Did Didier Drogba just earn the dumbest red card of the year?
Is this straight red card earned by the Montreal Impact's Didier Drogba a dumb red card, or the dumbest red card? You be the judge in this incident with D.C. United's Marcelo Sarvas:
Quite possibly the dumbest red card of the season. Drogba gets sent off. LOOK WHERE THE REF IS!!! pic.twitter.com/GXcvwTABW3
— Total MLS (@TotalMLS) August 1, 2016
Let's break this down for a moment. First, referee Ted Unkel was standing right there. He was literally inches away. Drogba had no chance of getting away with this.
Second, what was he really hoping to accomplish with that knee tap? It wasn't going to hurt the guy. It might annoy him, but only minimally. Surely if you are hoping to upset an opponent and throw him off his game, there is a better way.
Third, we can see that Sarvas grabbed Drogba's neck in the moments leading up to the incident, but wouldn't it have made more sense for Drogba to let the referee know and ask him to keep an eye out? You can get mad without getting dumb.
A blatant act of aggression, no matter how minor, is always risking a red card. A fan or two didn't like it, but Drogba apparently had no regrets:
A fan taunts Drogba. Drogba tells him to hush. pic.twitter.com/y0qT8x6Rh5
— Total MLS (@TotalMLS) August 1, 2016
In the end, it didn't matter too much. A 10-man Montreal Impact found their equalizer after Drogba was sent off and it only raises more questions about Drogba's value to the Impact. Although there is no denying his productivity in front of goal, the Impact have actually been averaging more goals in games this season when Drogba is unavailable.
That's something that the Impact need to sort out, but with Drogba set to miss their match against the Houston Dynamo next weekend, the red card may not be such a bad thing.
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