Zakuani, Ferreira and Morales: Never forget the Spring to Forget

Mar 29, 2012, 2:50 PM EDT

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I hope the pathos wasn’t lost on you. It actually hit me quite hard; hence, this post.

When Steve (in yesterday’s Power Rankings) reminded us that David Ferreira’s ankle is still “wonky,” it should have given everybody pause. Two years ago, this was the best player in the league. Last year, he was taken out by an inexcusably reckless tackle. Today, it’s possible his career will never be the same. After all, how many players deal with an injury’s lingering effects 12 months on yet bounce back to their former selves? Let alone a 32-year-old?

Ferreira’s not the only player having trouble. In fact, all three victims of last year’s Spring to Forget have yet to assume their former selves. Seattle Sounder Steve Zakuani hasn’t returned to the field after a Apr. 22 leg-break caused by a Brian Mullan challenge. Ferriera’s injury happened against the Whitecaps on Apr. 24, while Real Salt Lake’s Javier Morales suffered his own ankle injury break/dislocation on May 7. At least Javi’s playing again.

As those stars were taken out, there were near-unanimous calls around MLS Soccer-dom for change – clean up a culture that too often forgives aggressiveness as ingenuity. That kind of aggression is more readily described as poor sportsmanship, even if that’s not the intent. Marginalizing the health of a peer because you are a hard working, hard charging kind of payer is unfathomably disrespectful. “That’s just the kind of guy I am” sounds inane compared to “well, that’s just the kind of leg/ankle he has.” MLS will be fine without that tackle. It’s far less fine without Zakuani and Ferreira.

At the time, it was unclear whether any lessons had been learned. After the huge flock of Sounders fans created a justified uproar over Mullan’s challenge, the Rapids midfielder got a 10-game ban. The backlash to Marco Mondaini breaking Morales’s ankle wasn’t as loud, and the suspension (4 games) wasn’t as long. Mondiani deserved a longer ban. That he failed to get one hinted Major League Soccer was struggling with the issue.

Now, it’s unclear whether we are ready to apply new standards, with the culture around MLS still implicitly forgiving the aggressive challenge, coloring it as gritty or gutty. This weekend in Kansas City, Sporting’s defenders were able to use excessive aggression as a way to slow down FC Dallas early, setting a tone for the rest of the match. It’s not a practice unique to Kansas City. In fact, few likely saw KC’s tact as out of the ordinary. Yet, they’re tactics that push the rules, may have precluded a tempo Dallas could have enforced, and evoke some of the uglier customs our culture’s inherited from English tradition.

And as all this was happening, Kansas City’s color man questioned Dallas’s players, claiming they were going down too easy. Fans in MLS Live’s Facebook stream echoed his sentiments. The people on Facebook and Twitter questioning why KC’s players were plowing into FCD’s? A shouted-down minority.

At some point, the challenge Matt Besler made to the back of Andrew Jacobson’s leg in Sunday’s second half will blow out a knee, and while we’ll wonder why another valuable player is being sidelined when it’s so easy to crackdown on grey-area aggression, we should really be questioning why we didn’t continue the call for change.

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7 Comments (Feed for Comments)

dreadpirate82 - Mar 29, 2012 at 3:46 PM

SKC certainly made some hard fouls, but, at other times, Dallas players went down with minimal contact. When you start doing that, people will question even the hard fouls. It also doesn’t help your cause when you go down, acting as if your career is over, only to run back onto the field 30 seconds later. FC Dallas was the Boy Who Cried Wolf in that match.

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- Richard Farley - Mar 29, 2012 at 3:49 PM
  
  I can’t 100% disagree with that. I wish I could have fit this into the post, but we need to learn to dissociate the two, because player injuries are a big enough issue to look at independently of gamesmanship. We can’t see one as detracting, distracting from the other.
  
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  - dreadpirate82 - Mar 29, 2012 at 5:47 PM
    
    I agree with everything you’ve said here, Richard. It’s a big issue. It’s gamesmanship that is certain to get fans in an uproar and make it more difficult for the officials. The official in the SKC-FCD match started out calling it pretty tight, but he got decidedly more lenient as the game progressed. I think the hysterics by some of the FCD players and reactions by SKC players and fans pushed him that way.
  - Richard Farley - Mar 29, 2012 at 5:53 PM
    
    Wow. I so agree, and that’s exactly why, at the end (above) I don’t say “Oh, MLS needs to get better” or “those dern officials.” I say we need to call for the change. We, as a broader culture, need to stop and say (or remember), “hey, this is dangerous, it’s unnecessary, so let’s change directions.”
mlstables - Mar 29, 2012 at 4:43 PM

I think more of it needs to come from the ref’s and less from MLS office. Better training, better pay will help the referees keep more games in check (obviously with support from MLS)

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ricecloudnine - Mar 30, 2012 at 1:42 PM

It also starts with this mythical idea that if you get the ball, it’s not a foul. Players coming in recklessly and with excessive force can get still commit fouls even if they get the ball, yet the first thing they argue is that they got the ball (as if that absolves them cleaning out somebody and putting them in a dangerous position. This also applies to broadcasters. For example, in the NBC Sports broadcast last Friday, there was a challenge made by Adam Moffat in the 35th minute on Alanso from Seattle. A foul was called, yet Kyle Martino commented something along the lines of it not being that bad. This despite the straight leg challenge over the ball. The league has since reviewed the tape and banned Moffat for one game for “a reckless challenge which endangered the safety of his opponent.” While the ref should have dealt properly with the challenge during the game, it’s also the responsibility of the broadcasters to understand what does constitute a serious foul. Otherwise, lots of (especially younger) players will watch, hear, and get the idea that those type of challenges are acceptable.

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nbcsportscommenter - Mar 30, 2012 at 2:47 PM

I agree with this article, and I’m bothered that people so often respond to allegations of reckless/thuggish play by saying “but the other team was diving!” Who cares? Do the two fouls cancel each other out? Quit being thugs and quit diving! Problem solved! There really is no excuse for reckless play or for simulation.

Although simulation may get an opposing player sent off or a penalty kick. And it may inexcusable change the outcome of a game. But those fouls last spring took three of the best players out of the MLS. And it can and will happen again if it’s not cleaned up.

And just one other thought – I think we need to make a better distinction between “going down to easily” or “emphasizing contact” or falling from “minimal contact” and diving like Charlie Davies in DC. Maybe both are fouls, but there is a wide gap between them just like there is a wide gap between a hard challenge and a reckless one like those mentioned in the article.

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