2009 WPS – Thoughts on the Wambach/McNeill Suspensions

On May 7, WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci announced a 1-game suspension for both Abby Wambach (Washington Freedom) and Kia McNeill (St. Louis Athletica) for actions in a game played on May 3.

I watched this game on TV. It was a horribly refereed game with a great deal of “play on” that should have been called as fouls or carded. It finally culminated on a tackle by Abby Wambach on Daniela that resulted in the Brazilian being carried off the field with a season-ending knee injury (two ligaments, cracked tibia). Ironically, Wambach’s tackle was more unfortunate than anything but definitely dangerous.

Here’s the thing: Wambach is a punching bag for international players, game-in-game-out, even more (if that’s possible) than Mia Hamm was. The argument goes that since Abby is big and strong she can take it, and the refs almost never give her the benefit of the doubt. It’s not uncommon for Abby to be called for a collision foul when she’s done nothing but absorb the contact of another player who subsequently bounced off of her.

I find one of the ugliest thing about officiating at a world level is that some of the stars (not just US stars) are basically considered to be free targets. That sort of abuse was writ bold in this particular game as Wambach was mugged on several occasions (often by McNeill who deigned to play the ball in favor of colliding with Wambach) and received a “play on” for the pounding.

I think until there is a change of mindset by referees and thuggish players that you can mug a team’s star with little in the way of consequences, women’s soccer is going to have more of these incidents. They certainly seem to be slowly escalating as the years go on. At least they put the clamps on the scissor tackles that the Nigerians used to love so much that resulted in a lot of ankle injuries.

Obviously the injury done to Daniela is just one more chapter to the lengthy book of US/Brazil soccer. While there is definitely respect—no team in the world has sweeter feet than the Brazilians—it is no secret that these two teams play a little harder (shall we say) against each other. Injuries—serious injuries—are not uncommon (witness Wambach’s broken leg in the USA/BRA “friendly” just prior to the 2008 Olympics).

What do I think about the commissioner’s decision? I think the suspension of McNeill, and the implication that the referee (who let the play get out of hand) was going to be disciplined privately, was proportional. The penalty given to Wambach was a bit harsh for a play that was clearly worth the yellow card she earned, but didn’t elevate to the level of suspension. Antonucci doubtless played a little bit of politics in an attempt to show that even a marquee player isn’t above scrutiny…and ironically gave Wambach one more badly-called pounding.