New Mexico Women’s Soccer: Probably Tougher Than Cristiano Ronaldo

↵↵Soccer can be a rough game, especially in the top-flight European leagues, where jersey pulls and raps on the shins are basically part of the fabric of the game. But it’s apparently roughest in the Mountain West Conference’s Women’s Soccer Tournament, where BYU beat New Mexico 1-0 in the semifinals and probably only scored a draw in the battle royale.↵

↵↵The two teams combined for what would seem like a stunning 25 fouls, but that’s actually not a huge number: In the three games of last year’s Women’s Final Four, there were 23, 24, and 33 fouls. The shocker is that only one yellow card came out in this game, which seems wildly out of proportion to the amount of brutality in the above video.↵

↵↵But that yellow card did at least go to Elizabeth Lambert, the Lobo who does the dirty work in the above video. Her bio says she “is fearless when making a challenge,” which is a nice way to say she will rabbit punch you, yank you down by the ponytail, and slap your face while you are in mid-air. I don’t know why, exactly, she got carded for a fairly routine trip outside the box instead of the other chippiness.↵

↵↵I do know I will be happy to not play any pickup games against her.↵

↵↵(HT: Deadspin.)↵

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