Exactly. Pablo Ramirez questioned whether Wambach's elbow was "mal intention" ("ill will"), but pointed out that in soccer, like in ice hockey, an elbowing call cannot be made due to the physical differences in the size of two opponents. The Wombat was way high in the air while the Nigerian was still on the ground (and giving away many centimeters and kilos). Another reason to FEAR THE WOMBAT.
Just beautiful That elbow was intentional, and it was a beautiful thing. Sets the tone for the rest of the tournament. Now teams will not only fear US talent, they will fear for their safety if they play cheap, like the Nigerians. And what a show that last foul was! She got a cut to her face. Scrape her off the field and play on. They could have performed surgery in the time they worked on her.
Missed the contact at the game but watched it last night on the tape. Clearly, it wasn't an accident. It was a message. Sent to Brazil and Norway via Nigeria by Wambach on her teammates' behalf. In the end, one of many yellows not issued by the ref-in-training.
Fifa doesn't give a damn if they make money or not in this tournament, the only tourney that gives Fifa revenue (and a whole lot of it) is the men's World Cup, everything else (U20, U17, WWC, etc) is just PR.
If not to Norway & Brazil, Then to Nigeria. If you do your hack-and-whack, the wombat will strike back. Should have been a yellow (perhaps red), but a yellow was warranted. Avre should have been given a yellow, too (amongst others).
I haven't read every post here so I don't know if this has been mentioned, but why didn't the announcers talk about this in the 5 minutes they stiched up the player? All they did was talk about how physical Nigeria was and a few other random unrelated topics. Are they forbidden from talking about things that might paint some US players in a bad light? The possibility that it was excessive wasn't even brought up that i can recall. And did any US players go over and check out the injured player? Maybe what they were doing just came across inaccurately on TV, but it sure looked like they were just laughing it up and even jokingly immitating the collision. Not saying I know that's what happened, but that's what it looked like. If so, that's pretty damn classless from a group of athletes who, we are told, are up to their necks in class.
Really? If the US wins it's group -- highly likely -- it will face Norway in the quarter final round. Norway is the only team with a positive record against the US. I guess someone goofed when 'setting' up the Cup so the US would do well. Surely they couldn't win on their own merit, could they? If you want a really egregious example of intentional maiming, check out Tony Schumacher's bashing of Patrick Battiston in the '82 World Cup. Battiston was knocked cold, lost teeth, and shown a yellow card, adding insult to injury. Then there was the slug-fest in the '62 Cup, the Battle of Bern in '54... You gals are just beginning to make history; you've got a lot of catching up to do. But the real progress is in the play -- way above the '99 Cup IMO, not to mention '95. It's a more competitive field of teams than I expected to see. Even newbies like Argentina showed some ability while getting blow away. A US-Norway quarter final should be one for the book.
I saw nothing that looked like they were making fun of the injury. What I saw was Roberts and Sobrero making funny faces. And it looked like Mia and Kate were cracking jokes, but I HIGHLY doubt it had anything to do with the collision. And one US player usually always goes to check on an injured player on the other team. I saw a few pats on the back after fouls, and the Nigerian keeper helped Mia up. I don't think there was any lack of class. I think it was just women playing hard. And when the injury happened, the game was pretty much over, and the US players were happy and excited. Give 'em a break.
yes, abby went to check on her twice - i watched on eurosport so i got different camera angles and didn't see roberts dowhat everyone here is describing - i did see foudy give five to wambach though and it hardly looked like a 'you nailed that bitch' celebration
A foul was called. On the Nigerian player. Correctly. She ran into Wambach. Wambach, it seems, positioned her elbow to protect against organ damage from a foolishly charging player.
She takes a beating in games and just keeps comming. Richie [/B][/QUOTE] ...and she has that great death stare!
My two cents on things... a)Yellow, Red, Suspended, don't suspend...whether she threw that elbow or it was completely unintentional none of us will ever truely know. But for all of those that are crying foul (no pun intended), don't tell me that you've never seen Your favorite player do anything that was less than stellar. There are always calls that aren't made or calls that are made and we don't think should have been. Its all subjective. Geez. However, would we even be discussing whether she should have been suspended if the Nigerian player was as tall as Abby and she instead had been hit in the chest? I really don't think so. So your going to suspend her because the Nigerian wasn't as tall as her....righttttt....(isn't that the Shaquille O'Neal issue?) b)To those that didn't think the US team was joking about it...well right or wrong, I'm sorry but yes they were. And yes it did bother me at first. TR did do the flying elbow imitation and Foudy and Mia were laughing, however I think you've got to look at the situation. I do not believe it was meant maliciously rather they were trying to keep Wambach from thinking about it too much...from thinking about the fact that girl was laying there bleeding. They had a game to finish and many games yet to go yet in this tournament. Had she been left alone, with her thoughts it could have screwed with her head. Maybe, maybe not but thats not a chance you can really afford to take. You've got to get the person past it and thats exactly, imo, what they were trying to do when joking with her about it. c)as for the heat/kitchen thing. I totally agree. From what I saw on that field, Nigeria can certainly bring the physical play but when its thrown right back at them they nearly died--or at least you would have thought they were dying the way they rolled around like they had been shot. Often after little contact.