Sporting KC
Russell Fined; Sporting KC Appealing Red Card
The saga, from beginning to end, of the Johnny Russell red card against Houston, the appeal and now a fine.
Sporting Kansas City are currently in crunch time on the 2023 MLS season. They picked up an incredibly important three points last Saturday against the Houston Dynamo. What is more impressive is they did it while down a man for over an hour.
Johnny Russell picked up a red card in the first half before 12 minutes of stoppage time were added and another half was played. Here is the full video and the slow motion.
Here is the Russell red in slo-mo. The announcers called it a harsh red. #SportingKC #SKCvHOU pic.twitter.com/RmSumAzYw3
— Chad Smith (@PlayFor90) September 24, 2023
Much has been made around this website and elsewhere on the validity of the red card. No matter where you come down, Sporting KC are now challenging that red card according to former staff member of this site and current Golozo Show co-host, Aly Trost-Martin.
#SportingKC manager Peter Vermes says the club is appealing the red card issued to Johnny Russell against Houston
— Aly Trost Martin 🏧 (@AlyTrostMartin) September 26, 2023
In Major League Soccer (at least according to last year’s rules) teams may challenge up to two red cards (including second yellows or a first yellow that proceeded a second yellow) per season, including the playoffs. Sporting KC have decided to use their first one to attempt to get Russell back before the critical St. Louis game this weekend.
Whatever the result of that appeal, more salt has been rubbed in Johnny Russell’s wound, as he was also fined for “failure to leave the field” after receiving his red. The KC Star’s Daniel Sperry timed it out and the red card goes up and less than a minute later the camera cuts to a shot of Russell heading into the locker room. We don’t even know when he actually left because the camera doesn’t stay on him. It’s also very unclear what’s defined as a “timely manner.” Likely intentionally vague.
Factor in that Russell was the captain and usually would be the person to speak with the referee and he had to pass off his captain’s armband. Additionally, both the referee and the AR were right next to the “foul” that was initially called a throw-in on the field, so an explanation seems reasonable. And you can see on the video, Chris Penso is talking to Russell from approximately 38:49 (Russell enters the frame but you can’t see Penso) to sometime before 39:17 when the camera cuts back to Russell walking alone (presumably off the field). That means it was definitely under 30 seconds of explanation, but that’s a chunk of the less than one minute to leave the field.
Part of that conversation, according to Russell’s telling, is Penso telling him it’s malicious and that he tried to endanger a player.
"I’ve never in my entire career went out to injure a player, and for [Penso] to come and tell me that it’s malicious, and I’m endangering players I think is an absolute joke, to be honest."
Full-quote from #SportingKC captain Johnny Russell: pic.twitter.com/twt8pUBfwy
— Daniel Sperry (@sperrydaniel94) September 24, 2023
I personally, as Russell said the night of the incident, don’t think they’ll overturn the call. But we should know in the coming days.
Update 3:38 PM CST: Appeal denied.
SKC's appeal of Johnny's red card was denied. #SportingKC #MLS pic.twitter.com/tl7g9p63p9
— Thad (@TheBackpost) September 27, 2023
Unrelated, but it seemed worth noting all of Sperry’s work this week, Alan Pulido and Tim Leibold are back in training.
Alan Pulido is in training this AM, as is Leibold. Looks to be mostly healthy ahead of St. Louis this weekend. #SportingKC
— Daniel Sperry (@sperrydaniel94) September 26, 2023
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Daniel Sperry is the Not the Hero we want,
but the Hero we need <3
Looking at the video at full speed, it’s hard to think Russell’s foul is even a foul, much less a red card. I see how they missed it. At the same time, watching it in slow motion, I can see how Penso might have decided it was endangering the safety of the opponent. It looks awful in slow motion, and there’s nothing in the rule book requiring intent to endanger, just that the tackle endangers an opponent (intentionally or not). But that’s the issue in my mind: it’s in slow motion. Every tackle looks worse I’m slow motion because the contact seems to last longer (and thus be more forceful) and the player seems to have time to control his body to avoid contact, even though he actually doesn’t.
So when the only way it looks like a red is in slow motion and when it takes Penso so long to go from “no foul at all” to red card, it’s going to be impossible to “sell the call,” regardless of whether it’s the right call or not. A clear and obvious error, as Chad pointed out, shouldn’t take so long to fix.
Ultimately, whether the call was right or wrong, it was not done well, which is unfortunately poor officiating, and on top of that, fining Russell for speaking out about it (because that’s probably what that fine was really for) is poor officiating as well. MLS, USSF, and PRO have a lot of work to do if they want consistent, good officiating.
I still don’t think it was a foul. Should have been a throw in.
The red card is stupid enough but whatever. I can understand how we got there.
But fining him for failure to leave the field? Eat a bag of dicks, MLS.
Sitting in the stands at the game, the whole thing played out like a tragic comedy. As much as I question the validity of the card itself, fining Russell for not leaving the field is truly absurd. We’ve all seen players make a big production out of arguing calls and then needing to be escorted off. That’s not at all what happened. (If anyone should be fined for taking too long it should be Penso and the VAR. They really slowed the game down.) We were all sitting around for minutes a little unsure of what was happening, but once Russell is actually shown the card, while he’s clearly disappointed, he doesn’t do anything that could be considered extreme or rash or demonstrative or… Yes, he speaks for a moment with Penso and hands off his captain’s band, but that’s it.
Utter ridiculousness.
(I will say, if I’m looking for a silver lining, that the fact that SKC really had the odds stacked against them from this point forward made the win that much sweeter.)
Yeah, the delay in the stadium was wild. To the point where I thought the 12 minutes was egregious but turned out to be accurate. I wonder if Penso sits down for a few weeks again after his last SKC game. I doubt he, because I don’t fundamentally think he got any of the big calls wrong like he did in that St. Louis game.
At least he’s not reffing this week’s game in St. Louis. https://twitter.com/MLSRefStats/status/1707500483080843329
I REALLY don’t want to be a whacko conspiracy nutjob but how can someone watch the way PRO refs treat “it” teams in MLS vs the rest of us and not start to think there’s some fuckery at play? Not only has Miami gotten away with a ton of nonsense and gotten the benefit of a bunch of calls but the teams about to play them have gotten head scratching calls ever since Messi got here. Same with StL. The calls they get that other teams don’t and the calls teams about to play them get that don’t make sense is just baffling. And it’s not just this year. LAFC got similar treatment up until this year.
I’m sure it’s just a coincidence but it really doesn’t feel like one when you see the same teams on instant replay more often than anyone else (and mlssoccer.com staff always seem to side with them too) and I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that teams who are up next for one of these it teams also pop up on there a lot (again, with calls that the mlssoccer.com staff seem to lean in the direction of the “it” teams) but it’s really hard to not fall down the conspiracy rabbit hole.
Add to it the fact that organizations have been flat out denied entry into MLS for stadium concerns while NYC plays in a revolving door of MLB stadiums and that you never hear about a salary cap casualty in big media hubs . . .it’s just hard to stay away from the tinfoil.
I constantly fight myself thinking certain things are a conspiracy. I think it generally comes down to a few things:
Adding all those things up, I do think SKC get the short-end of some calls. Not always game changing, but sometimes they are.
I think what players, coaches and fans need to do though is not be up in arms when they get it right but we don’t agree. In the stadium, I get it. It’s a bit of mob mentality. But I’ll give you a recent example. Stine Ballisager’s tackle of Alex Morgan was dangerous. But I’ve seen many KC Current fans defending that tackle and almost no one else that’s a neutral that’s not a massocist. Let’s admit when we got it wrong (as I often do in the heat of the moment) and show outrage where it belongs. When players or coaches complain about calls that are right, it hurts their case.