MONTREAL – Marco Donadel has vowed to change his ways.
Of course, that vow comes three days after Donadel picked up a red card and a one-game suspension in last Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at the Chicago Fire.
“It’s my fault,” Donadel told reporters. “I have to change. This week, I’ll look at videos with Mauro [Biello, Impact assistant coach], and I will change this.”
Making just his fifth MLS appearance, Donadel was shown his fourth and fifth yellow cards on Saturday. Referee Allen Chapman first booked him in the 23rd minute for a foul on Eric Gehrig, then sent him off 14 minutes later after a dangerous, superfluous slide on Matt Polster in the Impact’s attacking half.
Head coach Frank Klopas defended his player shortly after the game but agreed with Donadel’s assessment on Tuesday.
“When you make a tackle like that, for all referees in the world, it’s a yellow card,” Klopas said. “I think he has to adjust his play. That’s what I talked to him about. We sit down, we show tapes and stuff like that. You have to be smart in situations like that, how you approach the game. You're on a yellow card already, so you have to manage yourself and the game. You're playing on a wet field and you arrive late; there’s nothing the referee can do. With this call, the referee got it right.”
However, Donadel does think some of his previous yellows were “gifts” from the referees. MLS officials, he feels, tend to book him as soon as he commits a foul. In three of the four games where Donadel was cautioned, a card came out for his first foul, while the other card he has received was for unsporting behavior.
Donadel also fears he may already have earned an unfavorable reputation, discipline-wise.
“After that first foul [in Chicago], I became a little bit nervous for that reason,” Donadel said. “The second yellow card is my mistake. I was sure [that I was getting] the ball, but I was late and I took the yellow card.”
Donadel has pledged to be more careful in the future. Adapting to MLS has been tricky for the 32-year-old, who had only played for Italian clubs prior to moving to Montreal last December.
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The slower pace of Italian soccer, as well as some teams’ propensity to settle for a point, allowed Donadel more control of the ball. In MLS, Donadel explained, the play gets stretched, with more players fighting for the ball. Being unfamiliar with this, he's been more likely to commit fouls.
Then there is the physical adaptation: Donadel's last Serie A game was on May 18, 2014, a full nine months before his Montreal debut.
“Physically, I arrived here after five months out where I trained alone,” Donadel said. “The first game before CONCACAF [Champions League], for me, was last May. That’s one year ago. I started to play now, and for that reason, sometimes, at 70, 75 minutes, I’m dead. With more preparation, more attitude, for sure, I can think more about those yellow cards.”
