Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk dropped Nigel De Jong for two games due to his latest dirty tackle. This weekend while playing for Manchester City in a game against Newcastle United, De Jong went in way to hard on a tackle and broke Hatem Ben Arfa‘s leg. This is the second hard challenge that he has committed recently and gotten away with.  The first was in the final against Spain where he karate kicked Xabi Alonso in the chest and got away with only a yellow card.

This time he goes in, breaks a player’s leg and doesn’t even get a foul called. But Van Marwijk made up for the refs mistake.

I believe this is a great choice by the coach for a few reasons. One is, if De Jong keeps doing this, he is going to get suspended for a very long time and that wont help his club. Second is, suspending a player sends a message to all players that this kind of behavior is unacceptable.

I can appreciate a bone crunching tackle as much as the next guy. But tackles that break a players leg, there is no place for that.

The fact of the matter is players need to get sent a message. By suspending De Jong, Van Marwijk is really looking out for all players. So before people start complaining about him suspending one of his best players, let us just think of what might happen if he didn’t.

If you want to read more about the suspension or the game go to http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=829975&sec=euro2012&cc=5901