To the best of my knowledge, she did fall down. Not that there was much occasion to, but, as you said, she indeed looked confused. As soon as Sun Wen 'megged and passed her, Gina just sort of keeled over. Boy, that was a devasting moment, knowing our season would be over in a few minutes. It was much like the feeling I got when Carolina started its barrage of goals. When Carolina scored the go-ahead goal and I lamented about how it felt like Sun Wen's go-ahead goal, my sister reminded me of how we came back in that game. After the next goal, I tried to believe we could still tie it up. After the last goal, I grabbed my head. I couldn't bear to watch anymore. I changed the channel. I couldn't bear to listen anymore. And not even watching (or rather listening to, as I still held my head) my boys the Mariners destroy their opponents could bring much relief. Why was it this game that was aired? They could've shown us crushing the Power. They could've shown us containing Philly. But nooooo. It had to be this one. I finally got to see Wagner play, but I didn't see her do anything because it got so bad before she had a chance to. Apparently she had an awful game anyway. I missed Borgman too because it was just too painful to sit through. And I still have yet to see Alagich play! Ian!!! Di on the bench is a mistake!!! What a waste of air time this game was. But perhaps it served a purpose--the purpose of showing us that we don't deserve to be in the playoffs. I mean, look at our record against the top four teams. We've lost the series to Atlanta, 2-1. We've lost the series to DC, also 2-1. Carolina swept the series against us. We do lead the series against Philly and have the opportunity to win it, which is positive, but it may be too little, too late. C'mon C'Rays, prove me wrong about us not belonging in the playoffs. No, we shot ourselves in the foot against DC giving up an own goal, a PK, and third place. This one was a bit more fatal, like, say, in the head.
AGH! BigSoccer ate my last attempt at this reply. I'm going to take that as a message from the soccer gods and try to come up with a shorter one. Once again, just my personal completely unprofessional and only partially educated opinions offered--nothing more. I got link-happy in this post. Whee! I geeked out and actually went and checked the tape of the Championship game from last season. Gina doesn't actually just stand there, nor does she fall down. She kinda pivots and then looks dazed. Anyway, it's still lame. An interesting stat was mentioned in that game, right after the goal: it was the first go-ahead or tying goal the 'Rays had allowed after the 80th minute all season. What a (bad) difference a year makes. I agree Di on the bench is a really bad mistake in general, and more so when Borgman is still hurt. From the gorgeous photos at the www.nc-soccer.com site (that guy is so talented...and he has some darn nice equipment and really good seats, too...but mostly he's just talented), we can see that Di was indeed at the game. Was she just not suited up? What gives? As an aside about injuries: Why can't any of our players (except Boof and her really quick comeback after her surgery, which was done and rehabbed in Omaha apparently--must be something good in the air there) get healthy and stay healthy this season, anyway? If Borg's injury wasn't a tear and didn't need surgery, shouldn't she feel better after a month? Does she just not heal very well? What the heck is going on with Maren's knee, anyway? And why did we let Kim play on a fracture for so long before catching it? I'm sure she was in pain, so it's not like it would be a secret. (She certainly wasn't running very fast or very much, that much you could see.) That in particular really bothers me. I'm not a doctor or a trainer, I don't pretend to be, and obviously, I can't really have a clue what's going on from the outside looking in, but the injuries are really effecting our team at this point, so I'm starting to wonder what's up. Maybe we just have the bad-luck bug. I don't know. Getting back to the game, if Borgs hadn't played we wouldn't have gotten to see this, which was just about the coolest thing that happened all game (for me anyway). Fotop, you've been BORGed...again. Speaking of the pics (well, linking the pics anyway), no good ones of French this time. Bummer. Not so many of her last time, either, though I liked this one (sit down, Prinz, Frenchie's not movin'!). I know the photog can take pictures of whoever he wants to, and has no reason to answer to me. I also am very aware that I live in my own cracked little world, but someday I'd really like to see Frenchie get some general respect, because I'm beginning to think there's some kind of rule about dissing her and I didn't get the memo. She's always having stuff happen like...getting left off the NT, being benched without explanation, not being listed as an Olympian in press releases (silver medalist, fool!), getting traded away by Washington even though she was a co-captain, being told by Brandi to come back to play D so Brandi can push up instead (and be totally ineffective), getting no love from photographers... It's just not nice. Can we cut her a break now? At least Nel Fettig is clued in and knows to respect Frenchie's left foot. YYYYEEEAAAAHHH! There's an ice bag for you on the bench, Fettig. Spare yourself some pain and just let the shot go into the back of the net next time. Look, it's Brandi practicing so she can get her Oscar. Sorry, I'm really punchy right now trying to get through all this a second time. I just ate a lot of chocolate, too. I guess Hostess bought out Dolly Madison some time ago because they're putting Zingers back out now. Who knew?! Thanks to SoCcErHyPeR 2 for the info on Bell. I stand corrected that she's primarily been a forward. I'm with Chiefs on this one--I think Bellie's a work horse. She does all the dirty work no one else wants to. Thori's foul (yellow card) was lame and unneccessary, I agree. She just doesn't do a whole lot of thinking out there (ever), just reacting, which she can get away with most of the time because of her speed and athleticism. Thori's service is always pretty bad. I don't even mention it because it's a given. I would mention it if she ever had a really good serve (it would be like...amazing!). Mostly she just blasts the ball away...somewhere. I do like watching her run people down, however, I still like watching "smart" defenders (like Boof or Frenchie) the best! Plus, I think the smart ones are more effective. Hmmm...goals this game from Brandi/Thori's side=4, goals from Boof/Frenchie's side=0. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. Anyway, we know that for whatever reason Ian's never going to sit Brandi or Thori, so I won't get to see my personal ideal back line of Borgman, Alagich, Lindsey, and French any time soon. Hey, I may be silly, but that line can't possibly do any worse than what we just saw. OK after ripping nearly everyone and everything I'm going to say: THEY ALL DO THEIR RESPECTIVE JOBS WAY BETTER THAN I CAN! And thank goodness, because me trying to play at this level, or coach, or rehab people, or whatever, would be way hella scary! I'm going for a non-Zinger-induced post next time, I promise!
Re: AGH! Great. Now I'm making up memories of events that never happened. For some reason, I can picture Gina falling over after getting nutmegged. Who would have thought that after adding more highly acclaimed defenders (Frenchie and Borgman) our defense would get worse?
Alagich? Traveling With 18 Players? I was wondering why Alagich didn't start or even come in as a sub on Saturday? Now I'm also wondering how San Jose was able to bring 18 players to North Carolina? It would make sense if the league allowed them to take an extra two players along for a season ending 3 game road trip, but has anyone seen an official announcement about this? Last Wednesday I went to the Spirit - Beat match and noticed that Atlanta had brought an extra player with them to San Diego. 15 of them played in the match for Atlanta and along with the back-up goalkeeper, Bivens, also traveled with the team, but didn't play.
Re: Re: AGH! This season has been strange enough to make anyone hallucinate! I have no clue re: rules on numbers of players traveling. Obviously it must be OK on longer trips, since we've all seen it, but the WUSA rules that are easily accessible are kinda sketchy (the website's got nothin'). Anyone know if there's a book of the WUSA rules available for purchase or something? I'd seriously want one so I could photocopy pages out of it and hand them to the officials at the games.