eremonial figure.Less than 60 seconds into the game, she

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Thursday nights game between the United States and Thailand was a great many things. Heck, it was a lot of things before the actual game was five minutes old.The first mile on the road to France and the 2019 World Cup?Not so much. On a night when the United States beat Thailand 9-0, when Carli Lloyd tallied three goals and four assists, the game was about two people. And Lloyd wasnt one of them.One was celebrated as she stood alone in a national team uniform for the final time.One was watched as she knelt on the ground, surrounded but solitary, before the game.Thursday was about Heather OReilly becoming part of the teams past after her final game and Megan Rapinoe stoking controversy in the present by kneeling during The Star-Spangled Banner for the first time while wearing a national team uniform.Neither has much to do with what happens across the Atlantic Ocean in three years.The most important thing for me is Heather OReilly having a fitting send-off game, U.S. coach Jill Ellis said. That was the most important thing, in terms of with the team internally, externally, what we tried to do and how we honored her. That was the priority.On a different night, really any other night, OReilly would have had the spotlight to herself. This was the antithesis of that laborious game in New Orleans last December when the United States tried and tried to send off Abby Wambach with a goal and instead lost to China.In the minutes before the game, OReilly blasted the ball into the top of the goal during a shooting drill. Starting and wearing the captains armband in the last of her 231 appearances for the national team, OReilly appeared more than ready to go out as more than a ceremonial figure.Less than 60 seconds into the game, she got to the end line and delivered a cross -- of course she did -- that Lloyd finished for the opening goal. For someone with more assists than all but five women in the teams history, it was a fitting way to exit. Except OReilly wasnt done. In the fifth minute, Christen Press having already extended the lead to two goals in the intervening seconds, Lloyd returned the favor and set up OReilly for her first international goal in nearly a year. She nearly poached another goal, chasing a Tobin Heath goal into the net, relentless effort that in its own way summed up the player.Even a final act that Ellis made sound like something of an audible proved perfect. When the United States made its sixth and final substitution in the second half and OReilly stayed on the field, it seemed she wouldnt get the typical farewell curtain call. But with only a handful of minutes remaining, Ellis got approval from the referees to make a unique move.Up went the fourth officials electronic board with OReillys No. 9 as the departing player. But where the number of her replacement would have been, there was nothing. OReilly walked off alone, and the United States played the final minutes with 10 players on the field.I thought it was just fitting that she get a standing ovation, a moment to herself in this game, Ellis said. I just felt she needed that singular moment to be acknowledged and recognized by everyone.Left unsaid was that it was a night when singular moments were difficult to come by. OReilly was honored on the field before the game in a ceremony that included Mia Hamm, a fellow North Carolina Tar Heel and former national teammate when OReilly first appeared as a high schooler. But that felt like prelude to the national anthem that followed. After saying Wednesday that she wasnt sure if she would stand or kneel, Rapinoe made her choice.If you hadnt been looking, you might not even have noticed her flanked by the other bench players who remained standing. But, of course, everyone was looking. The day after a police shooting in Columbus in which a 13-year-old African-American boy was killed after reportedly pulling what proved to be a realistic looking BB gun from his waistband, Rapinoe knelt.I never felt like it was wrong in the first place, Rapinoe said of her decision. I never felt it was disrespectful. I felt very convicted in Chicago that night when I took that knee for the first time. And I think that Ive been trying to figure out a way to make everybody happy. Thats not possible. I truly believe in what Im doing and the things that Im saying and the need for this conversation to happen, especially in light of what happened last night in this city.I think, ultimately, I know I can sleep at night with the decision that I made.What some people heard as a single voice shouting Stand up Pinoe was the only audible response, although it later sounded as if some boos greeted Rapinoe when she took the field in the second half.Ellis made clear the day before the game her belief that national team duty conveys a responsibility to stand for the anthem. In a statement released during the game, U.S. Soccer expressed an almost identical stance. But Rapinoe said no one asked her to stand for the anthem and the statement made no mention of potential sanctions. Ellis, too, said she didnt consider not playing Rapinoe. But she also left room to suggest that isnt permanent.I think for me and who I am, Ive given this a lot of thought and a lot of contemplation, Ellis said. And I think tonight I was not going to get caught up in an emotional response in the moment. Im pretty measured in everything I do, and certainly even to the game plan was measured in minutes and that was factored in, including Megan. I think thats just how I am.Now its continued conversations and thoughts on my part and probably with the federation.It took until now to even mention that the United States played the game without Hope Solo in goal, a situation that will be so for at least the next six months. Then again, it took until the 34th minute for the crowd to get a chance to cheer starting goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris in her first appearance for the national team in more than a year, when a teammate played a ball back to her. But for a second-half sequence in which Thailand nearly scored a goal, replays suggesting Kelley OHaras goal-line clearance was either perfect timing or an advertisement for goal-line technology, the defensive half of the field was an afterthought for the Americans.Of course, except for those that involved OReilly, the nine goals they scored at the other end were ultimately an afterthought, too. With apologies to Lloyds haul, history will not long remember the final score of the game. It might well remember the rest of the night.This is supposed to be the doldrums of womens international soccer for North American teams. The United States wont play another meaningful game until 2018. But when nine goals and Solos absence dont even make the top of the page, these are interesting times.So it was left to OReilly, who half-jokingly confirmed she was still sure about international retirement in the wake of such a strong performance, to offer her final words as a member of the national team not about the celebration but the latest controversy.She did talk to the team, that she was thinking about doing that, OReilly said of Rapinoe. And we know, obviously, why she is doing that -- because she loves this country and she wants to see change and thats how she feels, in her heart, that shes demonstrating it.We will eventually start down the road to France. It just didnt happen Thursday night. Cheap Shoes From China Free Shipping . He said Tuesday thats a big reason why he is now the new coach of the Tennessee Titans. Whisenhunt said he hit it off quickly with Ruston Webster when interviewing for the job Friday night. Wholesale Shoes China . 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AKRON, Ohio -- Isaiah Johnson scored 20 points, Antino Jackson added 19 more, including five 3-pointers, and Akron held off Georgia Southern for a 75-67 win Tuesday night.Leading by as much as 14 in the second half, Akron (3-1) had to scramble to keep the advantage after Georgia Southern closed to within three on an 11-2 run capped by Ike Smiths jumper to make it 62-59 with 5:04 left.Johnson hit a bucket at the other end, sparking a quick 7-0 burst and Akron held off the Eaggles the rest of the way.dddddddddddd.Jimond Ivey added 15 points for the Zips, who shot 46 percent from the field. Johnson was 8 for 9 from the field with 4-for-8 shooting from the free throw line, and Jackson finished with 5 of 8 from long range and distributed six assists.Smith led Georgia Southern (1-3) with 23 points, and Tookie Brown had 15. ' ' '