I dare you to do better.

tumblr ate an ask from an anon about the Seattle/Fishlock/Solo bullshit, but i’m still livid so here it goes:

i’m a rather new fan to the nwsl, but i remember watching a few Seattle games and just cringing (I started with 2014 season Dash games, then Spirit 2013-2014 games, then went back for most of the other games). something just rubbed me wrong about the team since the first Dash game @ Seattle, but i’m biased as fuck and i know it. but over this past week I’ve gone back and watched a bunch of Seattle games and I loved their social media blast this week, and I kept thinking “maybe I was wrong” bc it takes a strong team to improve that much in one season. i like how they interact with one another off the pitch. i like their drive.

bottom line, last night was probably the first time I started a Seattle game and was excited to see ALL of the reign players and that lineup.

and then to have to watch something like this:

as a justification for the kind of behavior we saw on the pitch is just unacceptable.

let’s be real, Seattle’s pride wasn’t just injured by a bad call from the PA guy, who has flubbed DOZENS of times, for both the home team and the away team.

Seattle’s pride was injured when they were almost delivered a 1-0 loss on aug 29th by the team that finished 8th in the standings and had to settle for a last minute tie.

Seattle’s pride was injured when their streak was broken with a 3-0 loss last time they were at the Plex.

That’s fine to fuel players and a team. Hurt pride can be a great motivator. And things do get chippy; I think every team has performed less than sportsmanlike at some point. (again, I’m biased but I also am not blind; Lohman’s silence on the Nick incident is still disappointing to me. Most of my fave players can be rather hotheaded.)

Hope was getting testy with the ARs and center ref, which whatever, Ash will charge them on calls and to this day I don’t know how she hasn’t been ejected in the NWSL for it; that’s normal in-the-moment of the game behavior. Nairn told the ref to fuck off last year during the semi so I get *that* type of “petty” behavior when you’re frustrated.

But something was different last night. Hope fumbled that pass 2min in and seemed spooked. You could tell in that PK she wasn’t in her usual “zone”. And Fishlock just seemed to be really affected in the second half; I don’t know what happened, and I don’t know if the shit that went down with the Reign owner was before or after, but it got REALLY ugly.

1) 57’: Fishlock elbows Kriegs. She appears to apologize after, when the foul gets called and when Kriegs appears to grab the back of her neck/head in pain.

2) 73’: Fishlock goes against Ash cleats up. Notice how a) Ash *has the ball in her hand*, b) Fishlock LIFTS HER LEG UP *after* that.

3) 78’ Fish takes Nairn down. could be a professional foul, fine. still fishy considering there was no intention to get the ball at the point unless the ball was hiding in Christine’s hips/waist. she pulls Nairn down. also unnecessary considering there were 2-3 other Reign players that could’ve gone for the ball if Nairn had dodged the tackle or maintained possession.

4) 85’ Raso and Solo collide, Fletcher tries to shield Solo.

I giffed this frame-by-frame, and slowed each frame down to 0.3. So we’re talking LESS reaction time than Fishlock going at Ash, maybe a split second between Hope reaching for the ball and the collision. Also to be noted, Raso leans INTO Fletcher so the brunt of her impact will hit the defender, but Hope’s momentum takes Raso’s legs out from under her, causing the fall.

After the collision, Corsie physically touches Raso who rolls from being on her back to her side, curling up. Fishlock runs to scream at her, Fletcher appears to also scream at Raso ON THE GROUND while standing *over* an “injured” Hope, instead of I don’t know maybe WAITING FOR THE TRAINERS.

Should also point out neither captain was anywhere to be found during this part of the altercation.