Houston Dynamo forward Brian Ching was fined $500 for a critical message he sent via Twitter during the Dynamo's 2-1 loss to the Seattle Sounders. This message reached an audience of about 1,800 of his Twitter followers: "Ref in Seattle just cheated the dynamo. What a joke. Not even close. Ref is a cheat."
Ching referred to a questionable goal that referee Mark Geiger upheld for the Sounders. "Being a professional soccer player, especially in MLS, when you comment on the ref, as soon as I sent it, I knew there was a strong possibility that I'd get fined," Ching said via phone from Philadelphia, where he is with the U.S. team ahead of Saturday's Gold Cup semifinal against Panama and from he he watched the Seattle-Houston game on TV.
"I accept responsibility," Ching said. "I was watching the game as a fan, but because of my status on the team, I'm more than just a fan, and I realize that. I apologized the next day. I didn't even know who the referee was. The call upset me at the time. I made a mistake in writing something before I thought things through."