I hate to jump on this bandwagon, but it bears discussing.
So the USA win over Brazil in penalty kicks. For those of you that don't know, here is the report from the game.
http://www.fifa.com/womensworldcup/matches/round=255995/match=300144440/report.html
I'm not sure why the explanation of some of the major events of the game are not on here. They usually are supposed to be. Anyway. The Buehler red card was, to me, unreasonable. At first thought I thought maybe a penalty kick would be awarded. When I saw the red card, I was very confused. I could maybe see where the referee was coming from. Maybe. When looking at the replay, the most I saw was indirect kick offense of impeding an opponents progress, resulting in a kick outside the box. I feel like it would end up being direct. Maybe not. Don't feel like checking right now. The red card was unwarrented and led to the referee losing control of the game. Then Hope Solo was penalized for not stepping off her line before the kicker kicked the ball, resulting in a re-kick due to her save. As if she had stepped off the line, if you didn't get my drift. There are some games that you feel like the referee was just having a REALLY bad day. And making the subsequent BAD calls. That's my rant about the referees' decisions. Oh wait, the 2nd Brazil goal was the result of a missed offsides call. Yeah, I think I'm done.
Anyway, I'm not in favor of video replays being used to officiate the game when the referees make the correct calls. Which they are perfectly capable of doing. So I'm not exactly sure why world class referees like them would have games like that. I rarely have games like that as a referee, so how do they always seem to have them at the world cup. Most of the calls are right, but not all for some reason. Usually the cause is incorrect positioning in my opinion. The referees are not in the correct position to make the correct call.
The play. Oh! The player of the game was Hope Solo. She was great. But to me, the best player of the game was Abby Wambach. Scored the eventual game saving/winning goal in the 121st minute. And she was RELENTLESS! She went after EVERYTHING! 60 minutes of playing a man down and the US ends up WINNING! UNBELIEVABLE! And biggest heart- Abby Wambach. When you are down in a soccer game you have to go for everything, get the ball in play quickly. Because the longer the ball is in play, the higher chance you have of winning. She put the ball down for the other team, she yelled for the ball, and got in position for that game-saving header. It was a beaut. With a very good and slightly lucky cross from Rapinoe. And soccer is a game that has a lot of luck in it. And unluckiness as well. So sorry Hope Solo, but Wambach got my vote on this one.
Soccer is also a game that has had its share of embellishment added to it. The Brazilian Player just going down in the 2nd half of extra time. No one had touched her. She just went down. And stayed down. For 4 minutes. They even got the stretcher out for her. As soon as she gets off the field, she unbuckles her seatbelt and gets back on the field. And is rightly given the yellow card for delay of game. But I feel as if there should be extra consequences for that action. Such as the amendment, "Any player who is taken off the field in a stretcher can not re-enter the game. Doing so will result in a red card." It's just ridiculous. And should be unheard of at the professional level. When they make commercials for ESPN about players faking injuries, there is a little bit of a problem.
So anyway. Great heart US! Gotta get some work done referees. No reason to take a bath in grass without reason. If I were English, I might say the US side played plucky.
~another musing of the ill-informed~
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