Hope Solo: Left out in the cold

Back in September, if you remember, the Women's World Cup was held in China. The USA team, ranked #1 before the tournament did pretty well throughout the group stages and the quarter-final.

In the semi-final against Brazil, U.S. coach Greg Ryan decided to bench goalkeeper Hope Solo in favor of backup veteran keeper Briana Scurry because of her experience with Brazil. Unfortunately, it did not turn out well with the Americans losing 4-0. Solo, of course, was not happy about being benched.

She gave her candid remarks after the game:

"There's no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves," Solo said. "And the fact of the matter is, it's not 2004 anymore. … It's 2007, and I think you have to live in the present. And you can't live by big names. You can't live in the past. It doesn't matter what somebody did in an Olympic gold-medal game in the Olympics three years ago."

Of course, it can be argued back and forth on whether Brazil would have beaten USA regardless, but if she did not make the comment about doing a better job making those saves, then most people would agree with her comments that Coach Ryan made a mistake to take out Solo, and put in Scurry.

Keep in mind that Solo hadn't given up a goal in 300 minutes, and Scurry hasn't played any of the games in China.

Well, as a result, Solo was dropped from the U.S. team for the third-place game against Norway (which they won).

Coach Ryan makes his "no I in team" speech to reporters:

"We have moved forward with 20 players who have stood by each other, who have battled for each other," Ryan told reporters Saturday. "And when the hard times came -- and the Brazil game was a hard time -- they stood strong. Now it's the 20 who have stuck together who will be ready to go out and compete against Norway."

Yep, Hope Solo has been declared persona non grata.

Of course, she did apologize to her teammates and especially Scurry, but she held steadfast in maintaining her criticism of Ryan's decision.

Yet, it would seem that most of her teammates have abandoned her.

Ryan said he made the decision to leave Solo off the team after meeting with the team's leaders. Kristine Lilly, who is playing in her fifth World Cup, said Solo "going public has affected the whole group, and having her with us would still be a distraction."

But what about the Coach's decision to drop Solo? Was that a major distraction as well? It sounds like the team's leaders: Kristine Lilly, Stephanie Lopez, and Carli Lloyd, decided to stick with the Coach instead of Solo. Did they collectively decided that Solo had to be "separated?" Were they that worried about teammates attacking teammates? Were they more interested in showing the perfect USA team to the public?

ESPN's Melanie Jackson asks the question: How about a coach shooting a whole team in its collective foot?

Now it would seem that some sports observers have said they wouldn't want Solo in goal behind them if they were on the field. So 300 minutes of no goals conceded is nothing to them? Sounds more of a cheapshot against the keeper if you ask me.

Still, it's sad that none of her teammates have spoken in defense of Hope Solo. She is still your teammates regardless. She is (or was) your best goalkeeper on the team. We should expect criticism in addition to praise. We should admit a mistake in addition to congratulating each other.

I have become a die-hard football (soccer) fan, cheering on my team, West Ham United, based in East London, UK. We will always want the strongest team to be fielded against any opponent. What would you say if the coach decided to pull his best keeper for a backup against say...Manchester United or Liverpool? Most of the fans would have screamed bloody murder.

Coach Ryan made that mistake. The players should have spoken up when Coach made the decision. Did the team leaders said anything about that? Could they have persauded Ryan to reconsider?

But still, while the Americans focused on this sort of crap, we missed a great final where Germany's skilled soccer abilities outplayed the Brazilians.

Link - ESPN: Solo's teammates leave her in the cold

Link - ESPN: Hope Solo is right, and wrong