You can blame referee Ricardo Salazar for part of Rafa Marquez's repeated mugging yesterday of Shea Salinas, resulting in a broken collar bone. But Marquez's thuggery is well known. Remember the following from the playoffs last year? After thorough examination of the incident that followed the Oct. 30 game between the New York Red Bulls and the LA Galaxy, the Disciplinary Committee strongly believed Rafa Marquez must be punished above the red card he was issued for throwing the ball after the final whistle because of the following actions: attempting to head butt Adam Cristman, attempting to punch Adam Cristman; striking Cristman, and simulating that he had been struck in the face,” said MLS executive vice president Nelson Rodriguez, who oversees the disciplinary committee. How do we fans send a clear message that the MLS does not need Rafa Marquez and should throw him out of the league? Maybe someone could revoke his visa, ala Luke Rogers...
His lazy defending is just a subset of his lazy everything Never shows for the ball. Walks around. Thinks that creating one or two chances with nice passes into the box are good enough for a days work Red bull is screwed until they get a completely new center midfield I'd buy the dude out at years end if I was red bull. They can afford it
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy6rCYtzJSY"]Patada de Rafael Marquez a Shea Salinas - YouTube[/ame]
Fans throw someone out of the league? Never gonna happen. Your best bet is a mutually terminated contract, which would only work if Rafa could get the same beefy contract in Mexico. I mean he doesn't look happy to be here either, but nobody in their right mind is going to walk from all those millions unless there are more millions around the corner.
Send him to Chivas USA, have the redbulls pick up most of the salary, another reason for people to hate on Chivas, it would be great IMO. Chivas fans can just keep saying bring on the hate!
I think there is probably a clause in the standard contract, which the league owns, that refers to character and morals. Assaulting a player in a game can be construed by anyone, to violate that clause.
He's completely devoid of class. I don't think you can get thrown out of a league for that, but maybe there's some wiggle room.
I would love to see MLS leadership take a stand against game violence. Even if we can agree that Marquez was over the line, seems as though the level of tolerance for physical abuse is increasing. Hammerlocks, jumping on opponents' shoulders, cleating opponents -- if referees were directed to call these fouls, we'd see more game and less WWE.
I'm not a Marquez fan I must admit. I remember Beckham getting his fair share of stick for not being committed enough to the league and that was understandable but when I look at Beckham, Henry and other DP's and see their attitude on the field and compare that with Marquez, well there is no comparison. I think Marquez has disrespected the RBNY franchise, the league, its players, and its fans to varying degrees but of course it will be RBNY who ultimately decide on how his contract is dealt with.
Make some publicity and boot him altogether, if possible through established contract agreements. The league should scapegoat this idiot to let it be known that even some Barca pedigree and stardom in Mexico do not put someone above MLS. He is now (er, for a while) worse than a bust by being a cancer, too. It would be refreshingly honest for the league to admit a mistake and solve a real problem at the same time. This isn't a playground for aging egos.
Marquez thinks he is Franz Beckenbauer taking all the Red Bulls free kicks & doing nothing with them. His own team is afraid of him. The problem is the Quakes have no clout in MLS. That is why no PK was called. You get clout by buying players to attract fans on tv. Quakes have continually been low budget & therefore are not considered worth anything by MLS officials & refs. Look at the PK Peter Nowak got for Philly. That was a gift. Quakes are lower than low budget. They are no budget. Money talks bull$h!t walks.
I'm not saying Quakes are bad. Its just that MLS does not give out respect to low budget outfits. Look at the tv... Quakes used Red Bulls announcers to save money. Quakes need to send their people on the road & report directly to their fans. More bull$hit walking. The fans are not worth spending the money on.
Future encounters against the US of A would be a walk on the park if he weren't on the team anymore.....