Sounders-Inter Miami brawl: Fallout unclear a day after Leagues Cup final
Published in Soccer
SEATTLE — A day later, the fallout from the melee following the Sounders’ victory over Inter Miami to claim the Leagues Cup title may only be beginning.
While the Sounders’ 3-0 victory was the primary story on Sunday night at Lumen Field, the actions of the Inter Miami players after the match quickly became a significant sidebar in its own right because of what took place and the players involved.
Most notable was Miami’s Luis Suárez appearing to spit at the Sounders head of security Gene Ramirez as staff from both teams attempted to break up the scuffle. There was also video that showed Miami’s Sergio Busquets hitting Seattle’s Obed Vargas in the face after Suárez seemed to try to provoke Vargas. The actions of Busquets appeared to spark the entire fracas that had players and staff from both teams sprawled around the playing surface at Lumen Field for about 2½ minutes before tempers calmed.
For his part, the biggest name on the field Sunday — Miami’s Lionel Messi — seemed to stay well away from any of the clash.
After being contacted by the Times, a spokesperson for Leagues Cup said Monday that “the Leagues Cup Organizing Committee is reviewing the incidents at the end of the game and will proceed accordingly.”
A spokesperson for Major League Soccer did not have an update Monday on any review by the league. The Leagues Cup is a joint venture tournament between MLS and Liga MX, Mexico’s top-flight league.
Suárez, specifically, has a long history of questionable on-field behavior, most notably the 2014 FIFA Men’s World Cup when, while playing for Uruguay, he bit Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini during a match and was eventually handed a four-month ban from all soccer competitions.
It’s unclear as of now where any discipline in this incident would come from, or what that could be. Would it be discipline related to Leagues Cup matches in the future? Being that the event is a joint venture that includes MLS, could it be discipline related to MLS matches? Any MLS discipline would likely have to come directly from Commissioner Don Garber, who was in attendance for the final.
The Sounders declined any additional comment on Monday and pointed to the comments from head coach Brian Schmetzer after the match where he hoped that the clash at the end didn’t overshadow the final result.
“My statement is unfortunately that is going to take some of the attention away from what was a great Sounder performance,” Schmetzer said. “So I can take that as a compliment that their players were frustrated and frustrations led to some things that shouldn’t happen on the field. But that shouldn’t be the story. I’m going to shut that down.”
Schmetzer then went to praise the effort of his players before turning back to what happened at the conclusion and a brief moment of conversation with Messi once things calmed down.
“What I would say to that is afterward I had a quiet moment with Messi on the field and I said, ‘Lo siento (I’m sorry),’ and we talked and we tried to push it aside,” Schmetzer said. “(Miami coach) Javier Mascherano is a great coach, and again, before the game on the walkout, he was very complimentary of our team and I appreciated that. (Miami co-owner) David Beckham, to his credit, was waiting for everybody in the tunnel, for our players to shake their hands and that is class, through and through.”
While most of the focus was on what happened inside Lumen Field, video also emerged on Monday of a clash outside the stadium between Seattle and Miami fans after the match. It was unclear the source of the video and a Seattle Police Department spokesperson said no incident report could be found specific to the apparent fight.
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(Times reporter Amanda Zhou contributed to this story.)
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