Mountain West girls soccer is hard core !

This story is HUGE and this chick is all over the internet looking like a deranged psychotic criminal. I kind of feel bad for what I’m sure she’s going through. Was it worth it Liz? and I loved you in Election.

Elizabeth Lambert’s unsportsman-like conduct during the soccer game between UNM and BYU was deplorable. I have to say in all my years of girls high school- and now college soccer I have never seen such aggressive conduct. I was horrified by her behavior. She should have been taken out of the game immediately. At this point suspension is not enough. The repetitive nature of her aggressive almost brutal behavior leads me to believe that this is not a behavioral aberration for her and that it IS indicative of her personality. She should be permanently dropped from the UNM soccer team. Had my daughter who plays college soccer in Denver acted in such a manner I would have pulled her from the game and taken her off the team permanently myself. I am disturbed by her behavior, but also by her coach’s lack of intervention. I am embarrassed for my sons who now attend UNM, my daughter who is an alumni, and horrified that her unconscionable actions have made national news via ESPN. After Loxley’s antics and UNM’s initial half-hearted action of a written reprimand , I have to wonder if any action would have been taken against Lambert had not the whole country been treated to replays of her behavior courtesy of ESPN. UNM’s sports reputation is already in shreds and the actions of this one player has further damaged our reputation hopefully not beyond repair. I hope that those who review and enforce sportsmanship -and mete out punishments for such behavior at UNM will take into careful consideration that Lambert’s actions of snapping that players head back by the ponytail, and intentionally kneeing the player in the face after the ball was out of reach of either player could have caused severe neck and spinal injuries leading to permanent paralysis. Review of the tape show her aggression- in most instances- was not in innocent pursuit of the ball, making her actions all the more reprehensible.

How the heck did something like this get past the officials and coaches? OK, one thing happens, but so many of those fouls deserved yellow or straight red cards.

While Lambert’s actions are not to be excused, has anyone thought about WHY she was playing dirty?? This is the result of pent up aggression caused by the other team as well.

Even if the officials never saw the infractions, the coaches are still responsible to expect good sportsmanship from their players. The coach should have removed Lambert from the game long before the hair pulling incident to remind her to be a good sport. A suspension means little considering the loss probably ended her season anyway. Maybe we should sell tickets for her and Locksley to go toe to toe and use the proceeds to pay for anger management classes for them.

In all of the highlights you could see that Lambert was “reacting” to the other teams players. Lambert got elbowed, and then elbowed back. Lambert got tugged, and she tugged back harder. No excuse for her reactions because they were bad. But she did not act like that for no reason.

This young lady should be “kicked” out of University of New Mexico period. The NCAA should ban her from ALL universtities and colleges.

If you think this is harsh…. I am sending this message from Kentucky. UNM is a great university. BUT, this incident has really destroyed the image. This Aw-crap has destroyed all the At-a-boys.

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Liz is NOT a quality student-athlete, and she proves it in this instance. Her actions clearly crossed the line of fair play and good sportsmanship- it’s called “no self control” or “bad decision”. Get her out of there.

That wasn’t a “ponytail pull” . .or a punch! Helen Gonzales told me so!

My cousin went to UNM and I know it’s a great school with coaches and athletes who deserve to be applauded for their commitment to academics and athletics, HOWEVER this girl is clearly deranged – I have enjoyed soccer all my life and supported my sister who was a varsity player by attending hundreds of games but I’ve NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS – the girl was OUT OF CONTROL in ways I’ve never seen in MALE soccer, much less female – if she’s a scholarship athlete she should have here scholarship rescinded and she should be banned for next year until she takes some serious ANGER MANAGEMENT classes – unm had better WAKE up because these scences are being played all over the place and it would be wrong to drag down a fine school because of the antics of one clearly out of control young women – no retaliation of the type she displayed was warranted, I’ve seen guys soccer matches where brawls broke out which were less violent – absolutely disgraceful.

Wow. I just saw the ESPN video and that girl is crazy. How Lobos soccer let this continue, I don’t know, but this game does not seem like an isolated incident.

The coach and referee(s) should be suspended as well.

The funny thing is how she says this is an exception for her, but over and over and over, she’s being violent with opposing players. It’s hard to imagine this is the first game where she behaved this way. Sorry our athletic dept had to have this happen to get national attention, but her suspension is a good first step.

shes hot!!!

If that were my daughter being assulted I would press charges against her. How unfortunate young girls have to see this – women they look up to as role models!

I’m not a UNM alum or a soccer fan. Saw this on ESPN, was appalled, and decided to take a second look on the net.
Number 15 obviously engaged in rough play, but when you watch closely, its also obvious that she was reacting except for the tripping incident that brought on the yellow flag, and that wasn’t flagrant.
It seems to me that the video says more about BYU’s lack of sportmanship than about this young woman. I think this video will get a lot of views. UNM supporters need to get people to look closely and not just get on the bandwagon in condemning this person.

She should be kicked off the team for good. That is quite possibly one of the worst displays of sportsmanship i’ve ever seen in womens sports…ever. Why did the ref and coach not do anything about this They should be fired for not doing anything about it.

Not an alumni of New Mexico but if I was I would be outraged even more. Wow

Its a sad day for soccer in the U.S. is what this amounts too. All over the internet there are people writing idiotic comments that support her actions or justify her reactions. Oh, she was provoked. Oh, its a physical game. Oh, emotions run high sometimes. Gimme a break. This is exactly the kind of crap quality of soccer the U.S. DOESN’T need for publicity. Anyone who loves the game for its skill, for its creativity, for its sportsmanship, should feel outraged at the stuff that was captured on camera. No quality player would resort to the kind of actions that she took. No quality defender would have those attitudes on the pitch. What shame that had to be showcased on national T.V. I hope she never plays soccer again.

Keep it classy Lobo’s!!!!

Oh and by the way, Elizabeth Lambert says “This is in no way indicative of my character or the soccer player that I am.” Guess what? Too late. Wrong. You can’t take back your actions on the field. My coach has always said that you let your actions speak for themselves. No post-match soundbyte, no after-game analysis can supercede what you did, or rather in her case, what you didn’t do on the field.

I’m a referee. The comments above that this was merely “retaliation” are off base. Retaliation or not (and it was), any referee seeing her punch in the back would have immediately called a foul, probably would give a yellow card and could have given a red card. The punch in the face should certainly have resulted in a card, possibly red, no matter that the two players were fighting for the ball. The kicks to the player on the ground should have resulted in the game being stopped at the least for dangerous play, ‘should’ have been called a foul, and -depending in the antecedents – could have been a yellow card as well.

As to the ponytail pull, all I can say to her defenders is, “are you kidding?” A red card and a long suspension are the least of what should result from that action. That was perhaps one of the most dangerous, brutal and uncalled for fouls I’ve seen – ever. Officials should go back and look at other games that this young lady has played in to see if her violent behavior is characteristic of her play.

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Anyone watching this video needs to ask themselves what they would do if that was their kid getting their hair ripped out and thrown to the ground. Just think if she had broke her neck…now are you all thinking she is justified in this crazy WWF style soccer playing?? She needs to be disciplined. She would go to jail for this thing on the street. If I was a parent of that girl, Liz wouldn’t see a field for the rest of her life.

This kind of stuff happens in sports all the time. In this particular case, the refs clearly let things get out of hand. This is the problem with sports like basketball and soccer, which are supposedly “non-contact” but in reality are not. One can give a serious hip check or elbow and it is supposedly “OK” and part of the game. Just don’t pull somebody’s hair or throw a punch because that is “bad”. The truth of the matter is that a solid hip check or an elbow can hurt as much, if not more, than a punch in the back can, but it’s allowed/ignored as part of getting position on the field.

This is exacerbated in the NCAA where a wide variety of refs allow for and different conferences engage in different levels of physical play. What can often happen is that a player who is typically less physical gets roughhoused by opponents in the supposedly “OK” behavior and ends up retaliating in the supposed “bad” behavior.

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SMC—

your comments about refs really only apply to soccer in the U.S. You are right—there is a wide variety of refs—and thats why the refereeing in the U.S. is horrible. Most of these guys never even played let alone understand the game and its nuances. European soccer is about as well referred as possible and they have professionals that referee, whose livelihood depend on it, who train and goto school for it, who get fired if they are unfit or too fat and can’t keep up with the run of play, not just amateurs like they do here. Contact is never “okay”. Lets be accurate—“serious hipchecks and elbows” are NOT okay. They are only OK when the sub-par ref has either missed it or mis-interpreted the rules. Its generalized opinions about the sport of soccer like these which never permit it to be grown well in the U.S. Why must hockey and football rules be applied to soccer? Its such an american way of looking at things.