Fair and balanced

During Thursday night's MLS match between New England and Columbus, the ESPN2 broadcast team were quick and harsh with their criticism of referee Alex Prus, who handed out three red cards in the course of a 0-0 (that's "nil-nil" in Britspeak) draw. Analysts Ty Keough and Eric Wynalda, in particular, took exception to a 54th minute sending off of Revolution midfielder Brian Kamler.

What happened is that Kamler, with his eyes on an incoming ball, jumped up to make a play, not at all seeing that Colorado defender Wes Hart had entered his path to make the play. As a result, Kamler landed a cleat on Hart's thigh.

According to the rules of the game, a red card can be handed out for "serious foul play." The problem here is that "serious" is, and has always been, subject to interpretation. Kamler's challenge was certainly reckless. It was certainly dangerous. The argument, made by Wynalda and later by Revolution coach Steve Nicol, is that without malicous intent, that threshold of "seriousness" was not crossed. Moreover, Kamler has no history of violent conduct, so perhaps more leniency was in order.

Frankly, that's horseshit. Reckless and dangerous should be enough to warrant expulsion. This notion that "nice guys shouldn't see red" is exactly the same argument promoted by Dallas Burn fans when Ronnie O'Brien had his leg broken by a Dema Kovalenko challenge, just in the opposite direction. Kovalenko lunged into a space in front of O'Brien's foot and the ball, making contact on the follow-through. If you were to make that argument for Kamler, that he was challenging a space that wasn't occupied by an opponent when the motion was started, it would hinge on the fact that he wasn't looking at the space into which he was jumping. That has to be considered at least as reckless as Dema going in with both feet on his challenge. While a foul wasn't called in the game, MLS saw fit to punish Kovalenko as if a red card had been issued. The Kamler card was entirely consistent with that line of reasoning.

On the other side of the pond, great call by the assistant referee during the Leeds United vs. Birmingham City match this morning. Birmingham had a penalty kick saved by the Leeds keeper, but it was called back. Replays showed, pretty conclusively, that the goalie moved forward off his goal line before the ball was kicked. Birmingham stuffed the re-kick, breaking a scoreless tie on their way to a 2-0 victory.