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Abby Wambach is Out of the Olympics with a Broken Leg
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Heartbreak for the US Women’s National team. Abby Wambach won’t be going to the 2008 Olympics.
In the final pre-Olympic friendly last night, a 1-0 victory over Brazil, Abby broke her leg in the 31st minute in a collision with a Brazilian defender.
The win also featured a loss for the U.S. team, as top scorer Abby Wambach broke her leg in a 31st minute collision with Brazilian defender Andreia Rosa. The two players went hard into a tackle and the Brazilian caught Wambach with a full swing flush in the middle of her lower leg.
Wambach went down in a heap and immediately called for medical attention. The match was stopped for about five minutes as an air cast was put around her leg and she was loaded onto a stretcher. Wambach was taken to the hospital where X-rays confirmed a mid-oblique fracture of her tibia and fibula, the bones that make up the lower leg. The USA’s leading scorer this year with 13 goals and 10 assists will undergo surgery tomorrow to have a rod inserted in her leg and will be out approximately 12 weeks.
She has to be heartbroken, but she had positive things to say to her teammates and the people around her:
‘I want to thank all the fans, the doctors, the players on the team and Tasha Kai for scoring the winning goal,’ said Wambach from the emergency room. ‘Obviously, it’s devastating, but above everything else, I’m only one player, and you can never win a championship with just one player. I have the utmost confidence in this team bringing home the gold.” …
“I’m excited to watch them and cheer them on during this challenge they’ve been presented with,” said Wambach. “It’s really going to take everyone coming together. I love them all so much, and appreciate so many people involved with this game and the team. I put my heart and soul into this game every day, but sometimes accidents happen. I’ve gotten so many calls already, and I just want to say how much I appreciate that.”
Brave words, but you know this has to hurt.
And losing her will make things a lot more difficult for the team as they head to China. Abby has scored 99 goals in 127 games, and the team has come to depend heavily on her. The hope was that she’d score her 100th goal very soon — if not last night, then certainly in Beijing. Now, instead, the team will be trying for a medal without her as she works on her rehabilitation.
To give an example of what the US will be missing, here’s a compilation of the 31 goals she scored in 2004:
And for an interesting personal look, here’s a video of Abby discussing life and soccer at home while she’s with her family in Rochester, New York, before the qualifiers for the 2007 World Cup.
Get well soon, Abby.
That really sucks.
Yeah it sucks but its not devastating! It just means Amy Rodriguez and Natasha Kai and practically every other player on that team are going to score more goals to compensate (Pia’s all about everyone getting in on the attack ya know). Shoot, I hope Solo lands one in. Why not?
I caught the end of the friendly with Brazil yesterday and the US looked aight without her. Still, I don’t follow the team enough to know the full extent of what they’ll be missing…
Posted from 
United States
During the game the commentators were talking like this was an inevitability, saying she was being ‘punished’ by the Brazilian defenders, etc. Not that the play in question was intentional, but anyone else get the feeling the commentators thought this was coming?
Posted from United States
Horrible news, not only for Abby but for the team. Hands down, my favorite US women’s footballer. Get better soon.
well this sucks. I wish her all the best and a speedy recovery, and maybe she can pass on some tips to the rest of the team so they can score goals in her absence.
Not good. Hopefully, she’ll heal up for the women’s World Cup next year.
Posted from United States
Abby, we Love you! Take care. Can’t wait to see you back.
Really, it’s just a product of the game she plays; she is physically dominating and likes to get stuck in as much as anyone in the women’s game; this wasn’t inevitable, but it wasn’t particularly surprising. I hope she heals up well–best wishes.
Posted from United States
Kharma’s a b-, and so is she.
Posted from United States
Bfos, I won’t go that far.
But I will say that I hope that Hope Solo (whom I love) has a wonderful, high-performance, stress-free Olympics now that pretty much everybody who was so nasty to her is out.
Odd how that’s worked out, isn’t it?
Good luck to the US women — both those going to Beijing and those staying home. I think healing is still needed in every sense of the word.
Posted from United States
It did seem to me that most players were beyond the whole situation. Even Solo now says she thinks the team did the right thing by kicking her out (the brain washing goes deep).
But, I’m not over it. I pretty much said I’m absolutely no fan of the woman’s team until these players are gone or until they apologize for how they treated Hope. It doesn’t look that that will ever happen.
Posted from United States
Wow, Good luck on a speedy recovery. What a bummer.
AK
Posted from United States
10 days later and I’m still bummed.
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Front page of my city’s newspaper today. (I’m from Rochester) It’s a shame…cause it’s not like we’ve got anything else going for us.
Posted from
United States