Sporting KC goalie Tim Melia body slams Cristian Roldan, gets yellow card

Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Tim Melia delivered a controversial moment on Saturday when he threw Seattle Sounders midfielder Cristian Roldan to the ground in the second half of KC's 2-1 win.

In the 54th minute, Roldan backed Melia into the goal while João Paulo's attempted header floated toward the goal. After Melia pushed the ball away from the net, he grabbed Roldan by the shoulders, picked him up and body-slammed him to the ground inside the goal. Melia was given a yellow card for the incident, which upset Sounders players and fans.

PRO Referees told a pool reporter that Melia's conduct "did not rise to violent conduct due to the lack of brutality."

"Normally a player can't throw another player, but that's not why everyone is down," Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said after the game. "I thought Cristian had position, but we can't control what (referee Ismail Elfath) saw. It's not why we lost (the) game."

Roldan nearly equalized in the 58th minute with a header from the center of the box, but it rang off the crossbar. Less than a minute later, Nicolas Benezet hit the equalizer with an assist from Roldan.

Sporting KC went on to beat Seattle thanks to Johnny Russell's game-winning goal in the 79th minute.

(Photo: Steven Bisig / USA TODAY Sports)

Should Melia be suspended?

Alexander Abnos, soccer deputy managing editor: Even allowing for the fact that goalkeepers get away with a lot more physical contact than other positions, and also taking into account that it's honestly a pretty well-executed takedown, I think the answer here is pretty clearly "yes."

Roldan was called for obstruction on the play, which makes sense. But Melia's full-on slam at the end pretty clearly meets the definition of "violent conduct," which is a red card offense according to the Laws of the Game, with red cards earning at least a one-game suspension in MLS.

Now … will he get suspended? That remains to be seen. This is exactly the kind of situation that the MLS Disciplinary Committee takes a look at after each set of games, and that committee has been known to issue retroactive suspensions in the past for actions that were either missed or unjustly punished.

But, as I said at the top, goalkeepers tend to get away with a lot. We'll see if MLS draws the line at WWE moves.

💯 this is called delivering a devastating, “Rock Bottom” 👏🏾👏🏾
+ I assume player in green got up and fought his ass off, unless he got his bell rung.
+ I also assume there was a card delivered in the red color palette 🤣

— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) October 23, 2021

This was a yellow card.

— Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) October 23, 2021