CARSON, Calif. – Feeling disappointed in his actions, Chivas USA midfielder Tristan Bowen reached out to Colorado Rapids defender Chris Klute following last weekend’s spitting incident that resulted in Bowen’s ejection from a 1-1 draw at the StubHub Center.
Replays showed Bowen spitting toward Klute near the sideline shortly after Goats forward Erick "Cubo" Torres was tackled without a whistle. Bowen was sent off immediately, leaving the Goats down a man for the final 27 minutes. Colorado evened the score with 10 minutes remaining.
“I haven’t heard back from him,” Bowen told MLSsoccer.com on Thursday. “Obviously, it’s one of those situations where it’s up to him whether he wants to accept my apology or not. I understand if he doesn’t and hope he can find it in his heart to do so.”
It was Chivas USA’s second red card of the match and fifth in the last five games, a trend that spurred head coach José Luis “Guero” Real to weigh further disciplinary action against future offenders.
“Whatever the coach decides, we’re going to have to go through with it,” said midfielder Gabriel Farfan, who was ejected in the 33rd minute Sunday for a late challenge. “It’s a little bit of everything. Obviously there’s a bit of frustration. Our team has done pretty well with dealing with the games being down a man, but we need to figure out what the problem is and take care of that. We can’t get tangled in certain situations.”
Bowen explained that the flurry of red cards might be a product of a season’s worth of frustration.
“We’ve been scrapping for everything and we need to have some grit on the field,” Bowen said. “In the last couple of games, we went down to 10 men, so it requires a bit more effort. I was looking to be a leader on the field and, unfortunately, I did something that was really stupid and left my team in the trenches."
