"It was the wrong decision, and I think anybody that knows anything about the game knows that," she said. "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 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, and that's what I think."
Not sure how I feel about this. On one hand I don't think players should
openly criticize the team or coach like this to the media. I think they should give the event some distance and maybe at least wait until the tournament is over. On the other hand...can you blame her? What do you think?
12 comments:
What she said was spot on but...
As a professional she should not have said it out loud. In fact it sounds like a great Wynalda quote!
Do you think she was snatching a moment of press? It's not the sportsmanly thing to do, but it will make her more memorable than keeping quiet would.
"Hope Solo" is a fantastic name for this sort of thing. I keep envisioning headlines like, "US WNT Gives Up Their Only Hope," etc.
That's funny. Those headlines are all over the place... I think she has the best name for a goalie EVER.
I don't necessarily think she was just trying to get press though. I think that this has to come as one of the _biggest_ disappointments in your career as a soccer player. Biggest tournament in the world, you're the starting goalie, and you get pulled in the semi-finals, against Brazil...and your team loses...and they lose 4-0. I think it was just pure frustration and disappointment.
I understand retired's thought about not saying it out loud. But at some point, it should be ok for her to express her opinion. I just wonder if she did it a little too quickly.
I guess her comments aren't necessary. Briana Scurry certainly didn't outshine Solo's performance, and probably most people watching the game inferred that the goalie switch was not the best tactic. Solo could have just said she was "disappointed" at how the game went, and that would be enough.
It's presumptuous to say she knows she would have made those saves. She doesn't know that. It's one thing to vent privately, but really it's not her place to say what the coach's mistakes were. Is it?
One thing, it's probably far worse to be Briana Scurry right now than it is to be Hope Solo. Scurry had the chance to prove she's still got it, but didn't come through. She's got to be hurting way more than Solo is.
Yeah...I would hate to be Scurry. You just gave up 4 goals and your name is a verb that is associated with cowardice. Hope on the other hand had a great tournament and gets to take the "best name ever" prize.
I'm curious to see who the coach plays in the match for third place on Sunday.
If the USWNT puts their only Hope back in the net against Norway, she'd better not let in (m)any goals because she'd have an awful lot of crow to eat.
Was the USWNT undefeated up until the Brazil game? I feel like I read that somewhere.
There is a stat being thrown around that they were on a 50+ game winning streak. There may have been a PK loss in there though somewhere. The other interesting stat is the fact that Hope started in goal in about 40 of those 50 games. So it is not a stretch to say that Scurry could have been pretty rusty. I think the coach might get canned.
It's Keeper people!!!!!!!!!
"goalie" is a word we stop using at U-7!!!!!!!!
Enough with my personal idiosyncrasies...
I think her comments were premature. They would definitely be welcomed in her biography written a year or 2 from now. They still have to win the third place game and any negative talk now does not help the team.
If you don't play the position any more, you can't complain about what I call it. Come out of retirement and I adjust my terminology. :-)
I still will use the term "goalie".
Anyway...if the GOALies and the woman players all look like her, maybe I will start watching soccer again.
so says a former GOALIE!!!!
1982 ALL STAR BABY!!!!!
Any relationship to Hans?
I think Hope had every right to say this.
Being benched suddenly, and then seeing the girl
taking your place in goal fail to make four saves is
heartbreaking because you feel you could have done
better. She wanted to make a statement to her coach, to
say that that girl had her chance in goal three years ago,
and that now it was time to give someone else a chance.
Hope Solo spoke her mind, and proved them wrong. She
may have been over confident, but look at her now, she has turned out to be a top notch goalie for the United States. Hope Solo is our only hope.
Post a Comment