Ianni discusses incident with Joseph

Patrick Ianni is as tough a soccer player as you'll ever find.

The 6-foot-1 wrecking ball has clashed heads with Conor Casey and come away unscathed, while Casey had to leave the game with a huge gash on his head. Ianni regularly matches up with the biggest, baddest players on the opposing team and never seems to come out worse for the wear.

So, it was a little surprising to see him falling to the ground in apparent agony after being slapped across the neck by New England's Shalrie Joseph, who himself fell to the ground after striking Ianni. Whether or not Joseph made strong contact, it's hard to believe Ianni was in as much pain as he seemed to indicate during the ensuing several-minute stoppage of play.

The whole incident -- which did not draw so much as a yellow card from referee Silviu Petrescu -- has left a bitter taste in the mouths of many who witnessed it. On one hand, you have two players who were obviously trying to sell their cases by embellishing the extent of their pain. On the other, you have a referee who appeared powerless to control the match. 

(Here's the link from the New England feed; and the link from the Seattle feed)

Facing the media for the first time since Saturday, Ianni was willing to talk about the altercation, but also seemed intent on putting it behind him.

"Every game there are mutliple altercations in the box and referees can more or less call a penalty on every corner kick if they wanted," Ianni said. "So it's a tough call for (Petrescu) to make and it's a part of the game."

Another part of the game, Ianni admitted, is the penchant for players to overreact to fouls. For his part, Ianni said his reaction was more borne out of surprise that no card was being issued than out of physical pain. 

"It's almost an embarrassing culture as far as soccer," Ianni said about the tendency to embellish. "But people have to understand that it's part of protecting yourself. My reaction was that I couldn't believe after getting hit in the face twice (Ianni said he had been punched in the face moments before the exchange with Joseph) that the referee was not going toward Joseph and was kind of standing there. I just couldn't believe it."

Ianni acknowledged his role in escalating the situation, coyly saying "I did touch his foot", but is now taking the view -- at least in public -- that Petrescu ultimately tried to do the right thing by keeping his cards in his pocket.

"You can say whatever you want about the referee, but I think he handled it well," Ianni said. "There are a million different things he could have done in that scenario and I think he was in a tough position. They always are. I don't think he made a terrible solution.

"I think he's got to base it off of what he saw and that's a tough thing. ... It was just a matter of him calling what he sees and not going off the embellishment."