De Rosario suspended for first two games of MLS season

D.C. United will be forced to begin the MLS season without its Canadian star. The league announced Friday — and this was expected — that Dwayne De Rosario has been suspended for the first two games of the regular season. The suspension will include this weekend’s season opener, which sees DCU travel to Houston to face the Dynamo, the team which De Rosario led to a pair of MLS Cup victories Last weekend, on the final day of the preseason Walt Disney World Pro Soccer Classic, De Rosario head butted Philadelphia’s Danny Cruz and was sent off. MLS has become more proactive about punishing players for violent conduct committed in preseason friendlies — and the league launched an investigation. Because the game wasn’t televised or streamed, the league needed time to put together exactly what had happened through eyewitness accounts, etc. In the 2011 preseason, MLS had a situation on its hands when a preseason match between Real Salt Lake and Sporting Kansas City was halted because of a brawl. But the league didn’t hand down any further discipline because the game wasn’t televised, and all that fans had to go on were the tweets of the players. In 2010, the league issued a strong warning over what it felt was exceptionally dirty play in preseason games, after a red-card filled match between FC Dallas and Philadelphia, and the fact that Toronto FC was racking up red cards in the friendlies. RELATED: MLS needs to step in and stop preseason ugliness (CLICK)