So women's soccer is physical. Why is that such a bad thing? Eyes on Elizabeth Lambert and her BYU beatdown

I have been debating what to start this blog with. I've got the On the Ball Facebook Fan page for facts and friendly conversations. I have Twitter for keeping in the WPS and women's soccer loop (and contributing to the loop). And, of course, there is the On the Ball TV Show to discuss the inaugural WPS season and talk with some WPS players. So what did that leave for a blog?

Well the incidents of this morning were fortuitous and immediately cast light on what this blog needs to be. Not a discussion of the WPS alone, but rather a look at the sport of women's soccer as a whole. Go big or go home, right?

This morning Elizabeth Lambert became the unfortunate victim of ESPN's selective editing. A defender on the New Mexico women's soccer team, Lambert played an intense game on Thursday (11/5/09) against BYU (who won the game 1-0). If you were under a rock this morning and did not see the ESPN highlights of the game then check this video out. If that link is dead by the time you read this then just google "Elizabeth Lambert BYU New Mexico Soccer" or something similar to that and you will find it.

Still having problems? Throw "Cat Fight" into the keywords.

Don't keep reading. Watch it. Absorb it. Experience it. What are your thoughts, reactions? Anger? Are you shocked that she was allowed to keep playing, allowed to keep pulling these outrageous tricks under the eyes of the blind refs?

(thank you Natasha Kai)

Oh the magic of television. Using selective highlights is a classic TV trick to persuade an audience that this person is bad, evil, unjustified in their actions. I want to see the BYU v. NM game in it's entirety and see what happened before each of the (slightly) infamous beat-downs handed to the BYU players by Elizabeth Lambert. Maybe she did deserve the harsh depiction, but I'm a big fan of context.

Quick note, this is not meant to bash ESPN. Their job is to create a highlight clip and sell a point. Clearly they did a good job of it here. I'm calling for all the viewers out there who are dramatically reacting to this clip to take a step back and think about it before trying to beatdown Ms. Lambert as she walks to class.

Check out The Fake Sigi Schmid Blog entry on the whole incident, it makes some great points. Borrowing some of his words (and a picture), I want to shed a bit of context on Lambert's actions.

"Before the hairpull Lambert gets taken down by Kassidy Shumway, and immediately before the hairpull Shumway is grabbing Lambert's shorts. We also see Lambert get elbowed before she punches the other player in the back. While Lambert clearly went over the line with her retaliations it's not like the refs weren't allowing the game to be played at a very, very physical rate. I think this picture of Lambert and Shumway from cougerblue.com says all you need to know about how tough this game was:"

BYU's star freshman Carlee Payne, who scored the only goal in the game, even called it a "very tough game, very physical."

One of the comments on the FakeSigi post articulates a big difference between men's sports and women's sports. In the MLS there were 82 ejections in 225 games this year. There were 4 ejections in the WPS's inaugural season. Come on. It's not like women's soccer is not a rough game, just check out some On the Ball episodes to see how intense it can get. But nobody can decide if it's OK for women's sports to be thought of as violent, rough, intense and competitive. Which feels like an oxymoron to me. It's a sport. Of course it's going to be physical! Women's sports won't succeed until they begin to look at themselves as sports, period.

Not even the Refs can decide if women's soccer is a sport or a game. The reason there are officiators in every sport is to regulate the players. Men need to be regulated because they push the limits all the time. Women need to be regulated because . . . Well there is the problem. Sportsmanship is great and everything, but it doesn't make the sport sound exciting when that's the only thing you know about it. It makes women's soccer sound like a damn boring game for anyone who doesn't really know.

Lambert definitely crossed the line here and should have gotten more than the measly yellow she received at one point in the game. Even out of context the from behind flying-monkey-tackle she gives BYU's #7 (the goal scoring freshman Carlee Payne for those of you not up on the BYU roster) deserved to be a red card. The hair pull was also a dangerous play! Provoked or not it passed beyond the realm of roughhousing between players and became a potentially injury causing extremely unsportsmanlike move.

Honestly I find fault with the Refs, not her. Granted, the onfield Ref can't see everything and players are notorious for roughhousing behind their backs, but there were two lines officials to help out. Plus, a lot of Lambert's "violence" was on the ball! If the officials aren't spotting that, then they aren't doing their jobs! This leads me to believe that the entire game was so chock full of violence by both teams and many players that Lambert's actions, when witnessed, just didn't stand out.

For those of you not up on NCAA Collegiate Women's Soccer, these games can get very physical. When the Portland Pilots played the University of Santa Clara Broncos earlier this week, the game was rough and pulled two yellow cards (one to each team) and a total of 20 fouls called during the 90 minutes (6 to Portland and a whopping 14 to Santa Clara). I did watch that game and let's just say those statistics don't do justice to the passion that was shown on that Buck Shaw field. That was a huge rivalry game and both teams wanted to uphold their school's honor. Similarly, the BYU v. NM game was for a playoff spot. Team honor was on the line and these women are not about to let their schools down without a fight.

So the sport of women's soccer is physical and Lambert definitely crossed a line in how physical she got, but why is that such a terrible thing?

Honestly, please comment and let me know why it's so bad that a player occasionally cross that line. If the refs had done their job she would have been benched. Take fault with them for not regulating. Let her team regulate her if they wish, knowing the context of the rest of that game. But don't fault the player for playing her sport. Fault her taking it to the extreme, not for being physical in the first place.

82 MLS ejections to 4 WPS ejections. Grow up. It's a sport being played at the collegiate level by two highly ranked teams competing for a playoff spot. Don't treat them like something less just because they are women.

I'm going to end this first post with just one more tidbit (and teaser for my next post). If this is such a terrible thing for women's soccer because it was such a deplorable act, then why has this 2 minute clip gotten more media coverage and social relevance than the #1 USWNT vs. #2 Germany game that happened barely a week ago?

SIDENOTE: The USWNT won 1-0. In a 30,000 seats sold out stadium. Surprised at the turnout? It was in Germany. Seriously, we're letting the Germans own the fandom of this sport? Come on.

(the USWNT backline that held strong against the hammering German attacks, the image is from the USWNT Blog)

Lambert not only took over Twitter this morning (which I'll detail for you in my next post), but took over Google as well. If you checked the Google Trends today you would have (and still might) find "Elizabeth Lambert" and "New Mexico Womens Soccer" traveling up the list.

In my next post I'll go through my opinion on the media reaction to all of this, both in the morning Twutter about it and the growing clutter in the traditional news outlets and the newer internet trends.

Until then...

Are You On the Ball?