I'm not going to pretend that I perfectly saw the initial altercation, because I didn't - play had gone on, and my eyes had followed it. But out of the corner of my eye, it did look like El-Abd (who was on the floor having defended against Rickie) started grabbing Rickie's leg. For this, El-Abd should have been booked (as I've said on the Andy Durso thread). But rather than just let it go (by this time, the altercation had completely caught my eye), Rickie decided to stick his hand in El-Abd's face (which was roughly level with Rickie's waist ). That's a red card, that's a three match ban.