Plenty of head-hunting now in MLS

A year ago, MLS made a point to crack down on arms and hands up in the head and face area, citing the critical safety issues.

Clearly, it didn’t take.

Over the weekend in eight MLS matches arms and elbows were flying like a 20s jitterbug contest. Some were recognized and punished by officials. But plenty of them weren’t.

At the Home Depot Center, Chukwudi Chijindu raised his hand and struck Red Bull midfielder Joel Lindpere with such menace that MLS really should consider a suspension, even if referees on the scene completely missed it.

Columbus manager Robert Warzycha wasn’t happy about a wandering hand from Dallas’ Atiba Harris that left Eddie Gaven with a badly bloodied lip. Gaven had to leave the game. Harris wasn’t even called for a foul.

In Kansas City, Conor Casey got Jimmy Conrad pretty good with an elbow to the jaw – a scary situation considering Conrad’s history of facial injury and concussions. In this case, Casey probably didn’t mean harm. But there is a player safety issue here nonetheless. More specifically, individuals need to be more aware of fellow players’ safety. If they won’t do so for safety’s sake, then MLS must increase the consequences for failing to do so.

Players can raise their arm to protect themselves on aerial challenges, of course. But when they aggressively pursue these aerial challenges on full gallop, they aren’t really “protecting themselves” anymore by getting their elbows into the action.

This was a good one: Go back and watch the look on New England forward Zack Schilawski’s face as Torontocenter back Nick Garcia issues a “challenge” on Kheli Dube inside the penalty area. And by “challenge,” I mean that Garcia raises his arm and hits Dube in the head as both players jump. He’s not going for ball, he’s simply hitting Dube in the face. It should be a penalty kick and a yellow card, but there’s no whistle.

So Schilawski throws his hands up on his head and turns to the referee as if to say, “Dude! Did you see that that guy just did to my teammate?”

Plenty of these hand- and arm-to-head incidents aren’t happening on challenges in the air. Rather, they are happening as players jostle for balls on the ground. If they raise an arm while they scrap for possession and happen to smack someone, well, so be it.

Dane Richards is good at this one. For a guy who isn’t very big and earns a paycheck because he’s pretty fast, the Red Bulls flank attacker sure manages to whack a lot of faces.

And there is the ol’ “arm bar challenge,” which is quintessentially MLS. If an attacker pushes the ball past, defenders routinely throw their arms to impede the player’s path, then go hunting for the ball. Sometimes they get their arms up around the chest. While illegal, it’s not particularly dangerous. But a lot times they hit the attackers in the face. That’s also illegal – and quite frustrating. For the defenders in MLS, there’s about a 50-50 that they’ll get away with it.

It’s time for MLS to re-focus the players (and match officials) on player safety in these matters.