2012 Olympics: USWNT Beats Colombia Easily, 3-0

Colombia’s Lady Andrade has been suspended two games by FIFA for her cheap shot to Abby Wambach’s right eye in a group game at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The United States sought FIFA review after the game Saturday, and were granted their wish. The women’s national team should be happy with the results.

Wambach was knocked down to the ground by the first half punch, and stayed down for nearly a minute. In the second half of the match she took a measure of revenge by scoring her 139th goal in international play to help the Americans secure a 3-0 win.

Colombian player Lady Andrade caused an international incident when she was caught delivering a sucker punch to Abby Wambach’s face during Saturday women’s soccer match against the United States. Now it appears that Andrade could be facing repercussions.

Wambach, one of the toughest players in the sport, crumpled to the ground and stayed there for nearly a minute after taking the hit to her right eye. Andrade said the punch was an accident, though that’s a subject of some debate. Wambach took her revenge with a second-half goal to help the United States to a 3-0 win.

The U.S. women’s national team’s 3-0 win over Colombia on Saturday turned out to not be that competitive on the field. But was it scrappy? Absolutely. How else would one describe a match in which powerful American forward Abby Wambach was felled by a cheap shot punch to the face?

If that looks ugly, it should: Wambach told Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl that the punch by Colombia’s Lady Andrade was the first sucker punch she’d ever taken, and she crumpled to the ground and stayed down for almost a minute, with the area around her eye obviously in rough shape. She expressed her displeasure with the play after the match, calling it “dangerous” and asking for a FIFA review.

Does this make Solo look petty? Sure. Is a distraction? Doubtful. Is it kinda hilarious? Definitely.

That Solo waited until the game had been over for about 30 minutes before taking her issues public only serves to make the whole situation seem even more ridiculous. Considering this happened so close to the end of the game, it seems a bit unlikely that Solo really had a chance to hear the comments herself.

The United States women are through to the quarterfinals of the London 2012 Olympics women’s soccer tournament, and will only need a draw in their final match of the group stage to win their group. It took them until late in the first half to score their first goal, but they were comfortably in command for the entirety of their 3-0 victory over Colombia.

The game was a rematch of a World Cup group stage match from last year, which the United States won by the same score. It played out in very similar fashion, and even featured two of the same goal scorers. Rapinoe opened the scoring in the 33rd minute, curling an excellent shot over the outstretched hand of Colombian goalkeeper Sandra Sepulveda from 20 yards out. Sepulveda is just 5’5”, and it appeared that a taller goalkeeper would have been able to make the save.

The U.S. women’s national soccer team expected a smoother ride against Colombia than France in group play at the 2012 Olympics. In one sense, it has been, with the Americans up 1-0 after a brilliant goal by Megan Rapinoe. But Abby Wambach’s rougher half may balance it out.

Rapinoe fired a brilliant strike from just outside the box in the 33rd minute on a feed from Alex Morgan to produce the only goal of the first half, then pulled a birthday message to former national team player Ali Krieger out of her sock and displayed it.

After an exhilarating 4-2 comeback victory against France in their first game at the 2012 London Olympics, U.S. Women’s National Team could be forgiven for wanting a less-exciting follow-up. That may well be possible against Colombia.

The USWNT will be the heavy favorite over Colombia, which did not start its first game against North Korea on Wednesday on time, thanks to a flag flap. But that North Korean team thumped the Colombians, 2-0, and Colombia didn’t win a single match in the 2011 Women’s World Cup.