https://t.co/HYy6eSQji0 Nigel De Jong swears he was me playing pickup soccer this morning https://t.co/YHYYyRSJts — Max Burman (@maxburman93) April 11, 2016

Referee Allen Chapman blew his whistle. And then he blew the call.

Instead of sending de Jong to the showers, Chapman showed a yellow card.

Nagbe was stretchered off. De Jong stayed on.

De Jong’s studs-up challenge into Nagbe’s ankle was barbarous. No one should be surprised. De Jong arrived in MLS with a masters in the dark arts, a player who has shattered legs and, in the 2010 World Cup final, drove his foot into Xabi Alonso’s chest. Like Chapman, England’s Howard Webb failed to toss de Jong from the match.

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Are we judging de Jong more harshly than most other players because of past incidents? You bet we are. He made his reputation. Now he has to live with it.

“It was never my intention to foul him,” De Jong told the Galaxy’s house organ.

Intent doesn’t matter. He did it. For all to see. Except Chapman, apparently.

The MLS disciplinary committee will review the incident and, in all likelihood, suspend de Jong for multiple matches.

There was no immediate word on the extent of Nagbe’s injury. He could not put weight on his left ankle and had to be rolled into the locker room in a wheelchair.

Fox Sports 1 carried Sunday night’s match at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. The on-air crew included Stuart Holden, who, four months before the 2010 World Cup, learned first hand what “The Lawnmower” could do to an opponent: a fractured leg and knee damage during a friendly between the United States and Netherlands in Amsterdam.

Holden said that, before Sunday’s game, he and de Jong had their longest conversation about their incident. De Jong apologized. Holden accepted. But after witnessing the Nagbe play, the retired midfielder said during the postgame show that the latest tackle “makes me feel sick because I know what Darlington Nagbe is going through.”

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Holden went on to say: “De Jong did go over and apologize, but there is absolutely no excuse for that type of challenge. We don’t need it in the game. It’s horrific. It’s horrible. And he’s going to get retroactive punishment.”

Galaxy attacker Mike Magee was on the Fox set for the postgame session. Without tossing his teammate under the bus, the classy MLS veteran said, “Any time you see someone get hit studs-up, you’re not happy about it. It’s my teammate, so I would love to defend him, but the game could do without those types of tackles.”

Chapman’s indecision will not cost him — not right away, anyway. As part of the collective bargaining agreement between the referees and Walton’s group, the Professional Referee Organization, match assignments are issued four weeks in advance. All officiating performances are reviewed and rated, with the results factoring into long-term assignments.

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Speaking on the increased number of straight red cards this year, Walton said Thursday that dangerous challenges are a point of emphasis.

“The referees are applying the law as it was written,” he said. “Looking at the challenges, that’s one of the reasons why red cards are increasing because our referees are detecting and punishing those type of challenges.

“Over a period of time, players and coaches will modify their behavior so they are in sync with the laws of the game. What we’ll see, I think, is a leveling off of discipline in matches, and in fact a change in the way and the style that we see MLS being played in.”