He definately gets the superstar treatment... A couple of weeks ago in KC he was on a yellow when he scored his second goal. Off came the shirt and a nasty bout of self-admiration ensued. The referee ignored FIFA's recent ruling and did not show Donovan what would have been his second yellow. Obviously that decision changes the shape of not only the game in KC, but the red card suspension would have meant that he would not have played last week either.
Anyone that thinks the elbow shouldn't be a red card is biased. It's not within the rules by any stretch of the imagination. He couldn't even use his elbow to reach the ball since that in and of itself would be a foul. Donovan should get 3 games out. Let SJ finish the season without him. Since they've already clinched it wouldn't really matter anyway. Set an example. If they're not going to set an example, it should be a one game suspension. It was dirty. It was sick. It wasn't right. The game has no room for that crap. Just ask Beckham.
A FIFA rule change wouldn't go into effect in the middle of a season so MLS doesn't have to follow it this year. Next year we will.
Refs get their instruction on applying new rules from the USSF, and the USSF's interpretation of FIFA's shirt removal directive is that it only applies when the act wastes time or reveals a message or slogan, or is otherwise deemed unsporting behavior by the referee. Simply removing the shirt is not an offense.
      Besides, Damani Ralph would've been carded many times over if this was otherwise. -G
Anybody who has any doubt on this ask yourself if Donovan had done that to Poland's goalkeeper in the World Cup last year if he had or hadn't gotten a card. Or better, what if a Mexican player had done it to Brad Friedel?
If a serial legbreaker like Dema Kovalenko only gets one game and $1000 for his trouble, you can bet your ass that Baby Jesus has nothing to worry about from the Lord of Discipline down at MLS headquarters.
Oh freakin please! Has ANYONE in MLS this year been yellow carded for removing their shirt. Beasley hasn't, nor has his teammate, Damani Ralph. My take. If I'm the ref and I see that first foul, it's red card city. That second foot coming in with the hard kick is grounds for conviction in my book. Walker play? Yellow card at least, maybe red. It didn't look to me like he got Walker hard either (Walker appeared to make a meal of it), but that doesn't justify the action. He flipped out today. Don't know why.
Will you shut up about taking off the shirt? I keep reading how that bothers you KC fans. That's the first time he'd done it since the rule was established, yet players all over the world and especially in MLS continued to do it...Beasley comes to mind. He repeatedly did it. They weren't carded. You're just mad that he kicked your butts. He got no special treatment for that. Back to this game. Yeah, I think he should have gotten two yellows and hit the showers. But the way people are going off on this is unbelievable. There have been much worse things happening in the league this year than for people to get all crazy about Landon losing his temper and throwing in a foul or two. It's not like it characterizes his play, because it doesn't. Get over it.
You better hope Beasley's gone then, because he strips regularly. The only reason he didn't against LA the other night is because it was too cold. People, get over the shirt thing.
Yeah, Donovan deserves a 3-game suspension. Sure. Now, what did Dema deserve? People are getting real silly about this.
Golden Boy needs to grow up I only started watching the game late into the second half, so I missed the tackle on Guevara. But I did see the elbow to Walker's midsection. It was cheap, immature, despicable, and fully deserving of a yellow card. How sad it is that the MLS poster child behaves like this. How sad it will be if MLSHQ does nothing about it.
It sad to see Landon boy resort to these type of tactics when things dont go his way... The Metros shut him down, he got frustrated and took it out on opposing players plain and simple... How bout all them little kids watching on TV saying they wanna be like Landon and watching the little hack behave that way... Suspend his a$$ and teach him a lesson before it becomes a habit...
Just as equally sad to see how far your Clint has fallen. The double standards are unbelievable. You'd think LD makes a habit of doing this kind of thing. Has this characterized his behavior? I don't think so. Yet everybody's got their panties in a wad.
Yes, the double standards are unbelievable. Imagine if Clint did this? The "intelligent" people on bigsoccer would be calling for drastic measures. However, since it was the little bitch, it will most likely go away without any further action. By the way, Donovan changed direction and extended his arms into Walker, that's not a card?
Yeah, if you'll read my other posts you'll see that I said he deserved a card. But you people are blowing this so far out of proportion it's unbelievable. You complain about him getting special treatment...well, you're the ones giving him special treatment. Holding him up to standards that no one else has to abide by other than him.
Shirt removal is no longer a mandatory caution. There was some confusion over a fifa circular earlier this year, but the end result is no mandatory caution. Fifa had some concern over the number of players wearing messages on the undershirt. I'll try to find the USSF memo clarifying this if need be.
My brother was a high school goalkeeper and he once went up for a high ball and left the game in an ambulance because the opposing forward shoved his legs out from under him. My brother landed on his head. It's dangerous, and against the rules because of it. I've seen some keepers get hurt doing stupid things, and they shouldn't be protected from their own stupidity, but a keeper is defenseless when he's up for a high ball like that.
Re: Re: Should Donovan be suspended? The problem is Mathis didnt' do it, and at least he tries to say that he didn't intend to hurt anyone. Someone posted a link from a SJ paper, where Landon basically said he intended to hit Gueverra, because "he had it coming". What a piece of dung. I hope the Metros face the Quakes, so Richie Williams can just take out Landon. As for reps. Landon has a horrible rep! He's a spoiled brat, and we've known that since his original "MLS sucks" quotes that started circulating when he had just signed with Leverkeusen. He thinks he is the best thing to happen to the world, ever. I think we can all conclude, that our top two forwards, have ego problems.
Re: Re: Re: Should Donovan be suspended? link here. I find it hard to believe that LD would be so stupid as to say these things. Moment of truth, Mr. Garber. There is no doubt that over 95% of the players in MLS would be suspended for these comments. Will you allow a double standard in your league?
Uhhh, excuse me? I don't believe you know what you're talking about there. What "KC fans" might you be talking about that are bothered by no yellows for the shirts coming off? Yeah, and I think after the article and quotes in the previous post, all the stupid ass Quakes fans that will defend their Golden Shower Boy even when they're obviously wrong can now shut their yappers.
Just laughable. He's been known to take a dive now and then, but he also gets whacked all over the field just about every game. There's a difference between gamesmanship (you may not like it, fair enough) and dirty. Kovalenko is a dirty thug. Ruiz elbowing Talley(?) and breaking his orbital bone is dirty. Even Wolyniec elbowing Chad McCarty is dirty. Guevara may piss you off, but he hasn't done much in his short MLS career that I'd call dirty.
Unwise in the extreme I watched this game and I am a disinterested observer. I thought that the first foul could have easily been a red card. The game was however pretty rough and a yellow was not inconsistent with the ref's other decisions. The second foul also desrved at least a yellow card. The troubling part about this is LD's poor decision making. If you are already on a yellow card don't commit the second foul. I was really surprised he got away with it. I don't think that he got star treatment, the ref was consistently bad/overly leinient. There were several other players who got away with excessive foul play as well. Today I read about his comments in the paper. Unwise in the extreme. I thought that LD was smarter. I am disappointed in his lack of intelligence over the last 24 hours.
Read the article on Cybersoccernews.com that the guy wrote after the Quakes whipped your butts. He made a big thing about the shirt coming off. It was quite laughable. As I said, Donovan did deserve to be sent off. But this over-reaction is amusing. I'm not defending anything...and he's not a Golden Shower Boy or Golden Boy or anything else that people want to label him with. He's just a soccer player, pure and simple.....albeit one that's held to loftier standards than just about any other player is.
quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Originally posted by MD_05 a gentleman called Guevara. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That is laughable. Guevara isn't even close to being the dirtiest player on the MetroStars. Even Donovan's bonehead "explanations" don't suggest Guevara is dirty.