Luke Moore Suspended for "Dangerous" Tackle against Real Salt Lake

Even with Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore returning from international duty, Toronto FC will still be undermanned Saturday when they take on the Chicago Fire. Earlier today it was announced that Luke Moore has been suspended one game by the league for a tackle in the first half against Real Salt Lake in Toronto's 2-1 loss on Sunday.

Moore will join the list of reds who do not look like they will be available to play with weekend. It appears that Toronto's centreback position could still be precarious going into the weekend as well, with Damien Perquis and Steven Caldwell still likely to be would with injury. 

The English striker was suspended for this tackle on Sebastian Jaime 20 minutes into the match. At this time it was given a yellow card but upon review was considered to be dangerous by the league and thus Moore was suspended.

Reviewing the tackle, it was certainly behind and most definitely in desperation to stop a counterattack from RSL. Moore was obviously frustrated with himself for having given the ball away in such a bad position. Both of these factors led to the tackle, which is fairness was very deserving of a yellow card.

The suspension that followed is a bit surprising, but not ridiculous. If looked at the right way the intention and positioning of the tackle could certainly fall within the aforementioned suspension criteria. It was dangerous, and could well have resulted in an injury for Jaime.

The good news for Toronto is that they will in fact have Bradley and Altidore back in the lineup. The same is expected for Mark Bloom and Eriq Zavaleta. It will be nice to have the latter as an option in the centre of defense while Bloom has long been needed at the fullback position. 

Toronto also has another byweek after the Chicago match, which ought to give some of their players enough time to return to fitness.