Video nasty goes global
Tue Nov 10 08:48AM
The world has seen the ugly side of women's football now that video footage of Elizabeth Lambert's savage display has become an online sensation.
The violent femme's performance certainly puts the furore surrounding Liverpool striker David Ngog's dive into perspective. To paraphrase Spinal Tap's David St Hubbins, perhaps too much perspective.
Lambert has been suspended indefinitely by New Mexico University's team, the Lobos, after she brutally kicked, punched and pulled hair during the 1-0 defeat to Brigham Young University in the Mountain West Conference semi-final last week.
Early Doors first posted a link to the video yesterday, and is now sat back lapping up the glory for its small part in delivering some vigilante video justice.
Lambert, who is majoring in occupational therapy, issued an apology, saying: "I am deeply and wholeheartedly regretful for my actions. My actions were uncalled for. I let my emotions get the best of me in a heated situation.
"This is in no way indicative of my character or the soccer player that I am. I am sorry to my coaches and team-mates for any and all damages I have brought upon them."
And the damages she brought upon her opponents, as Lambert struck out with great vengeance and furious anger on any BYU player that crossed her path.
First the 20-year-old is caught digging a punch between the shoulder blades of Carlee Payne in retaliation for an elbow from the BYU goal scorer.
Their feud continued as they chased a long ball and Lambert managed to land a blow to Payne full in the face, before later diving in with a reducer that would have made Ron 'Chopper' Harris proud.
But it was Payne's team-mate Kassidy Shumway who got the roughest treatment of all. The forward fell on the ball after being fouled by Lambert, but that didn't stop our heroine kicking both ball and player on the ground, and later yanking her opponent's ponytail with whiplash-inducing force that left her flat on the turf.
Perhaps you're wondering by now where the referee was during all this? Don't worry, the official made his presence felt. Lambert did at least receive a yellow card for booting to ball into Shumway's face after being fouled by another player for once.
- - -
Let's put it this way: Liverpool's David Ngog had a mixed evening. He scored, but saw his much-championed goals-per-minute ratio drop sharply to just one every 48.3 minutes. Still, on the plus side, he completed a full 90 minutes, and won his team a penalty.
Ah yes, the penalty. Whereas Ryan Babel saw his hero status stripped from him by Lyon when his potentially career and season-defining strike was cancelled out last week, Ngog cast himself as the golden boy-turned-heel in the 2-2 draw with Birmingham at Anfield.
The young Frenchman opened the scoring for his beleaguered team but, with his side 2-1 down with 20 minutes remaining, he conned the referee into giving a penalty against Lee Carsley, which Steven Gerrard duly converted.
As devious, over-the-top simulations go, it was a pretty good one, if only because of the gall Ngog showed to attempt it. It was good enough to trick referee Peter Walton anyway.
All credit to Alex McLeish for not inflicting another dour Scottish whine about the officiating on us all, though. Well, not at first anyway.
Even Rafael Benitez admitted that maybe it wasn't a penalty. Perhaps it was another of those canny diversionary tactics used by managers, deflecting attention away from the fact that Liverpool remain seventh in the table and on a run of one win in nine games.
The draw certainly extends Rafa's case of the second city blues. Despite Cameron Jerome's pile driver being only Birmingham's 10th league goal of the season (Fernando Torres has managed as many on his own), Liverpool's winless league run against them now stretches to seven games.
In fact, the last time Liverpool started in the Premier League without Gerrard or Jamie Carragher was the 2-2 draw against the Blues in April 2008, a match officiated by Walton. Ooh, spooky.
Pointless statistical coincidences aside, Benitez will be more concerned that his third-best attacker, Yossi Benayoun, limped off to join Torres and Gerrard on the injury list. After the international break, Liverpool face big league games against Man City and Everton, as well as a trip to Debrecen that really should not be the do-or-die clash it is, in the space of eight days. Now that is spooky.
It is talking points like these that really show the difference between the different ends of the press. The Sun and Star both splashed the one-word headline 'CHEAT' across their back pages, while The Times, Guardian and Indy at least put the accusation in inverted commas.
The match report on Liverpool's own website described the incident thus: "...Ngog danced past two men before buying a penalty from Carsley." You can only imagine the shortlist of possible descriptions drawn up before settling on one that manages to both acknowledge the dive and endorse it.
Plenty of Liverpool fans came out after the final whistle to condemn their player, claiming they would not abide diving of any sort at their club yada yada yada.
It was a few years ago now, but ED doesn't remember the same chorus of disapproval when Gerrard tripped over his own feet an hour into a certain match in Istanbul, but there you go.
- - -
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "A good dirty southerly, some beautiful Wellington wind, and a nice bit of sleet" - New Zealand captain Ryan Nelsen hopes to invoke the elements ahead of Saturday's World Cup play-off second leg against Bahrain, but may annoy the Kiwi tourist board in the process.
FOREIGN VIEW: "The way we will play will of course depend on the quality of the players we are able to call upon. We will try to serve up seductive football" - Johan Cruyff, new manager of the Catalan national team, wants his new side to woo the world on their customary one game a year.
COMING UP: A hatful of Copa del Rey action this evening, including Real Madrid's attempt to wipe egg off their faces and overturn the 4-0 first-leg deficit against local part-timers Alcorcon at the Bernabeu. LIVE scoring starts at 18:00.
GUTTED Liverpool. Needed to cheat to draw with Birmingham. It just gets worse and worse. LMAO
From jay8my on Tue Nov 10 09:00AMJust seen the incident for the first time on Sky Sports News, it's just embarrassing and I'm a Liverpool fan.
From cadman_2004 on Tue Nov 10 09:02AMLets face it, its sad but all of our teams have got 1 or 2 divers in them.
Carsley was very funny in his post match interview "I would be embarrassed to go home and face my family if I had done that"
Class.
From andy_lycett on Tue Nov 10 09:07AMCheating vermin. They can never again complain about dodgy penalties awarded to other teams. Even the fat spanish waiter had trouble defending that.
From k.e.matthews on Tue Nov 10 09:07AMWill the FA throw the book at him for misleading the ref? Eduardo's was a more deserving pen, at least there was slight contact there.
From rilez on Tue Nov 10 09:10AMHow embarrassing has Liverpool become? Thumbs UP for extremely, thumbs DOWN for exceptionally. Perhaps at long last you sad Scouser's might start actually believing that Liverpool are going downhill fast. On this form mid table looks preferable, still; nothing to worry about, the clubs owners believe "Benitez is absolutely the best in the business" what a joke your club is! Yak! yak! yak! You carry on diving! I'll carry on laughing! Yak! yak! yak!
From pauljudd6 on Tue Nov 10 09:10AMngod did Carsley a favour,
that tackle could have been criminal but ngog managed to save his own health and a long ban for carsley. so well done David!From alpha_omega_zero_2700 on Tue Nov 10 09:11AMIt was heartening to see Loserpool make such hard work of getting a point off Birmingham
From rilez on Tue Nov 10 09:14AMmicpando1 - he gave the ref a hard "c'mon ref" stare while prostrate on the ground - obviously a tip given to him by Gerrard who himself dived trying to get a pen on the 85th minute - he gave the same pleading stare to the ref!! Ngog - then laughed his way out of the pen box with Benayoun patting him on the back! of course he played for the pen - dim wit!
Liverpool ful
From doobie.doobiedoo on Tue Nov 10 09:16AMI cant understand why Carsley went sliding in like that, maybe he should stick to presenting TV Burp.
From jay8my on Tue Nov 10 09:16AM14, Good for you luv, which category do you fall under?
From rilez on Tue Nov 10 09:16AM#5 - He conned the ref... don't defend it! The key point is that we had to rely on a dubious penalty decision to get a point against a very poor Birmingham team in our own back garden! An unfit Riera back from injury ahead of Babel... what was that clown thinking. Surely this was the game to give Aquilani a run out?? I have gone from anger right down to pity and disappointed. To think that I am going the Man City game in Saturday week to watch that s.hite! We are walking through a storm and I'm struggling to hold my head up high YNWA
From who_are_ya_85 on Tue Nov 10 09:16AM19 - GUTTED. You deserve it. Enjoy the crisis.
From jay8my on Tue Nov 10 09:21AM13- are you on crack?
From sean_comiskey on Tue Nov 10 09:21AMwhat a disgrace last night. it totally ruins games. it actually makes you wanna change channel. and i know utd players do it and all other teams have divers but for fsake FIFA / UEFA will ye sort out some law to allow retrospective punishment. Liverpool tried just as hard for a winner as they did for an equaliser, therefore its safe to say that they would have lost if it were not for the dive.
From bobo.spamble on Tue Nov 10 09:26AM19, Admirable!! Acknowledging your faults is the 1st step towards recovery, if only you can tell that waiter... How does he select his team though? I'm thoroughly mystified by some of his choices.
From rilez on Tue Nov 10 09:30AMfair play to rafa for not denying that it was a dive. to any muppets here defending ngog, if your manager admits it then it defo was a dive.
agree that carsley was reckless, and oddly enough if ngog actually stayed on his feet he might have won the peno fairly as carsely might have connected with him.From bobo.spamble on Tue Nov 10 09:31AMcheating scousers yet again....never trust one an inch!
From stuartxland on Tue Nov 10 09:32AM22, more reason for a tv referee? Is there any other major sport that does NOT make use of some for of technology to assist officials in decision making?
From rilez on Tue Nov 10 09:34AMand danny murphy and keegan on ESPN both too biased to say a bad word about rafa before the game. keegan even said that rafa didn't have the resources of Man U, Chelsea or Arsenal! Arsenal? really? and they talked about progress but conventiently forgot the last 2 trophyless years.
in rafa we trust, the league is gone, in early Nov, that must be a record, even for liverpoolFrom bobo.spamble on Tue Nov 10 09:38AMWho_are_Ya_85 - You looking forward to your trip to the Capital of the north? Liverpool Vs Man shity 0-0 draw and 7 red cards each will do as United fan!
From sean_comiskey on Tue Nov 10 09:38AMKev - Gerrards pleading looks for a pen when he takes a dive (85th min) is getting to common to be ignored - when it's not given he just gets up and carries on as normal - thats as much a disgrace as Ngogs High Trapize jump without a net - as he's diving as well!
From doobie.doobiedoo on Tue Nov 10 09:38AMIt was clearly a dive by Ngog. Having said that, Carsley's tackle was late, he didn't get the ball and actually blocked Ngog from moving forward. Benitez should play Ngog up front with Torres. His goals to games ratio is pretty good (even if it's gone down) and the team clearly relies too much on both Torres and Gerrard.
From janadam77 on Tue Nov 10 09:38AMThe bindippers have to cheat to get a draw against Birmingham.
Oh dear, season in tatters !!! hahaha !!!
From nikyates on Tue Nov 10 09:39AMIf Birmingham go down by 1 point, can they sue Ngog/liverpool for the dive that robbed them of a win????
From doobie.doobiedoo on Tue Nov 10 09:42AM#26 - Shouldnt be done then and there, it would only spoil the flow of the game. They should be punished after the match... Like they done with Eduardo before the lost their nuts and let the ban go. 3 game bans for all diving plus a hefty fine to start and if that don't work, increase the punishment until they realise its not worth it
From who_are_ya_85 on Tue Nov 10 09:43AMKev - Birmingham lost 2 points that has the potential to send them down, if left till after the match, the pen stands and resulting goal robs the team of what would have been 3 points, unless you're agreeing to retrospective point alterations also??
From doobie.doobiedoo on Tue Nov 10 09:47AMas a lifelong liverpool supporter i'm disgusted with david ngog, that sort of diving is what i expect of man ure or chavski players
From nigelphysick on Tue Nov 10 09:47AM33, it would only take up to a minute. How long was the game disrupted while Birmingham players disputed the pen? I don't mind even if the decision is retrospective though, so long as the cheats don't get away scotfree!
From rilez on Tue Nov 10 09:47AM35 dont forget gerrard
From bobo.spamble on Tue Nov 10 09:49AM
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