The Sports Bizzo

By Ted…

OK so it’s really the same Hope, but that wouldn’t sound as geeky and Star Warsish. But if you follow US women’s soccer (and who doesn’t?) then you’ve probably heard about the return of one of the best goalies to play the game. Hope Solo is returning to the box for the US Olympic team after a long hiatus and a lot of bad blood, so far no cat fights.

The real story, like everything else lately, was made in China. “It was the wrong decision and anybody who knows anything about the game knows that.” What led Hope Solo from being one of the most acclaimed members of the US Women’s Soccer team to the most controversial player started with a reasonably controversial coaching decision. In last September’s World Cup in China, after a rocky start but an otherwise excellent performance, Coach Greg Ryan elected to replace Solo with legendary but aging Brianna Scurry.

This was prompted by their upcoming match against Brazil, a team Scurry helped a previous iteration of the US team defeat in a gold-medal-winning performance at the Athens Olympics. That’s the Athens Olympics, as in nearly four years ago now.

After a tragic defeat to Brazil in the cup semifinal (4-0), the team was discouraged but had to pull together for the battle for 3rd place, a concept understandably foreign to most American sports, since we generally don’t care about 3rd place. But Hope Solo, likely feeling bitter over the loss, powerless having ridden the bench, and still mourning the recent loss of her father (not Han Solo) to whom she dedicated her World Cup performance, she had some harsh words directed squarely at Coach Ryan and unfortunately citing Scurry’s role as well. This led to her dismissal from the team for the final match and being ostracized from all team interactions.

Clearly Ryan’s decision, though we don’t know what the outcome may have been, was flawed. You have a more than capable Goal tender who has just delivered you three victories (save an early tie to North Korea, practically the closest thing the team had to a loss in nearly all the time Ryan had been coach) and you replace her with one ten years her senior because three years ago she had a really good game against this team.

Admittedly it was very unsportsmanlike to call out a fellow teammate on their performance after a humiliating defeat, but something in Ryan’s dismissal felt more like retribution for pointing out what may have been his worst decision ever as a coach.

But now Solo and Scurry are back on the team with a new coach and a new chance for Olympic gold. Scurry states that all is forgiven. The rest of the team is more reticent. And this is bizarre to me.
Having seen Terrell Owens go from pissing on Dallas Stadium to giving Jerry Jones a hand job for his birthday, I question where the vitriol towards one player for one twelve word rant comes from. The myth of course is that when women play sports they rely more on their passion and relationships than men. But can anyone say that Brett Favre plays without passion, or that Tony Romo and Jason Witten don’t have a strong bond (borderline homoerotic, but strong nonetheless).

So now it’s up to women’s soccer to try out this whole ‘playing professionally with teams composed of the most talented players whether they’re friends or not’ thing. Because now Ryan is gone and Hope is back and likely to start when the team arrives in Beijing. Ultimately the team spirit priority stems from the fact that women in sports tend not to be paid well enough to be as jaded as some of their male counterparts; the theory goes that they must love the game more to accept such marginal financial compensation. Whatever the case may be, Hope Solo deserves a spot on the team because she is one of the most accomplished players in her field (not to mention one of the foxiest). The team will be stronger with her there camaraderie or no, and we all know the team that wins together gets along much better. And let’s all hope that this article is enough to get me added as a friend to Hope Solo’s myspace page.