Marc Weber
A United Soccer Leagues ruling has left the Vancouver Whitecaps miffed, and without starting centre back Omar Jarun for the first game of the playoffs.
Jarun was originally expected to miss only the final two regular season games when he received two yellow cards against Minnesota last Saturday -- one game for the sending off and another because he's accumulated eight yellow cards this season.
Players are handed a two-game ban for hitting the threshold of eight yellows, but league rules state that yellow-card suspensions do not carry over into the playoffs, if they occur in the final game of the season.
Apparently they do carry over if they occur in the second-to-last game, or -- in Jarun's rare case of a red card and his eighth yellow in the same game --the third-to-last game.
"It seems completely illogical," said Greg Anderson, Whitecaps director of professional teams. "We brought it up with the league a couple of times and they felt that they made their decision and they want to stick with it. They are going to change the rules for next season."
Head coach Teitur Thordarson called Jarun's second yellow against Minnesota "just a normal challenge," and might have sat Jarun after the first yellow had he known the ramifications.
© The Vancouver Province 2008
