Sounders FC's Fredy Montero taking on role of fan

TUKWILA — Fredy Montero has watched the tape, thought it over and come to accept his penalty, a one-game suspension for being shown a red card in Saturday's Sounders FC-Chicago Fire game.

"For now I'm a fan," Montero said in Spanish after practice Wednesday. "I can't take part with the other players, so we all suffer the same. I'm taking the perspective that the team will win and play well, and I'll be like a fan."

Montero, Sounders FC's leading scorer despite not having found the net since the second game of the season, won't play in Sunday's Seattle-Los Angeles Galaxy match at Qwest Field. It will be his second game missed in 2009. Sounders FC won its only other game without Montero, on April 4 at Toronto FC.

Against Chicago, Montero was sent off in the 48th minute for what the referee ruled as an elbow to the head of the Fire's Gonzalo Segares. Montero said he was so incredulous that the call was made that he chuckled after the whistle. He was ejected and, by rule, must miss the team's next game.

"I feel the referee hurried [making the call]," Montero said. "My intention was never to laugh at it, and really, he [Segares] didn't have a mark on his face where the referee said I hit him. But that's part of soccer. It got me this time. The player did a good acting job and I feel, too, that it was a little exaggerated, but well, he made the call."

Montero had never received a red card in his career. He said he's not an overly aggressive player and laughed about having caused such ejections for opposing players.

Sounders FC coach Sigi Schmid said he couldn't really appeal the call, as Montero did have his arm up toward Segares' head. Schmid questioned whether an elbow was thrown, but of bigger concern to him is the way players embellish and overdramatize fouls to draw cautions or red cards.

"It's really hard as a coach to tell your players not to do it, because if they see a player gain an advantage by doing it on the opposing team, then when it happens to one of your players obviously he feels he's not helping his team unless he does the same thing," Schmid said.

Schmid suggested a penalty for embellishing as a possible rule change.

"I'm not trying to pick on Segares, or anything like that," Schmid said. "What I'm saying is in the world of football [soccer] nowadays, I think players take a little knock ... when they roll over they're not hurt. I think if you're a professional and you're out there on the field, you want to play within the spirit of the game."

That spirit includes players asking themselves if they really want to get another player fined or suspended through overdramatizing, Schmid said.

José Miguel Romero: 206-464-2409 or jromero@seattletimes.com