New York Red Bull suffered their fourth defeat in eight matches on Wednesday night and it came at the expense of Brazilian midfielder Juninho.
The former Lyon and Vasco da Gama ace was given his marching orders late in the 1-0 loss to Sporting Kansas City for petulantly kicking the ball at goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen after he appeared to waste time.
Juninho said he was disappointed by the red card but said he was only trying to quicken up the game as the Red Bulls chased an equaliser.
"I knew when the goalkeeper fell on the ground and the referee rushed over that I probably would get a card. I'm not happy about the card and it's an unfortunate event, but it's part of the game," said Juninho.
"I'm not happy about it and I don't know how many games I'm going to get as far as a suspension goes, and it's not a good feeling. But it's not my first card, and I hope it's the last one.
"I think the refs have been a little tougher on her players with names, just trying to impose themselves. The goalkeeper was delaying the game a lot, I tried to rush him a little bit. I felt the goalkeeper also exaggerated a lot in his reaction. It didn't hit near the face.
"The message was to speed up the game. I agree maybe I shouldn't have done it the way I handled it. But the message was to express that the ball is there, and he kept delaying. Every time the ball would go towards him, he would let it go by and go fetch another ball. It was just a little frustrating, and I lost my head."
