RENTON – With the Seattle Sounders already trailing 2-0 and down a man against the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday, Alex Roldan was hoping to inject some life into his team. The veteran right back saw Ali Ahmed make a loose touch and thought he could win the ball. Instead, Ahmed was able to shield the ball and Roldan made what can only be classified as a horror tackle, coming down hard on Ahmed’s shin.
Referee Ramy Touchan immediately reached into his pocket to show a red card. Roldan didn’t even pretend to argue, and simply put his head down as he headed for the locker room. The only question now is whether or not the MLS Disciplinary Committee will tack on any extra suspension.
Speaking to the media following Wednesday’s training session, Roldan took responsibility for the mistake in both judgment and execution.
“It was a tough moment for me,” he said. “I have no mal intentions there. I saw the ball pop up and I thought I could make a challenge. Obviously, that wasn’t the outcome. He beat me to the ball and I definitely go into that challenge in an unprofessional manner, but I take accountability for that. I apologized to my teammates for letting them down, I apologized to the fans for a bad moment.”
Roldan admitted that he was frustrated, but noted that he rarely goes into tackles like that. In fact, this was Roldan’s first straight red card in nearly 11,000 professional minutes.
“It’s my responsibility to do a better job,” he said. “There’s a difference between aggression and physicality, and what a challenge like that is. There’s a separation between them. I tried to win the ball and show some aggression because we were down, I wanted to show a little bit of fight. But it was miscalculated and definitely something I’m learning from.”
