http://ussoccerplayers.com/latest_soccer_news/393199.html The United States National Players Association website reports that Mathis has been fined $500 for his failure to leave the field and verbal abuse of a fan. No suspension.
I have mixed feelings. On his day he can hurt the Revs but those days have not been seen in a long time. We might be better off with him playing for Metros.
I think $500 is the standard fee for any verbal exchange with fans. I do recall Zenga being fined $500 for quite a violent exchange of words with a stalker after a game back in 99. It was a 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Mutiny...
So that wasn't the time some United fans waved a flag over the railing after we lost to them, and Zenga went over and ripped it down. Or maybe the time some Italian guy said something in "Autograph Alley" (the only thing I could make out was something about the Revs being a "Serie C" team), and Zenga jumped over the barrier in a single bound, chased after the guy and started shouting at him in Italian... At $500 a pop, that kind of stuff can get pricey after a while.... As for Mathis, I hope he plays. Even Metro fans (well before this weekend) have commented that the team seems to play better without him. There were a number of instances in game 1 where he just didn't look all that sharp--taking one more touch than he had to, and then the window of opportunity for a shot had closed, and Llamosa or Joseph or someone was able to step in for the block. Tom
Damn, beat me to it Mathis better find something to turn his career around lest he become this generation's Steve Snow. The Magpie
You guys are talking about the same guy. The guy started chanting "Serie B" at him after the game, and Zenga jumped the railing to go have a word with him (...his story -- not mine). As the incomparable Gus Martins would later point out, calling the '99 Revs a "Serie B" team was actually a tremendous compliment. BTW, that was also the game after which Brian O'Donovan and Johnathan Kraft had to talk Zenga out of retiring and heading back to Italy.
Serie B would have been a huge compliment, especially to the Revs at the time. I remember one phrase the guy used that cracked me up--"Giochi a canne vecchio" (sp?) which means "You are playing like an old dog!" I think he meant the team, not so much Zenga himself, who was spectacular as a player, and probably the best keeper we will ever have the privelige to see on a regular basis. Now if Adin strings together a few more years of his current form, all of that will change... Tom
MLS, and Don Garber by extension, is a scrotumless three-legged dog with fleas and mange. Mamadou Diallo's trangression was lesser [he didn't go into the stands], yet he not only got fined, he got suspended from games.
Be that as it may, it still didn't stop Cleetus and The Genius from whining about it. Mathis described it as "exchanging a few words with a fan" (yeah, only if all of them begin with the letter "F") and Bradley described it as "overblown." I gotta say, the Mutts are really giving us our entertainment value for the playoffs, between this and their infamous MPF campaign, and none of it has to do with anything that went on in a game. Tom