<p>This must be seen to be believed: [Elizabeth</a> Lambert of New Mexico Lobos women’s soccer suspended for rough play - ESPN](<a href=“Australian Open 2024 live blog men's final live updates, players and more - ESPN”>Elizabeth Lambert of New Mexico Lobos women's soccer suspended for rough play - ESPN)
Where were the officials and her coaches and teammates?</p>
<p>wow! this wasn’t just one outburst of anger - she repeatedly attacked her opponents. I agree - where were the officials and coaches?</p>
<p>It looked like WWE on the soccer field. Brings new meaning to mean girls.</p>
<p>I agree. Where were the officials? She should have been red carded early in the match–
blatantly snapping the girls neck by grabbing her pony tail from behind and yanking her to the ground, smacking one girl in the face, obviously taking another girl down by her legs (with no contact with the ball), and purposely kicking the ball into the face of an opponent down on the ground. I did she that she punched one girl in the back but it looked to me that it was after that particular girl had elbowed her in the stomach. Soccer is physical and sometimes you do have to give an extra push and shove to your opponent, but this girl was repeatedly trying to harm her opponents. To me, her actions weren’t from a competitive spirit, but more from her desire to hurt others.</p>
<p>lordy- maybe she should be playing rugby.</p>
<p>Anyone with a sister knows the ponytail pull down.</p>
<p>Wow. </p>
<p>First, the referees should be suspended, no make that fired, for allowing this to continue.</p>
<p>
If this is a quality student-athlete I’d hate to see what a dirty player looks like.</p>
<p>
Yeah, I’ll bet you’re sorry you got caught on tape. Um, honey, you are lucky you aren’t being charged with assault.</p>
<p>She should be playing rugby?? No way!</p>
<p>Rugby players have a saying: “Soccer is a gentleman’s game played by hooligans and rugby is a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen.”</p>
<p>That’s so true mapesy. I have a friend in London who is the consummate gentleman. He once was talking about having played rugby in his younger days, and I was shocked, because I couldn’t in a million years picture this man playing such a rough sport. He told me exactly what you quoted.</p>
<p>Rugby players police themselves… if you’re a dirty player, someone steps on your head or rakes your back with metal studs the next time you get tackled. In soccer, players are more free to be dirty because the ability to physically retaliate is curtailed.</p>
<p>Her actions were criminal in nature not merely rough play. Pulling an opponent to the ground by her hair is battery. Punching a woman in the face is battery. If she had hit my child like that I would have found a way to have criminal charges filed against her. At a minimum, permanent removal from the team should have been the University’s action.</p>
<p>Oh please! The referees can’t see everything all the time. If you don’t have the right angle how can you see a quick pull on the pony tail from behind? This is just a very competitive scrappy player who got caught on tape. I am sure this kind of crap goes on all the time. I saw it on the news last night and the pony tail pull down made me laugh. I wasn’t thrilled with the near kick in the face tho. Didn’t I read that a football player just got suspended for trying to gouge his opponents eyes out in a pileup? Have you ever seen an underwater cam during a water polo match? </p>
<p>Besides, she apologized. Honestly!! SHE SHOULD BE SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON AND REQUIRED TO REGISTER AS A SEX OFFENDER!!!</p>
<p>There should be more consequences than dropping Elizabeth Lambert from the team. And yes, she should be permanently dropped. You don’t give a black eye to the reputation of your school and then get to keep playing. I’m afraid the UNM athletic department would lose both respect and donations if they put her back out on the field. </p>
<p>The coaching staff is also at fault. They should have noticed she was out of control and pulled her during the game. She may have been in the moment, but they are adults looking on from the sidelines. UNM doesn’t need this kind of press, and the coaches were naive if they didn’t think play like that would make national news. I’m sure the president of the University is thrilled with his school gaining this type of notoriety. I’d be surprised if the coaching staff doesn’t get some kind of sanctions.</p>
<p>And those refs, you have got to be kidding me. Both lines men and the center ref should lose their credentials. They let that game get way out of hand. Ladies play at this level is obviously way to much for them to handle.</p>
<p>As a ref, I hated doing high-level women’s games. You had to worry about all of the usual stuff that men do, but in addition, you had to check for fingernails clipped into points, keep an eye out for hair-pulling, and basically worry about a whole host of things that dirty male players hadn’t even thought of…</p>
<p>Having spent thousands of hours at soccer games through the years with 5Ds playing, I have to say that players don’t suddenly start to play like this overnight. This girl is a junior in college and has likely been misbehaving like this on the field for many years. This is unlikely to be an anomoly, and her coaches clearly knew of and supported this type of play. Soccer can be a rough game but it shouldn’t be a violent game. </p>
<p>The referees shoulder some of the blame, too, as they clearly allowed this game to get out of hand.</p>
<p>Not that I approve of her actions (and I’m not a soccer player myself) but my former-soccer-playing H pointed out that in the first incident shown, the offensive player elbowed her first, and in the hairpulling incident, the other girl has put her hand back and yanked on Lambert’s shorts. In some of the others, he says that they are normal plays, or both at fault. (when the one girl is going down, she’s still trying to play the ball, which he says is a"dangerous play".) He also says that it’s fairly routine that refs let stuff happen when it’s both players (though it’s been nigh on 30 years since he played himself; you’d think that would’ve had changed.)</p>
<p>His summation was that she went over the line, but that the other team got away with sneakier dirty plays. (He was a defender, so he always thinks they get a bum rap.)</p>
<p>^That was my thought after watching the film again… as a former defender myself, it’s very often the second offense (the retaliation) that gets noticed. This footage is heavily edited, and it’s hard to say if there wasn’t other sneakier stuff going on.</p>
<p>The assistant referees should have noticed this stuff when they were first getting into it with each other, and at the very least, given them each a warning, if not yellow cards.</p>
<p>That said, the NM player broke several of the cardinal rules of playing defense in soccer: Don’t retaliate in your own third- retaliate in the middle third. Don’t make a face showing emotion when you do- referees notice that. Don’t retaliate if there’s a chance that you’ll make your team go man-down and possibly be put into a position to lose.</p>
<p>NM staff was praised for doing the right thing in suspending her.
Did anyone else notice the ‘severity’ of the punishment?
She is suspended indefinitely from team activities, workouts, etc.</p>
<p>This was a post season game, so she is suspended from what- off season workouts?<br>
It will be interesting to see if the suspension will include next year.</p>
<p>BTW, I was also wondering where you draw the line in what is too rough. At least one cameraman thought there was something noteworthy about her play.</p>
<p>the reason I suggest playing rugby ( and I have a daughter who played- 5’8" 120lbs), is because you play the field and since it is more physical- you can get more of your aggression theoretically out, although I guess the most aggressive players I have seen play basketball
8 yr olds at that.</p>
<p>She was very unsportsmanlike, but it’s a very heavily edited tape, and the cameraman who found it noteworthy may have been a cameraman for the other team? No?</p>
<p>The most physical games I’ve ever seen my D play in have been AAU basketball, for sure…it’s like a street game brought inside. The last time she played in a national tournament I decided would be the last one. OTOH, the girls she’s played with in the ODP
soccer events are every bit as aggressive. A pediatrician I know says that he can’t even believe the way these girls play soccer and that he’d rather put his D on the ice in hockey equipment in a men’s league. And those are the cleanest players. </p>
<p>Still, she was stupid doing that stuff so close to the 18. And the ponytail thing is just unbelievable. I’ve never actually seen that move on the field.</p>