U.S. loses, but Hope Solo wins the “You Go Girl” award
And good for her. Our Ann Killion wrote about this — at 8:32 a.m., Ann weren’t you working last night?!?! Greg Ryan, after the U.S.’s 4-0 loss to Brazil in the Women’s World Cup, really ought to go down as one of the dumber coaches in history, and if he doesn’t, it will only be because of the profile of his sport. Solo thinks so too, and amid the caterwauling that she’s betraying the team and speaking out of turn, does it even matter that she’s 1,000 percent right?
“It was the wrong decision, and I think anybody that knows anything about the game knows that. There’s no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves. And the fact of the matter is, it’s not 2004 anymore. It’s not 2004. And 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. Now is what matters.”
I’m not going to pretend to know enough about the relative merits of each player. But if Briana Scurry was the better player, she should have been in there the entire tournament. It’s so, so simple. Any coach of 7-year-olds knows it. DO NOT MESS WITH THE ROUTINE, especially when it’s working. Usually coaches don’t even like to mess with the routine when it isn’t working, but that’s another story. You don’t show the team you’re worried, don’t create unnecessary headaches, don’t don’t don’t.
Before we let the event fade from memory, I would like to congratulate Greg Ryan for working his way onto the esteemed list of coaches who just outsmarted themselves and — which is exactly what they’re supposed to teach their players against.
Or have you forgotten about …
- Avery Johnson. The most recent example of a coach out-thinking himself. With the best regular-season record in basketball, he decides to A) shield his Mavericks starters from the Warriors in the last week of the regular season, thereby paving the Warriors’ way to the playoffs; and B) change his season-long starting lineup so he could better play Nellieball. It was like Mike Tyson shedding 50 pounds to fight Oscar de la Hoya.
- Marty Schottenheimer. When Elvis Grbac was hurt in 1997, Rich Gannon only led the Chiefs to the best record in football — which meant nothing when it came time to name a playoff starter. As silly as that decision looked at the time, just think about how silly it looked five years later.
- Wade Phillips. After Doug Flutie spent 14 weeks leading the Bills into playoff position in 1999, Rob Johnson got the final two starts — and the playoff game in Tennessee, which the Bills lost on the Music City Miracle. That probably worked out for the best for Phillips, who got to rail against the injustice of Home Run Throwback instead of explaining why he fixed it when it wasn’t broken.
- John McNamara. During the 1986 season, Dave Stapleton was often Bill Buckner’s late-inning defensive replacement at first base. But not on one fateful night in October. (Honorable mention to Grady Little for leaving Pedro in.)
Anatoly TarassovViktor Tikhonov. The Soviet Union entered the 1980 Olympic semifinal with Vladislav Tretiak, who’s considered by many to be the best goalie in the history of hockey. After Mark Johnson scored for the U.S. to make it 2-2, the coach pulled Tretiak with one second left in the first period. Not much happened next, right? Only the Miracle On Ice.- Dusty Baker. Livan Hernandez over Kirk Rueter in Game 7? (Honorable mention to Roger Craig: Atlee Hammaker over Mike Krukow in Game 7?)
- Art Howe. Jeremy Giambi didn’t score, but you think Eric Byrnes might have?
- Butch van Breda Kolff: Things were going well with Mel Counts, so why would the Lakers want Wilt Chamberlain on the floor in the fourth quarter of Game 7 of the NBA finals? Why?
So if that’s the lasting legacy of this World Cup, bravo, Mr. Ryan. No relation. Not that I would claim it right now if there were one.
While she might have a point, it was not right lashing out at the coach or throwing her teammate under the bus. Let us face the facts - we were outclassed in that game and i do not think it was goal keeping errors that resulted in the score.
Solo was right, Ryan destroyed the routine of the whole team and aroused questions about his coaching ability. It was a monumental screw-up and he should be fired immediately after the world cup. Any soccer player that has played at a professional level knows that Ryan did the worst thing you can do in a high profile game like that.
how about we just focus on the REAL reasons why we lost and work towards winning the third place match
I think that any coach worth anything always goes with the Hot Keeper; You don’t break up the momentum of your starting 11. Hope was on a role and should have started regardless of what Scurry did 3-4 years ago. I agree with Sabster the entire game did not hinge on the Keeper.
Ryan lost not only his nerve but his mind as well. What a heartbreak to see the photo of Abby and Hope hugging and our glorious, strong, beautiful players so forlorn and exhausted. Ryan betrayed them. Off with his head. I feel for Scurry too. She didn’t deserve that ending to her brilliant career.
Painful at best, damaging at worst. Does Ryan not understand the critical role of team psychology and confidence? Did he feel no need to communicate with the team from the start about possible configurations and train them for those changes? Does he think this is Father Knows Best?
But ya gotta say it: the Brazilian played some sweet soccer. More of that in the future we hope. It is good for women all over the world.
Can someone tell me if the ref will have any consequence for the really bad call on Shannon Boxx?
I mean besides international scorn?
This was one of many bad decisions by Greg Ryan. He let Brazil get into his head with the GK decision and then let it rule subsequent substitution decisions during the match. That’s what Brazil wanted and he gave into it. Hope Solo earned the GK start and deserved it. She deserved to be in this crucial match. I believe Ryan’s decision definitely had a negative impact on the team and their play.
As far as the comments today, Hope Solo should have thought twice about saying what she did, not because it was wrong (she was dead right…) but because everyone was already saying it for her.
Also, I’ll take nothing away from Brianna Scurry or from the Brazilian team’s performance today…
Solo is exactly the kind of “Me First” cancer no team needs. I guess it was inevitable that women’s sports would eventually have their own version of Terrell Owens or Latrell Sprewell. Absent a formal and sincere apology to her Coach and her teammate, a woman who will be remembered as a legend in the sport, Solo should never suit up for the US National Team again.
I agree the decision by Ryan may not have been the best decision. What upsets me are the terrible examples made of this situation. 1) Solo should NEVER have made such demeaning comments publicly about her own teammate or coach and 2) columnists nor anybody posting comments online should not be in ANYWAY heralding Solo for her comments. This is not what our youths need to hear or see. Unfair situations happen and columnists, announcers, etc backing Solo on her comments relay a terrible message to youths - complain, whine, and bashing others is fine as long as you think it is justified.
‘Anybody who knows anything about the game’ would know that Solo being in the goal that game would not have stopped Brazil from smoking our players up and down the field all game and sticking balls in the back of the net.
US women soccer players have been such great role models for youths and I hope that this unfortunate situation will be forgotten quickly.
Here, Here Doc and Nu.
Doc Says:
September 27th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Solo is exactly the kind of “Me First” cancer no team needs. I guess it was inevitable that women’s sports would eventually have their own version of Terrell Owens or Latrell Sprewell. Absent a formal and sincere apology to her Coach and her teammate, a woman who will be remembered as a legend in the sport, Solo should never suit up for the US National Team again.
Nu Says:
This is not what our youths need to hear or see. Unfair situations happen and columnists, announcers, etc backing Solo on her comments relay a terrible message to youths - complain, whine, and bashing others is fine as long as you think it is justified.
Well… i think hope made a poor decision with saying what she said. no doubt about that. but trust me, she is not your terrell owens of womens soccer. she made comments out of frustration. obviously the best rout to take was to say nothing at all and just go to the locker room.
with that said, hope solo is your average athlete; very competitive, and has worked very hard to get where she is. posting 3 shut out games in a row with an AVERAGE TEAM (remember this US team has been outplayed in every game they’ve played so far) earns anyone, in any country, under any circumstances, a starting position. i would be pissed off if i was her too.
i do expect to hear an apology from hope tomorrow though. like i said, she should of held her tongue. but over all, a very bad coaching decision
Give it a break, guys. Anyone who’s been following this team knows that they’ve held their collective tongues through 8 years of mismanagement by US Soccer. It took the combined effort of established stars like Foudy, Hamm and Fawcett - on the eve of retirement - to push the last incompetent coach out. And they were rewarded with Greg Ryan, whose inability to develop this team began way before his bad goalkeeper decision. The effects were obvious from the first US match of this World Cup.
Hope Solo spoke to the coaching move that impacted her personally. Plenty of other players could have added their own versions. Hope spoke from disappointment and frustration, but propelled the larger coaching issue into the spotlight. Get these girls a coach capable of developing a team that can compete against Brazil in the future.
You’re right, you don’t know enough to make a comment. If you had half a soccer brain, you could see that no goalkeeper could have prevented the Americans from getting totally outclassed by the Brazil team. This wasn’t about goalkeepers or coaching decisions. It was about total domination of one team over another. Did how many shots at goal the U.S. had in the game. Or how many times they mounted a serious attack. I mean did you even watch the game?
I wouldn’t have changed goalkeepers - even though I would have been tempted to change. Hope Solo was shaky in the first game and was shaky in other games as well. So she got benched. This happens all the time at the international level, although not usually before a semi-final. She looked like a pouting little kid and had not an ounce of professionalism as she sat, disgusted, arms folded, while her teammates were out there getting their brains bashed in.
The Brazilians are light years better than the U.S. Team. It had nothing to do with who was in goal.
You know the thing about Americans is that we think of soccer as the same as basketball or baseball. You don’t learn soccer in the classroom and expect it to do that way in the real world. The goalie had absolutely nothing to do with the team spirit or any of the goals scored against the USA. We struggled throughout the tournament. When we got tested with a real team, we put the blame on one person. So Scurry could have saved those shots and then scored for the offense as well right? How about our defense? How about Marta running through them like nothing? How about Hope Solo who let two goals slip through her fingers against North Korea?
The coach should be fired. Then he should get a job with the Galaxy, where he could bench Beckham, to add insult to injury!
“You Go Girl Award” Are you kidding me? Teammates have mentally questioned other teammates and coaching decisions since the beginning of sports, but this woman crossed the line big time! Yes I said woman as I don’t think she is worthy of my mentioning her name. Talk about poor sportsmanship… Are you kidding me? Coaches, referee’s and anybody with a human brain is going to make questionable decisions, but that is the reason they are in the postions they hold. Does anybody remember the 50+ game win streak these women had…I’m sorry, maybe I don’t know a whole lot about soccer, but isn’t that kind of good? HELLO!!! It seems some people are ready to castrate this coach.
I guess this disgruntled goalee won all 50+ games by herself…she defended the goal and scored all the points in those games as well…no teammates needed! Grow up! Eight and nine year olds don’t act like that after matches. And as for the excuse of the team undergoing this dramatic lineup change…in soccer, don’t you have to score goals to win? These women are supposed to be professional, so stop providing them with excuses…Brazil kicked butt!
Anyone who has played competitive sports has tasted defeat, but to act as though you are God all mighty and would have stopped all those shots…give me a break! 4 to zip means you did not score…I guess Goalee Girl would have scored as well, huh? This female needs to be call out for what she is, A WHINER!!! No one person is bigger than the team…she should be made to apologize and sent back to the states! Any guy that would bash his coach and team mate like that would not have got the “You Go Boy Award!”
Think about it folks…we have a serious double standard going here and it makes me sick to may stomach to think that younger kids will read all the kudos this young lady is getting! If you are any kind of a responsible sports writer/columist stop the bleeding by acknowledging this Goalie’s mistake…no matter how much you think she is correct! Question, would you have felt the same if this had been Brianna who had to sit then those same words came out of her mouth? Hmmm, something to think about…
Greg Ryan is an embarrassment, and was rightfully criticized, both by the press, soccer enthusiasts, and his own players. If you imagine that criticism with Ryan’s decisions begin and end with benching Hope Solo, you haven’t been following women’s soccer since 1991. US Soccer needs to make a change, and I hope that coach Ryan gets the deserved sack.
Ms. Solo could have been more diplomatic. But her criticism was valid, and deserves attention. The WNT has been holding their tongues for too long.
That said, all hail the ladies from Brazil. They played with passion, with flair, and with brashness and deserved their success. Sound like any WNT players you know?
Joe G.
I agree. What a piss poor teammate to throw her coach and her fellow goalie under the bus when things went wrong. Catty, emotional and needs an attitude adjustment. If she was acting like that before the game, no wonder she got benched.
“Yo go girl?” Her reaction was nothing but appalling. The world knows the coach’s decision was questionable, but that doesn’t make up for the team’s poor performance.
Could it be that brazil had the better team and the US was just too wrapped up in its own image to see it?
Solo is absolutely justified in being upset. However, she showed a real lack of class by outright attacking her coach and teammate in a public display of selfishness and bitterness.
In her comments, she in essence questioned her coach’s intelligence and insulted her teammate’s age. How is that admirable? She could have very simply said that she was disappointed that she did not have the opportunity to help the team advance and that she hopes she is able to contribute in the game for 3rd place. This sounded like an 8 year old who throws a fit because someone else got to play with the toy instead and it ended up breaking. We should be embarrassed as a country and women should be embarrassed at this example Solo has set for female athletes.
I would have put Hope Solo on the first flight back to the States. She represents the worst of professional athletics. How you can unload on a teammate with another game to play is just beyond me. She sat on the sideline during the game and through attitude and body language actively undermined her team.
Ryan has led the women’s team in 51 games without a loss. He didn’t think that Solo had what it would take to beat Brazil, her performance against North Korea was atrocious. Ryan was right, Gianluigi Buffon or Peter Cech couldn’t have helped the USA win that game.
Hope, just remember you are always perfect sitting on the bench.
For a moment, Forget the lack of sportsmanship on Solo’s part. Forget that the entire team got beat, not just the goalkeeper. The fact remaind that replacing your hot keeper in the middle of the World Cup is a bonehead coaching move.
Pablo,
I don’t think that Solo’s play had been all that ‘hot’ in the only game she was pressured in, against North Korea, she didn’t play well. I have coached soccer for ten years and I tell my Keepers that a goal is only their fault if the ball goes between their hands or feet. Even by that definition the tie against PRK was Solo’s fault.
Solo got the position because she had a big foot and could start the defence with her kicks. Ryan realized that he needed a quality defensive keeper, Scurry (even rusty) was that keeper.
I think that Ryans biggest flaw was playing for a tie and hoping that USA could win in the shoot out.
It is sad that it took this long for the rest of the world to learn how inept Ryan is and I really, really hope that he is sacked and replaced with someone with a clue.
Pulling Solo out when he did was his decision to make, as it would be for any coach. However, the goalie helps set the tempo of the back field and thus, how well the defense goes and how much will keep being pushed to the front.
Brazil played a brilliant and very physical game. They very much deserved the move forward. Hopefully the US will regroup and make the needed changed to keep moving onwards and upwards.
Perhaps the worst thing that happened with the Ryan goalie decision is that he has lost the confidence of the American soccer fan. In a country where this great sport is still fledgling at the highest levels and fighting for attention there really is not room for error (re: the Bruce Arena firing).
As for Hope and the portion of her comments that seem to cut at Brianna, newcomers and long time fans alike must remember something about being a ‘keeper: there’s no one around you to clean up when you make a mistake, so you have to have supreme confidence (more than any other player on the field) in your abilities to get your job done, and that is the underlying emotion of Hope’s comments about being able to make the saves. The forward is covered by the midfielder, the midfielder by the defender, and if the ball gets past the defender the advantage quickly goes to the shooter, who has a lot more options than the ‘keeper does. So, if you’ve never played the position, before you villify Hope for her remarks, go stand in front of that net with someone kicking the ball to “score” and learn just how daunting the job of being a keeper can be. Did she purposely cut Brianna? NO! Did she speak to her own level of confidence in her ability? YES!!!!!
Metin….Great comment!
I echo the words and thoughts of many when I say Ms. Solo was way out of line. Her comments displayed terrible judgment, sportsmanship and a complete lack of class.
Don’t blame this whole thing on Briana Scurry! She did the best she could. The whole defense just flat-out failed us this game. We gave up an own-goal, were playing a man down, those are tough to come back from. Not to mention, we only had 36% possession and very FEW scoring chances. Its not like she single-handedly failed! If you look at the stats, she had more saves then the opposing keeper… She did what she could!!!
“You go girl,” indeed. Go back to the States on the first plane and leave team sports to those who can exhibit a modicum of sportsmanship. Briana Scurry is a class act, and I hope that she shuts out Norway on Sunday. Hope can watch from her living room, where her body language may be as rude as she wishes.
Speaking of sportsmanship, could Cristiane have been any more vulgar in her celebration of what she knew to be an erroneous carding of Boxx?
Julie Foudy for USWNT head coach.
Solo should have kept her feeling private, no question about that. But Ryan should be fired as soon as the team lands in the US. In fact, US Soccer needs a good cleaning out because Solo’s main point is right on target. US Soccer falls in love with stars and plays them no matter how skilled they are or who the competition is. Where were our young strikers like Tarpley? Why was our midfield dominated so much in the tournament? Where is the individual skill that Brazil shows? To suggest we don’t have those players in the US is ludicrous. The point is they aren’t on the US team because they don’t play the game outside the lines. Hopefully this will be a wakeup call. If the same team/coaching staff in at the Olympics we’ll know the end is near for US Women’s soccer.
I bet none of you have no idea what hope solo, or any of these athletes go through emotionally or physically. You dont know what it feels like when you want to win so bad, your intolerance for failure is the only thing that makes you a winner, when you’re competing for a spot that thousands of others want, to be the best in the world at SOMETHING, to be a winner at the highest level, you have to maintain a certain competitive mentality. Some of you dont understand that, so until you do, I dont want to hear about how “hope solo is all about herself” because she is a good athlete at a high level and most of you are probably in your mothers basement on the computer playing “judge/saint”. She spoke out of frustration and I would have done exactly the same, and anybody who says otherwise dont care about winning.
Get rid of the coach now. Get rid of the Americans in the broadcast booth now. Have they never seen the Brits call a game. This is not the NFL.
ew cordon
I think the thing that we have to realize is that most of us have never been placed in the position this person was put in. She’s probably trained her whole life to be in position to be the goalie on the national team. She had a scoreless streak going and obviously was considered the top goalie on the team. And then in the biggest game of her life she is pulled for a past her prime star and the team gets destoryed on the field. Where would your emotions be if that was you? and how would you react to the media after after an intense emotional letdown? We are so quick to judge others when most of have never had a mic in front of us or a reporter asking us questions about any of our defeats in life. Maybe she should have been more diplomatic and shown better sportsmanship but in the heat of the moment thats just not always possible. Lets stop judging athletes by standards most of us cant stand up to.
Ian, did you notice all of the comments from Scurry and the rest of the team ripping Solo for her off-the-fingertips miscue in the North Korea game? No? That’s because they didn’t make any. They all care passionately about winning, but as Julie Foudy has said, nobody on the USWNT has ever back-stabbed their own teammate in a public forum before this.
Good sportsmanship is a real-world concept, and you embarrass yourself by belittling it. Sorry, have to go now, my mom wants me out of the basement (yeah, right).
Ned, how would you feel if you were one of the top surgeons in the world, and someone as important as the pope needed you to perform an operation, and of one that you particularly specialize in (lets pretend you actually care about the pope and is very religious) but the hospital pulls you out in favor of an older more respected surgeon who hasnt done an operation in 3 years but has worked on the pope before, the operation goes bad and the pope dies, and millions of people are in mourning, how would you feel about that?, what would you say? (remember you’re highly religious and care about the pope)
Without meaning to be rude, it is obvious that this columnist knows next to nothing about soccer.
Firstly he starts of on the wrong foot by inferring that the sport has a low “profile”. The fact that in your myopic view soccer has a low profile, means that you probably are one of those individuals that thinks the world begins and ends in his backyard. Soccer is the most watched and participated in sport in the world. The fact that you don’t enjoy it does not give you any right to diminish its importance.
Also anyone who knows the first thing about soccer knows that no single player by him or herself can change the complexion of a game. Soccer is not a one man show. So having the lady call out her team mate and coach like that is totally ridiculous.
The coach should have stayed with Ryan’s Hope, but feeling young & restless he put in a veteran that should have been nursing her old bones in general hospital.
Now I have to tell all my children that listening to the coach is not always the best thing to do. With just one life to live, it’s important to keep one’s perspective and live all the days of our lives with the big picture in mind.
That is, as the world turns the Olympics are just one year away. Our Women’s soccer team needs a coach whose guiding light doesn’t lead to infighting that ultimately turns the team into a Peyton Place!
I feel better now, so I’ll get off my soap box.
Moving beyond Hope Solo’s comments for a minute. The first game I saw in this World Cup was between the U.S. and England. I was dumbfounded by how poorly the U.S. played. We couldn’t string two passes together in the run of play. It looked like 8-year-old AYSO soccer, where you kick the ball as far as you can and run after it. The 3-0 score did not reflect the quality of our play. I’m perplexed at how this team hadn’t lost in 50 games. Leading up to the game against Brazil, my dad and I were confident Brazil would win based on what we had seen to that point. With the exception of Lori Chalupny, we had no midfield. Where are we getting our players and coaches from? That’s the question we should be asking. This was not the same U.S. team I had seen in past tournaments. That was apparent before Brazil trounsed us.
What about the ref? How can we take women’s soccer seriously when it allows such incompetent referees on the world stage. Not only did she make a horrendous call on the Shannon Boxx red card, she didn’t award Brazil a penalty kick on a previous play, which upon watching the replay, was clearly a penalty in the box.
What did the American commentators say about it: “the Brazilian player tried too hard to sell it,” and not: “the ref really screwed up that call.” They don’t even try to be impartial. The American sportcasters are worse than both Greg Ryan and Hope Solo put together, but still not worse than that referee. Are male referees with more experience not allowed in women’s soccer? That’s not a rhetorical question. I really don’t know.
Back to the sportscasters, instead of describing what is going on on the field, they have these interminable stream of consciousness dialogues on whatever topic catches their fancy. They spent at least forty-five minutes talking about the decision to start Briana Scurry and what a mistake it was, never mind what was going on on the field.
In all fairness to the U.S. team, the own-goal was unfortunate and the erroneous ejection of Shannon Boxx so early in the game was more than any team could have come back from against Brazil. We would have lost anyway, but it might not have been as bad. We were playing a (wo)man down for about 2/3 of the game.
Forget about the goalie feud: Greg Ryan didn’t prepare the other ten players to play Brazil. Maybe he intionally created the goalie drama so we wouldn’t notice.
Hope Solo couldn’t have stopped the auto goal or Christiane’s goal from going in (remember, the one she so serenely placed right in the corner of the net at point blank range). Nobody could have stopped those goals. So I’ve got to say, Hope Solo is full of crap at the point she says that. Anything she says that comes after loses all credibility.
Regardless of who is in goal, Brazil would still beat the US. I know Solo would not have “made all those saves”. Solo is wrong criticizing her coach and Scurry in public. Solo was shaky in the N. Korea game by allowing 2 goals. One of the goals went through her hands. 300 minutes allowing no goals. That’s because of the defenders in front of her and the opponents weren’t Brazil. Coach Ryan should be fired because of his long ball strategy, “booting the ball up field and let Abby try to win the 50/50 ball”. There is no possession, no ball control, no imagination, no build-up attack, “just simply boot the ball aimlessly”.
Oh, so now its about what she did wrong? She came out a bit stong on Scurry, who DID have a crappy game, but the coach should still be fired and she should be reinstated.
If the “team leaders” want to be real leaders, they have to keep the coach from shooting himself in the head. If they can do that maybe younger players won’t feel the need to protect themselves by going “solo”.
Ian, my point is that I would probably think the sorts of things that Hope said, but if I were on a TEAM of surgeons (ie, a team whose ability to continue to work together cohesively in the future partially depended on mutual trust and appreciation), I would keep them to myself regardless of the depth of my emotions.
Actually, I can relate first-hand. I’m a goalkeeper myself (nowhere near the calibre of these great keepers of course), and we die a thousand deaths when we watch our backups struggle. I never let on when I think that I would have stopped something they let in.
Peace. Out.
SEND SOLO HOME NOW
When she gave up a goal that WENT THROUGH HER HANDS she lost all credibility in criticizing other goalkeepers in the tournament. Let alone blaming this loss on the GK decision. “Hope, besides all the saves you say you would have made, were you going to SCORE a goal as well?”
DUMP THE COACH LATER (probably Monday)
He knew that Brazil would be an opponent sometime in the tournament. He’s had a year to set-up the match-up and could have prepared Scurry better and had the team on-board with the decision.
Ryan is now unable to lead the team in the Olympics next year (which, by the way, will demonstrate again that the US is NOT at the top of women’s soccer).
Sunday’s champion will truly be THE BEST TEAM YOU NEVER HEARD OF.
Is Jerry Smith of Santa Clara on US Soccer’s speed dial? … I smell a leave of absence from SCU coming for the Olympic Games
Ryan Shouldn’t have played Scurry. She was unprepared, and she didn’t deserve the stress tha was put on her. Solo, some may of thought it was wrong, but as she explained later, she didn’t wanna put her team mate dwn, she just wanted to stat that she thought the coach made a wrong decision and she could of stopped those goals. I gotta go with Hope on that one cuz by the end of the game, they really didn’t have any “hope”.
Ryan Shouldn’t have played Scurry. She was unprepared, and she didn’t deserve the stress tha was put on her. Solo, some may of thought it was wrong, but as she explained later, she didn’t wanna put her team mate dwn, she just wanted to stat that she thought the coach made a wrong decision and she could of stopped those goals. I gotta go with Hope on that one cuz by the end of the game, they really didn’t have any “hope”
Insubordination! You do not, I repeat, DO NOT, bash your teammates or coach in a public forum. She has caused turmoil and discourse within her team and has allowed her ego to divide and conquer whatever cohesion the team has left.
Goodbye Ms. Solo, you have sunk your own ship.
It was a boneheaded move to sit her and since the moronic committees that run US Soccer generally have their heads up their a$$e$ I am glad she spoke out.
Bravo to Hope Solo for saying what most other players wouldn’t dare to say. Even though she spoke of her feelings publicly, but you all know what she said is absolutely right.
She worked her butt off throughout the tourament and pre-tourament games to only bench her in the final. If I was her, someone will be in the hospital for it *cough*…….Stupid decision made by a stupid coach. I’m still angry about the game against Brazil.
On the other hand, Brazil is the better team. Through the World Cup, the U.S team played good soccer but not great. Their spirit are easily broken. U.S women soccer is declining. As for the men soccer, they are hopeless.
Here’s a little something Briana said regarding sitting behind Siri Mullinix:
There’s no doubt in Briana Scurry’s mind. If she had been the starting goalkeeper four years ago in Sydney, the U.S. women’s soccer team would have won the gold medal.
“I put myself into that entire game,” she said. ….And I’ve always felt — and I still feel — that if I were playing, we would have won.
someone tell me how this is any diffrent
Hope should have kept her mouth shut; as someone said, everyone was already making her points for her.
The point I want to make is the effect putting in a different keeper had on the defense. As a defender I can attest to the impact that the change can have. Changing the keeper or sweeper can be dramatic. Decisions have to be made in milliseconds; perhaps the own goal could have been prevented if the defender had gone after the ball with her foot. The ball was so low, why was she trying to head it? Was she in panic mode? The team was not playing well in the tournament, they lost all confidence after that goal.
Good game Brazil. I think the outcome may have been the same, but it would have been nice see a match against our best team.
hope solo is right the coach should be fired what a huge error the coach should be eliminated for the next game
or should be tared and fethered what a fool with a
capitol F
HOPE U ROCK
Hope looks pretty good. I think the coach is a moron.
Here’s a little something Briana said regarding sitting behind Siri Mullinix:
There’s no doubt in Briana Scurry’s mind. If she had been the starting goalkeeper four years ago in Sydney, the U.S. women’s soccer team would have won the gold medal.
“I put myself into that entire game,” she said. ….And I’ve always felt — and I still feel — that if I were playing, we would have won.
I find it ironic that the team representing the U.S. is so outraged that one of their players exercised her right to free speech. She spoke honestly about how she felt after the game, and her teammates didn’t stick up for her. She felt, as any good athelete does, that she would have been the better choice. So what if she admitted it? Hope Solo was betrayed by her team.
Julie Foudy said during the broadcast that she had spoken to the girls on the team and they were questioning their coach’s decision, too. Is it because they’re in China that they aren’t allowed to publicly state their disapproval of ‘Chairman’ Ryan?
By the way, here is a quote made by Brianna Scurry after a loss to Norway in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, when she was replaced by Siri Mullinix:
“I put myself into that entire game,” she said. “And I’ve always felt — and I still feel — that if I were playing, we would have won.”
Will you fools please stop shrieking that tired and pointless “she threw her teammate under the bus” line!?
Hope did no such thing. She simply stated her opinion that she could have made those saves. I would STRONGLY HOPE that any good keeper would think EXACTLY that, that they could have made the saves their counterpart did not. What the hell sort of defeatist, loser teams are we fostering these days?? Damn straight she thinks she could have made them, if she DID NOT think that, THEN I’d have a problem. Comments like that should MOTIVATE her team and not cause any trouble. It is competition like that that will make the team better, not some asinine deference to whatever they are told is best by the damned coach.
Why in the hell do we (in the US) make up our own stupid names for football (soccer) positions?! Sweeper? What in the heck is that supposed to be? If you are talking about a central defender then just say so. All this crap about sweepers and stoppers should just stop immediately. What’s wrong with the traditional UK terms? We speak the same language and have no need to make up new terms!
Hope was absolutely right in her comments and I don’t fault her at all for the timing. Ryan was an idiot to make the move he did when he did it. Hope earned the starting spot and proved again and again over during the team’s winning streak that she deserved to continue to start. Everybody is rallying around Ryan when he, with his poor decision, did the most damage to the US for the Brazil match. Further, I think it is even worse that Hope’s so called team mates failed to support her in this with their detracting comments. And, finally, Julie Foudy and Brandi Chastain need to keep their noses out of it. The fact that they played with Surry is irrelevant to the current situation. Hope is the better keeper at this point in time and should have been on the field!!!
The issue is not about the coach’s roster decision; the issue is about professionalism. So Ms. Solo’s Big Mouth episode put her square in the corner of athletes who really do believe their own press. Just how is the team supposed to play with Miss Bigger Than Life now that she’s on BFF terms with the press? Hope Solo commited a heinous act against an inviolable body: her team. Her need to express what she was really thinking and really feeling became bigger than the needs and ambitions of her team. Just a reminder: it’s not the ‘Hope Solo and the US National Team’ on the roster. The beauty of all this now is that her future lies in coaching. Can’t wait to see some little girl step and tell I Don’t Need You I Work Solo her business on starting rosters. What goes around, comes around….
The taxspayers of the State of Washington are gloomy and depressed today as Hope is barely literate in her emotional, rambling defense of herself on her myspace page. She, a graduate of one of the best public schools in the country, the famed University of Washington. God, what an embarrassment she is. She speaks of her professional duty: she*is*clueless. In the business world she would have been sacked on the spot, but not by her teammates.
Before the Brazil match, it was pointed out that Scurry had been in goal when the US beat Brazil in June of this year and that’s the reason Ryan wanted her as GK. Ryan apparently thought Scurry’s style was better suited to Brazil’s game than Solo’s. I’m not claiming Ryan’s decision was the right one, but he did seem to have a legitimate reason to do what he did, and most media folks who only started covering the WC since Solo’s outburst have neglected to mention this. Bottom line, the US team can now, with 20/20 hindsight, blame Solo for their problems instead of focusing on the fact that the Brazilian team appeared to be better conditioned, faster, quicker, and more creative. Yes, the Boxx red card was unfortunate, but the US was outclassed from the beginning. The looked slow, flat, and couldn’t pass the ball accurately. The better team won and I can live with that.
well…what do you expect from a ‘coach’ who was probably coaching little league a few years ago, and also got fired there. (get’s me thinking, the Dodgers should have brought back Garvey, Russell, Cey and Lopes. They then would have made the playoffs).
Terrible coaching, couldn’t handle the pressure of playing Brazil. The US needs quality coaches, both Ryan and Bradley (men’s national team) need to be fired, plus the genious directing US Soccer ‘Gullati’ (or whatever his name is). The US won’t be winning any Cups with coaches like those two losers.
I can’t judge Solo, although I sympathize with her. She should have been in the net that game. NO person can say the result would have been the same. No one knows what the result would have been. with three clean sheets during the Cup, she should have been there.
Best of luck SOLO! don’t let all these losers take away your soccer spirit! (I support you 100%)
OK, she made a mistake. Throw under the bus why don’t we? She would have made several of those plays. Have any of you seen her play? She goes after the ball and gets it. In the blame game everybody gets a little here. The coach made many mistakes that led to own goals, confused and lethargic play. Then 10 against 11
how could that work. One player doesn’t make that much of a difference? Ok no
Michael Jordan in the NBA finals, No Peyton Manning in the Super Bowl, no Curt
Schilling in the World Series and surely one of Lance Armstrongs teamates could have won 1 of those 7 in a row Tour de Frances’. My idea is a new coach, retire the
“old guard”, forgive the player and lets get back to winning attitude and play.
Goalies are a different breed. They have to be treated as such. They are loners. Coaches can easily mess up goalies. Take Patrick Roy for instance. He left Montreal because he thought the coach made him look bad. Even Scurry made derrogatory comments about Siri Mullinax a couple of years ago.
This is several days after the fact and I don’t hear the other players standing up for the Idiot Ryan. Do you?
It is the coaches duty and responsibility to try and put the right personnel on the field. Greg Ryan was doing just that when he Chose Briana over Hope for the Brazil game. His reasoning was sound. Scurry had never lost to Brazil in all her 12 or so years on the National team…..and it’s not like she’s some “nobody”. She was the starter and Star Goalie for most of those years.
Coach Ryan’s decision was a reasonable judgment call. Anybody who says otherwise has no concept of what it takes to coach a “goalie based” team sport. Sometimes you just have to go with the person who has more experience. Changing the goalie should have had no effect on the so called team chemistry. It was still the same starting 10 players. So how was the chemistry changed?
We lost for 3 reasons 1) because we put a goal in our own net and that just sucked the air right out of us, 2) The brutally bad Red Card on Boxx just sealed our fate. There was absolutely no way we were going to score goals a man down…..and 3) Brazil beat us to just about every ball all night long. The were better, more talented, more skillful and played like a team much better than we did. That’s why they won. Not because of a goalie switch.
They would have beaten us even if we had Casey Keller in goal. They were the better team that night. It’s unfair to heap all that on Coach Ryan. They players need to stand up and take responsibility. Coach Ryan had nothing to do with the wimpy effort we put forth on the field. That is on the players, not the coach.
Morons are criticising Solo for speaking the truth. Fire Ryan now and get a new coach who understands that a goalkeeper who is coming off 3 straight shutouts deserves to play. Solo is the best goalkeeper in the world.
Ryan was wrong and Solo was wrong. Last time I checked two wrongs don’t make a right.
Talented athletes seldom accentuate their own credentials, the fans, federations, media, team mates and more importantly the results will do it for them!
Greg Ryan should be fired immediately. He made the dumbest coaching move in the history of women’s soccer. You don’t bench a goalkeeper coming off three straight shutouts. Solo was right to speak out, and SHAME ON THE TEAM for leaving her off the roster. I just lost all respect for them. Dump Ryan, Kristine Lilly, and Scurry, and get some younger players and a coach who knows how to treat players.