{"id":11028,"date":"2012-04-11T23:58:02","date_gmt":"2012-04-12T03:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=11028"},"modified":"2012-04-12T00:13:28","modified_gmt":"2012-04-12T04:13:28","slug":"joseph-speaks-on-suspension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=11028","title":{"rendered":"Shalrie Speaks on Suspension"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Shalrie Joseph was suspended for Saturday's game against D.C. after the league ruled that his foul on Ricardo Villar last week "endangered the safety of his opponent." (Photo: Chris Aduama\/aduama.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Shalrie Joseph was on the practice field Wednesday morning with his teammates preparing for Saturday\u2019s conference tie with D.C. United. And that\u2019s pretty much the extent to which he\u2019ll be able to help his team this week: prepare.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the league suspended Joseph for Saturday\u2019s game after it deemed that his foul on Ricardo Villar in last week\u2019s 1-0 loss at Dallas was a \u201creckless challenge that endangered the safety of his opponent.\u201d Joseph was also fined an undisclosed amount.<\/p>\n

Following Wednesday\u2019s training session, Joseph spoke about the suspension, which he, not unsurprisingly, disagreed with.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see how they can (deem) that a red card offense,\u201d Joseph said. \u201cIt\u2019s a yellow card offense, which I got. And for them to go back and review it and give me a red card (suspension), it\u2019s just frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joseph also described the incident, which occurred in the 62nd<\/sup> minute of last Thursday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a terrible touch and it got me in trouble,\u201d Joseph said. \u201cI didn\u2019t even notice (Villar) on the other side of me. Once I saw that the ball was there, I was just trying to lunge for the ball to get it away from him and it was just late. It wasn\u2019t anything from behind or anything intentional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Intentional or not, Villar injured his right foot on the play and had to be taken off minutes later. But Joseph claims that it wasn\u2019t his intent to hurt the Dallas midfielder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I\u2019m not that kind of player,\u201d Joseph said. \u201cI don\u2019t try to hurt anybody or try to go after anybody and for them to suspend me is just really frustrating. It was just one of those physical plays where I was trying to reach for the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the skipper also acknowledged that the fact Villar was injured on the play may have swayed the league to come down hard on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat should have nothing to do with it,\u201d Joseph said. \u201cSoccer is a physical game. People are going to get hurt here and there and that\u2019s just unfortunately how it is. For being in this league for so long, I feel like\u2026a guy like me has been in this league for so long, for them to think that I\u2019m such a dirty player and trying to hurt somebody, it\u2019s kind of frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Joseph acknowledges that he isn\u2019t the only player the league has suspended retroactively this season \u2013 so far this season, four players have been issued suspensions for non-red card offenses \u2013 he believes that the league\u2019s ability to dole out punishment after the fact could lead to players becoming distracted by the possibility of getting a call from the Disciplinary Committee after the final whistle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they opened a can of worms, to be honest,\u201d Joseph said. \u201cI think it\u2019s one of those things that everyone\u2019s going to try to be aware about and be worried about when you\u2019re playing. And you can\u2019t be like that (because) you\u2019re going to be worried about your tackles and you can\u2019t be like that as a soccer player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his frustration with the decision, Joseph knows that there\u2019s nothing he can do about it. What\u2019s done is done.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something I just have to put behind me,\u201d Joseph said. \u201cAnd try to help the guys to make sure we get three points at home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After Wednesday’s training session, Shalrie Joseph spoke to the media about the league’s decision to suspend him for Saturday’s match. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/josephfeature5.jpg?fit=490%2C225","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11028"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11028"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11039,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11028\/revisions\/11039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}