In their first public comments, Minnesota United's coach and two players said Tuesday that they believe a Loons player who denies allegations he directed a racial slur at Timbers star Diego Chara on Saturday in Portland, Ore., but will wait for Major League Soccer investigation's completion.
Loons coach Adrian Heath spoke briefly on the matter after the team held a training session Tuesday in Blaine.
"A couple things really important to say: The record of this club since I've been here for inclusivity and diversity has been first class," said Heath. "It's something we don't take lightly. We spoke to the player. The player vehemently denies he said anything, so we will believe what the player tells us and obviously there's an investigation going on. We're cooperating 100 percent with everything that we know and that has been said."
Timbers coach Giovanni Savarese started his postgame media conference Saturday after the Loons' 1-0 victory with an emotional, nearly two-minute address on what he termed a "racist situation, a racial discriminatory word" that he called "not acceptable." He didn't name the Loons player or the word or phrase used.
Major League Soccer opened an investigation Sunday morning.
Loons veteran midfielder Wil Trapp was in the middle of a three-minute game delay starting in the 63rd minute, soon after an incident that involved Chara and new Loons midfielder Franco Fragapane.
Chara kicked toward and collided with Fragapane from behind while Fragapane used his chest to control a ball and knocked Chara to the turf.
Chara, Timbers captain Diego Valeri, Trapp, Loons captain Michael Boxall and referee Rosendo Mendoza conferred on the field. Savarese later criticized Mendoza for taking no action and not handling the situation better.