Are you sure that happened? I haven't heard confirmation, and from what it sounds like the announcer backed off saying he punched the guy and later said pushed. Plus I doubt EJ went to the quakes bench, rather quakes players from the bench came onto the field.
In the Quakes forum someone who was at the game said EJ punched San Jose assistant coach Ian Russell.
Was it a bad enough push/shove/smack/punch that he got red-carded? At a minimum, the 4th official would see it and it'll end up on the sheet. There were a lot of aggressive acts though on both sides.
Don't know what the officials saw and you can't assume the 4th official was looking that direction. Just speculating here, but, I am guessing that Russell had something to say to EJ about the incident involving Lenhart in the box, where it looked like he took a shot to the head.
Reports are that it was Jed Zayner according to some guy on Twitter with the handle @quakesbeat https://twitter.com/quakesbeat/status/217866955078647808
You can see the incident here http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/23593591 Try starting around 54:00 in the video. Incident actually happens at around 54:08. Eddie comes into the bottom corner of the screen and you see the SJ player appear to say something and push Eddie. Eddie pushes back and the SJ player goes down like he got shot. The video is blurry, but it doesn't look nearly as bad as SJ fans have been claiming. While Eddie may have been being classless, it appears to me the SJ player initiated the physical contact and then fell down trying to get EJ in trouble. I doubt anything comes of this.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/soundersfcblog/2018536812_so_what_happened_after_tuesday.html "Seattle coach Sigi Schmid said he thought Zayner swung first and added that San Jose coaches also confronted Sounders players before the melee."
Oh my god.... just a total acting job. There's nothing there. A mild shove?... You can tell by the face-down arm-flinging at the ground by the recipient... I cannot believe that this is even a thing. But it's on video, check for yourselves. Right at the 54:09 mark (bottom left). Just what you'd expect from Lenhart and friends: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/23593591
I watched it once without the sound, then watched it with the sound. The announcers made it seem like a punch, but it looks like a shove. It's hard to tell with such grainy blobs.
Wow, it's really sad that was Zayner. He had a promising career at Columbus... but was a reserve when he could have been 1st string somewhere... Now he's flopping around in USOC matches for San Jose. That's a sad turn of career.
one could say the same for Eddie "grown ass i havent rly grown up" Johnson. Next "big, superstar striker" failed with US national team then came back to MLS. Zayner was cut from DC because of injury problems. The point here isn't the flop by Zayner, both player's are at fault. EJ took the bait, if there was any, and then retaliated, that is not needed nor "classy" tl;dr take off the homer glasses. Sounders fans living in their delusional world. Zayner was milking it but EJ was classless.
If EJ is classless then what was Zayner for taking things to the next step and pushing EJ? Looks like Zayner was lieing in the post game quotes as well. You can see the video. You can see Zayner walk up, say something, and push EJ. Yet you are calling EJ classless and giving Zayner a pass? What about the quote from Sigi saying the SJ coaches were confronting Sounders players before the melee? Just maybe the SJ bench weren't being angels. Which doesn't surprise me considering one of their players had just got sent off for head butting a Sounders player in the back of the head.
Well, you can watch the video for yourself. Didn't happen the way a lot of people were making it sound early on. Including the Announcer. Who didn't really have a clue.
Are you saying that a San Jose announcer would be a massive homer? This shocks me. They are known for their neutral, metered, and knowledgable commentary...
I was at the game. I didn't see the original altercation but knew that EJ had done something, if not initiated it, because he was walking to the other side of the pitch and Hurtado had his arm around him in the universal sign of: "Calm down and just walk away before everyone kills you." I can confirm that whoever was hit was a Quakes reserve player (meaning Zayner). Additionally, I'm quite sure that Jason Hernandez took a swing at somebody (Johnson?) which (fortunately) didn't connect. What a shame. That game really boiled over. I could blame Seattle's theatrics (which were rife), but the ref is really responsible for letting the game get completely out of hand. It was one of the worst officiated matches I've seen in a while.
Really? Take your blinders off. There is just as much evidence that he threw a punch. And the reaction from the Quakes players and bench was pretty intense for just a "mild shove". And why were Johnson's teammates doing all they could to get him out of there?
Well the sound happens to be a man that was there that gets paid to describe the grainy blobs. You guys are trying way too hard to paint it the other way. I have watched the video myself and it looks to me like you guys are willfully trying to flush you own credibility to protect your guy. The blob was described as going to the opposing bench to celebrate.
True, the poor quality of the video does make it unclear what EJ did in response to Zayner's actions. The only thing that is obvious from the video is Zayner is lying when he said all he did was walk up to EJ and tell him to go celebrate somewhere else. The video clearly shows Zayner walk up to EJ, shove him, and then drop to the ground like he had been shot. So, given that we know Zayner is lying about the first part, why should we believe him on the second part? Particularly given the fact that rolling around the ground and pounding it in "pain" is the universal sign for "I'm acting". I take it you've never seen a soccer game before, then? I ask because any time there is any contact between players after a play the first reaction is to swarm the players and get into a round of handbags. Take a look at what happens after Gordon chestbumped/headbutted Burch at 51:16. Most of the guys on the field probably didn't see what happened, but they still swarmed the spot and whipped out the handbags. Yet again, have you never seen a soccer game before? While there are people that swarm and try to instigate, there is also people that swarm and are start pulling the instigators apart.
I'm kinda glad I didn't jump to conclusions about this...and I know there's no percentage in sticking up for Sounders....but man, it sure looked like Zayner took a dive. Whoever's at fault - Johnson or Zayner - should probably sit out the next Open Cup (i.e., the Luis Hernandez punishment).
Yeah, I have never been to a soccer game before. Don't be such a douchebag. There is all sorts of pushing and shoving that goes on at a game, but, "mild shoves" usually don't get the type of reaction that Johnson's action did. Gordon's action got the reaction it did because so many people saw what he did. The intense reaction toward Johnson by the Quakes and Johnson's own teammates points toward Johnson giving more than a shove.