Don Garber finds it quite unwise of Bruce Arena to come out intensely

Don Garber finds it quite unwise of Bruce Arena to come out intensely taking side of his playmaker Nigel De Jong.

Arena has recently accused the media as well as the administrators in the American League of having an agenda against De Jong.


Arena believes that particular incident which happened in the Timbers match on 10th of April, it was stretched a bit too long and the only reason for that was the involvement of De Jong in it. There was no chance of it receiving as much attention as it did if any other player had been involved.

Terming Arena’s accusation absolutely baseless and absurd, Garber has stressed that all the decisions are made in complete fairness in the Major League Soccer and there is no such thing as partiality. It’s just that the tackle made by De Jong was a bit too rough and it’s only due to it that he was punished.

What is surprising is that Arena himself, being one of the most knowledgeable persons in American Football, has always spoken for the removal of careless tackles and now he has taken a different stand. However, according to Garber, that might be because he is the manager and it’s his duty to back his player.

As far as De Jong is concerned, he doesn’t mind awful tackles. He has seriously hurt quite a few players in the past and even on this occasion, the player involved in the tackle with him, Darlington Nagbe, he sustained an ankle sprain ruling him out for a couple of matches.

And, this is something De Jong does playing at any level. Internationally as well, he has had tackles which have been pretty ugly, but, Garber strictly says that’s not on, not in America for sure.