Sporting KC's appeal of Besler card denied

Sporting Kansas City appealed Matt Besler's red card but an independent review panel has rejected it. Manager Peter Vermes was still deciding if he was going to appeal at yesterday's press conference.

Vermes knew it was a long shot that it would be overturned, "Unless it is completely mistaken identity and you have the perfect tape to show that, I don't think the percentages are in your favor but sometimes it is worth taking a shot at those challenges."

Sporting KC only has one more unsuccessful challenge before losing their challenge rights for the year but the bigger worry was that MLS would find the challenge "frivolous" and Sporting Kansas City would lose challenge rights for 2 years.

Vermes polled some people he trusted to determine if it might be considered "frivolous".

The appeal was heard by an independent review panel, consisting of one representative from the U.S. Soccer Federation, Canadian Soccer Association and Professional Referees Organization (PRO). The panel was not unanimous that the referee incorrectly identified the offense or that the sanction applied was incorrect.

Obviously Sporting KC felt they had a case. "If you watch the action, it is not an aggressive or reckless challenge to the player; the player is jumping in the air when Matt comes to him," Vermes explained at the press conference. "Being that he is in the air, Matt just has slight contact with his foot which is in the air. It's not like he ran through the guy, it's not like his foot carried through the guy."

"The ball got played through and the player was on an advantage.," Vermes continued. "The referee calls a foul, the player screams and the other player is now yelling at the referee and now he is between a rock and a hard place in his decision. He didn't give the advantage but now he has to make up for it and say I was going to give him a yellow.  When you don't give the advantage and don't give the yellow, that's when players lose their mind. And some coaches."

"Not me but some," Vermes added with a laugh.

Interestingly, Vermes was not unhappy with referee Baldemero Toledo calling of the match. "I think he did a good job the other day, Baldemero, he had a good game but without the benefit of replay."

Since the appeal was denied, Besler will serve the resulting  one-match suspension and will miss the  next match at FC Dallas.

The video from the match, was a yellow justified? Harsh?