Soccer Bopper: Montreal Player Suspended For Punch

((HT: Sportsnet/jimmyhendrix))

The HQ would have completed the headline with the words "in a friendly..." but we're not so sure when Toronto FC and the Montreal Impact get together in their Championship game...

The Montreal Impact have suspended forward Roberto Brown indefinitely after he punched FC defender Nick Garcia in the face Wednesday.

Brown was ejected in the 35th minute. Garcia was helped to the dressing room, with the team later saying he would be fine.

Toronto earned a 2-0 win in the game which had four yellow cards and Brown's red card.

"Roberto is an intense athlete, an excellent person and an important player on our roster, but his gesture is unacceptable," Impact head coach Marc Dos Santos said in a statement. "Roberto let his teammates down during the game Wednesday."

Technical director Nick De Santis suggested Brown has had problems maintaining his composure in the past.

"From a club perspective, his gesture is not tolerated and it stands far from our sportsmanship values," De Santis said in a statement. "I hope he will understand the seriousness of his behaviour because it's not the first time he (has acted) this way."

Here's the punch, thanks to our friends at the Score Television Network...
Complete with arrow and fancy graphics...
Sounds like FOSG Derek Snider was calling the highlights...

Is There Room For Another Pro Soccer League...???

In other news, there was one to begin with...???

((HT: Reuters/Evans, Osmond))

A new soccer championship, potentially an alternative to Major League Soccer (MLS), will be created in the United States next season unless a dispute between clubs and their league can be resolved.

The United Soccer Leagues (USL), which runs soccer from the professional division below the top tier MLS down to regional youth leagues, faces losing at least eight of its leading professional clubs.

The USL, founded in 1986, was owned by Nike until last week when it was sold to Atlanta-based company Nu Rock Soccer Holdings, a move which foiled a bid by a consortium of leading clubs to purchase the league.

Now those clubs, including franchises in major cities such as Miami, Atlanta and Minnesota are threatening to breakaway and form a new league.

A statement from the eight teams talked of a "commitment to achieving a team-owner controlled league" and said the group would pursue all avenues to do so.

Selby Wellman, owner of the Carolina Railhawks and spokesman for the eight teams, said a breakaway league was on the agenda.

"It is certainly one of the options," he told Reuters in an interview. "We are clearly at odds with USL, we have been at odds with them for two years over the fact that we are the only league in the world that doesn't have (team) owners controlling it," he added.

Selby said the teams, which also include franchises in Montreal and Vancouver in Canada and Tampa Bay and St. Louis, would be open to a compromise with the USL but that he was not optimistic common ground could be found.

"I have to be honest and say that my expectations of it are quite low -- if you just bought a league for that money and put it in Nike's pockets you are probably unwilling to turn it over to other people.

"We have been at this for two years..we are not willing to start all over again and drag it out for another year or so. Quite frankly we are tired."

USL CEO Tim Holt said: "We've seen the announcement, which contains several incorrect statements but we don't want to comment right now.

"At the moment we are focused on and excited about preparing the future of our professional divisions, we would prefer not to get caught up in a war of words."

Those of us at OSG HQ got the news release from the USL when Nu Rock took over...
We didn't realize there was such a "schism..."
Here are some Railhawks highlights to get you up to speed...