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Brek Shea Suspended by the MLS Disciplinary Committee
Orlando City left back Brek Shea has been fined an undisclosed amount and suspended for one game by the MLS Disciplinary Committee for a foul committed Sunday against Dairon Asprilla of the Portland Timbers in the Lions’ 4-1 win at the Citrus Bowl.
Already facing the probability of not having striker Cyle Larin (hamstring) or center back Tommy Redding (head) on Friday, now Head Coach Adrian Heath will have to make another change to his preferred starting lineup.
In the 15th minute of Sunday’s match, shortly after Seb Hines had given the Lions a 1-0 lead, Shea went into Asprilla with a late, clumsy tackle from behind, catching the Portland winger’s plant foot. Here is a video of the play:
Brek Shea has been suspended for Friday’s game for this challenge on Dairon Asprilla. pic.twitter.com/sG17d3sS7f
— Austin David (@AustinDavid22) April 6, 2016
It was certainly a reckless move by Shea and could have drawn a straight red. The MLS DisCo deemed it worth of one and after finally scoring his first goal with Orlando City, Brek will miss Friday’s match at Philadelphia. Had Alan Kelly — widely regarded as one of the better referees in MLS and the 2015 MLS Referee of the Year — sent him off, it’s likely Orlando’s 4-1 win over the defending champions would have gone very differently.
This is the second time the MLS DisCo has overturned an Orlando City yellow card and retroactively made it a red card. Darwin Ceren was so penalized last season after his elbow to Erik Friberg at Seattle was deemed to be intentional a few days after the match.
When Shea serves his suspension Friday, it will already be the third served by an Orlando City player in the first five matches of 2016 Cristian Higuita served a suspension on opening day for being sent off in the 2015 season finale at Philadelphia. Ceren was sent off in the opener against Real Salt Lake and missed Orlando's match against the Chicago Fire. Three suspensions served in five games is a worrying rate, although Higuita's dates back to last season.
It will be interesting to see how Orlando City responds to the adversity of missing as many as three starters at Philadelphia. Heath will likely turn to Luke Boden to replace Shea in the starting lineup, with Kevin Alston providing coverage on the bench in case either Boden or Rafael Ramos has to come off.
It's certainly not ideal to be missing so many in a first-place Eastern Conference battle (albeit an early season one). If it helps, you can just do like me and pretend MLS is suspending Shea for scoring too pretty of a goal on Sunday.
Shea will be eligible to return against the New England Revolution on April 17 at the Citrus Bowl.