Real Salt Lake defender, Chris Wingert missed the final 24 minutes of his team's 2-1 loss to Sporting KC this past weekend after picking up a second yellow for pulling back on Soony Saad as he went past him. Many Sporting KC fans though felt that the red card came 65 minutes too late. Just a few seconds into the game Wingert and Kei Kamara went up for a long ball from Ike Opara. Kamara got caught in the jaw by Wingert's shoulder on the challenge. When viewing replays of the challenge Wingert didn't even appear to be looking at the ball.
Today MLS' Disciplinary Committee agreed with the Sporting fans. They handed down an extra game suspension to Wingert for the challenge. The committee said the challenge by Wingert "endangered the safety of his opponent" for the challenge to the head/jaw. So for his "violent conduct" on the play, Wingert will miss Salt Lake's game in New York this weekend due to his red card suspension. He'll then miss RSL's game against Colorado on August 3rd.
Here's the challenge:
No fine? These kind of actions need to start hurting the offender more than games missed. The league needs to start taking it out of the player's pocket.
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