Abby Wambach: Ref ‘purposefully’ gave yellow cards to two U.S. players

U.S. captain Abby Wambach may have started a conspiracy theory Monday after her team’s 2-0 victory over Colombia to advance in the women’s World Cup round of 16.

Wambach complained to reporters about what she considered to be questionable yellow cards issued to U.S. midfielders Megan Rapinoe and Lauren Holiday, who just so happened to already have received yellow cards earlier in the tournament.

As a result of accumulating two yellows each, Rapinoe and Holiday will miss Friday’s quarterfinal game against China. They were the only two U.S. players in danger of such a suspension.

“I don’t know if they were yellows,” Wambach said. “It seemed like she was purposefully giving those to the players she knew were sitting on yellows. I don’t know if it was just a psychological thing, who knows?”

According to Reuters, Wambach could receive a reprimand from FIFA for her comments.

Holiday received her yellow card in the 17th minute and Rapinoe got hers four minutes before halftime.

“I think I got it for an accumulation of calls, all of which were questionable, I felt,” Rapinoe said.

“I guess you could say I accumulated all those fouls so that’s worth a yellow card, but [Holiday] got her yellow on her very first foul of the game so I didn’t think that was fair.”

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