Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 1999 Women's World Cup, Arlo White, Atlanta Beat, Brandi Chastain, Briana Scurry, Colombia, Gianluigi Buffon, Glasgow, Greg Ryan, Hope Solo, NBC, Newsweek, Peter Schmeichel, Pia Sundhage, Toni Schumacher, Twitter, U.S. Olympic Team
U.S. Olympic Team goalkeeper Hope Solo will not be disciplined for a series of tweets in which she ripped NBC color commentator Brandi Chastain for criticizing the Americans’ defense during their 3-0 rout of Colombia in a second group-round match the day before in Glasgow.
Said coach Pia Sundhage after a meeting with Solo and team captains, “We had a conversation: If you look at the women’s national team, what do you want (people) to see? What do you want them to hear? And that’s where we do have a choice–as players, coaches, staff, the way we respond to certain things.”
Solo’s tweets:
o “Lay off commentating about defending and gking until you get more educated @brandichastain the game has changed from a decade ago. #fb”
o “Its 2 bad we can’t have commentators who better represents the team&knows more about the game @brandichastain #fb”
o “I feel bad 4 our fans that have 2 push mute, especially bc @arlowhite is fantastic. @brandichastain should be helping 2 grow the sport #fb”
o “Its important 2 our fans 2 enjoy the spirit of the olympics.Its not possible when sum1 on air is saying that a player is the worst defender!”
(Note: Arlo White is NBC’s play-by-play man.)
The response by Chastain, best known for her winning penalty kick for the U.S. at the 1999 Women’s World Cup final: “I’m here to do my job, which is to be an honest and objective analyst at the Olympics.” [July 29]
Comment: We’ve been down this road before.
Solo has popped off numerous times during her 12-year, 118-match international career, most infamously after she was benched in favor of back-up Briana Scurry for the USA’s 2007 Women’s World Cup semifinal, a game won by Brazil, 4-0. That lineup blunder by coach Greg Ryan cost him his job, but for essentially throwing Scurry under the bus, Solo was voted off the squad, temporarily, by her teammates. She also twice touched off other controversies via Twitter, the most recent in 2010 when, while playing for WPS’ Atlanta Beat, she questioned the integrity of match officials, drawing a one-game suspension and $2,500 fine.
Of course Solo is entitled to her opinions. And many view Solo sticking up for herself and the players in front of her in Glasgow as demonstrating the same outspoken leadership traits as those exhibited by such notable male ‘keepers as Gianluigi Buffon, Peter Schmeichel and Toni Schumacher. (Ironically, Chastain, in a newspaper interview before the Colombia match, praised Solo for her swagger.)
But Solo would do well to realize that she’s part of something very special in American sports. What initially made the U.S. National/Olympic Women’s Team a sensation, winning hearts and minds among fans and non-fans alike was its good humor, good sportsmanship, and positive, one-for-all, all-for-one attitude. Winning certainly didn’t hurt, but away from the field, if there were problems, apparently they stayed behind the scenes while they got solved.
This is Solo being the aptly named Solo. The product of a broken home whose relationship with her occasionally homeless father, a Vietnam War vet, has been well documented (the latest, in a Newsweek cover story)–evidently she will continue to be the only U.S. player to take the field with a large chip on her shoulder. But in the last couple of days she has helped make the U.S. women’s team–that oasis in a sports world drowning in greed, ego, poor sportsmanship and, yes, reckless tweets–a little less special.
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