Well I’m happy that soccer is finally being recognized as something other than a sport for “pansies” or “Sallys” but the reputation being established by people like Elizabeth Lambert and the girls at Woonsocket and Tolman high schools is not exactly what I had in mind.
I realize that women’s soccer is a long way off from being broadcast on primetime television, but the fact that in the past week I have seen more coverage of women’s soccer—and it has not been good coverage—than I have seen in the past year is fairly depressing.
I am all for soccer being a physical game—it is a contact sport as much as people try to knock it—but come on Lambert, what the hell were you thinking? Yes, games get emotional and what better way to take out your frustration than with a hard tackle, a subtle elbow, or clipping someone’s heels, but at least make it look like your going for the ball. Julie Foudy explained it perfectly, “Yes there is a lot of battling for position, some snippy play off the ball, and in the women’s game even some hair pulling, but when you just about snap someone’s neck off by pulling their hair, my goodness that’s crazy!”
At least when Zinedine Zadane head-butted Materazzi it was a tough-guy move—even if it did make him look moderately insane. Hair-pulling is just such a catty move that proves right everyone who says women are too emotional—which we are sometimes—to play sports.
I would love for women’s soccer to finally be respected as a contact sport with some tough, hard-hitting women, but the hair pulling and after-the-fact punches are taking us in the wrong direction. If we want to gain respect for our sport the hits need to come from bodies flying for a diving header in the last five minutes of a nil-nil game, or a decleating slide-tackle on a grass field on a rainy day.
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