In the 2016 NWSL semifinal, the then-Western New York Flash took on the Portland Thorns and, under the somnolent gaze of center referee Marco Vega, beat the living bejesus out of them.
No, I’m not talking about the final score.
I mean that Western New York’s players took the opportunity given them by a referee who considered anything less than forty stitches or a gunshot wound incidental contact to whale the tar out of Portland’s key players.
Gee, I hear you say, that was a whole year and another season, ago. Surely a fine player like, say, Tobin Heath couldn’t have run out on the Orlando pitch still holding a grudge for things that happened in that 2016 semifinal.