Part of a manager’s responsibility in soccer is to prepare for the myriad scenarios that can confront a team during the course of a match, including man-down situations.
New York City FC manager Ronny Deila must have thought to himself, ‘Do I have to deal with this two minutes into my first MLS match?’
Defender Maxime Chanot was shown red by referee Ramy Rouchon for denying Lucas Zelarayan’s goal-scoring opportunity, which forced the Pigeons to play for 88 minutes with 10 men in their 1-0 loss to Columbus Crew SC.
It was the quickest red card in an MLS season opener and the third-fastest in league history.