U.S. Leading Scorer Abby Wambach To Miss Olympics With Broken Leg
Abby Wambach, the top scorer for the U.S. Women's National Team broke her leg in the final game before the Olympics against Brazil Wednesday in San Diego, and will miss the games in China.
"Obviously, it's devastating, but above everything else, I'm only one player, and you can never win a championship with just one player," said Wambach, a resident of Hermosa Beach. "I have the utmost confidence in this team bringing home the gold."
Laudable comments from Wambach, but this is nothing short of a disaster for the U.S.
As the U.S. Soccer press release points out:
Wambach is the USA's leading scorer this year with 13 goals and 10 assists. She has led the team in scoring in the last three world championships and is one of the top scorers in U.S. history with 99 goals in 127 games.
In other words, Wambach is quite simply irreplaceable and the American gold medal hopes have been dealt a crushing, and potentially fatal, blow.
It's almost irrelevant, but the U.S. won the game 1-0.
Here are more details on what sounds like a particularly nasty injury and the game from the Associated Press.
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About 100 Percent Soccer
Sportswriter Nick Green has written the 100 Percent Soccer column since 2005 for the Daily News, Daily Breeze and other Los Angeles area newspapers. The blog of the same name began in 2007. A native of England, he began writing about soccer in the mid-1980s and in 2000 permanently exchanged a seat in the stands for one in the press box. He lives six miles from Carson's Home Depot Center, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas USA and the training headquarters for U.S. Soccer and is married to a long-suffering soccer widow. Join Nick on FaceBook and follow him on Twitter.
Sorry, Nick, but this is not a disaster for the U.S. I know Wambach is one of the national team's all-time leading scorers but she got many of those goals as the focal point of Greg Ryan's Route 1 approach to offense. Pia Sundhage has an entirely different approach, more possession and passing oriented, which will allow players like Amy Rodriguez and Aly Wagner to get their due.
Besides, after what Wambach, Lilly and Whitehill did to Hope Solo at the Women's World Cup last year -- their despicable conspiracy against her for having made the unforgivable mistake of speaking her mind in the heat of the moment and under emotional duress -- I have no sympathy for Wambach -- none whatsoever. The grist mills of the gods grind slowly, but grind finely, indeed. IOW, karma truly is a bitch.