HOUSTON – The disciplinary fallout from Friday’s 2-0 loss to the Seattle Sounders continued Friday when Adam Moffat was handed a one-game suspension by the MLS Disciplinary Committee two days after Colin Clark received a three-game suspension from the same match.
A review of Moffat’s challenge on Sounders midfielder Osvaldo Alonso in the 35th minute prompted the committee to take action. The Scottish-born midfielder slid in, and while he got ball, cleeted Alonso in the shin.
WATCH: Moffat's challenge on Alonso
The play drew a yellow from match referee Baldomero Toledo, but the league's disciplinary committee ruled the challenge deserved a stiffer penalty that will rule Moffat out for Houston’s next match against the Chicago Fire on April 15.
“I’ve looked at it again and it looks bad and it looks way worse than I thought it did,” Moffat told the media about the tackle that he protested vehemently when it happened. “At the time, I was a bit surprised it was a free kick to be honest. Seeing the replay, it was unfortunate my foot went over the ball … and they looked at it and gave me a suspension for that.”
Moffat’s suspension is an example of the stance MLS has taken regarding dangerous play and tackles the committee deems to be reckless.
It is something Bobby Boswell noted the league will be doing more of in 2012.
“[The Players' Union] had talks in preseason and they said they were going to look at plays and adjust accordingly, and it looks like they’ve done that in Adam’s case,” said Boswell, who is the club’s union representative. “I’m not sure what the ruling on the Fernandez thing is … But as a player, there’s not much you can do and you just try and play the game, play it the right way.”
The loss of Moffat, combined with the loss of Clark, means the Dynamo’s midfield will be very thin heading into their next match in two weeks. With the disappointment of being without two starters comes opportunity for others to take up the cause, according to head coach Dominic Kinnear.
“They talked about it before the season that they were going to take these actions and while I don’t necessarily agree with the decision, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Kinnear said. “Nathan Sturgis has played in midfield and Alex Dixon has looked good and we have Je-Vaughn [Watson]. Luiz [Camargo] is coming back and we have Brian Ownby so those are names that pop to mind.”
Darrell Lovell covers the Houston Dynamo for MLSsoccer.com and can be reached for comment at Darrell.A.Lovell@gmail.com.
