It was a sunny but breezy Saturday afternoon in Vancouver, and the US women’s national team had just finished their morning training. The session, of course, took place on an artificial training pitch that had been plopped in the middle of a park with lush, green grass everywhere else. The Guardian asked USA forward Abby Wambach about her new role as a substitute in a World Cup. Wambach seemed to have something else on her mind, though. She said her focus was on getting on the end of a cross against Sweden, which she did, but: “If it’s on grass, I think it goes in.” In one fell swoop, the turf issue that had been such a major talking point in the months before the tournament was back. Wambach had blamed the playing surface for her failure to score goals, and news outlets latched on to it. High-profile voices in the media called it a weak excuse that “borders on absurd.” Any excuse for the USA’s failures to score goals certainly wasn’t going to be met with sympathy. The Americans have had their chances that they’ve failed to finish in ways that have nothing to do with the playing surface….