As Abby Wambach retires, Canadian soccer down a villain

Abby Wambach brings down the curtain on a remarkable football career Wednesday night in New Orleans, and with that a lot is being said about her goal scoring, her will, her titles and her legacy.

From a Canadian perspective, her villainy is what I’ll miss the most.

International soccer is nothing if not an ongoing series of melodramas, morality plays that demand a black hat – few, if any players, male or female, have worn that headgear with such relish and accompanying cut-throat ability as Wambach. And in the women’s game, few matchups carry as much of that baggage around as when Canada plays little sisters to the dominant American divas (Abby excepted, of course).

The teams’ 2012 Olympic semifinal was epic, Wambach barreling around Old Trafford like a dead-eyed tank – one minute barking into the ear of the referee, the next slotting home a (controversial, of course) penalty to force extra time, and always imploring and driving on.

That was the Olympics, of course, a stage made for mythmaking and over-the-top pronouncements. But Wambach was never picky about wheres and whens. When the teams met next in 2013 in Toronto for a friendly – the footy term, not hers – she drove then-17-year-old Kadeisha Buchanan into the stadium turf as the two chased down a ball, and all of us jammed into the Voyageurs’ supporters section at that end stood and erupted as one into an obscenity-laden fury. (Later, in the dressing room, Buchanan would offer a brief assessment of her first encounter with Wambach’s hard nose: “She’s dirty.”)

Karina LeBlanc, the recently retired Canadian ‘keeper, was a teammate of Wambach in club football and an opponent internationally, and thus carries a unique perspective.

“When you’re playing against her, you just don’t like her – she gets under your skin,” Leblanc said from California, where she’s doing commentary accompanying Fox’s broadcast of Wambach’s farewell game in New Orleans’ Superdome, the U.S. facing China. “But when you step away and see what she’s done, I totally respect her.

“Now she’s talking about the gender gap – about equality all around, and how that doesn’t cost anything. Sure, men might be the ones filling the stadiums, but we have to make a decision as a culture. Meanwhile, at the same time, young kids can come in now and at age 22 start setting their lives up. That’s the path she’s paved.”

Not very villainous at all, that, and entirely laudable.

But at least on the playing fields, this particular production is more mellow-drama without her. We’ll sure miss shaking a fist at her.