The Union beat NYC FC 2-1 on Sunday night to reclaim 1st place in the Eastern Conference.

Crazy game. The final ten minutes featured a lame penalty for New York, a deflected game-winning Union goal, and a no-call on a second possible NY penalty. Prior to that, Union trainer Paul Rushing was red carded for shoving a City player while attending to an injured Julian Carranza:

I’ve never seen a trainer ejected ever, not just in soccer, but in any sport. I have never seen a football, basketball, baseball, or hockey medical person kicked out of a game for any reason.

In this case, Nicolas Acevedo comes over and does the universal “get up, you’re not injured” shirt grab/pull. Rushing pushes him off Carranza, then does a second push, the ref comes over to get involved, and then Valentin Castellanos shoves Rushing in retaliation. The whole thing goes to shit and then Rushing has to be bear hugged by big Norwegian defender Jakob Glesnes.

NYC fucked around but did not get to find out.

Believe it or not, this is actually the second “dust up” (shout out Jack Del Rio) that Rushing has been involved in this season. In both instances, I believe opposing players felt he and the Union dudes were milking injuries, which may or may not be true. I have no clue, and it doesn’t REALLY matter anyway, since time is added back on at the end of the game. If you want to accuse them of milking it to kill momentum, like a football player “cramping up” to slow a no-huddle offense, then so be it, but there’s no such thing as time wasting when you have a clock that runs upward in soccer.

Either way, it’s probably the second shove that got Rushing ejected. Push the guy away once, okay, but then the second one escalated the situation and here we are. Paul is a Union O.G. and has been here since 2010. He is covered in tattoos. He would likely kick these New York players’ asses. The red card saved Castellanos from a butt whipping:

Go Philly doop doop.