Abby Wambach Punched During Soccer Match (PHOTO)

Amy Wambach Counters Unsportsman-like Conduct with Professionalism

London, England – In women’s soccer, the United States defeated Columbia to move team USA into the quarterfinals.

Early in the match, Amy Wambach took a “sucker punch” from Lady Andrade of team Columbian leaving the American player with a black eye.

While it’s true that one you’re number one (Team USA is a two-time gold medal winner) everyone’s out to get you but the strike at Wambach was personal.

“That was definitely not the best part of the game for me,” she said. “The eye is such an important factor of being able to be an athlete. It was dangerous. A really terrible play. Unsportsmanlike behavior absolutely.”

Wamback wonders how the scene would have played out if she was punched on the street.

Says Wambach: “You think about all the things you would do on the street if someone sucker punches you and you have a list of all the things you would probably do, but this is the Olympics and I can’t risk getting a red card.”

Instead, she wants Andrade kicked out of the Games.

“I hope FIFA and the Olympic committee look at the film and say this is not the kind of player that we want in the Olympics,” she says.

Andrade called the play an accident.

“Nothing happened,” she said through an interpreter. “It was just a normal part of the game. We were both running, she ran across me and we collided. I had my hands in the air. It was an accident.”

However, the punch failed to throw team USA off balance and Wambach came back to score the final goal to put the score at 3-0 with her famous ‘cabecita’ (head shot) to send Columbia packing.