to-oranges argument, as no other sport allows you to flop your way to getting a player from the other team kicked out of the game or basically being given for free the majority of your scoring for the day.  The only thing close would be the PI call in the endzone in the NFL, but only if they gave the team about 3 touchdowns after the penalty call.   And the number of times I've seen a WR flop on a PI call is pretty rare.  I've seen lots of bad PI calls, but rarely an outright flop. 

Face it, soccer players flop because it is the best available play.  The payoff if it works is huge and there is almost no downside to it.   Why leagues refuse to add a downside just baffles me.  The only answers are,

 

A)  They see it as an acceptable part of the game

B)  They just have no real interest in actually stopping it.

 

Either answer is pretty bad IMO. 

MGoCombs

June 17th, 2015 at 12:53 PM ^

There's flopping in any sport and I can't blame players for trying to use it to their advantage. I think the issue is ineffective officiating. Either there isn't enough out there or it's something that's nearly impossible to enforce without replay. I think in any major sport, if there's any doubt that there may have been a flop, the officials should just find a way to quickly review it.

Have a ref whose sole job is to sit at a replay booth and signal red or green or something to the on field officials. This requires basically no extra time, and the on field ref who made the call can have ultimate veto power or something in case he saw or heard something the cameras missed. I don't get why we don't use technology to our advantage. I get pace of play arguments and I think people enjoy a human element, but they don't have to take forever and I think it is more important to get hugely impactful calls correct.

skurnie

June 17th, 2015 at 1:53 PM ^

A lot of MLS early round Open Cup matches are played at smaller venues due to some games falling outside Season Ticket sales and weeknight games. For instance, DC United always plays their early round matches at the Maryland Sports Complex, which holds around 4,000 people if I remember correctly. 

Last night the match was at Starfire Stadium in Tukwila, WA. The Sounders Reserve team trains and plays there, too.

skurnie

June 17th, 2015 at 12:41 PM ^

This probably qualifies as Referee Abuse and is typically punishable by a 3 month ban by the USSF. Interested to find out if that means a three month ban from the US Open Cup (not a big deal) or US Soccer in general. That would put him out of the Sounders lineup until mid-September.

Stupid thing to do, no matter how bad the referee is. 

m9tt

June 17th, 2015 at 1:18 PM ^

Here's why it's a good call:

 

Any time you come over the ball with your studs up like that, it's going to be red 9/10 times.

I understand soccer has a terrible reputation for diving and exaggerated reactions, but people have to understand that there are times when players actually do get kicked/tackled/stomped on... and when you do get kicked, it hurts a hell of a lot for a little while but then goes away after a few minutes (unless something is seriously wrong). It's not like football where you absorb huge body blows to the torso or getting hand-checked in basketball.  Soccer tackles involve lot of force hitting a concentrated area, so it's a different sort of pain. Getting kicked results in a lot of bruising, but the number serious injuries that come out of tackles are relatively rare compared to the amount of tackles in any given game (especially compared to football).

Also, soccer games are a PITA to referee.  This referee probably saw the player go into the tackle in the manner of the picture above, saw the reaction of the player who went down, and felt it was intentful. However, this all happened in a fraction second, and he doesn't get the benefit of slow-motion instant replay and is responsible for making a call.  As a referee, you're taught to not send off players off for something you (or your ARs) didn't see, so for the referee to pull out the red for a second time that match would lead me to believe that he got a real good look at this one. 

JamieH

June 17th, 2015 at 1:27 PM ^

soccer is a PITA to referee.  But a good chunk of that is because you've got a huge field and ONE referee!    Football is a smaller field, has 7 guys throwing flags, and they have trouble getting it right.  How can anyone expect 1 guy to properly officiate a soccer match? 

Hockey had this same problem on a smaller scale, which is why they went to two officials who could call penalties years ago.  Again, it didn't completely fix the problem by any mreans, but at least you have more eyes on the play at all times now.   There is just no way that one person can see everything going on on the pitch.  It's not humanly possible. 

That is why I suggested assigning flopping fouls based on video replay.  There is no possible way the official is going to be able to tell in real time what is a true flop.  The professional floppers are just too good. 

 

m9tt

June 17th, 2015 at 2:29 PM ^

The only problem I'd have with the replay official idea is that almost every foul appears less severe/more exaggerated by the recepient in instant replay due to the nature of slow motion.  If the replay official was limited to only calls resulting in penalty kicks and red cards, and even then only the most obvious of dives were overturned, I'd support it.

So I would like to have this play overturned...

...but I want to leave this play up to the referee's decision one way or the other.

 

JamieH

June 17th, 2015 at 4:56 PM ^

these are pretty different sitautions.

 

In one, you have the typical bull**** where a player throws themselves to the ground with no contact at all because they know flopping is their best move.  In the other, you have an aggressive challenge with contact where the offensive player MIGHT have been able to keep going if he had made more effort to keep his balance.  But there was clearly contact, and you could even argue the offensive player was attempting to avoid torquing his ankles by going down. 



I'm clearly not a soccer expert, but if I were in charge of handing out diving fines via replay, I would agree with you that only your first video would be subject to one. The guy throws himself to the pitch before any contact even happens. 

 

Hit the damn floppers/divers in their pocketbooks and then lets see how many of them keep doing it.



 

sum1valiant

June 17th, 2015 at 7:37 PM ^

There are also times that football players suffer catastrophic injuries...however these instances don't happen 4-5 times per game as they do in soccer, hence the reputation for flopping. This play is everything that is wrong with soccer, and exhibit A as to why it cannot break into mainstream america.