Wow. That's a disgraceful foul. Five games seems reasonable. Two is a joke. He made no effort to avoid Victorine and kept his elbow up.

On that note, what is the longest suspension MLS has anded out? Anyone?

thats a horrible challenge...two games seems like a very light penalty... i think the 2,000 people that showed up to watch the game and the rest of the leagues fans should be very upset with the front office of mls

Should be at least 3 games. Maybe more.

Think of it this way:

5 game suspension for cheap shot.
minus 3 games because ti was done on Sasha Victorine.

And at the end of a half, right before the whistle! What the hell was he thinking?

I was thinking 4 when I first saw it. Really awful of Ballouchy, and 2 games is quite soft. Of course, Colorado came out to fight that game, rather than play soccer. The whole game was a farce. To make matters worse, they even managed to steal a draw.

Nogra Rover-

I believe 6 games (Sala to start this season, Herron to start the 2006 season) is the longest MLS has suspended anyone. Herron shoved a linesman, and Sala incited a melee after Colorado eliminated Dallas in last year's playoffs.

Hard to say whether the league was correct. Wasn't Daniele DeRossi's elbow to Brian McBride in the 2006 WC only a two game suspension? It was a straight red card as I remember. This also should have been RED.

How many games did Fred get? His tackle was pretty harsh but I dont think he was punished enough. MLS hasnt been giving out harsh penalties this year..its just a fact.

Irish -

As far as I know, Fred just has the one game suspension usually associated with red cards.

You could argue for two, but none more than that. It wasnt off the ball. Bad tackle, in some way for retaliatory for getting hauled down in the box with no PK call, but not worthy of anything more than a game or two at the most.

How long will Victorine be out? I think at least that long.

While I support DCAustinite's approach of considering the victim, there should be at least 3-4 games in there simply for being Ballouchy. Of course, I'm a very mean partisan.

Although it's nice to see Ballouchy picked up on Colorado's type of play so quickly. Cheap and ugly soccer. I thought five games when i first saw it. No attempt to play the ball and a direct attempt to hurt another player. Why does Colorado always seem to get away with a little more than other teams? wasn't this the same game where the keeper only got a yellow for taking out EJ on a break away outside the box (last defender)? Then no card when the same keeper kicked Jose Burciga, who was red carded when he got pissed off?

Ballouchy is a dirty player, and has been for a long time. Nogra Rover, it wasn't even that he didn't try to avoid contact w/ Victorine. He went out of his way to deliver it and his shot had no purpose other than to injure. 5 or 6 games would have been a better punishment.

wow. should have been a straight red + 5 game suspension after review. ugly as hell.

mls officiating seems to suck even more than usual this year. maybe i am just becoming a more sophisticated soccer watcher?

What a vicious punk. If Herron got 6 for touching the AR, Ballouchy should get the same. The creep left his feet and lead with his elbow, just disgraceful.

He should be out for the rest of the season.

Think of it this way:

5 game suspension for cheap shot.
minus 3 games because ti was done on Sasha Victorine.

Posted by: DCAustinite | July 30, 2007 05:51 PM

Post of the month!

the question for me is, how does that happen literally RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE REFEREE and only get a caution??? Terrible Tim Weyland and his ugly white sneakers strike again. He was a weak terrible referee in the early years of MLS who rightly disappeared for a several seasons but now he's back to wreak his incompetent havoc. He was apparently supposed to be in charge of the Toronto v Chicago game yesterday judging by how much the announcers were saying his name when referring to the ref who was clearly Jair Maruffo, so perhaps he has also been suspended.

How long was Herron's suspension for his terrible elbow early in the season? This seems to be a rather equivalent foul, but perhaps his repeat offender status got him more games.

Looking at that makes me glad that RSL unloaded him when they did. Yikes. That should go down for more than 2 games for sure.

Has Ballouchy been previously suspended for prior acts excluding points accumulations?

Pretty vicious - I wouldn't argue against 3-5 games.

Good point above, what was Tim watching?

Maybe this is his way of protesting the trade...

I remember Herron and Sala. It's odd if the biggest suspensions have happened in the last year or so.

Weyland has always been a poor ref.

And fols had long been salivating for Balouchy to become a US citizen and play for the nats. Yikes.

The way he looks up to see exactly where the player is before launching himself into the air with elbow extended at head height makes this one of the worst cheap shots I've seen. There seemed to be a lot more intent in this elbow than there was in the De Rossi elbow to McBride so to me it should have been a longer suspension.

I think MLS needs to start thinking about more serious fines in addition to the length of these suspensions... I'd love to see fines of "10% of this years compensation package" for anyone it's going to hurt, and you're going to think about it pretty hard. (If I were a team, I'd think about handing down my own fine/suspension for it...)

My question is, how many games does Weyland get suspended for wearing white shoes? I don't know how often I have heard it stressed at certification clinics that nothing but black shoes are acceptable as part of the referee's uniform. Unless someone can tell there is some orthopedic issue, I don't see how he gets away with it. Besides, he looks like a tool...

5 games in a 30 game season is too much.

3 games for violent conduct. It should have been a red (=1 game) plus 2. But as the ref team missed it (shocker) 3 seems right.

It was bad, no doubt, but this isn't a 162 game regular season.

Horrible display. I wonder if the dude felt bad afterward. Hearing from others here, this player may or may not have a tendency to do this. I think this should have been a suspension for 5 or more games, maybe the season.

Look again, he was looking at Victorine when he decided to leap toward him and the elbow was calculated. Unprofessional. Horrible display. I'm disappointed in the league.

The penalty for this type of behavior should be suspension for as long as the victim is out PLUS 3 games.

The lack of fans in KC is a disgrace, black eye, and total sham for MLS. I was a fan of Medi, but that foul was deliberate as any I've ever seen. He measured that one up and delivered a blow that could have caused EXTREMELY serious injury. I bet if that happened against Beckham he would be banned for the season.

Three seems a little light as a run of the mill direct red card in England will get you that. 4-5 games would be just with a substantial fine on top of the suspension. That was really one of the worst deliberate attempts to injure I've seen in the history of the league.

Interesting that the ref saw enough to issue a yellow card, but didn´t reach for the red. The problem with the officiating, IMO, is that the mando decisions are consistently not made, and players then don´t see a clear line of repercussions.

If you saw enough to call the foul and even issue a caution, how in hell do you not see enough to immediately send off the guilty party? What more do you need to see?

Same thing with delaying a free kick or grabbing the ball after committing a foul. That´s a mando caution, but it´s too rarely enforced.

Isn't that a WWF move? Well except for the fact that it was real!

If it had been a U16 club game Victorine's mom would have been on the sidelines beating the crap out of Ballouchy's mom which I think would be a perfect way to handle this one...and of course a 5 game suspension.

That's pathetic - 7 game suspension + 5K fine would be a little better. A message must be sent that this stuff will not be tolerated. Has anyone else noticed the increase in cheap shots this this throughout the league??

What is wrong with the ref's these days? No balls? They MUST eject players for this stuff. It's a simple rule - violent conduct - immediate red.

why would anyone want to hurt murray wiggle like that?

The reason that this is so obviously not long enough is that he should have received a red card with an automatic one game suspension. So the league really only added on one game. Pretty ridiculous.

3+ games for this one.

Terp,

The problem is that a 2 game suspension is 1/2 match more than the automatic red (miss the second half) and one game.

For an attack like that??? Thats pretty light. There was no chance he was going to get there before the ball was gone. Pretty clear he was just headhunting.

"why would anyone want to hurt murray wiggle like that?"

LOL
Jeff doesn't get enough attention and hired a hitman. Calling Officer Beeples!

Fernando Clavijo can't be fired too soon. He has always coached his teams to play chippy and dirty, especially when against a team that chooses to attack.

And yes, it should have been 5 games. That isn't just a brutal foul, Ballouchy changed his path to take out Victorine, left his feet, led with his elbow and took out Victorine when his focus was on kicking the ball. In my mind, it's somewhat similar to doing the same thing to a GK when he's exposed and grabbing a ball--you have no play on the ball so instead you go up and throw an elbow at the GK.

Bigger Fine 5-10 Games, that would discourage this type of behavior.

Bigger Fine 5-10 Games, that would discourage this type of behavior.

And at the end of a half, right before the whistle! What the hell was he thinking?

Posted by: Ohboyohboy | July 30, 2007 05:52 PM

It was worse than that -- it was right AFTER the whistle. The ref had no excuse for not pulling out the red. But the Wizards got the short end throughout the match -- all three Wizards subs were made due to injuries, yet they were the ones playing a man down at the end of the game.

Compare this one to Herron's whooping on Heaps earlier in the season. Herron only gave him some elbow, not a flying leap in with obvious intent. And Herron was sorta going for the ball when it happened, Ballouchy was being totally dirty with a flying elbow. It should be 5-6 games at least, with a $5000 fine. The guy is a douchebag plain and simple.