The Sounders striker has put US Soccer in an awkward position, where it needs to balance discipline with the interests of the game in America

So how does US Soccer deal with Hope Solo Clint Dempsey?

Just a few hours after the US women’s team and their controversy-dogged but apparently indispensable goalkeeper had secured their passage into the knockout stages of the World Cup, the US men’s team captain was tearing up a referee’s notebook, stalking off the field, sarcastically applauding an inch from the face of the assistant referee as he did so, and spitting in a manner that, to the neutral at least, looked distinctly editorial.

Not that there were many neutrals at Seattle’s Starfire Sports Complex – the intimate venue that has been the cornerstone of the campaigns that have brought Seattle Sounders four US Open Cups in five years. Seattle were playing, and losing to, rivals Portland Timbers in the fourth round of the competition. The Sounders were already down to nine men after a red card to Brad Evans and an injury to Obafemi Martins, and Dempsey’s protests at another red card to team-mate Michael Azira ensured that Azira at least had some company on the way back to the locker room.

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The Sounders bizarrely resumed the game playing a 3-3-0 formation, to the glee of the visiting Portland fans, and ire anger of the Seattle supporters, who appeared to feed off Dempsey’s disgust.

Yet regardless of the merits of the decisions that caused Dempsey to explode – and even before his dismissal referee Daniel Radford had already probably done enough to ensure that the police escort he received off the field was coming anyway – the player’s actions didn’t leave any room for leniency.

The red card means Dempsey will be automatically suspended by the US Soccer Federation for Seattle’s next Open Cup game in 2016, but given the aggravating circumstances – his actions appear to constitute an assault under the federation’s own rulebook – Dempsey could face as much as a three-month ban from the national team, ruling him out of the forthcoming Gold Cup.

And unfortunately for US Soccer it’s happened right at the moment the federation is under extreme scrutiny for its handling of Solo’s off-field incidents.

Critics will now focus on whether there appears to be any suggestion that Dempsey, through his stature in the US national team, benefits from any of the leniency that they say has characterized US Soccer’s handling of the Solo case.

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The comparison is fair not because of the nature of the “crime” – wholly unsavory as Dempsey’s behavior was, it’s as distinct in its nature from Solo’s alleged assault on her nephew, or for that matter the Ray Rice incident that’s unhelpfully been brought into the conversation, as to make any direct comparison less than useful.

What is relevant is the perception of a two-tier system within US Soccer, where certain players are treated differently because of their importance to the national team. Solo is one. And Dempsey is a very particular symbolic example – his “homecoming” from Tottenham to Seattle in 2013, started a wave of such reverse migrations from Europe by top US players to MLS, in the months leading up to the World Cup.

It may have displeased Jürgen Klinsmann from a competitive standpoint, but for MLS and an increasingly bullish class of owners, Dempsey represented the elite domestic exemplar of the “league of choice” rhetoric they began to use at that time. His presence conferred legitimacy on the next phase of the MLS development plan to follow up its burst of expansion and stadium infrastructure with a credible competitive product on the field.

And thus far, Dempsey has held up his end of the bargain. In tandem with Martins, Dempsey has been part of the most formidable strike force in the league and a consistent entertainer. As Bruce Arena once infamously said of the Texan, “He tries shit.”

He also causes it apparently, and the latest example has put US Soccer in an awkward position as it tries to balance how to deal with a player in a manner consistent with its own rules, while also dealing with a national team coach who needs a successful Gold Cup campaign to ensure Confederations Cup qualification for 2017 and the optimal path to World Cup 2018.

And while the latter factor should not be a factor in assessing Dempsey’s punishment, nobody following the US game is in any doubt about the trickle down influence of Klinsmann’s priorities, whether directly expressed or not. He’s been placed in too important a position not to appease on certain key issues. The question now is, is that the case for Dempsey too?

US Soccer said on Wednesday that they are “reviewing evidence” and plan on coming to a quick decision. MLS, for their part, will be relieved for the small mercy this didn’t happen in a league game, which would have compelled them to invoke their own internal disciplinary mechanisms. US Soccer could yet impose a sanction that affects league play, but the league itself will prefer the lesser evil of inheriting rather than adjudicating any such decision.

Of course had Dempsey made a smarter decision on the field the conversation would not be happening at all, or would at least be postponed until the next time a top US player tested the federation’s tolerance, or indeed, its indulgence. But a decision has to be made, and if and when Dempsey receives his punishment, don’t be surprised if the Seattle Sounders star inherits a judicial climate affected by the antics of the goalkeeper for the Seattle Reign.