TUKWILA, Wash. — Seattle Sounders captain Brad Evans subbed on in the 65th minute last Sunday in the team’s 2-1 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps, scored in the 81st and then was ejected in the 84th for what referee Ricardo Salazar deemed an attempted headbutt.
Evans said after the match that he “never made contact” with Whitecaps defender David Edgar and that he was planning on appealing the red card. The veteran defender made his return to game action last Sunday for the first time since Aug. 28 while recovering from lower back and calf injuries. He will be suspended for the team’s next match next Wednesday vs. the Houston Dynamo (7:30 p.m. PT; JOEtv, KIRO Radio 97.3FM, El Rey1360AM).
On Thursday, Sounders General Manager and President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey is expected to discuss whether the club has decided to protest Evans’ one-game ban.
“I had a conversation with Brad in private, and I also brought it up in a team setting this morning in film,” interim head coach Brian Schmetzer said. “The playoffs are coming, we have to be prepared to make sure that all of the players stay on the field.”
Schmetzer wants to ensure his team remains calm in the heat of the moment, but he believes what Evans told him, that Evans was three inches from Edgar’s face and didn’t touch him.
“If Brad really wanted to do something, it would have happened. His gesture was what they thought was egregious, but I believe Brad.”
