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Solo v. Wambach - This Time, It's Also Personal
Posted 04 May 2009 at 12:28 AM by Dan Loney
Updated 04 May 2009 at 02:48 PM by Dan Loney (Daniela foul was technically on the ball, it was just off camera)
Updated 04 May 2009 at 02:48 PM by Dan Loney (Daniela foul was technically on the ball, it was just off camera)
Tags hatfields 3 mccoys 3
They had me going there for a minute. The grudge match today between Washington and Man Is It Going To Get Old Having To Type The Entire Word Each Time Louis Athletica? Better than we had any right to expect, considering the visiting team hadn't - you know, that thing where the little ball thing goes into that net contraption on the side there. But then it started raining*, then the action went back and forth, villains became heroes and vice versa - I thought that was all real, I really did.
Then Rogondino skipped ahead in the script, and called Washington's second goal the equalizer. A-HA! Proof! Proof, I tell you! These games are booked in advance, and have been for at least two weeks now!
Want MORE proof? Well, check out the WPS match report!
The fix is in! WPS is booking matches like Vince McMahon!
What, you thought Tiffeny Milbrett was really back? Yeah, and Hulk Hogan's a tougher fighter than Manny Pacquiao.
Still, if this was scripted? Excellent script.
My heart did sink when I saw that Jim Gabarra was once again giving the start to KJ Spisak and her 34.0453 GAA.** Yeah, we can (and WPS did) bill this as Solo v. Abby, but who among us didn't want to see Solo take on Scurry in the arena?
And then FSC, for what seemed like an eternity, absolutely refused to go negative. The 2007 contretemps*** wasn't even mentioned directly, so to the new viewer, the palpable tension hung in the air, as the saying goes, like a giant matzoh ball. Hildreth did bring up the double meaning of Solo falling back on punching if Wambach became too troublesome, Rogo laughed knowingly - and so did you, and so did I. But that lede was buried like Nikki and Paolo in "Lost," and I was distressed at the possibility that Abby and Hope might have, God forbid, gotten over it.
Well, in the words of Shakespeare's sister, ha.
Whatever Hope Solo said or did or mimed to get her defenders on board with the cause? Even if it was something like "By the way, Tina and Kia? If you would be so good as to plant the opposition's #20 like an Arbor Day tree, we'll be much more likely to win"? Good speech. I think Wambach opened hostilities, technically, with a little shove on Solo during an early save.
But once Daniela scored, in the words of Yoda, on it was.
For those of you who didn't see the game - and if you didn't, what is your problem? Seriously - after Daniela scores the game's first goal, not coincidentally the first goal in the A's history - after a scrum in the box where a great Spisak save was cleared out badly - in other words, a goal that wasn't going to win a beauty contest under any other circumstances - Daniela got the Saint Louis field players out to do a little samba celebration. On the road.
It was one of the most minor league stunts I can remember seeing. Where the hell did the A's get off choreographing a goal celebration this week? Only a brand new women's league could have seen that not followed up by a hailstorm of debris.
Anyway, thus fired up, the Freedom took control of the game - at least, up until Tina Ellertson and Kia McNeill took turns knocking over Wambach. Both of them apparently secure in the knowledge there would be no consequences. Thus defanged, Washington fell behind my more goals than Saint Louis had ever scored.
And let's be clear, the Freedom did not answer the bell, not until Ellertson was subbed out. (The WPS match report says she was subbed for cramping, making an incomprehensible sub merely disastrous.) There's going to be a lot of talk about gutsy comebacks around Germantown this week, and nowhere near enough talk about not digging the damn hole in the first place.
Yeah, Hope looked pretty bad on De Vanna's goal. But her team was still ahead, and she was in danger of getting over on Abby once again.**** So Wambach lined up Daniela, and took her out of the game, maybe out for several games.
Hildreth and Rogondino didn't see the play - they were reviewing the De Vanna goal from moments before - and only a secondary replay showed Wambach barrelling into Daniela with an ugly, ugly challenge. Abby earned an immediate yellow for that stunt, but Athletica didn't start a bench-clearing brawl in response, so one hopes and assumes it wasn't totally intentional. The Soccerplex crowd booed Daniela for diving, then recanted once she was stretchered off. Were there EVER boos in WUSA?
And then to end the story, once again in the 90th minute a Cat Whitehill kick 'n wish is botched by the opposing defense, and all was lost including honor.
And that's how you upstage Mia Hamm. Cynically, you couldn't have asked for a more perfect outcome. What was once a personal, and sort of embarrassing, dispute is now a blood feud between two clubs, one of which wasn't even conceived of when the original incident occurred. Saint Louis plays Washington in Edwardsville on June 20th, then the two teams meet in RFK(!) on the 18th. Stay tuned, sports fans, I don't think this one's over.
*This is probably a digression more suited for a later post, and for later read 12th of Never, but the game is just more fun to watch in the rain. When it comes to sunshine, there's a real limit when it just becomes too hot or enervating to have a good game. But no foul weather is too foul for soccer. Neither rain nor sleet nor dark of night. Maybe, just maybe, wind ruins a game, but wind + rain? Always awesome.
**Unofficial stat, but tell me I'm wrong.
***It only now just hit me - what do we call this? I mean, everyone who's been paying attention, and more than a few who haven't, just call it the Hope Solo thing, and everyone knows we're referring to Greg Ryan's benching of Solo, Solo's criticizing Scurry and Ryan, Solo's removal from the team, and Abby Wambach and Kristine Lilly forcefully coming to Ryan's defense. But shouldn't it have a name? A proper name, like "The Dreyfus Affair" or "The Cuban Missile Crisis" or "Ishtar." Oh, and ideally, it shouldn't take advantage of Hope Solo's name being words in English. Punning should be beneath us. "China Syndrome," perhaps, what with the meltdown factor, but you might have your own ideas.
****If you think Hope and the US won the gold medal last year simply to spite Abby. Which, yeah, sounds a little wacky.
Then Rogondino skipped ahead in the script, and called Washington's second goal the equalizer. A-HA! Proof! Proof, I tell you! These games are booked in advance, and have been for at least two weeks now!
Want MORE proof? Well, check out the WPS match report!
Quote:
Washington stormed back to tie the match as Lisa DeVanna scored a header off a selfless Abby Wambach pass in front of the goal. And in the 90th minute, Bompastor got to the end of a Cat Whitehill long ball and headed it over the top of Hope Solo. The goal was Bompastor’s second of the match, and was the equalizer for the Freedom that sent Athletica home, winless once again.
What, you thought Tiffeny Milbrett was really back? Yeah, and Hulk Hogan's a tougher fighter than Manny Pacquiao.
Still, if this was scripted? Excellent script.
My heart did sink when I saw that Jim Gabarra was once again giving the start to KJ Spisak and her 34.0453 GAA.** Yeah, we can (and WPS did) bill this as Solo v. Abby, but who among us didn't want to see Solo take on Scurry in the arena?
And then FSC, for what seemed like an eternity, absolutely refused to go negative. The 2007 contretemps*** wasn't even mentioned directly, so to the new viewer, the palpable tension hung in the air, as the saying goes, like a giant matzoh ball. Hildreth did bring up the double meaning of Solo falling back on punching if Wambach became too troublesome, Rogo laughed knowingly - and so did you, and so did I. But that lede was buried like Nikki and Paolo in "Lost," and I was distressed at the possibility that Abby and Hope might have, God forbid, gotten over it.
Well, in the words of Shakespeare's sister, ha.
Whatever Hope Solo said or did or mimed to get her defenders on board with the cause? Even if it was something like "By the way, Tina and Kia? If you would be so good as to plant the opposition's #20 like an Arbor Day tree, we'll be much more likely to win"? Good speech. I think Wambach opened hostilities, technically, with a little shove on Solo during an early save.
But once Daniela scored, in the words of Yoda, on it was.
For those of you who didn't see the game - and if you didn't, what is your problem? Seriously - after Daniela scores the game's first goal, not coincidentally the first goal in the A's history - after a scrum in the box where a great Spisak save was cleared out badly - in other words, a goal that wasn't going to win a beauty contest under any other circumstances - Daniela got the Saint Louis field players out to do a little samba celebration. On the road.
It was one of the most minor league stunts I can remember seeing. Where the hell did the A's get off choreographing a goal celebration this week? Only a brand new women's league could have seen that not followed up by a hailstorm of debris.
Anyway, thus fired up, the Freedom took control of the game - at least, up until Tina Ellertson and Kia McNeill took turns knocking over Wambach. Both of them apparently secure in the knowledge there would be no consequences. Thus defanged, Washington fell behind my more goals than Saint Louis had ever scored.
And let's be clear, the Freedom did not answer the bell, not until Ellertson was subbed out. (The WPS match report says she was subbed for cramping, making an incomprehensible sub merely disastrous.) There's going to be a lot of talk about gutsy comebacks around Germantown this week, and nowhere near enough talk about not digging the damn hole in the first place.
Yeah, Hope looked pretty bad on De Vanna's goal. But her team was still ahead, and she was in danger of getting over on Abby once again.**** So Wambach lined up Daniela, and took her out of the game, maybe out for several games.
Hildreth and Rogondino didn't see the play - they were reviewing the De Vanna goal from moments before - and only a secondary replay showed Wambach barrelling into Daniela with an ugly, ugly challenge. Abby earned an immediate yellow for that stunt, but Athletica didn't start a bench-clearing brawl in response, so one hopes and assumes it wasn't totally intentional. The Soccerplex crowd booed Daniela for diving, then recanted once she was stretchered off. Were there EVER boos in WUSA?
And then to end the story, once again in the 90th minute a Cat Whitehill kick 'n wish is botched by the opposing defense, and all was lost including honor.
And that's how you upstage Mia Hamm. Cynically, you couldn't have asked for a more perfect outcome. What was once a personal, and sort of embarrassing, dispute is now a blood feud between two clubs, one of which wasn't even conceived of when the original incident occurred. Saint Louis plays Washington in Edwardsville on June 20th, then the two teams meet in RFK(!) on the 18th. Stay tuned, sports fans, I don't think this one's over.
*This is probably a digression more suited for a later post, and for later read 12th of Never, but the game is just more fun to watch in the rain. When it comes to sunshine, there's a real limit when it just becomes too hot or enervating to have a good game. But no foul weather is too foul for soccer. Neither rain nor sleet nor dark of night. Maybe, just maybe, wind ruins a game, but wind + rain? Always awesome.
**Unofficial stat, but tell me I'm wrong.
***It only now just hit me - what do we call this? I mean, everyone who's been paying attention, and more than a few who haven't, just call it the Hope Solo thing, and everyone knows we're referring to Greg Ryan's benching of Solo, Solo's criticizing Scurry and Ryan, Solo's removal from the team, and Abby Wambach and Kristine Lilly forcefully coming to Ryan's defense. But shouldn't it have a name? A proper name, like "The Dreyfus Affair" or "The Cuban Missile Crisis" or "Ishtar." Oh, and ideally, it shouldn't take advantage of Hope Solo's name being words in English. Punning should be beneath us. "China Syndrome," perhaps, what with the meltdown factor, but you might have your own ideas.
****If you think Hope and the US won the gold medal last year simply to spite Abby. Which, yeah, sounds a little wacky.
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I'm apologize in advance for channeling Dabney Coleman, but I just can't get into women's soccer. With that said, I would read, and enjoy, a Loney blog entry if it was about the tedium of lettuce. And what did I get for my troubles?
1. A Thomas Dolby reference.
B. A chuckle that some chick got subbed out because of cramps. CRAMPS? My wife sympathizes.Posted 04 May 2009 at 07:58 AM by Q*bert Jones III 
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Don't we all know that pretty much for the entirety of her career, when Abby gets hit a lot and no calls are made (see first half of this particular game) she tends to get a bit reckless in getting paybacks and ends up w/ a card. Her tackle on Daniela was late and she deserved the yellow but didn't we all know that was coming?
But STL should have gotten at least one PI card and given up a penalty. The pk would have gone so much better w/ the pre-written script, too. Unless Bompastor took it. Which would have made me laugh.
eta: Hate, since I've never seen a men's player roll around on the ground w/ cramps and waste enormous amounts of game time only to be subbed out, you've convinced me of the complete ridiculousness of the women's game. Oh, wait....Posted 04 May 2009 at 08:49 AM by kool-aide
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Cramps? Isn't that what took Christian Gomez out of the Freddy Finale in RFK, after Nowak had already taken Freddy out of the game for reasons known only to him, leaving United with no creative force other than Ben Olsen's lone-wolf efforts in a playoff loss to the Revs?
Posted 04 May 2009 at 09:02 AM by Beau Dure 
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QFT (but maybe that the Northwesterner in me speaking...)Quote:*This is probably a digression more suited for a later post, and for later read 12th of Never, but the game is just more fun to watch in the rain. When it comes to sunshine, there's a real limit when it just becomes too hot or enervating to have a good game. But no foul weather is too foul for soccer. Neither rain nor sleet nor dark of night. Maybe, just maybe, wind ruins a game, but wind + rain? Always awesome
Posted 04 May 2009 at 11:30 AM by Jasonma
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Also took T. Henry out of world cup final...though that was in extra time. What is the big deal with abbreviating Saint to St. anyway?Posted 04 May 2009 at 11:54 AM by AfrcnHrbMan
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I was out at dinner with buddies after what was allegedly a Revs game. But I gotta say, the Breakers-Sol match the night before was absolutely top-notch stuff and it's a shame it was not televised.Quote:and if you didn't, what is your problem?
Here is a question I pose to all: Is it still "nutmegging" when the player's a chick? I propose that it is "clamdigging."Posted 04 May 2009 at 11:59 AM by Ultra Peanut
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To be fair to the fans at the SoccerPlex, they had been booing the ref the whole game- the officiating was atrocious. Daniela wasn't the first player to go down and roll around a fair bit, but she didn't get up (as the rest of them did). There was absolutely nothing intentional or malicious about that tackle. Abby's just a big girl, and the field was wet. Daniela's leg was planted awkwardly and Abby was going faster than she intended to. There were equally rough tackles on Abby that weren't even called for fouls. Did she deserve a card? Yes, she did. Should the Freedom have gotten at least one PK and several dangerous free kicks earlier in the game? Yes.
The WPS was also describing the succession of two goals as tying the match, not just DeVanna's header. It made sense to me. Rogodino? Nope, didn't make sense to me.Posted 04 May 2009 at 12:40 PM by jrevs
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And I thought Pacquiao delivered a hit.Quote:Originally Posted by Ultra Peanut
Here is a question I pose to all: Is it still "nutmegging" when the player's a chick? I propose that it is "clamdigging."
Between you and Stan Collins last week, this blog now just me giving out several paragraphs of batting practice straight lines.
HATE - yeah, a women's player going out with cramping looks terrible. Fortunately, El Salvador's team gave similar excuses a month or so ago - except ES was faking, and Ellertson wasn't. I think from here on in WPS should call this particular kind of injury "muscle spasms." Unless WPS is going the other way, DARING commenters to make jokes. "Yeah. Cramping. Were you gonna say something?"
Anyway - yeah, women's soccer isn't everyone's cup of tea, but Hope Solo v. Abby Wambach is threatening to transcend the sport - like in 2007, when it looked like it was going to bring the sport to a standstill. We have two great players, in the prime of their careers, who hate each other. That's beautiful.
I mean, a WPS crowd actually booed an injury there for a second. Commonplace in men's soccer, but as far as I can tell, a breakthrough in the women's game. Whether it's a good breakthrough or not is an exercise left to the reader. But a public feud between players will be carried forward on the field, as well as in the press. I'm pretty sure, what with twenty years of USSF Happy Talk, this is new and exciting, at least to me.Posted 04 May 2009 at 01:03 PM by Dan Loney
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Abby vs. Hope is a sharp contrast from the love-in of the Mia Era teams, that's for damn sure.
I'm not huge into women's soccer but it's hard not to like the drama of a rivalry that is so obvious and public and personal like this one.
Not that she'd probably say much on the record, but I'd love to see an interview with Pia Sundhage talking about how she keeps team chemistry in tact with these two on the team and likely having factions and cliques on both sides, as a result.
Also, Hope and Abby are my favorite US women players and while they are both great on the field, what I like about them is they have a take no prisoners attitude and are willing to be a controversial and speak their minds. Perhaps my affinity for them is a byproduct of the syrupy sweet attitudes of the Mia Era where they players always put a happy face on and everyone bought into it. That got tiring.
Say what you want about these girls but it's definitely interesting.Posted 04 May 2009 at 01:55 PM by Sandon Mibut
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It is. You know why? Because they play for the same national team and now, instead of being crammed together most of the year in residency camp, they're fighting it out against each other in league play. Just like the men's team does. Let 'em work it all out on the field in their day jobs and get it done when the US calls.Quote:We have two great players, in the prime of their careers, who hate each other. That's beautiful.
Posted 04 May 2009 at 02:01 PM by Ultra Peanut
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