...and here we see the only downside of soccer: you can't empty your bench when the game is no longer in doubt. Ali Krieger's injury would never have happened if they had been able to put in the second team to mop up a game that they could not possibly have lost. As for the score and the injury itself, you can't expect professional athletes to simply stop playing. That's why you need to pull as many of the first-teamers as possible to protect them from themselves.

They let chicks play soccer now???
GOOD for them!

Adolf Oliver Nipples: ...and here we see the only downside of soccer: you can't empty your bench when the game is no longer in doubt. Ali Krieger's injury would never have happened if they had been able to put in the second team to mop up a game that they could not possibly have lost. As for the score and the injury itself, you can't expect professional athletes to simply stop playing. That's why you need to pull as many of the first-teamers as possible to protect them from themselves.

In a friendly match that's all well and good, but when it matters you've got players who are tuned to play for 90 minutes and subbing them off at halftime can do more harm than good. Strikers can go off after 60-70 minutes, center-backs stay on all match, midfielders have to be prepared for either. That's how things work.

I've seen games go from 3-0 to 3-3 (or even 3-4) in the span of 10 minutes; I've also seen teams with 10 players go on to win the match. If Krieger hadn't gotten injured it would have been another player, and when all of your second-stringers get injured you're farked.

Limiting each team to three substitutions makes things tactically interesting, but it can also screw teams over (for example when all three substitutions have been used and the goalie gets injured, one of the defenders has to step in and put on the gloves). I wouldn't mind a rule where, for example, if a player has to be replaced after a malicious injury (a foul that got carded), the other team gets penalized a substitute instead.

puckhead: nice over the top celebration on the 12-0 strike.
act like you've been there before, girls.

I just watched it again, and I have no idea what you're talking about. There was a half hearted high five and a hug. The coach was more excited than the players.