Practice Ends in Aggression Towards Journalist

By: Ivan | June 27th, 2007

Apparently, a journalist from La Opinion was shoved and insulted by the CDCUSA pitch caretaker/manager (sorry, I’m not sure of the correct term) for taking pictures of Freddy Thompson’s closed practice in an adjacent field. According to CDCUSA rules, this is prohibited unless specifically allowed by the club.

Enjoy some PG-14 potty mouth quotes..
Esparza, angry cdcusa employee

“Son of a b..you gotta leave or I’ll kick you out with my bare hands”, the CDCUSA employee yelled.

“I don’t care if you’re a journalist, take your sh-..from here. I don’t want to see you again”, he repeated as he proceeded to shove him various times, this prompted Zak Abdel’s (goal keeper coach) intervention to try and calm down Esparza.”

Echeverria, roughed up journalist

“I was only trying to take a pictue from a near by field becase the club rules don’t allow us to get closer. Either way, Freddy doesn’t even have a contract with the club and he’s only trying out, this is why I don’t understand Esparza’s attitude, which at no point did he speak to me in a pleasant tone”, said Echeverria.

Oh, it gets better as CDCUSA’s spokes person goes into spin control.

“Esparza was only trying to do his job as he didn’t know Echeverria was a journalist and as he understood Echeverria was evading the workspace of the club. Plus, we understand there was no assault, just insults and shoving”

Esparza’s reaction is just way off base in my opinion. Couldn’t he have reported Echeverria to whoever handles press access? Your thoughts?