"Stahl is already playing through Freddie, his leading leg is through Freddie's legs from behind, by the time Myrie's behind the ball slide comes in, by the time Myrie's behind the ball slide comes in." I can agree with that but if you watch the clip it looks like Stahl's leading leg goes through the lower leg of Freddie not into his back or even his tailbone. It looks more to me like the back injury was due to an elbow in the back not because of a knee. Either way you're right they were both clumsy, out of position and disorganized. The whole backline played that way all night.

You know what's sad? He'd probably still be better in the middle than Mwanga was.

Yes I'm a Union fan. No I didn't appreciate our thuggish play. You can see multiple angles of the tackle in the following video: http://www.soundersfc.com/media-library/Videos/Features/2010/03-March/100325-vs-Union.aspx?svt=0 After the 3:00 minute mark or so (the SoundersFC video doesn't display time markers so I can't give you an exact time). You will see the first angle that Ives shows and a shot from the opposite angle. After looking at that I do not believe Stahl ever got a knee into Freddie's back. His knee doesn't even appear to get his tailbone in the second shot. Now it does look like Freddie might have taken an elbow but that looks like it is more a result of Stahl being out of control because of Myrie's terrible challenge. From what I can see Myrie's challenge takes out Stahl who then hits Freddie. Oh yeah and it looks like he is already going down from minimal to no contact. You can also watch Myrie's flying tackle in there...I cringed when I saw that and was hoping he'd be cut. Now I can rejoice that he was. All in all I think Llungberg and Montero are two of the bigger divers in the league but at the same time they are two of the more exciting players. I'd prefer these guys not be diving but I can understand why they do in MLS. Guys get murdered out there the answer isn't to not punish the diving it's to punish the reckless tackles etc more harshly and punish the diving. Oh yeah to those of you who don't think that a fall can cause spinal trauma, the Mayo Clinic would tend to disagree with you. I'm not saying the fall caused the swelling etc because again to me it looks like he might have gotten an elbow in that mess that was the attempted tackle but it is possible. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/spinal-cord-injury/DS00460/DSECTION=causes