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Ugh. I hate the taste of humble pie. But when you're wrong, you're wrong: Once A Metro I wrote a piece yesterday expressing some discontent with the MLS Disciplinary Committee's rulings on Week 3. In point of fact, the rulings weren't the issue. It was the lack of any comment on Perry Kitchen's belligerent stamp-shove on Chris Duvall that drew the reaction. (6:44 in the video below)
By saying absolutely nothing about Kitchen's live-on-tv tantrum, DisCo appeared to be endorsing exactly the sort of shenanigans it allegedly exists to drum out of the game - or MLS's game, at least. Failing to address the issue was, at best, horrendously inconsistent; at worst, it was abject neglect.
Either way, for a committee that exists solely for the purpose of identifying and punishing "egregious or reckless" incidents that threaten "player safety or the integrity of the game" to overlook Kitchen being recklessly egregious in an assault on Duvall that certainly did no service to the RBNY defender's safety or MLS's reputation was incompetent or disingenuous - or both.
Except...oops...turns out DisCo wasn't done handing out the discipline this week. A day after reprimanding Vancouver's Kekuta Manneh and Philadelphia's Zach Pfeffer, DisCo brought its hammer down on Diego Rodriguez, anther Vancouver player.
Rodriguez had given Orlando City's Aurelien Collin a little love tap at a set piece - and that's not OK.
"Violent conduct" was DisCo's ruling, and that was worth a two-game suspension and a fine. Harsh for an incident Collin seemed to milk for all he could? Intention or effect are not necessarily the point. DisCo saw what we all saw: a player strike another player in an off-the-ball incident that had no context provided for by the rules of the game.
Whether Rodriguez really meant to strike Collin in the Aureliens is irrelevant. Whether Collin was seriously hurt is also irrelevant. DisCo has zero tolerance for off-the-ball tomfoolery.
Kitchen's stamp and shove on Duvall clearly fall into the same category. So DisCo's latest missive set the record straight by also susp...wait...nope. Nothing about Kitchen at all.
DisCo's work for the week would appear to largely be about protecting Aurelien Collin, since he was the victim of two of the three fouls the committee has deemed worth additional attention in Week 3.
As for Chris Duvall? Stamp and shove him all you like, MLS players: DisCo is cool with that; just tread lightly around Aurelien Collin.
Humble pie on ice for now. DisCo: you're a disgrace.