A scuffle in today's match pitting Real Salt Lake against their 2013 rivals de jour, Portland Timbers, escalated midway through the first half when two players were sent off and another was shown a yellow card.
RSL's Yura Movsisyan and Portland's Jack McInerney were both sent to their repsective benches after engaging in the clash, but a quick look at the video shows escalation all around.
McInerney was the most obvious offender, of course, as he put Sunny into a headlock — this prompted the ire of several RSL players, particularly Kyle Beckerman. Movsisyan's offense was retaliation, it appears, although the video starts just after he comes up and pushes Taylor from behind following two bad tackles from the defender.
This being preseason — and a mid-day streamed scrimmage, at that — the referee opted to show no red cards, instead sending both chief offenders (if that's true, at least) to their respective benches with replacements allowed. Devon Sandoval replaced Movsisyan.