Backheel Breakfast: Abby Wambach is doing what’s best for her

On Wednesday, United States women’s national team forward Abby Wambach announced that she will not play for the Western New York Flash in 2015 in order to prepare for the World Cup. Wambach will then assess all of her options following that tournament. Notably, U.S. Soccer pays Wambach’s salary, not the Flash.

Aaran Lines, the head coach for the Flash, disagrees with Wambach’s decision and her having an automatic World Cup place. “What I don’t really understand is how can a player make that decision to not play at club level, and still be able to play for her country,” said Lines to ESPNW. “If you don’t play for club in the men’s game, you don’t get the opportunity to play for country, do you? We need to head in that direction of the men’s game.”

The reason that happens is that the NWSL season starts in April. In the men’s game, the club season runs from August until May, then the World Cup starts in June. If a player sat out a club season to focus on a World Cup in the men’s game, they’d be missing 10 months of action. Wambach is missing three games. This is not the same thing.

And, as Miriti Murungi notes at Soccer Gods, we really shouldn’t be presuming to know athletes’ bodies better than they do. Wambach, a 35-year-old veteran of four major tournaments, knows what’s going to get her ready for the World Cup better than anyone else does.

Joe Hart’s 10 saves on Wednesday were the most in a Champions League game this season. (Opta)

Dani Alves picked up a yellow card in that game, meaning he’ll be suspended for Barca’s next match. (AS)

Sepp Blatter is refusing to take part in a FIFA presidential debate on TV. All of his challengers agreed to do it. (Telegraph)

Torpedo Moscow fans have been banned for two games for racially abusing Hulk. (BBC)

Manuel Pellegrini isn’t worried about his job security. (Guardian)

Sunderland have lifted Adam Johnson’s suspension even though he’s still under investigation for allegedly having sex with an underage girl. (Guardian)

Mexico and Costa Rica will play a pre-Gold Cup friendly. (ESPN FC)

Juventus are still waiting for a full assessment on Paul Pogba’s injury, but the early prognosis is that he could miss a month. (Football Italia)

Mark Murphy on the bleak financial situation at Birmingham City. (Two Hundred Percent)

Jeff Prevost on the future of Romanian football. (In Bed With Maradona)

Sid Lowe on Lionel Messi’s performance last night. (Guardian)

The section in which nothing should be taken seriously.

Manchester United are willing to pay the buyout clause for Valencia defender Nicolas Otamendi. (Metro)

Romelu Lukaku could be a £33m target for Wolfsburg. (Mirror)

Manchester City are going to be willing to get rid of Yaya Toure in the summer. (Guardian)

Barcelona beat Manchester City 1-0 despite Joe Hart’s heroics. (SB Nation)

Carlos Tevez was the star as Juventus crushed Borussia Dortmund. (SB Nation)

The Montreal Impact won the home leg of their CCL semi, 2-0. (MLS)

There’s a lot of Europa League. Here are the best games from each timeslot.

Dinamo Moscow vs. Napoli (1 p.m.) - The Italians are in control, but Dinamo do have an away goal.

Dynamo Kiev vs. Everton (2 p.m.) - Everton are, amazingly, the last English team in Europe.

Inter Milan vs. Wolfsburg (4 p.m.) - Even if Inter are a tire fire domestically, they’ve been fun in EL.

And the rest.

River Plate vs. Juan Aurich (7 p.m.) - River have just two points from three games and really need a win.

Atletico Nacional vs. Barcelona (9:15 p.m.) - Barcelona have been surprisingly bad, so Atletico Nacional need a win to keep pace with Estudiantes and Libertad in Group 7.