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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- John Hussey had an idea. Turned out to be a good one.The referee and his field judge, Rick Patterson, called over Odell Beckham Jr., then Josh Norman, to warn them that anything close to the shenanigans the receiver and cornerback were involved in last December simply wont be allowed Sunday. Hussey wasnt prompted by the NFL to deliver his lectures to the Giants and Redskins stars before the game.John understood the magnitude of the game, Troy Vincent, who is in charge of football operations for the league, told The Associated Press. Coaches and players were addressed in a professional manner to play within the whistles.They generally did, though Norman did draw a personal foul for a hit not on Beckham but on rookie Sterling Shepard. And Beckham had a sideline meltdown that turned comical when he threw his helmet at the kicking net, only to have the net ricochet off his head.There was even an ejection, the first under the new rule hastened by Beckham-Norman I last December when Norman was in the midst of an All-Pro season for Carolina. But the player with that dubious honor was Giants center Weston Richburg for getting two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties -- including one while addressing Norman.Its crucial for officials to lay down the parameters for a game, and to remind players, particularly those who have egregiously broken the rules before, that they are being watched closely. If other referees follow Husseys lead, Richburgs expulsion under the new rule that was backed by Commissioner Roger Goodell might stand alone.Neither Norman nor Beckham appreciated the words of wisdom from Hussey, but with a clearer view of the potential for more problems that their matchup presented, perhaps they wouldnt have been so upset.And they sure were upset.They pulled me off to the side and said, `We are not going to make a mockery of the game, Norman said. I dont know if that was from the top, or (Hussey) saying that directly to me.Wow. What am I doing? Im just playing a sport that God has blessed us with and being as physical as I can be within the rules and the confines of what they ask us to do. That (mockery) was a big word. I kind of felt bad.At the same time, I appreciate the officials. They really did a good job of controlling the game. It didnt get out of hand.Moments earlier, Hussey and Patterson laid down the law to Beckham, who last week was fined $36,000 for a crack-back block on Saints safety Kenny Vaccaro.That was two incidents fewer than he had against Norman last December. There were plenty of nasty words aimed at each other back then, and some excuses for the near-brawling.Beckham subsequently was suspended for a game, and when Norman signed as a free agent with Washington, it meant two meetings per season for the foes.They implemented a new rule this year. Its basically the Odell Beckham Jr. rule, said Beckham, whose boss, Giants owner John Mara, championed the rule. I had three personal fouls last year, so they said if you come out and get one personal foul and another one for the same thing (you are ejected). Today, they came up before the game and said, if you do anything, were throwing you out of the game. That was before the game.There was no you get a warning. There was not any of that. You just have to be on your best behavior. Unfortunately, thats what its come to. Its not really football anymore as much as it is all the other things that play into it.Beckham has no interest in playing what he sees as a gridiron political game. One of the characteristics that makes him so dynamic is his ability to perform on the edge. He is a playmaker and sometimes a game breaker, and toning down his style could diminish his contributions.But toning down his act when it comes to, well, acting out is a big difference. Hussey, and by extension the league, did not tell Beckham or Norman to turn into nerds. The intent was to inspire them to play clean, but energetic football.Despite a few missteps, they general did. And thats a good thing.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFLWholesale Air Max Plus Shoes . 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Negredo broke the deadlock from close range after a simple move in the 99th minute before Dzeko took the ball round goalkeeper Tim Krul to seal the victory in the 105th.BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil -- If locals hoped to get under Hope Solos skin by heckling the goalkeeper during much of the United States Olympic opener against New Zealand, they chose the wrong material.The chants of Zika that by the end of the game rang out loudly each time Solo kicked the ball were by most reckonings payback for what some fans perceived as the player maligning their country in social media posts showcasing the veritable arsenal of mosquito repellant that she brought to Brazil. But Solo, who previously apologized for any offense given, shrugged off the jeers.The fans got some entertainment. She got yet another clean sheet.If they really wanted to irk her, they should have questioned her workload.Few matters predictably elicit an icy response from Solo like a question, however well-intentioned, that she interprets as an implication that low save totals, or even scarce touches in some games, equals a light workload. She bristled at such a query after her 100th international shutout a month ago against South Africa, and after first diplomatically defusing the subject of the heckling Wednesday night, she again took umbrage at a familiar line of questioning.A lot of my shutouts have been very intense games, with a lot of shots on goal, so please dont take away from that, Solo said. But I will say shots on goal, its not the only stat that a goalkeeper should be judged by. Theres crosses, theres the kicking game, theres organizing the defense, theres positioning.Ive said it my entire career, that I hate stats. ... It really doesnt tell the whole story.The story of that career will presumably reach its 200th chapter when the United States plays France on Saturday (4 p.m. ET), and Solo should become the first goalkeeper to reach 200 appearances. It is a game of unusual stakes so early in the tournament. The winner, if there is one, becomes the prohibitive favorite to win Group G and face a third-place team in a quarterfinal. The team that finishes second in the group will play a quarterfinal against the winner of Group F, which without writing off Canada, could well be world No. 2 Germany.France is the rare opponent that cedes little if anything to the United States either physically or technically. It keeps putting itself on the brink of something special in major tournaments -- the semifinals in the 2011 World Cup and 2012 Olympics and a quarterfinal exit in the 2015 World Cup in which it arguably outplayed Germany but yielded in a penalty shootout.The stumbling point has been an inability to turn laudable possession into corresponding goals.And the best way to prolong that streak is to stop the chances before they happen.She organizes everything, co-captain Becky Sauerbrunn said of Solos effect on the U.S. defense. Any time Im out of step, shell let me know and Ill have to correct it, or Im going to hear it again and again and again. She demands perfection, and shell let us know when its not perfect. I think the sheer amount of shutouts shes gotten, its a testament to her and how she can organize us. Its just wonderful to play with someone behind there that demands that from the people in front of her. And I respect the hell out of her.An outside back more often out of earshot, especially in front of the kind of large and noisy crowds that flocked to the World Cup a year ago, Meghan Klingenberg nonetheless echoed Sauerbrunns sentiments on organizational skills.She also noted the secondd part of the résumé.dddddddddddd.She makes big saves when we need her to, Klingenberg said. When [stuff] hits the fan and we break down at the end, she makes big saves.Go back and watch some of the goalkeeping gaffes in the opening round of the mens and womens competition here to appreciate the value of that.The nature of the U.S. teams stay in Brazil could be in the hands of someone whose visit was once a question mark.In February, Solo told Sports Illustrated that if the Olympics were at hand, she wouldnt go because of concerns about the Zika virus. In explaining the evolution of that thought process, she said this week that she and husband Jerramy Stevens consulted three infectious disease doctors to educate themselves on the risks involved in traveling to the country most associated with the virus (although it has now spread as far as the mainland United States, with a recent outbreak in Miami determined to have originated there).We got to the point where we asked enough questions -- we prepared ourselves as best as possible, Solo said. And we got to a level of being as comfortable as we possibly can be. Im here now. I am very happy and proud to be here. As I said, we havent been to Rio yet; I have no idea what to expect in Rio. But it has been beautiful here. Its been beautiful.She went on to suggest the U.S. media was culpable for scaremongering and being unduly harsh on the Brazilian people in the Olympic buildup. It is never without some merit to point out the modern medias penchant for hyperbole, so point taken. At the same time, a prominent athlete going public with the idea that she wouldnt, based on the evidence she had at the time, go to the Olympics is the kind of thing that is going to generate coverage and feed the hyperbole.She can pass a couple of quarters our way, but she cant pass the whole buck.That quite possibly the best keeper who ever played womens soccer reaches an unequaled milestone in this manner is perfectly in keeping with the whole story of her career. It could have come in a forgotten friendly. Instead it will come in a defining game of these Olympics, against an opponent that might well be one goal away from a floodgate of championships opening.And it comes against the backdrop of headlines that whether overblown, as in the heckling here or her comments after being replaced in the 2007 World Cup, or legitimate, as in the domestic violence case that preceded last years World Cup, find her -- or vice versa -- with more regularity than shots.It isnt as simple as counting saves. There is always so much more to the story of a truly complex figure.I think there is a lot of negativity out there sometimes, Solo said, prophetically, before the opener. So I feel like Im always just trying to push forward and take another step towards a highlight in my career. I think thats just the way I handle things. I just keep looking for the next feather in my cap, so to speak. But more or less, I just want to win another tournament.I think going along with trying to win this Olympics, I will be reaching my 200th cap and who knows what else. The desire to win has allowed me to reach these other accomplishments.This much is clear.Saturday is the kind of game her team wouldnt want to play without Solo in goal.Then again, there are a lot of those games. ' ' '