Regarding the BYU v. New Mexico game on Nov. 5, 2009:
(You can watch the famous smear video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4Piuuqqs10 )
To begin with, let's state the obvious: Lambert should have been given a red card in this game and been sent off. No one is arguing that fact! Lambert went over the line and should have been removed from the game.
BUT
There is a big difference between a soccer player who should have been sent off the field (red card), which happens routinely in competetive soccer, and a soccer player who merits the drive-by media lynching that has been directed at Lambert in the aftermath of the BYU v. New Mexico game! This was a rough game in which there were many fouls on and off the ball. The first actual blow struck, judging from the video available, was a hard elbow thrown unexpectedly to Lambert's sternum by BYU #7. The officiating team (which includes the head referee and both linesmen, who are supposed to signal fouls off the ball or fouls that the referee has not seen) displayed a complete and total lack of competence in losing control of the game from the very beginning, refusing to punish or sanction players for fouling and just letting the rough play slide. In this kind of game it is the role of the defensive "hard man" of the team, which is usually a central defender or defensive midfielder, to take on the part of "enforcer" and really get rough with opponents who are dishing out fouls in order to keep the team from getting injured and run over. This "enforcer" is an important role in any competetive soccer team, where play is often rough and injuries are common, and this "enforcer" role was the role that Elizabeth Lambert played for New Mexico! The game was out of control, the play was very rough, there were fouls going back and forth -- it was Elizabeth Lambert's job to be the "hard man" in this situation, and that's what she did! She played fiercely and did her job, shutting down the BYU offense (which scored only one unimpressive goal from an awkward header) and keeping New Mexico in the game physically by preventing the BYU fouls and rough stuff from rolling her team over. And if she gave a little better than she got then she should not be hated for it; it is not her fault for being the fiercest player on the field, in fact that means she was mainly guilty of doing her job TOO WELL.
The role of the officiating team in this situation should not be underestimated. For anyone who watches a lot of professional soccer (not including MLS), you will know that when the refs refuse to call fouls and sanction rough play the game will quickly degenerate into a brawl. This is when fist fights often occur in the men's game, not only at the professional, but even at the recreational level! If the players are not protected then they have to protect themselves. The principle is a simple one, it is what my favorite professional player, Robin van Persie of Arsenal FC, said once when teams used to always try to foul Arsenal out of the game and shut them down with rough play. When asked about it, Van Persie said, "Of course, other teams will be rough and try to keep us from playing, but the first thing I learned when I came here is that when they play you agressive you have to play them back double agressive."
BUT WASN'T ELIZABETH LAMBERT REALLY BRUTAL AND HORRIBLE, DIDN'T SHE TRY TO HURT THOSE BYU PLAYERS BAD AND ISN'T SHE SOME KIND OF EVIL PERSON?
HARDLY!
Let me break this highlight reel down frame by frame showing all of the famous fouls that Lambert has been demonized for, and showing why they have been made out to be much worse than they really were. And let's also remember from the outset that this highlight reel focuses only on Elizabeth Lambert and the fouls that she committed during the game,
only the fouls of Elizabeth Lambert have been highlighted, the fouls of all the other players during that game have been ignored! Sure when you take a really rough, hard fought soccer match where the refs abdicate control completely and just let the players fight, and then you take the defensive "enforcer" of one team and focus only on that player's fouls and ignore everything else that happened in the game, then that one player is going to look pretty bad. Of course if you take one soccer player, focus on the roughest game they have ever been involved in, focus only on the fouls that one player committed during that game and ignore everything that all the other players did, then that one player will look pretty mean! But to single one player out like that is totally unfair! Even in the highlights reel of Elizabeth Lambert's fouls we can see multiple nasty fouls committed against her without provocation, and it is hard to imagine that these fouls are the only ones committed by BYU players during the 90 minutes of play! Two quite bad fouls AGAINST Elizabeth Lambert (one a straight red card according to the rules, the other AT LEAST a mandatory yellow) "coincidentally" happened during the 45 seconds or so of highlight showing how "bad" Elizabeth was. Obviously there were many more fouls in this game that were not shown because they did not reflect the story of "bad" Elizabeth Lambert.
Let's break the video down on a case by case, frame by frame basis:
INCIDENT 1:
The rough stuff begins when BYU #7 suddenly and without provocation elbows Lambert in the sternum:
This might not seem like a big deal to some, but you can actually do a lot of damage elbowing a person unexpectedly like this. I personally had my sternum broken during a soccer match from a similar elbow to this one. If you watch the video slowly you will see the muscles on #7's neck bulge out as she throws the elbow, she is obviously putting a lot of force into it!
And from watching Lambert's face when she gets hit with the elbow you can see that it hurt a lot:
