My girl Hope Solo is at it again.
First, there was the dust-up that involved Brianna Scurry during the 2007 World Cup. You remember when then-U.S. coach Greg Ryan who benched Solo, then a young goalkeeper for the veteran Scurry, who was Solo’s backup but had a more decorated career at the time (two gold medals and a world championship).
We remember the story: Brazil shellacked us in the semifinals of the World Cup 4-0 behind Marta’s dazzling performance. Then came Solo’s memorable quote:
“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.”
Fast-forward to last week, when Solo went after former Team USA star/current NBC soccer analyst Brandi Chastain. After the U.S. women beat Colombia 3-0, Chastain criticized U.S. defender Rachel Buehler during the NBC telecast.
Chastain pointed out that a defender’s responsibilities are: “Defend. Win the ball. And then keep possession. And that’s something that Rachel Buehler actually needs to, I think, improve on in this tournament.”
Well, Ms. Solo (appropriate name, isn’t it?) didn’t take too kindly to Chastain’s analysis. Solo took to Twitter, saying “its 2 bad we cant have commentators who better represents the team&knows more about the game.”
As if that wasn’t good enough, Solo fired off more tweets against Chastain. Here ya go:
“Lay off commentating about defending and gking until you get more educated @brandichastain the game has changed from a decade ago. #fb”
“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!”
And my favorite: “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”
Look, I like Solo a lot. I love her game, the chip she carries on her shoulders, her swagger – and of course her looks.
But ol’ girl has to stop with blowing up folks in the media.
Sure she doesn’t have to like people criticizing her teammates. She doesn’t have to like Chastain period.
But last I checked, Chastain is getting paid for what she is doing: analyzing Olympic soccer matches. Any analyst in any sport will tell you that part of being a good analyst is telling the truth – even when no one will like it.
Solo needs to check herself before she finds herself in a lot of trouble. If Terrell Owens wasn’t able to get away with it, why should Solo?
Categories: soccer, sports story
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