I'm not disagreeing with your general point, but something tells me the contracts at PPL wouldn't make this as easy as it sounds.
That may be true. If that's the reason, they should have said so. It seems like an annoying, but valid reasons. If Unions (@ the Union stadium) say no, then its no and fans couldn't rightfully be angry at the league, just at the situation. Based on what they said it sounds more like they tried and it just seemed like it might not have been the best option. I realize DC won, but I don't agree that this decision or the delaying before postponing rather than postponing a little farther ahead of time was a good move. I do, however, appreciate that they at least apologized to it before sticking it to Najar with another 2 games. I know the DC is a different body, but it still annoyed me that they gave him 2 extra games.
What? Sorry, Najar was an idiot and deserved the penalty based on the fact that they gave out extra games for similar incidents earlier in the year (Shea and Old Spice). The fact that the playoff structure got screwed with is no excuse to let Najar off the hook.
My opinion is that its not 100% certain (although it is certainly likely) that he threw the ball at the ref. If we knew for sure he did throw it at the ref, I'd agree with the three games based on MLS precedent. I'm not convinced that anyone can know with enough certainty if he did intend to throw it at the ref (other than Najar of course). Certainly a stupid move and I'm NOT condoning it or saying it shouldn't have been a red. I'm just saying I'm not *sure* it deserved additional games. Also, did Beckham get 3 games when he kicked the ball at the ref? Now on that one, it's clear what he was doing.
It looked to me like he turned around and threw it as he turned around while the ref was running toward him to give him the yellow. There's certainly a chance that he was just throwing it back toward the spot of the foul hard because he was frustrated rather than actually trying to hit the ref with the ball. I don't think that you'd have to be smoking anything to think that may have been what happened. As I said, I do think there's a better chance that he threw it at the ref though. My main point is that I don't think its an open and shut case. I don't smoke, but if you're in Colorado, you can have some now, right?
I have no problem with criticism. Calling him useless, however, isn't criticism - unless you're willing to explain why he's useless in the face of the many positive developments during his tenure. It's one thing to say he screwed the pooch over Sandy, the Nor'easter, and the DC/NY series. That's criticism - and quite valid criticism at that. But just calling him names because you disagree with something is juvenile an out of place in N&A.
http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2012-11-03-dc-v-ny/highlights/205124 He's looking right at the referee.
Don Garber wants you to believe that he's the right man for Commissioner of Major League Soccer. He claims that his time in office has seen the league standardize the game rules, expand to new markets, and saw the construction of soccer specific stadiums in several markets accross the league. But when a freak storm threatened to shut down a playoff series, Don Garber made spelling errors in his apology letter to the fans for the less than optimal solution the league implimented in very untennable situation. Don Garber. Wrong on spelling. Wrong for MLS. The BigSoccer Users Against Intelligent Thought Super PAC is responsible for the content of this message.
Still discussing the issue/questions/idea in a "You Be the Don" thread: https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/...on-mls-schedule.1845373/page-19#post-26783923