David Beckham Suspended For Actions In Match Against San Jose

David Beckham took in last night's match from the AEG luxury box with Frank Lampard, as Beckham served a one match suspension for yellow card accumulation. He'll have to watch one more match in street clothes after the MLS disciplinary committee handed down an additional one match suspension for Beckham's actions against the San Jose Earthquakes last Saturday.

In the release, MLS calls Beckham's actions confrontational and provocative, which seems to suggest the suspension was for the post match dustup and handbagging with the Quakes mascot and not for the ball he kicked at a referee and time wasting Sam Cronin. In fact, the MLSsoccer.com story clearly says the suspension is for the actions that let to the scuffle.

MLS is categorizing Beckham's on target kick at Sam Cronin as incendiary, while Brek Shea or Mike Magee were seen as actions worth punishing for the act alone. Is this a double standard? Clearly there is a line that MLS has drawn between Beckham's incident and similar incidents, though we don't know what that is. In handing down the Brek Shea ruling, the suspension was for deliberately kicking the ball at a referee.

Galaxy coach Bruce Arena was also fined an undisclosed amount for public criticism of the match officials.