Jermaine Jones Earns Red Card in MLS Playoffs After Assaulting Referee

The New England Revolution's MLS season came to an end on Wednesday evening when they suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of D.C. United in the playoffs. 

In the dying seconds of the knockout match, Revs midfielder Jermaine Jones received a pass in the box, and his subsequent touch hit the arm of a D.C. defender. The U.S. national team star immediately made a claim for a penalty and dashed towards referee Mark Geiger to make his case.

His aggressive complaint was met with a yellow card, at which point Jones channeled his inner Paolo Di Canio and laid hands on the official. Naturally, the 33-year-old was shown a red card, but he continued to shove Geiger.

In the post-match interviews, Jones apologised but insisted the referee made the wrong call, via Craig Forde of MLSSoccer.com:

"

I think everybody who came today could see it, it was 100-percent a penalty. My passion then after maybe went a little bit high, but I think it's normal. It's only two minutes to go, and then you're out. For what happened after, I would say I'm sorry, maybe because I play with the national team it cannot happen, but it happened. People who know me, they know that I'm not a good loser. In that moment I was really upset.

"

Since MLS referees are able to talk to the press after games, Forde notes that Geiger stood by his decision, claiming it was a case of "ball to hand."

MLS analyst Alexi Lalas expects that Jones will earn a ban for his hot-headed outburst, should he still be involved in the league next season.