In just under two weeks the National Women's Soccer League's playoffs will begin. When it does, two stars will be missing.
On Monday, the NWSL Disciplinary Committee announced that it issued a three-match suspension to Chicago Red Stars forward Ludmila and a two-match suspension to Washington Spirit forward Rosemonde Kouassi.
The decision was made following an incident in the 69th minute of a match between the two teams on October 20. Both Ludmila and Kouassi received red cards.
Those red cards resulted in automatic one-match suspensions. But after a further review of the incident, the Disciplinary Committee found the conduct of both players to violate Section 12.4.10, “Major Game Misconduct”, of the NWSL's Operations Manual.
Thus, for their respective conduct, Ludmila was handed an additional two-match suspension (three total) and Kouassi was handed an additional one-match suspension (two total).
Both the Red Stars and the Spirit have qualified for the NWSL playoffs, which means both players will serve at least some of the suspension in the postseason.
Ludmila will serve her three-match suspension during Chicago’s final regular season match against Kansas City on Sunday, Nov. 3, and the club’s quarterfinal match taking place the weekend of Nov. 8-10.
Should Chicago fail to advance to the semifinal round of the 2024 NWSL playoffs, Ludmila will serve her final suspension during the first Red Stars match of the 2025 NWSL regular season.
Kouassi will serve her two-match suspension during the Spirit’s final regular season match against North Carolina on Saturday, Nov. 2, and the team’s quarterfinal match on Nov. 10.
Both disciplinary decisions were appealed by the players and upheld by the NWSL Review Committee.
The Professional Referees Organization published its VAR review of the incident from last week. In the video, you hear the referees call for a review of the play after visible "striking" and a highlight of the offense of a pull of the hair. Striking and pulling of the hair both fall under "violent conduct" in the referee's manual.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ludmila, Rosemonde Kouassi to Serve Suspensions Into NWSL Playoffs.
