The league suspended Real Salt Lake head coach Jason Kreis for two games and fined him $2,000 for his comments after last Thursday's draw with Houston.
Here are the comments, courtesy of The Salt Lake Tribune and The Deseret Morning News:
"You guys may want to pitch in for my fine," Kreis said.
"It's absolutely ridiculous," Kreis said. "Every 50/50 call goes against us. Every home match we play, I feel like we're playing on the road. I've had it up to here."
"I'm tired of it, I'm exasperated — this is absolutely ridiculous, every single week we play here I feel like we're playing away,” Kreis said. “Every 50-50 call goes against us. My man (Nat Borchers) gets pushed down in the box, the defender has his arms up in front of him showing everybody he's clearly pushed my man down in the box and we don't even get a thought of a penalty kick. Where's the linesman then to help the referee? He was certainly there a few weeks ago to call a non offside's against us."
Kreis is probably lucky that he got off with only a $2,000 fine for his second lengthy tirade of the season.
In situations like these, the fine is the only thing that matters, and I don't suspect that sort of pocket change will impact Kreis, whose on-field exploits earned him hundreds of thousands of dollars per season.
MLS explains the irrelevance of Kreis' two-match suspension at the bottom of its press release announcing the suspension.
<<Any coach serving a game suspension may enter his team's locker room prior to and during half-time as well post-game. The coach may not, however, appear on field level at any time on game day. He may not sit in the Press Box or grandstands. The coach shall be seated in a private suite or team-provided reserved section.>>
The league is basically saying: Don't do this again, but give the team talks, set the lineup and watch the match from a comfortable luxury suite. It's like putting a kid in the corner for his time out and giving him a television and a remote.
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MLS announced its “First XI” today for the All-Star Game. These eleven players won't comprise the starting lineup, but will make the trip to Toronto in a couple of weeks' time.
GK: Matt Reis
DF: Jimmy Conrad, Michael Parkhurst, Frankie Hedjuk
MF: David Beckham, Shalrie Joseph, Sacha Kljestan, Robbie Rogers, Cuauhtemoc Blanco
FW: Landon Donovan, Kenny Cooper
All-Star head coach Steve Nicol makes five selections to fill out his roster. MLS Commissioner Don Garber selects two players to fill out the 18-man roster.
Nicol should take the following five players:
GK: Jon Busch (are there any other choices?)
DF: Gonzalo Segares (can play any spot in a three-man or a four-man backline, which makes him the selection over Bakary Soumare)
MF: Steve Ralston (deserving of the nod and can play anywhere across midfield)
MF: Maurice Edu (if Nicol sticks with the five in midfield, he needs another defensive midfielder and this particular selection panders to the partisan Toronto crowd.)
FW: Luciano Emilio (United deserves a representative)
If Nicol goes with those five players, expect Garber to tap Barros Schelotto and Claudio Lopez to fill out the roster. The roster could use another defender, but that won't likely factor into the commissioner's decision.