Major League Soccer’s Disciplinary Committee announced today that D.C. United midfielder Dema Kovalenko has been issued an additional $500 fine for his red card offense in the match against the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday, April 3 at RFK Stadium.
In the 80th minute of D.C. United’s 2-1 victory over the defending MLS Cup champions, Kovalenko struck Earthquakes midfielder Brian Mullan in the mouth while shielding the ball on a challenge. The sixth-year midfielder received a straight red card on the play and an automatic $250 fine and a one-game suspension ahead of United’s next match on Saturday, April 10 against the Los Angeles Galaxy at The Home Depot Center (10:00pm ET).
Kovalenko’s ejection was the second of two in the match and one of five red cards shown over the full schedule of Saturday matches: C.J. Brown (Chicago Fire), Chris Henderson (Colorado Rapids), Chris Klein (Kansas City Wizards) and Craig Waibel (San Jose Earthquakes) were the other players sent off.
MLS’ second weekend of action on Saturday, April 10 features two contests that are rematches of previous MLS Cup championship games. The San Jose Earthquakes welcome the Chicago Fire at Spartan Stadium in the MLS RadioShack Soccer Saturday Game of the Week on ESPN2 (4:00pm ET) just five months after the Earthquakes captured their second League title against the Fire at MLS Cup 2003. The other match of the day will be staged at The Home Depot Center as two teams which captured opening day victories – D.C. United and the Los Angeles Galaxy – look to restore the glory days when they faced off for MLS Cup 1996 and MLS Cup 1999 (10:00pm ET – HDNet, FOX Sports World and FOX Sports en Español).
