Zlatan's red card

focused1

BRONZE
In yesterdays Galaxy game he was issued a red for slapping an opposing player. The defender had his back to Zlatan and was backing into him when he appeared to accidently step on Ibra's foot. No question about the red issued, but if the defender isn't intentionally stomping, should he have been issued a yellow card? (He was) And since this all happened in the box, shouldn't the yellow have been followed with a PK?
 
They replayed that dozens of times, and I didn’t see any stepping on the foot. At the most, he bumped against the foot. Maybe he got the yellow card for simulation? They both looked pathetic acting like they were hurt.
 
In yesterdays Galaxy game he was issued a red for slapping an opposing player. The defender had his back to Zlatan and was backing into him when he appeared to accidently step on Ibra's foot. No question about the red issued, but if the defender isn't intentionally stomping, should he have been issued a yellow card? (He was) And since this all happened in the box, shouldn't the yellow have been followed with a PK?

I looked at it and agree the yellow would have been extraordinarily weak if it was for the step backwards. The normal standard for a yellow card is "Reckless" play. Even though the defender had his back to Zlatan, he had his hand behind him on Zlatan so knew where he was. The when the step backwards brushed against the outside of Zlatan's foot (in a normal walking backwards motion) at best it was ever so slightly careless, but not reckless. After brushing (barely) the foot, Zlatan then smacks the defender on the cheek/neck (automatic red card).

For a PK to be awarded to the Galaxy, Zlatan must have been fouled first. In this case, the step backwards should not have resulted in a foul and I don't believe it did. The first foul (intentionally striking another player in the head) would have been a direct free kick awarded to the other team.

The slap upside the head was likely the 1st foul, the 2nd foul was when the defender (along with Zlatan) engaged in one of the worst displays of exaggeration seen by the Academy, the Screen Actors Guild and Ms. Bumplestein, my 7th grade drama teacher (and that is saying alot). It was proper to award a caution against the non-Galaxy player for Unsporting Behavior whenever the referee believes a player "f. Fakes an injury or exaggerates the seriousness of an injury."

Note, a Referee will go through the following analysis: (1) was there a foul? (careless, reckless, violent/excessive); (2) if the foul was careless, was it "trifling." Which basically means that it had no impact on the game. In this case, even assuming the referee concluded the player carelessly stepped on Zlatan's foot while walking backwards, the foul should have been "trifling" as it had no impact on play.

In the opinion of this referee, the MLS referee got everything correct.
 
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