Dynamo’s Clark Suspended, Fined

By: Marc | October 4th, 2007

The new is out: Ricardo Clark has been suspended 9 games and fined $10,000 for his kick against Carlos Ruiz last weekend. This is the largest fine ever handed out by MLS. Clark will obviously miss the rest of this season and the playoffs and some games next season as well. He missed last year’s MLS Cup final because of yellow card accumulation and if Houston go all the way again, he’ll miss the Cup again. Not too smart.

I have to say I am surprised at this. I thought he might get a few games extra, but this is severe. No word on any extra suspension or fine for Ruiz and his role in the conflict, which I find a bit odd.

Now I’m not saying Clark doesn’t deserve punishment: attacking another player is wrong and shouldn’t be tolerated, but MLS has historically missed a lot of these kinds of plays in the past so it’s a bit unfair to single out Clark. More importantly, if you watch the video replay, the kick was not particularly hard — he was de-accelerating as he kicked, probably thinking better of his rash action but unable to stop it. Even more signficant was Ruiz’s reaction — he got kicked in the shoulder and rolls over grabbing his face. That’s not the sign of an injured player at all. Ruiz should be fined and suspended for bad acting and provoking. Maybe he’ll get a separate suspension handed down later.

I agree that the league should want to disuade players from this kind of action. But the league should also take into account other factors: the game (this was a derby between two teams notorious for disliking each other), the time in the game (right at the death when passions are at their most heated), what’s already happened in the game (many hard fouls and some missed calls), and player’s histories (Ruiz’s reputation for cheap shots and diving and Clark’s reputation generally decent sportmanship but the occasional show of temper). When you factor all that into play, I don’t think this is worthy of such an extreme suspension and fine. I mean, come on — a few years ago Demo broke O’Brien’s leg and didn’t even get a red card!

What I think happened here is that the video evidence put Clark in a bad light. It was not clear what Ruiz did, but Clark’s kick was obvious, and Ruiz was “defenseless” on the ground, and the League felt pressure to make an example of Clark lest people think the league is soft on such things. It’s a bummer for Clark, but hopefully it’ll be a lesson learned. Go kick the post or stamp the ground or scream or something, but don’t kick another player no matter how tempting or what he’s done to you.

All that said, while Clark is one of my favorite Dynamo players and I’ll miss him, I don’t think this will hurt the team’s post-season chances. Houston is very deep in the mid-field, baring another injury, and should be just fine with Mulrooney and Holden and Brad Davis to pick up the slack.

What do you think? Was this suspension/fine extreme? Just right? Not enough? Post your comments and let’s discuss it!