http://www.mlsnet.com/content/03/mls0605wolyniec.html Woly Fined and Suspended. This is actually the first I've heard of this. I'm pretty surprised. Woly was always so mild mannered. If anything I've heard him reffered to as too nice.
You are misreading it. I really wish there was video of this on the net (I shouldn't have deleted my copy on my TiVo so fast). The ball was already in the keeper's hands (or very nearly there), and Wooly and McCarty were 15 yards away from the action. It was a Leonardo-v-Ramos style elbow, except there was no ball in the vicinity. Ugly ugly ugly. I was disappointed that MLS Wrap didn't show it (who the hell picks their highlights, anyway? They skip over all the best stuff!), but maybe they will in the News bit tomorrow night.
Apparently McCardme hacked Woly and should have been ejected on the spot but, MLS refs and asst refs being as crap as they are, nothing was called. So woly clocked him. That's not the right or the smart thing to do, but I at least understand it. Also, the MLS Undisciplined Committee picks the number of games a player is suspended by using a dart board and they choose the amounts of the fines they assess via Magic 8 Ball.
Fully admitting I may have some bias, I thought the DFK and yellow card were the correct call. It was a hard tackle, and a smidgen late, but not violent or anything. AFAIK, the only people who have seen McCarty's foul on Wooly and thought it should have been an ejection wear jerseys with red and black vertical stripes and don't live in Milan. FWIW, Cunningham should've worn a break-away - he would've gone thru 3 or 4 jerseys, he was fouled by the last man so much via shirt-tugs. Metros could've had Pope and Jolley sent off for last-man fouls, both within the box (one a no-call, the other a DFK just outside the area). So it's not like the ref was favoring the Crew or anything.
Which is why I qualified my statement with "apparently" since I'm going by both Crew fan and Mutts fan descriptions of the play. Well, that and the fact that I've seen McCardme play which leads me to believe it may have been a bit more than just "a hard tackle, and a smidgen late". Never said they were. I just made the observation that MLS officiating is more often than not a steaming load of Galaxy.
He's a hard player, no doubt. Not afraid to mix it up. I wish he'd tone it down some, because last year it seemed he was suspended every 4th game for the "three consecutive yellow cards" rule. Agreed completely. That particular game last weekend was quite poorly officiated, and was really getting out of control.
Well, he probably would have chalked up an ejection and yet another suspension if the crappy ref had carded him for his foul on Howard and then Woly wouldn't have been able to whack him. Of course, all this does not change the fact that what John did was wrong. He has now hurt his team for the next few games in order to get a cheap emotional satisfaction. I can understand his anger and frustration but you just don't go whacking people even though the incompetent refs can't do their job. The MLS So-Called Disciplinary Committee has simply made the problem worse by proving that you're better off breaking someone's leg than popping them with an elbow after they hacked you.
Or it could be that if you're going to do something that blatant both in terms of your intent and that you're not at all playing the ball (or trying to tackle it or whatever), that you're going to get suspended longer.