Red Card

It was the sort of tackle in which the final verdict would be better suited to a courtroom; a straight red card certainly doesn’t seem like enough justice for an act of violence perpetrated with the sole intention of seriously injuring another player.

During yesterday’s “friendly” between Sevilla and Liverpool at Fenway Park in Boston, Sevilla’s Joris Gnagnon was handed his marching orders in the 76th minute for this assault on 18-year-old Liverpool winger Yasser Larouci.

While Sunday is a day for finals, Saturday was a day for third-place matches.

Tottenham went into Saturday’s match against Bournemouth joint fewest red cards earned in the league; Spurs ended the match joint sixth in most red cards received. Two Tottenham red cards spelled doom for Mauricio Pochettino’s side in a 1-0 loss to Bournemouth on Saturday, once again opening up the race in for the top four.

October 14, 2017: Watford are fresh off defeating Arsenal 2-1 thanks in part to a Troy Deeney penalty, dropping the Gunners to eighth in the table. Deeney was scathing in his assessment of Arsenal after the match.

Things went from bad to worse last night for the New York Red Bulls when the club allowed victory to escape its grasp by virtue of an 88th-minute Sporting Kansas City equalizer at Children’s Mercy Park, leaving the Red Bulls — last season’s Supporters’ Shield winners — with only one win from its opening six games.

To compound matters, Alejandro Romero Gamarra, better known as Kaku, was given a straight red in the fourth minute of second half stoppage time for smashing the ball into the face of an SKC supporter from point-blank range. 

Mentally, Diego Costa isn’t entirely there. Look at the 26 yellow cards he received over his three-year Premier League stay for ample evidence of the striker’s propensity to be a mad lad.