Bye, bye Hope Solo

She was wrong to put down her teammate. She was right to criticize her coach, as he deserved to be. The decision to put Scurry in was... just about the dumbest thing he could have done. If Hope was in goal, would the US have won? Probably not, as they were outclassed. But they probably wouldn't have lost 4-0. That is just embarassing.

By attacking the coach you are saying the other player is not good enough. If that was all she said she would still be attacking the other girl. so you cant say one comment was ok and the other wasnt.

fact. coach is moron. fact. other girl is no longer the #1 goalie. fact. game over.

terps,

why do you keep posting on here, this is letsRUN.com; you said you came on this thread based on the title, you just happened to be on letsrun looking for hope solo boards to post on?

secondly, don't try to talk down to people by saying "most of you are in high school based on calling me middle aged at 42". Most people on here are in college or probably older - I hate to break it to you but 42 is most certainly middle-aged.

As for your arguments, they are fairly weak -- The goal against Korea, it was a monsoon, the ball slipped through her soaking wet gloves, no its not an excuse but its better than just missing some of the goals that Scurry did. Also, Solo only ever said "I think the outcome would have been different" and at one point she said "I would have made those saves" I don't think she was talking about all of them because there was a very nice finish in there that she probably would not have saved. She never came out and said I would have won the game.

Finally, what solo is doing is the best thing for this sport, I am not a huge fan of soccer, save every four years, and I dont believe anyone outside the soccer world, and probably several inside the soccer world, have ever heard of the players you mentioned, and you said "they were left off World Cup rosters"

I work in College athletics and I see this every day with coaches and teams, it was the wrong decision -- you go with what got you there, and you don't dismiss a player just because they spoke up for what they believed in

I'll tell you straight out I know nothing about soccer. But: WHY didn't the coach pull Scurry and insert Solo (what an ironic name for her at this point) after, say, 1 or 2 goals? Is it a rule of the game that you can't make substitutions at goalie?

I already moved on from my occasional soccer fix, back to running threads. I was just having a laugh, not as serious in my true opinions as the hyperbole in my arguments. I'm Irish, my friend, so that's life. After my 14 mile run this evening, I feel at peace with Hope Solo. See you on the running threads.

terps wrote:

I already moved on from my occasional soccer fix, back to running threads. I was just having a laugh, not as serious in my true opinions as the hyperbole in my arguments. I'm Irish, my friend, so that's life. After my 14 mile run this evening, I feel at peace with Hope Solo. See you on the running threads.

big dog

Terps,

You should be happy we ripped Rutgers today, the score should have been worse if we had an actual kicker.

Solo did the right thing. She didn't lose the game, Scurry and Greg Ryan did. That was perhaps the worst coaching decision in the history of major sports, and my guess is Ryan is done next week and Solo is back on the team and starting.

Look, Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain, and Julie Foudy are ripping Ryan, and its totally accepatable for Solo to since it was HER team that was affected by his stupidity.

If you really know anything about goalies, you'll know they are generally weirdos who get passes on stuff like this. Ryan f'ed up and instead of admitting it he dismisses the girl who got him to the semis and wasn't afraid to keep her mouth shut.

I'm sure Solo will feel some vindication when the US loses again tomorrow.

"She didn't lose the game, Scurry and Greg Ryan did."

Hmm...so does that mean that Scurry and Ryan won the 3rd place game 4-1 against Norway today, and the victory had nothing to do with the other people on the team, or does responsibility only fall on 1/2 people when there is a loss?

Apatheist wrote:

wtf. I thought it said Hans Solo and was wondering what happened to Harrison Ford. Carry on.

I love the Austrian version of Star Wars.

Does anyone have an answer about who calls the shots on this team? Who has the final say if coach stays or goes?

As regards the decision to play Scurry in the first place, what no one has mentioned is that not one of her goal kicks went over the halfway stripe and almost all these balls were won by the Brazilians, immediately placing them in an attacking position. Hope Solo regularly sends the ball 60 yards, and sometimes 80 yards on her punts. Second, since becoming the American starter, Solo has not lost a single game. Now as regards her conduct, her father, with whom she had an unusual relationship (see below; and also look at the comments about her ability from the US goalkeeper coach [and what is his view of Ryan's decision?]) died in June, and she had dedicated the World Cup to his memory. Not being able to continue to honor him must surely have contributed to her emotional state (something I would think any good coach would want to consider in judging an athlete's conduct). Maybe her comments should have been made privately--however if this were a men's team I doubt her comments would have raised such a commotion--yet, isn't it possible that her teammates might have responded in the same way, by ostracizing her? In any case, the final judgment on all this will be made by US Soccer. If they don't renew Ryan's contract, this will be their way of saying that his decision to start Scurry was, as I think it was, completely foolish.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/national/2007-07-24-hope-solo_n.htm

ergo wrote:

"She didn't lose the game, Scurry and Greg Ryan did."

Hmm...so does that mean that Scurry and Ryan won the 3rd place game 4-1 against Norway today, and the victory had nothing to do with the other people on the team, or does responsibility only fall on 1/2 people when there is a loss?

Yea, winning the third place game TOTALLY justifies the decison. I'm sure the team had a secret meeting where they said "screw trying to actually win, let's play for 3rd".

We need more pics of Ms. Solo. She is a babe.

U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati.

The reason Scurry was put in net was because she always seemed to perform well whenever she played against Brazil. Ryan didn't just randomly pull Solo for no reason. He took the risk of putting a veteran player in net and failed. Was it the wrong decision, it appears so. However, he did have his reasons for making the switch.

his decisions were apparently based on living in the past.

there is no way the team should have bought this as a good decision, although they had no choice but to accept it, unless ryan and solo had issues we don't know about.

Not like it matters. A scoreline like 4-0 doesn't really reflect badly on the goalie at all, it just implies that the team were outclassed.

Notice the 0 for the USA side. This means that they would have lost had Solo saved one, two, or three of the goals. Wambach should be locked up, by the way, she's an animal.