Mike Petke refused to comment on Roy Miller’s red card on Saturday, in the aftermath of the left back's ejection from the second leg of the New York Red Bulls' ultimately victorious Conference Semifinal series with D.C. United.
Three days later, however, the Red Bulls head coach was ready to comment.
“We’re going to appeal it, and I’ll tell you why: Because it wasn’t a red card,” Petke said in his Tuesday conference call.
Miller received a straight red card from referee Ismail Elfath for a high challenge on DC's Sean Franklin in the 78th-minute. As a result, New York will be without the Costa Rican international for both legs of the Eastern Conference Championship against the New England Revolution due to the fact that he had already been booked earlier in the match resulting in a one-game suspension for yellow-card accumulation.
“If you look at the play, the ball is coming across the field, Roy’s eyes are directly on the ball as well as Franklin’s are," Petke said. "Roy goes up to challenge it with his foot, Franklin comes around him, gets kicked right below the shoulder, not in the head, below the shoulder, [and it’s a] straight red card.”
Petke pointed to similar instances in the match that failed to draw such harsh judgment, including Richard Eckersley taking a boot to the head in the 73rd minute, Ibrahim Sekagya suffereing a similar blow in the 93rd minute, and Jamison Olave taking an elbow to the face in the 95th minute. Petke said Sekagya was left with lump on his head, and Olave had to receive “four or five” stitches after the match.
“My question is, if what Roy did was a straight red card, where is the consistency?” said Petke. “Not only is it not consistent, but not even a yellow card, not even a talking-to during those [aforementioned] plays. We have the head wounds to prove it.”
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Petke hopes the suspension from the red card is tossed out upon appeal, which, if supported by the MLS Players Union, would be heard by the three-person Independent Panel made up of one member of the Professional Referees Organization, one member of the US federation, and one member of the Canadian federation. If the appeal is upheld, the Red Bulls would still be without Miller for the first leg against the Revs on Nov. 23 (1:30 pm ET; NBC) at Red Bull Arena, due to the yellow-card accumulation, but they would have him back for the second leg on Nov. 29 (3 pm ET; NBCSN, UDN, TSN2, RDS2) at Gillette Stadium.
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Petke is holding out hope that it will work out for the Red Bulls.
“Who the heck knows what’s going to happen?” he said. “All I know is, looking at the video, it was not intentional. They both were looking at the ball. [Franklin] came from [Miller's] blindside. He wasn’t kicked in the head. . . . He was kicked in the shoulder, if not a little bit below.
“Go look and make your own choices. Who the heck knows what’s going to happen? All we could do is log an appeal and hope that justice is served.”
Franco Panizo covers the New York Red Bulls for MLSsoccer.com. He can be reached by email at Franco8813@gmail.com.
