Huh, one of my nephews is a hyuuuuge fan of hers. I was speaking to him the day of the Current match (her first match post-suspension) and he was telling me all about this. I didn’t completely follow his version, but yeah, reading the article, I think I agree with your assessment.
That said, I am not super knowledgeable about soccer.
Too bad she missed the match against Seattle though… #PTFC
Here, in the article:
The ball ended up on the sidelines and Smith was shown the card, apparently for time wasting when it appeared she moved the ball under the bench. A second yellow in a match results in a red card and means the player is suspended for the next game.
I hope this helps.
Oh I followed all of that. And I wasn’t saying the initial one-match suspension was not merited. Just that it was unfortunate for the Thorns and their fans (including my nephew) that they were without her services against their arch rival. Maybe she’d have scored a goal against Seattle and the Thorns would have won instead of a 0-0 draw.
While I’m not especially knowledgeable about soccer I’ll root for the Thorns… not least because my nephew is such a big fan.
Now when I was at a match and the fans were having a heated discussion about whether so-and-so was or was not offsides… I have nothing intelligent to add to that conversation.
And if pressed to list every single active professional soccer player I could think of, I’m not sure I could name any besides Sophia Smith.
(Mia Hamm is retired, right? Megan Rapinoe? Wait… men play professional soccer too, right? Ummmm… nope that doesn’t help because I know David Beckham and Pele are both retired.)
Uh, Lionel Messi?
Cristiano Ronaldo?
They even do commercials shown on American TV!
You could say that they know nothing about Law 11. Then, read Law 11 aloud right from your phone.
Mainly, they do not have the correct angle of vision.
You could say, “You know whenever it is our player being called offside (no ‘s’), you folks believe they’re never offside, but when it’s the other team’s player, they’re always offside. Why is that?”
These are my helpful quips for you.
You are welcome!
My nephew doesn’t sing their praises on the phone, so… no.
Uh, I’m not looking to get beat up by angry drunken soccer fans. 
Know your audience!
Uh, I’m sure your nephew is a fine person.
ESPN is on a obsessive kick about “best of the 21st Century”
Here is the women’s soccer’s best:
Um, funny thing: it says “25 best” but then states:
After looking at individual achievements, their performances for club and country, and their overall impact on the game, we were able to put together the best 20 women’s soccer players in the 21st century.
One problem with this ranking is that the number one goal scorer 
of all time is only 13th on the list.
Yeah, that’s not fair because New Zealand shut down their air force so can’t shoot the drones down.
The puzzlIng part for me is why the Canadian soccer folks didn’t target a team (like Australia) that is an actual soccer power? Why the Kiwis?
I think it is as simple as NZ being the first opponent for Canada. And possibly also partially because they are less well known than the other teams in the group so you may want to figure out what to expect.
They play tomorrow so we will soon see what impact the spying might have had. It will be a tarnished win for Canada if they do win.
I would support sending the defending Olympics Gold Medal team home because of the spying. It would be harsh for the athletes as they were not the spies but the Olympics need to live up to their ideals.
If the team needs punished, stick them with a 3-0 loss. Since 2 of the 3rd-place teams advance, and the next game is vs. France, it probably forces Canada into a “must-win” game to have a shot at 3rd and requires it to put up goals to close the gap on goal differential.
USWNT on Peacock today. Guess I’m not watching. Not important enough an event to be telecast on regular TV.
Time to start resting the top players, who have to play better teams (Germany) than this one in three days.
Wrong, it is on USA!!
Nice to be able to start off against a team ranked 64th. No need to send out drones to spy on them!
Apparently Canada drone spying wasn’t an isolated incident