Why MLS must discipline Galaxy for viral tweet that mocked Timbers' Diego Chara

The Los Angeles Galaxy fell to 0-2 for the new Major League Soccer season on Sunday, losing 1-0 at home to the resurgent Portland Timbers.

The Galaxy felt aggrieved about defender Jelle Van Damme’s first-half red card, arguing that both of his yellow cards were for fouls that weren’t really fouls. It believed the first, in particular, was suspect. The Galaxy thought that Timbers holding midfielder Diego Chara dove on Van Damme’s challenge.

And so the Galaxy created a tweet.

It was a funny tweet. And it went viral, racking up more than 32,000 retweets and 47,000 likes.

The Timbers weren’t mad. They gave it right back to the Galaxy.

Club owner Merritt Paulson, an avid tweeter, even gave the Galaxy’s social team credit.

However, SI.com’s Grant Wahl reported that MLS headquarters in New York was less amused and would be taking some kind of unspecified action, or at least give a warning or admonishment of some sort.

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In fairness, MLS is sort of in a tough spot here. Anything MLS that goes viral is hugely valuable and worth its weight in gold in our times. Even more so to a league that is growing steadily in its following and cultural footprint but doesn’t break into the mainstream conversation very often. Especially not early in the season, and rarely for something other than a splashy player signing or a new team’s debut.

Then again, what the tweet and video ultimately amounted to was a team criticizing a decision by referee Baldomero Toledo by mocking an opponent. After all, if Chara is booked for diving, or Toledo doesn’t blow his whistle at all, the tweet probably never happens. MLS has come down hard on coaches who have publicly called out refs. So when a team’s official social media account does it, it would look weird if the league just let it slide.

Yet cracking down on tweets looks sort of petty as well, and it will inevitably put a crimp in future social media posts by teams. This will hamstring one of the league’s strengths: its nimble marketing, which helps MLS reach the young audience it has done a good job of attracting.

It was a good tweet. But if MLS left it alone, it would also have to rethink how it handles all other dissent of refereeing – an area in which the league makes enormous investments. And that doesn’t seem like something the league is willing to do.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.