Brian Mullan/Steve Zakuani incident

Re: Brian Mullin just snapped steve zakuani's leg.

OK, it's been a couple days since Mullan's entirely inappropriate comments that, according to some, have been thoroughly misunderstood. Mullan, no doubt, is aware of the controversy. Has he come out and clarified his comments that, supposedly, have been so misconstrued? Has he visited Zakuani in the hospital? Has he done anything to suggest he is truly remorseful for what happened, regardless of the unintentionality of his actions? Anything? I'm hoping he has - I just haven't heard anything of the sorts.

If it were me, I would have been in the hospital as soon as it was feasible to express my sorrow at what I had unintentionally done.

 

Re: Brian Mullin just snapped steve zakuani's leg.

Yeah, but you need to adjust for the fact that the actual leg that was broken (Zakuani) belonged to a Seattle Sounder, and we all know that if you injure a player on the team that invented soccer as we know it in the United States, you can expect to pay the price.

I call it "Supporters Group Premium".

Does that make Ted Eck an MLS 0.5 player?

I expected him to say: "Effective today, I am pulling out from all tackles and challenges. Please come down to your local soccer specific stadium and watch your team run unobstructed up and down the left flank while I treat the game like over-40 no-checking beer league hockey."

My disappointment is large.

 

Re: Brian Mullin just snapped steve zakuani's leg.

Man, how ignorant and biased can you be against the Sounders?
I guess EVERYONE going on about this tackle and how bad it is must be Sounder fans...

 

Re: Brian Mullin just snapped steve zakuani's leg.

Excuse me? You're going to try to say that I'm fingering only one player in your lineup (which I'm not), but then try to paint the 4 supposedly dirty players in the Colorado lineup with the crime only Mullan has committed? Get over yourself.

No, there is no point in having this discussion. Which is exactly the point I was making from that post days ago. It's a non-starter argument that leads us down a road away from addressing the specifics of the Mullan-Zakuani incident, and on a road that instead just turns into team and supporter smear campaigns. Let's not start this.

 

Re: Brian Mullin/Steve Zakuani incident

Mullan should get two games for the tackle, and the rest of the season for his stupid comments. He should have kept his mouth shut and probably ended up with a five or six game suspension.

 

Re: Brian Mullin just snapped steve zakuani's leg.

This revisionist history stuff is real good. Now we've got Sounders players chiming in on it:

This from a guy who got sent off 5 times in 2 year AND got red carded in the playoffs for a straight-legged studs up challenge on Rico Clark.

Maybe if Ljungberg spent more time playing and less time complaining, he may have gotten a call or two.

So now, the Sounders are just flat aggrieved in all areas, all because of Brian Mullan.

 

Re: Brian Mullin just snapped steve zakuani's leg.

It doesn't matter how many Seattle players you are accusing of diving. Diving and reckless play are not comparable. It is the epitome of a non sequitur - and you're the one who brought it up. And, for the record, it was other Colorado fans who identified 4 Colorado players as having reputations for "physical play", not me.

And regarding the specifics of Mullan's vicious tackle, he deserves whatever punishment he gets, and it will probably still be too lenient.

 

Re: Brian Mullin just snapped steve zakuani's leg.

You are funny, keep going, please

 

Re: Brian Mullin just snapped steve zakuani's leg.

To be exact, I identified between 2 and 4 players as possibly having reps for playing a physical game.

(Also note that, as the rules are currently written and enforced, there's nothing wrong/illegal with playing a physical game.)

 

Re: Brian Mullin just snapped steve zakuani's leg.

And we are all hoping the enforcement of such "physical" play will change. And when it does, teams with 40% of their starting lineup who play such "physical" games may have to adjust how they play. And that would be a good thing in my opinion.

And, I for one, would also love to see retroactive cards for diving to get that out of the game as well. But that is another argument.

 

Re: Brian Mullin just snapped steve zakuani's leg.

My point was that FIFA allows a physical game with the current rules and directions to the refs (not that Mullan's tackle fell within those rules). I'm not referring to the haphazard officiating in MLS that allows for a very physical game, but the baseline that FIFA is working from. Soccer, in its current format, is not intended to be a non-contact sport.

 

Re: Brian Mullin/Steve Zakuani incident

I think his comments are fine when seen in the context of the actual interview. In print it's very easy to make them look bad.

 

Re: Brian Mullin just snapped steve zakuani's leg.

Right, because he couldn't decline to comment on the game? I'm sure he was forced to comment on the game. Lol.

If he actually were crying or fighting back tears in the video or showed any sort of real remorse then at this time I would be feeling worse for him than poor Steve. But what I see in that video only justifies what others are saying about his (lack of) character.

 

Re: Brian Mullin just snapped steve zakuani's leg.

Wow, as a Galaxy guy who HATES the sounders I agree with you. Charlie Davies dove on us and cost us two points. OK, we hate him. We'll heckle him and make tifo dogging him. It's still FUN.

When someone gets their leg snapped in half the game stops being fun, even if it's someone on a team I hate.

The reffing this season has SUCKED and that had a lot to do with this incident. Something like this was bound to happen as long as bad tackles were let go but minor shoves in the back were getting red cards.

 

Re: Brian Mullin just snapped steve zakuani's leg.

Now Sigi took a break from downing Whoppers at Burger King to put out his version of wisdom:

So just "mistiming a tackle" is not nearly as offensive as a perceived revenge tackle, even though the result could be the same, and you can't tell intent anyways. Oh. And coming over the ball onto the shin is just "mistiming".

ON THE SALARY CAP:

Now we want salary cap relief if one of our guys get hurt. This is classic. The Sounders feel like they deserve salary cap relief for injuries, but up until now no one else did.

I think the Dynamo deserve salary cap relief because Ching was injured on a reckless play by Coundoul. In fact, I think NYRB should give us DeRosario as compensation.

I'd argue that Mullan just "mistimed the tackle", and the video evidence would show that if he was a split second earlier the ball goes out for a throw in.

So what Sigi is advocating is for every player to just say they "mistimed the tackle" everytime they make a bad challenge.

 

Re: Brian Mullin/Steve Zakuani incident

http://www.examiner.com/soccer-in-seattle/steve-zakuani-directs-fans-to-his-non-profit-kingdom-hope

Steve Zakuani is receiving well-wishes from around the globe from soccer fans, players and coaches. Today his non-profit association "Kingdom Hope" issued a letter directing fans as to how they can support Steve in his recovery from a mulitple bone leg break by supporting Kingdom Hope.

www.Kingdom-Hope.org

 

Re: Brian Mullin just snapped steve zakuani's leg.

Lol, you don't fail to entertain, that's for sure.

 

Re: Brian Mullin just snapped steve zakuani's leg.

This is different than the typical injuries players face every year. How often do you see someone end up with a broken leg from a really ugly tackle and is done for season a month into the season? Seattle has 30-39 game left to play with 1 less player.

I think in special situations like this one where a player is done for majority of season or for the remaining of the season this early that MLS should offer cap relief to those affected teams.

 

Re: Brian Mullin just snapped steve zakuani's leg.

Not that I disagree with you, but then we get cap relief for Leonardo.

 

Re: Brian Mullin/Steve Zakuani incident

We've got over 9 thousand midfielders that can do well to be honest.

We've just got to adjust some tactics. Something I'm not confident that Sigi is great at.

 

Re: Brian Mullin just snapped steve zakuani's leg.

MLS could have it setup to where teams only can ask for cap relief for what is determined by the league (not team to prevent it from being abused) as season ending injury and they can only use it once.

 

Re: Brian Mullin just snapped steve zakuani's leg.

I think it is a legit issue the league should look into.

The only concern I have with this is where a team can place a player on IR and leave them on there even though they are healthy enough to play. I know the Sounders have used this loop hole to have more depth on the roster. It may not be a salary cap loop hole, but it is a roster limit loop hole. Combine this tactic with the salary relief idea and the abuse could be too much to overlook.

 

Re: Brian Mullin just snapped steve zakuani's leg.

And maybe treat it like a DP situation as well. Where if a team takes advantage of this option they pay the extra salary out of their own pockets.

 

Re: Brian Mullin just snapped steve zakuani's leg.

Like i said each team can only ask for cap relief once to prevent this kind of abuse.