Music: {allcanada} WHITECAPS' HARRIS RECEIVES ONE-GAME SUSPENSION

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

{allcanada} WHITECAPS' HARRIS RECEIVES ONE-GAME SUSPENSION

VANCOUVER -- Vancouver Whitecaps striker Atiba Harris received a one-game suspension Tuesday for elbowing a Philadelphia Union player in the head last weekend.

Harris delivered a late elbow on Union defender Carlos Valdes in the 65th minute of Saturday's 0-0 draw in Philadelphia. Valdes had booted the ball into the Vancouver half of the pitch from near midfield before Harris gave him a blind-side hit.

The Whitecaps striker received a yellow card for the infraction and remained in the game. In a release, Major League Soccer described the incident as violent conduct.

Valdes was the same player that injured Harris in a game between Vancouver and Philadelphia last season.

Harris, a 27-year-old St. Kitts and Nevis product who is in his seventh MLS season, was playing his first game in almost a year after recuperating from a torn knee ligament that required two surgical procedures.

His knee troubles began last season in Philadelphia on a hard tackle by Valdes in Vancouver's second-ever MLS regular-season game. Although Harris returned to play the next contest, he was limited to five on the season before bowing out in April.

However, Harris denied after Saturday's game that the elbow on Valdes was retribution for the knee injury.

Meanwhile, MLS suspended two other players and fined another for their actions in a game between FC Dallas and D.C. United on Saturday. Dallas defender Jair Benitez was suspended one game and fined an undisclosed amount for endangering the safety of D.C. midfielder Danny Cruz in the 71st minute.

As both players were battling for a ball near the corner flag, Benitez had his back to Cruz and elbowed him in the nose. Cruz, who yelled and fell backward and then lay on the turf, was fined an undisclosed among for an "act of embellishment which brought the game into disrepute."

D.C. defender Brandon McDonald also received a one-game suspension for a separate incident earlier in the same game. McDonald was also fined for his actions on the play in the 20th minute, when he tripped Dallas forward Blas Perez with a hard sliding tackle. The league categorized the play as a reckless challenge.

The suspensions come after MLS pledged at the outset of the season to get tough on violent conduct in 2012.