Elizabeth Lambert, a "villified" college soccer player for New Mexico, deserves to be villified. And I think her actions on the soccer field will have more severe and widespread consequences than she realizes. In case you missed the video which was all over the news and viral on Youtube, Lambert played an EXTREMELY dirty game against BYU. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNmPybFK2_o Lambert punched, tripped, elbowed and hair-pulled her way to national villany all in the course of one game. Maybe she has something against Mormans...?
Seriously though, this kind of play is absolutely unacceptable at any level, but at a high level like college soccer whre you have younger girls looking up to you. Lambert's actions reflect badly on her her family, the New Mexico socer program as a whole, and unfortunately, women's soccer. It rflects very well on the BYU players that there was no ovious retaliation and they wonthe game regardless of their opponents blatent and violent disregard for the rules.
Also, where was the ref? She should have gotten a straight red for the hair pulling alone. Where were her teammates? They should have told her to cool it. Where was the coach? He should have pulled her after the first hin of dirty play. Where is her conscience? She didn't even give a proper apology (read the article below) just saying that that's not who she is or how she plays. Obviously it is. This was not an isolated incident but a series of cheap shots and blatent attacks. She shows no remorse, only regretting the image it has given her.
Either she does not have the skills to defend properly and cleanly or does not have a conscience. Either way, she needs to be dropped from the program or at least suspended for a lengthy period of time.
And lastly, blaming it on her gender is not only wrong but absolutely infuriating. The reason it got covereage was not because she is a woman, but because her behavior was absolutely attrocious, for either gender. Women's soccer can be rough, and tends to be more rough than the men's game because women seem to spread/pass the ball less and tend to play close and attack the ball rather than containing defensvely like you would see in a men's game.
Anyway, I'll end this rant with a statement and solution. Lambert deserves to be suspended and humiliated like Zinedine Zidane in the world cup. (I doubt her reason was as good as Zizou's, at least he was retaliating, not instigating) The solution: Lambert should be dropped from the New Mexico team and made an example for athletes everywhere, showing that this kind of play is unacceptable. I would even force her to do some community service or something until she's really sorry. Because as of now, she's still making excuses for her behavior and doesn't seem to feel any kind of remorse for her actions.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/post/Vilified-New-Mexico-soccer-player-breaks-her-sil?urn=top,203447
Update: Lambert has been suspended indefinately (like she deserves). Her coach said, "Liz is quality student athlete, but her actions clearly crossed the line of fair play and good sportsmanship." You think? Obviously, overwhelming pressure from the media and the public forced her into this decision, because if she really believed this, she would have pulled Lambert as soon as she saw a hint of any of these atrocious fouls. Unless the coach is blind, she has no excuse either.
And a minor correction: Lambert did say she was "deeply and wholeheartedly regretful" before she went on to make excuses and prove she really wasn't sorry. She even goes on to say that she is sorry to her coaches and teammates and that she takes full responsibility for her actions - before she equivocates again and fails to take that responsibility, saying that she let the situation get the best of her, and that her actions were "in no way indicitive of [her] character." Way to take responsibility Liz.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=4629837
2 comments:
Elizabeth Lambert is a junior at the University of New Mexico, and plays for their soccer team the Lobos originally from California (too bad for California). So, this loser knows they are going in to a game that they will most likely lose and since they do not have the talent to score they resort to this kind of play, it has very minor thought to it than let’s say passisng the ball through your opponents defense and scoring a goal.
The other issue is the where were the referees, were they all older white men with their tongues out, enamored and unable to call the game objectively (this game had so many penalties that did not get called), I mean what are they getting paid to do. Who has paid these guys off? Do we have to change the game where only women referees can call women games. After watching the video someone was paid off, that is my conclusion.
And Lizzy, watch you back and please stay out of soccer (you real should be banned, the game does not need people like you in it), so many will be gunning for you now. Who knows maybe you were just drumming up business for your “Occupational Therapy practice”, yah good luck with that, I doubt your bed side manner is any different from your sportsmanship.
Thanks for the input. I agree completely on the ref thing, I mean, something has to be wrong when none of that was called. There were multiple instances, not just one bad one... and the yellow card she got was definately not for the worst thing she did.
Secondly, even knowing you are going to lose is no excuse. I've played on losing teams, and we managed to play with dignity.
And finaly, being an OT major myself, I am even more offended. How can someone who shows such amorality on the field have the qualities of an OT? I mean, I understad they are different situations, and soccer is naturally rough, but really. Unbelievable.
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