Saturday, May 09, 2009

WPS major faux pas

Abby Wambach's tackle that resulted in Athletica star Daniela's injury last week has also resulted in Wambach's one-game suspension. A suspension not handed down by the WPS disciplinary committee that reviewed the game, including the many egregious fouls by Athletica defenders on Wambach. (See the video posted on Women's Sports Nation.)
WPS commissioner Tonya Antonucci reviewed the game footage and issued one-game suspensions to both Wambach and Athletica defender Kia McNeill. Which is all basically crap. If the refs had done their job and issued yellow cards for those fouls, it would have sent a message that they were watching. But the game got out of control. Wambach's challenge to Daniela was clearly yellow-card worthy but not suspension worthy. The disciplinary committee thought so. That Antonucci gets to overrule is a little problematic.
Injuries happen. As I mentioned, Wambach herself was the victim of a foul-worthy challenge that took her out of the last World Cup competition.
Plus the one-game suspension comes in Boston next week. Guess who has just decided not to make the trip to see a Wambach-less Freedom take on the Breakers?

No comments: