Abby Wambach says teammates 'purposefully' given yellow cards by ref

Martin Rogers | USA TODAY Sports

Show Caption Hide Caption Women's World Cup: U.S. advances, but questions still remain USA Today Sports' Martin Rogers recaps the Women's World Cup match between the U.S. and Colombia.

EDMONTON, Alberta — Abby Wambach controversially suggested that U.S. midfielders Megan Rapinoe and Lauren Holiday had been "purposefully" given the yellow cards that will cause them to be banned for the Women's World Cup quarterfinal.

Rapinoe and Holiday both received their second yellow cards of the tournament during the USA's 2-0 victory over Colombia in the round of 16 and will miss Friday's quarterfinal against China.

The Americans were generally disappointed in the performance of French referee Stephanie Frappart, but Wambach gave the strongest response when quizzed about whether Rapinoe and Holiday should have been cautioned.

"It's definitely a great question," she said. "I don't know if they were yellows. Who knows?

"It seemed like she was purposefully giving those yellows 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's comments could even lead to a "FIFA reprimand." Soccer's governing body takes a dim view of criticism that appears to question the impartiality of referees. Canada's Christine Sinclair was handed a four-game ban for accusing a referee of having "decided the result before it started," although she was cleared to take part in the bronze medal match of the 2012 Olympic Games.

If FIFA decided to investigate Wambach's comments, however, the American may have a defense against any action as her comments were not a definitive accusation, in contrast to Sinclair.

Women's World Cup preview: USA vs. China USA Today Sports' Nancy Armour previews the quarterfinal match between the U.S. vs. China.

On Monday, the U.S. was awarded two penalties by Frappart; one that was missed wide left by Wambach and another that was successfully converted by Carli Lloyd. However, the calls that will cause Rapinoe and Holiday to sit out in Ottawa later this week were borderline at best.

Rapinoe saw yellow after 41 minutes for what initially appeared to be backchat to Frappart but which transpired to be for a soft foul on a Colombia player.

"I think I got it for an accumulation of calls, all of which were questionable, I felt like," Rapinoe said. "I guess you could say I accumulated all those fouls so that's worth the yellow card. But (Holiday) got the yellow card on her very first foul of the game so I didn't think that was that fair."

Holiday was carded for a foul in the 17th minute. Like Rapinoe, her previous yellow card came in the USA's 3-1 victory over Australia in its opening game of the tournament.

Both players will be missed and had been heavily involved in the World Cup so far, with Rapinoe scoring twice against Australia and Holiday having played every minute of the team's first four matches.

Follow Martin Rogers on Twitter @mrogersUSAT.

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