With Wambach’s family flown in from upstate NY and 32,950 fans in the crowd, the Superdome of New Orleans was filled with expectation.
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Ahead of her last worldwide match for the US women’s team, Abby Wambach didn’t pull any punches in her assessment of the current state of the men’s game.
China, however, didn’t care to stick to the script and had no problem playing party spoiler on Wednesday night.
A 1-0 victory for China ends a staggering 104-match unbeaten streak at home for the U.S. women, stretching back to 2004.
‘It seems to me there are too many egos in our men’s program right now and the bigger ego of all of them is the one who is leading the charge, ‘ said Wambach.
Wambach, 35, did not find her farewell goal, despite her teammates’ best efforts. She put two headers toward goal in the first 2 minutes, but both were blocked away by defenders.
The Americans almost tied China in the 87th minute when Lindsey Horan beat goalkeeper Zhao Lina, but Horan was ruled just a step offside when she received the pass from Christen Press.
In the 72nd minute, in her 256th appearance, her career was over.
While those criticisms can be justified, and have been debated many times before, Wambach may have run into trouble when she took shots at Klinsmann’s approach to recruiting dual-national players. I mean, I grew up as a part of this whole system, and I feel like it is a part of me, and I think there’s players in that locker room who, if you go three-and-out in the World Cup, they’ll go back to their club teams and won’t even blink twice.
“I love Jermaine Jones, I love watching him play, and I love Fabian Johnson – and he plays in Germany and is actually killing it right now, after being sent home (from the USMNT) for ‘faking an injury, ‘” added Wambach, who scored a record 184 goals for her country.
Julie Foudy reflects on Abby Wambach’s historic 14-year career and her impact on women’s soccer. No longer was it about preparing for Olympic qualifying or who coach Jill Ellis may be evaluating as a newcomer – it was all about bidding farewell.
Abby Wambach is one of the legends of American soccer.
When asked what she would fix about the men’s team, Wambach again called out Klinsmann, whose team suffered a surprise defeat to Jamaica in the CONCACAF Gold Cup semi-finals earlier this year.
One fan said, “She always pushes herself and other people to do better things and accomplish your goals”. Going into Wednesday’s match, the US was undefeated in 26 straight games against China, last losing in 2003. “They’ve allowed me to express who and what I wanted to be and be the dreamer that I’ve always been”, Wambach said.
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It was perhaps a regrettable twist of irony that Wambach’s final appearance came on the exact sort of turf she railed against so much this year: uneven artificial turf on an American football field. Not with a ball and cleats, but with her words and actions.
