Skip to content
Sports

Philadelphia Union player ejected for spitting on opponent

    by Rob Tornoe
    Published 

While the eyes of most Philadelphia sports fans were on Sam Bradford and the Eagles last night, the Union suffered a brutal home loss against the New England Revolution, 1-0.

The loss not only dimmed the team's playoff hopes, it might have cost them their best player, who was given a red card and ejected after apparently spitting on an opposing player.

Marc Narducci has the details:

During second-half stoppage time of a 1-0 Major League Soccer loss to the New England Revolution at PPL Park, Union midfielder Cristian Maidana earned a red card. Maidana, who entered the game with a league-high 14 assists, fouled Lee Nguyen. "Violent conduct" was the reason given for the red card.

"Maidana was sent off after deliberately spitting at an opponent on the ground," referee Chris Penso told a pool reporter.

"I always chew gum when I play and didn't have any intention of spitting on a player," Maidana said through an interpreter. "That wasn't what I was trying to do. It could have happened that my gum fell out of my mouth at the moment, but it wasn't an intentional thing and wasn't something I intentionally tried to do."

Not only will Maidana be automatically forced out of next weekend's match-up against the San Jose Earthqakes, MLS could decide to tack on more games.