Houston Dynamo forward Dominic Oduro has been cleared to play in tomorrow night's SuperLiga semifinal match against Morelia after the SuperLiga Appeals Committee overturned his suspension as a result of a red card he received in the July 21 match against Puebla.
"It helps to have him back," head coach Dominic Kinnear said. "If you look at the squad we have, if Dominic was suspended we would only have two forwards going into this game available with Brian [Ching] and Cam [Weaver]."
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In the 90th minute of the match against Puebla, Guatemalan referee Oscar Reyna issued Oduro a yellow card for diving in the penalty box. Seconds later, Reyna issued Oduro a red card, ejecting him from the match. While the official match report listed Oduro with two yellow cards on the play, one for the dive and one for dissent on the play, Reyna told Dynamo players on the field that Oduro's first yellow came minutes earlier in a melee that resulted in the ejection of two Puebla players. In reality, Reyna had issued Dynamo defender Adrian Serioux a yellow card in the melee, not Oduro.
Although Dynamo captain Brian Ching campaigned to keep Oduro in the match, Reyna was insistent that he had made the correct decision and that Oduro had received two cards.
"We felt it was a just decision, and hopefully Dominic will have an important impact on the game tomorrow night," Kinnear said.
The decision is an important one for the Dynamo, who are already without Danny Cruz (red card) and Joseph Ngwenya (yellow card accumulation) for Thursday's match.
The SuperLiga Appeals Committee has representation from the Federacion Mexicana de Futbol, Major League Soccer, and a neutral federation in the region.
