Video: Carlos Ruiz Gets Kicked In The Head, Except He Doesn't

Filed in archive US Soccer on October 2, 2007

This is from Houston's 2-0 win over Dallas in the weekend's Texas derby in MLS. Houston's Ricardo Clark (who's usually seems like a very calm, very nice guy and a solid defensive midfielder) kicks Carlos Ruiz (who's annoying, always making niggly annoying little fouls, talking smack, and playacting - of which more later) hard in the ribs while he's down on the floor.

Not cool. But equally not cool is that Ruiz acted as though he'd been kicked in the face and put on a bit of impromptu theater, possible a one man show entitled "I've definitely been kicked in the face, and not the ribs." Clark was sent off of course, because you can't kick people, not even in the ribs. A fact which makes Ruiz playacting even more ridiculous because it was so unnecessary.

Ruiz was also sent off, after the linesmen informed the ref of exactly what provoked Clark's pretty vicious reaction. It's hard to tell from the video but apparently Ruiz kneed Clark in the back during their initial entanglement.

MLS is missing some quality villains, who are always good entertainment value. A lot of people hate Landon Donovan for example, but not in an entertaining way. He's mostly just a disappointment for not making the most of his talents and is perceived as a big wuss who took his teddy bear to Bayer Leverkusen for company. Carlos Ruiz seems like a more deserving MLS hate figure. Someone you can really enjoy booing. If you can see a man take a really hard kick to body and still feel no sympathy, then that's a man worth booing.