With Week 2 of the 2014-15 Major League Soccer season looming, a pair of playoff-contending teams learned on Thursday they would each be without a key player as they prepare for their respective league games this weekend.
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Sporting Kansas City’s appeal of defender Matt Besler’s red card was denied by an independent review panel “consisting of one representative from the U.S. Soccer Federation, one representative from the Canadian Soccer Association and one representative of the Professional Referees Organization (PRO),” according to an MLS release.
As a result, Besler will serve his one-game suspension (second yellow card, above video) this weekend as Sporting KC takes on FC Dallas (Saturday, 8:30 pm ET, MLS Live). Because the appeal was not deemed “frivolous,” Sporting are allowed one more unsuccessful appeal for any send-off review this season. Had the appeal been deemed frivolous, the club’s second appeal would have been forfeited.
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Elsewhere, Columbus Crew SC midfielder Tony Tchani was given a one-game retrospective suspension for a 77th-minute, shin-high tackle on Houston Dynamo midfielder Leonel Miranda (below video), for which he was originally yellow carded.
Also of note, LA Galaxy forward Robbie Keane was fined an undisclosed amount for “unprofessional conduct” — an obscene gesture — following his goal against the Chicago Fire last Friday. A full list of retrospective punishments from Week 1 can be found on MLSsoccer.com.