Galaxy’s Bruce Arena blames ‘hysteria’ for Nigel de Jong ban

Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena on Wednesday ruled Nigel de Jong out of Friday’s game in Houston, saying he’s been told the physical midfielder will be suspended for a reckless tackle on Portland’s Darlington Nagbe in Sunday’s game at the StubHub Center.

Arena didn’t know how long De Jong would be suspended, but he made clear he thinks the decision to punish De Jong stems more from the player’s reputation and media hype over the play than from the tackle itself.

“I think it’s hysteria,” Arena said. “If that was any other player in that tackle, it would not have received the hysteria that it has. I think the press and others have failed miserably in reporting the incident and what actually happened.”

De Jong, who broke two opponents’ legs with hard tackles during a seven-month stretch in 2010, leveled Nagbe with a studs-up challenge late in the Galaxy’s 1-1 draw with Portland. Referee Allen Chapman gave De Jong a yellow card and although Nagbe was stretchered off the field, then needed a wheelchair to get to the locker room, he sustained only a sprained ankle.

Arena said that made things look worse than they really were.

“The ankle injury was there before the game,” he said. “He had an injured ankle coming into the game. He went down 10 minutes before that. Then obviously all the hysteria was there. If it’s another player, it’s not as publicized.

“We don’t condone the tackle, it was a mistimed tackle, it was not a vicious tackle.”

But former U.S. international Stuart Holden, one of the players who had a leg broken by De Jong, was in the Fox broadcast booth Sunday and he was critical of the play both during and after the game.

“I’m sitting here and now I’m seeing this challenge first hand on Darlington Nagbe, and it makes me feel sick,” he said.

“There is absolutely no excuse for that type of challenge,” he added. “We don’t need it in the game. It’s horrific. It’s horrible. And he’s going to get retroactive punishment.”

Sunday night and Monday morning, social media lit up with calls for De Jong’s suspension -- or worse.

“Hysteria is the fault of social media. It’s the fault of people in MLS and in the offices that do that and feed the whole thing. And the journalism,” Arena said. “No one’s actually interviewed the player, anything like that. It’s been blown out of proportion but rightfully so because of how everyone wanted to make this player into a villain.

“And obviously with the incidents he’s had previously it invites that.”