Red cards were in the stands (and should have been on the pitch) at Bell Pitch in Downtown Vancouver on Saturday.

It was the first Independent Supporters Council action held at BC Place – Show Racism (and Homophobia) the Red Card! - To commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. As mentioned in Fridays post, the Southsiders included Homophobia in this action, which was even more poignant given the Colin Clark incident from the night before.

The Southsiders cut out a couple hundred red cards for fans to hold up between the anthems and the kick-off. My dad — always a good sport — even came prepared with his own cards cut out of construction paper that he had made at home — what a keener. The club made a special announcement over the PA explaining the action which got a resounding hand from both teams on the pitch.

Earlier in the week, the team showed their support for the cause. Photo credit: Chris Vosie (Photo courtesy of Chris Vosie and the Southsiders forum)

The game was heated with multiple shady tackles, terrible calls and a near full line brawl complete with pushing, shoving and what looked like an errant swing (and miss) by a DC player resulting in only a Yellow to Hassli.  Thousands of fans in the stadium were offering the Ref, Kevin Stott, red cards from their pockets to show to McDonald for the swing at Hassli – it made for quite the spectacle. MLS is going to need to solve their reffing issue if the league wants to be taken seriously.

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