Wambach breaks leg, will miss Olympics

[melock]

Huge loss for a team coming off a disappointing World Cup.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=555744&sec=us&cc=5901

 

[buckweaver]

Re: Wambach breaks leg, to miss Olympics

Was just about to start the thread as soon as I got back to a computer. Huge, huge loss for the USWNT. ****.

 

[imjustagirl]

This sucks. Wambach is my favorite player.

 

[melock]

Same here IJAG. Not sure how they're going to recover from this one.

 

[GB-Hack]

This is just terrible. This, on top of all the other bad luck they've been having with injuries, is the rotten cherry on the moldy cake.

I think they're almost certainly going to have to be exceptional at the back to have a chance at gold. They can do that, they haven't conceded a goal in their last six games, but this is a huge blow.

 

[markvid]

Any footage? Dirty play?

 

[melock]

Any footage? Dirty play?

Looked on YouTube. Nothing yet. From the story it sounds like it was just a collision.

 

[GB-Hack]

Any footage? Dirty play?

Not from what it appears, just a bad collision. According to the game report, no-one was booked for the challenge.

If there is a positive to anything from tonight for the U.S., despite Wambach's injury, they still won. Natasha Kai has 12 goals in 15 games this year for them, and could be good enough up top to provide some goals in Beijing.

 

[Cadet]

This makes me ill. Watching the game Brazil was clearly playing Wambach at a more physical level than everyone else, trying to keep her from getting the 100th goal. The injury play was not dirty, just aggressive. The referee was not frugal with the cards and warnings, so if a card would have been warranted it would have been given. Wambach knew right away, too. She just looked up and motioned to the sidelines. US didn't look great but didn't look bad. Set pieces were nice, as was ball control, they just couldn't seem to move the ball across the field after Wambach left. Chalupny looked good on defense.

 

[Twoback]

This is just terrible. This, on top of all the other bad luck they've been having with injuries, is the rotten cherry on the moldy cake.

I think they're almost certainly going to have to be exceptional at the back to have a chance at gold. They can do that, they haven't conceded a goal in their last six games, but this is a huge blow.

This wasn't bad luck. Abby was being reckless. I know she was playing hard and that's her way, but once again, this silliness with milestones gets the better of a great player.
There is no way she should have thrown that much of herself at a ball where the possibilities were limited. It was the same as Ribery in the Euros. You have to know when to put all of yourself into a challenge.

 

[GB-Hack]

This is just terrible. This, on top of all the other bad luck they've been having with injuries, is the rotten cherry on the moldy cake.

I think they're almost certainly going to have to be exceptional at the back to have a chance at gold. They can do that, they haven't conceded a goal in their last six games, but this is a huge blow.

This wasn't bad luck. Abby was being reckless. I know she was playing hard and that's her way, but once again, this silliness with milestones gets the better of a great player.
There is no way she should have thrown that much of herself at a ball where the possibilities were limited. It was the same as Ribery in the Euros. You have to know when to put all of yourself into a challenge.

I didn't mean bad luck as to how the injury occured, per se, but add this to the injuries suffered by Leslie Osborne and Cat Whitehill and you can argue the U.S. is headed to China without three key players from their starting lineup.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I want Hope Solo to lead them to the gold to further embarrass the coach from last year's World Cup debacle.

 

[Claws for Concern]

I attended the game last night and physical play was the rule of the game. I have no problem with physical play in any sport, but Brazil's strategy seriously backfired and they played like a team that knew it couldn't beat the US no matter what happened. The Wambach injury didn't seem like more than a typical collision to me, but it was quickly apparent that she was seriously hurt when she went down. Kai was great to talk to after the game, too. Great crowd at the game -- several Brazil fans -- and the standing room only 7502 was passionate throughout the game.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

The two people I'm rooting for in the Olympics (there may be a few others) are Hope Solo and Becky Hammon.

 

[pressmurphy]

This wasn't bad luck. Abby was being reckless. I know she was playing hard and that's her way, but once again, this silliness with milestones gets the better of a great player.
There is no way she should have thrown that much of herself at a ball where the possibilities were limited. It was the same as Ribery in the Euros. You have to know when to put all of yourself into a challenge.

How does this "milestone" thing factor into the equation at all? Her 100th career goal was inevitable, whether it happen last night, next month in Beijing or midway through next season so it's not like she could be accused of being obsessed with a nice round number in the midst of a scoreless tie with a bitter rival. Your argument would only hold water if she was trying for a hat trick late in a 4-0 game or something similar.

As for her level of intensity, Wambach has played the same way since high school with the exception of one brief stretch early in her National Team career that got her left off the team for a very brief period. She comes from a large family of achievers and competitors. Going less than 100 percent is not in her genetic makeup.

 

[Twoback]

This wasn't bad luck. Abby was being reckless. I know she was playing hard and that's her way, but once again, this silliness with milestones gets the better of a great player.
There is no way she should have thrown that much of herself at a ball where the possibilities were limited. It was the same as Ribery in the Euros. You have to know when to put all of yourself into a challenge.

How does this "milestone" thing factor into the equation at all? Her 100th career goal was inevitable, whether it happen last night, next month in Beijing or midway through next season so it's not like she could be accused of being obsessed with a nice round number in the midst of a scoreless tie with a bitter rival. Your argument would only hold water if she was trying for a hat trick late in a 4-0 game or something similar.

As for her level of intensity, Wambach has played the same way since high school with the exception of one brief stretch early in her National Team career that got her left off the team for a very brief period. She comes from a large family of achievers and competitors. Going less than 100 percent is not in her genetic makeup.

I've seen too many athletes in this circumstance get themselves out of sorts to not recognize the signs. Yes, she plays hard all the time -- but she was going through this one at a fever she didn't even show in the World Cup. I love her play, but this was a mistake given the timing.

 

[crimsonace]

Unfortunate, because I really liked her as a player and this will not help the U.S., especially in China.

Question for the soccer people ... why is the men's Olympics tournament contested by U23 squads, while the senior national teams play in the women's Olympics? FIFA oversees all international soccer ... that just seems to be a curious distinction. One would think they would want both the men's & women's tournaments to be the same.

 

[Pastor]

Unfortunate, because I really liked her as a player and this will not help the U.S., especially in China.

Question for the soccer people ... why is the men's Olympics tournament contested by U23 squads, while the senior national teams play in the women's Olympics? FIFA oversees all international soccer ... that just seems to be a curious distinction. One would think they would want both the men's & women's tournaments to be the same.

I have no actual evidence of this, but I believe it to be an issue of quality and depth as well as setting the premier event.

FIFA wants control over where their premier world title (the World Cup) is played. Putting the full men’s squads in the Olympics might lend the Olympics equal footing to the World Cup. It would draw down interest in the World Cup as you would then have full men’s teams competing every two years instead of four.

For the women, it is a matter of quality and depth. The women’s game hasn’t been around nearly as long. There are only a few premier teams and the traditional powers on the men’s side are not very good on the women’s side. If you then told places like England, Italy and Spain that they could only field a U-23 team, it might be pretty ugly.

This would be my guess at why FIFA does this.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I want Hope Solo to lead them to the gold to further embarrass the coach from last year's World Cup debacle.

I read the SI story on Solo from a couple of weeks ago. While her comments after being benched weren't too nice, what the team did to her was straight out of seventh grade. They wouldn't even sit next to her on the bench, and banned her from receiving the bronze medal. And Wambach was one of the instigators.

I'm also rooting for Solo at the Olympics. I hope she then blows off her teammates after winning the gold, although that probably wouldn't happen.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

This makes me ill. Watching the game Brazil was clearly playing Wambach at a more physical level than everyone else, trying to keep her from getting the 100th goal. The injury play was not dirty, just aggressive. The referee was not frugal with the cards and warnings, so if a card would have been warranted it would have been given. Wambach knew right away, too. She just looked up and motioned to the sidelines. US didn't look great but didn't look bad. Set pieces were nice, as was ball control, they just couldn't seem to move the ball across the field after Wambach left. Chalupny looked good on defense.

Brazil's treatment of Abby Wambach shouldn't surprise anyone.

The U.S. isn't sunk, but now goals will have to come off more crosses into the box, set pieces and such. Obviously, no teammate is aggressive as Wambach or as good a finisher. Perhaps Hope Solo's re-emergence will allow them to press forward a little more and put more traffic in the box without giving up too much in the back.

The only positive that can possibly come out of this is that maybe this storyline will make Solo's return easier from a media standpoint and finally help turn the page on the Greg Ryan saga.