Miami forward Luis Suárez was out to cause some havoc on Sunday night.
Following the Seattle Sounders stunning 3-0 win over Inter Miami in the Leagues Cup final at Lumen Field that earned them their first Leagues Cup Trophy, Suárez sparked a near-three-minute long brawl between the two teams after the final whistle by grabbing elated Sounders midfielder Obed Vargas and putting him in a headlock.
Benches cleared as Seattle defender Yeimar Gómez Andrade tried to break up the fight.
As things started to calm down enough to bring out the stage for the trophy ceremony, Suárez was still clearly heated as a camera caught him in a fiery exchange with a Sounders staff member that led to him spitting at the man’s face.
Miami goalkeeper Oscar Ustari tried to step in between Suárez and the Sounders member before things escalated.
Following the initial Suárez blow, both teams tried to free and separate their respective teammates while shoving and yelling at one another.
Miami defender Maximiliano Falcón also held Seattle defender Cody Baker, who didn’t play in the game, in a headlock at one point.
“Unfortunately, that is going to take some of the attention away from a great performance by the Seattle Sounders,” Seattle coach Brian Schmetzer said after the game. “Their players were frustrated and that led to some things happening on the field that shouldn’t happen on the field.
“I’m going to shut that down, because that shouldn’t be the story. The story of the game is not what happened after the game. I had a quiet moment with Messi on the field [after the game] and we talked and we tried to push it aside. That’s the story.”
Per a Leagues Cup spokesperson, the “Leagues Cup Organizing Committee will review the incidents at the end of the game and proceed accordingly” and there is no exact timeline of how long the review will take.
“I’ll let the commissioner, I’ll let the people in charge deal with whatever happened at the end of the game,” Schmetzer said. “I don’t wanna discount the way our team played and kept their composure on the field during those 90 minutes. That again to me is the story.”
The game and brawl occurred in front of the biggest crowd at Lumen Field for the Sounders since the 2022 CONCACAF Champions League final, with an attendance of 69,314.
Suárez is no stranger to controversy. He notably appeared to bite Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
