“It’s a lunge; it’s desperate.”
Alex Morgan was in the wars, before and after she evoked Boston Tea Party memories with her genteel beverage-sipping goal celebrations. Mille Bright was the one to dish out most of the punishment but Morgan took clatterings from Jill Scott, Nikita Parris and Steph Houghton too.
When it was all said and done, Morgan scored her sixth goal of the Women’s World Cup and was excellent in holding a high forward line for the USA against England.
Bright and Houghton had been troubled little in the tournament, up to the semi-final, but in Morgan, Christen Press and Rose Lavelle, they were up against it from the very first minute.
Near the end of the first half, with the USA leading 2-1, Bright was yellow-carded for flailing her arm back, as she was shielding the ball, and connecting with Morgan’s face.
After 86 minutes, with England 2-1 down and soon after Houghton had missed a penalty, Bright went full pelt into a challenge with Morgan, inside the USA half. The Chelsea defender was going for the ball but she mistimed her tackle slightly and ended up laying her studs onto Morgan’s shins.
It was fortunate for Morgan that he foot was not planted when Bright connected. The 25-year-old received her second yellow card and was sent off for the closing stages.
Post-match, England boss Phil Neville lamented the sending off. He told the BBC:
‘Millie Bright shouldn’t have been booked in the first half. The referee wasn’t really in control of the game. Then we went to three at the back and got stretched.’
The first yellow, in our view, was merited and Bright could well have seen straight red for the 86th minute tackle on Morgan:
Credit: RTEOver on RTE, Manchester City and Ireland defender Megan Campbell gave a spot-on assessment of Bright’s sending off. She commented:
“If decisions go your way, the referee is doing a wonderful job and if decisions are going against you, the referee is doing a terrible job.
“The yellow card for Millie Bright, in the first half, IS a yellow card when it was brought back for a look by VAR. Yes, it was accidental but she still made contact with her hand to Alex Morgan’s face. It’s the same thing they wanted Lindsey Horan to get a yellow for when she made contact with the face of Lucy Bronze.
“I don’t think he [Phil Neville] can argue about the yellow card that has then led to the second yellow. For the second yellow, she has lunged in, over the top of the ball and if that is not a yellow, it’s definitely a straight red… it’s a lunge, it’s desperate. They’re trying to get a goal at the end of game and she has just slipped over the ball and has ended up going down Alex Morgan’s shin. For me, it’s a red card.”
Campbell has been an excellent presence on the RTE panel throughout the championship and she did not shirk when asked for her honest take on Bright, a player she knows well from the Women’s Super League, in England.
Campbell is not on World Cup final duty for RTE, but she will join Louise Quinn and Aine O’Gorman at our PlayXPlay World Cup final event at Tramline, from 2:45pm on Sunday, July 7.
Watch the World Cup final with a cracking line-up for PlayXPlay’s first live show
More of the same insight and analyse from Campbell, Quinn and O’Gorman and all in attendance should be in for a treat.
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