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Abby Wambach punched by Colombia’s Lady Andrade, gets revenge with a goal

Though the U.S. women's soccer team made easy work of Colombia in a 3-0 win that sealed its place in the quarterfinals, the victory came with a few bruises. The Colombians played a very physical game as they failed to keep up with their more skillful opponents, but Colombia's Lady Andrade took that to another level when she walloped U.S. striker Abby Wambach in the face during the first half.

Wambach was making a run down the middle of the pitch towards the box when Andrade appeared to deliberately hit her in the face (gif of the incident here), sending Wambach to the ground clutching her face. Since the referee didn't see the hit, play continued on for a few seconds while Wambach was still on the ground and in pain. When the official finally realized she was hurt and halted play, Wambach looked up at her with one eye shut and questioned why there was no call.

But Abby Wambach doesn't get mad, she scores goals. And in the 74th minute, after getting knocked down yet again, Wambach got back up and scored with a sliding toe pick between two defenders. She then celebrated her 140th international goal by carrying teammate Megan Rapinoe on her back and holding her bad eye open with one hand.

Wambach was substituted after the U.S.'s final goal three minutes later and she was still having trouble with her sore eye as she came off. The U.S. squad was not happy with the incident after viewing the replay after the match, and Andrade could still be punished after officials review the footage.

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This is why you don't mess with Abby Wambach. Even with one bad eye, she still finds a way to score goals.

UPDATE: When asked about the incident by reporters, Abby Wambach described it as a "sucker-punch" while Andrade claimed it was an accident. From the AP:

"It's interesting - you think about yourself and what you would do on the street if somebody were to sucker-punch you," Wambach said. "And you have all of the lists of things that you would probably do to retaliate, but this is Olympics and I can't risk getting a red card, I can't risk getting a yellow card. We like to call it 'ice' - stay ice cold. They're trying to get me to retaliate, and I'm proud of myself for not doing that."

Andrade called the play an accident.

"Nothing happened," she said through an interpreter. "It was just a normal part of the game. We were both running, she ran across me and we collided. I had my hands in the air. It was an accident."

Andrade also claimed that "the whistle always goes in [the United States'] favor." And that the U.S. players kept hitting the Colombians, but the whistle never blew. She seems to be hoping no one actually saw the game.

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