The following rulings from WPS commissioner Tonya Antonucci just landed in my inbox (verbatim from the release):
1. Washington Freedom player #20 (Abby Wambach) is hereby suspended from the next Freedom game for which she is available to play (e.g. not injured or called to national team duty) based upon a tackle in the 80th minute that was reckless and resulted in a potentially season-ending injury of an opposing player.
2. Saint Louis Athletica player #6 (Kia McNeill) is hereby suspended from the next Athletica game for which she is available to play (e.g. not injured or called to national team duty) based upon persistent egregious conduct toward an opposing player.
It also included a quote, so as to explain why Antonucci made the unilateral move even though earlier this week the league’s disciplinary committee elected not to hand out any further punishment: “I elected to review the circumstances of the Freedom-Athletica match out of concern that the nature of play, if left unchecked, could lead to circumstances in future games that might pose a threat to the safety of the players and to the integrity of the league. In addition to the issuance of the discipline in the Decision above, I have directed that the circumstances of this match be brought to the attention of the US Soccer Federation, which provides referee assignments for WPS matches, and that serious consideration be given to avoiding these circumstances when making future referee assignments.”
What does this all mean? In a way, it’s a statement about referee Shane Butler’s subpar showing, as Wambach was hammered repeatedly by MacNeil — for one, I have “39[th minute], Wambach crushed in 50-50 with MacNeil” in my notes — and clearly there was a sentiment that things were well out of control by the time Wambach slammed into Daniela. So Wambach goes down for one match, but she takes one more member of St. Louis with her.
The Freedom’s next game is May 17 at Boston.
