An MLS issue of protecting most skilled players
Most of the attention this week at Toyota Park has focused on repercussions from the end-of-game scuffle Saturday night between Chicago Fire players and the Seattle Sounders.
Fire coach Frank Klopas and defender Jalil Anibaba both are suspended for Friday’s game at Chivas USA (10 p.m. ESPN Deportes).
But lost in the scuffle shuffle is the question of how much MLS referees are going to protect the game’s most skilled players, a question Klopas brought up in his postgame news conference Saturday.
“I don’t want to complain with the refereeing because it all evens out,” Klopas said. “But you look at (Sebastian) Grazzini who is a playmaker, and he probably has the most yellow cards on our team. You figure that one out … he gets kicked the most and he never gets a call.
“It’s not easy for other teams to get the ball but … it is what it is. You have to move on and sometimes things even out, but sometimes you feel that there are fouls that they do miss, and they call the second one out of reaction.
“I think those things even out, but when you look at all the games we’ve played, Grazzini is probably the guy that has been kicked the most, but he’s the one that ends up with the yellow cards.”
Klopas has a point. Grazzini hit the Toyota Park turf several times against Seattle but didn’t get a whistle. Seattle bumped him enough to take him off his game, and that helped the Sounders stop the Chicago attack in a 2-1 Seattle victory.
MLS has made a big deal of dealing harshly with the kind of tackles that ruin careers, but it continues to let teams get physical with players like Grazzini, as long as they don’t get dangerous.
“Part of it is the role that Sebastian plays when he’s the creative player,” Fire captain Logan Pause said, “and he’s so unbelievably talented on the ball. It happens all over the world where key guys get targeted.
“I don’t think there are guys that maliciously try to take him out, but I think teams know that he’s a key part of what we do and stopping the play and bumping him is probably part of their game plan.
“Listen, every other team faces the same referees that we do. It’s not anything different. We’re not a team with excuses. We just have to put our head down and keep plugging away.”
There’s another part of this. Pause understands that he’s charged with making life difficult for opponents’ playmakers.
“Some of it kind of comes with the territory, especially me being on the other end of that, usually trying to break up the other team’s more dynamic and creative player,” Pause said.
“I know what that’s like. You try to stop momentum, you try to stop that player from being effective, and that’s all part of that game plan.”
That’s something to remember the next time commissioner Don Garber says he’d like to see more scoring in MLS.
ŸFollow Orrin on Twitter @orrinsoccer.