Absolutely spot on. If a Nigerian player had done that to an American everyone here would be crying bloody murder. I wanted the US to win but I am at least objective enough to realize that what Wambach did should have been at least a yellow card and probably a red one (remember Jeff Agoos' red card against Mexico in 1997?). The fact she and her teammates were laughing about it afterwards showed an incredible lack of class in my opinion. As for the early penalty, the ball had already passed and Parlow had absolutely no chance to reach it. The Nigerian player was clumsy in raising her leg but most refs would have called that incidental contact and let play go on (as when two players incidentally collide). The Women's World Cup, unlike the men's, is reliant on the home team doing well in order to attract crowds to the stadiums. Correct me if i'm wrong but the only game in this tournament which is a sellout is this weekend's US game in Columbus. If the US doesn't do well in this Cup then it will not be financially succesful. The refs seem to be helping the US out in that regard. The US is a far superior team to Nigeria but they didn't need the help they received last night. If Wambach wasn't a US player she would be suspended even if the ref didn't card her on the field.
it's just rediculous to truly believe this ref was somehow colluding w/ the powers that be to let wambach off lightly. i mean really...isn't it a bit more likely that she either didn't see it well and/or was simply an inexperienced ref? i felt she probably deserved a yellow, but this type of conspiratorial blather happens in every world cup.
terrible foul by wambach. she deserved at least a yellow. and to watch the ladies stand around and laugh and chuckle and make faces while the nigerian was on the ground was just as bad. i don't think they meant anything by it - and i know they don't like the nigerians in terms of the hard play - but it still showed poor class IMHO. enjoyed the game though.
right- it wasn't hard to miss roberts clowning around. not appropriate. was wambach? who knows how serious anyone knew the situation to be...the nigerians were splayed out over the field all night in need of the magic sponge.
I watched the replay last night a couple of times. It looked to me that it was her right elbow that she jammed back hard, but not her left elbow. Just like boxers don't punch with both hands at once. It was definitely intentional. I don't think she was aiming for an eye (that would be quite a bit of skill), or maybe not even the head specifically, but she definitely wanted to hit something hard with her right elbow. It makes me laugh a bit, because I saw about a 10-year-old interview with Anson Dorrance about a month ago in which he talked about the fact that the women's game is not full of the fouls and dives that the men's game has. Whether or not she should have done it is another matter.
Just this Sunday's double header in Ohio is sold out. There are still tickets available for the remaining matches. I suspect Portland will sell out soon though. At least the knockout matches. I don't think much of "conspiracy theories", however, when it comes to FIFA and who wins what. The USA can lose or win just fine on their own with no help and with or without Abby.
This was one of the few games in which Nigeria's fouls did not far surpass those of the team they played against. They play hard, foul frequently and foolishly. The U.S. adjusted their play accordingly- and I say good for them.
That wasn't a ridiculous penalty. The US player (Parlow I think) was completely in a very reckless manner by two Nigerian players. It was a good call and necessary to set the tone letting both teams know that reckless play that could easily injure a player would not be tolerated. Of course FIFA always wants the home countries to do well in the World Cup (men's or women's) because that keeps the fans interest more. There would not however be any economic "disaster" if the US doesn't make it. As far as a possible suspension, it isn't deserved. Its not like the elbow to Tab Ramos' head in '94. It wasn't mailcious, it was just a dangerous play. The extent of the injury is not necessarily correlated with the seriousness of the foul.
As much as I would like to defend Abby on this one, I also think she had just had enough and sent the elbow back to get the defender to think twice before getting physical with her again. However, that said, it was pretty obvious from the hard fouls that happened right before the elbow was thrown that the ref was going to just let them play. Did you see Heinrichs yelling from the sideline to the ref to card someone (especially after Sobrero took that bad tackle) before it got worse? In my opinion, if Mia can take a crack in the back of her head and Kate gets steamrolled on the sideline like that, Nigeria can take an elbow. Either the ref was going to let it all go or maybe she just didn't see it. And, as far as Nigeria crying about the officiating, even if you took both pk's away (which I thought were fine calls, especially the second one) and allowed their offsides goal, it's still a 3-1 game. They had NO answer for the US, period.
i sure hope not, it certainly was not intentional - lets remember that abby is hair shy of 6 feet tall - as for whomever said tha parlow dove on the first penalty... ummm it wasn't a dive, it freakin' hurts when you take a boot in the... ummm... area - that was not a dive, she just went done and for the nimrod who suggested that (wink wink) "everything is set up for the US to succeed"... grow up
The Nigerian women have become my least favorite soccer team to watch - anywhere. All the talk before the game about "it's a tough game - we're not dirty, we just play hard" and then they flop around like a bunch of fish. Ridiculous. The player Abby hit was fine until she realized that there was some blood, then she fell like she had been shot. Earlier, a player took a ball in the stomach and had to be helped off. My U14 girls take balls in the stomach and continue play. A foul in that situation was probably deserved, and a yellow would not have shocked me. But a straight red? Suspension? No way.
That was the one of the most intenional elbows I've ever seen. Even more sickening was how they yucked it up while the Nigerian received treatment. Foudy gave Wambach a high five and Roberts mimickingly reenacted the whole thing, going so far as to hold her elbow in feigned pain. I hope that Wambach gets tossed for the remainder of the tournament. And please spare me the disengenuous expressions of incredulity that normally begin with "Did you actually watch the game...", "What planet are you from...", "What are you smoking...".. etc.
That was me, and please re-read the post. I said that Parlow "dived after getting sandwiched" -- any reasonable person could detect the inherent irony of that statement.
And I'm all for payback, getting stuck in and defending your turf. I even enjoy a nice little boilover. But intentional elbow are the things of the Blancos, Ramon Ramirez, Hernandez and Garcia Aspes of the world. And let's be real: if it were Jeff Agoos, Eddie Lewis or Clint Mathis pulling that crap in Saprissa or the Azteca there'd be hell to pay and we all know it.
I'm from Massachusetts, pal. I've been to more hockey games than you could imagine. We're discussing the beautiful game, which was just rendered less so by the blonde assassin.
Justice Served The Nigerians have been playing rough and dirty football for years. They finally got their comeuppance from a far more talented team that was also willing to mix it up. Maybe they should learn something from that, stop whining about conspiracies, and ask themselves whether it was really in their long-term self-interest to create an image of thuggery as opposed to developing some idea of how a TEAM works--the sum of a group of athletes is supposed to be greater than their separate individual talents. Betcha other teams give a long think before they decide to take the low road against our gals!
I said it before.....Nigeria, if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Quit your damn whining, you lost that game by your own actions, nothing else. Nothing any of our players did was worse than what their team did. They could have easily taken out Parlow, Hamm, Abby, Kate or anyone else with their rough, reckless play. God knows if Chastain were out there with a bruised foot, they would have been trying to step on it. At least they could cowboy up a little bit. Or were they trying to set the record for most falls and stretchers coming out on the field?
Comeuppance indeed. I highly doubt that Abby's elbow was accidental but that's okay. Her own form of vigilante justice was fine with me -- the Nigerians needed to be taught a lesson, since FIFA referees have consistently refused to do so over the past decade.
how else can one possibly respond except "how many elbows have you ever seen?" ...but chowder, because i know you've seen many, your reaction is all the more shocking. tossed for the rest of the tourney? sorry, your credibility is now shot on the issue. if this had been two guys going up for a high ball, that's almost ROUTINE contact.
how else can one possibly respond except "how many elbows have you ever seen?" ...but chowder, because i know you've seen many, your reaction is all the more shocking. tossed for the rest of the tourney? sorry, your credibility is now shot on the issue. if this had been two guys going up for a high ball, that's almost ROUTINE contact.