New Mexico defender Elizabeth Lambert should be banned for life after her thuggish display Thursday

November 6, 3:13 PMUtah Sports ExaminerBrian Shaw

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It’s too bad soccer is not mixed martial arts, because if it were, New Mexico junior defender Elizabeth Lambert would be the Frank Shamrock of women’s soccer.
Telling girls everywhere that hair-pulling, rabbit-punching and other assorted dirty tactics are okay, so long as you get the ball, Lambert certainly sent the message loud and clear that there are no limits in contact sports, just as long as you can get away with them.
Don’t believe? Just watch the video. It took the referee several ugly infractions before he did something about it in New Mexico's 1-0 loss to BYU in the womens' Mountain West Conference soccer tournament semifinal.
Lambert, from Lancaster, Calif., will probably not win any Sportsman of the Year trophy for her behavior, which did warrant an indefinite suspension from her university. The most amazing thing about Lambert is that she is an academic All-American, a perennial honor roll student and by all accounts, a model citizen.
But where did she learn this behavior from? A coach from a former club? Obviously it had to have been somebody, because you don’t learn this on your own.
Was she provoked by the BYU player she was defending? Possibly so; look at the video. Lambert, and New Mexico did accept responsibility for Lambert's violent actions. Furthermore, should the BYU players in question be suspended as well? That is another question that likely won't be answered, possibly in the name of winning the Mountain West Conference tournament final against San Diego State.
In a statement released by her school after the fact, Lambert said, “My actions were uncalled for, I let my emotions get the best of me in a heated situation."
Um, yeah. You think? The sad part about this display of poor sportsmanship was that it will be seen by soccer players the world over, by kids who may not know better and think that this kind of play is acceptable--if you can get away with it.
Unfortunately to some soccer coaches, it is okay. A popular saying is that rough, physical play like Lambert's is "part of the game.” If so, is it right to teach kids to play this way, or is it a crime?
Hopefully, Lambert’s display will get the soccer community to open up about an ongoing problem at the higher levels, and talk about how out of hand things can get when emotions get in the way of decisions made, both on and off the field of play.
Perhaps this is the wake-up call for organized sports, at a crucial moment when winning seems to supercede everything.