Armour: US Soccer has itself to blame for Hope Solo’s continued distractions – USA TODAY
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USA Today Sports’ Martin Rogers discusses the latest news surrounding the USWNT goalkeeper’s past.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba — Success always comes with a price, and the latest firestorm surrounding Hope Solo makes it abundantly clear the Americans have paid far too much for theirs.
In choosing to stand by Solo and all of her baggage — we’re talking steamer trunks, not carry-ons — U.S. Soccer and the women’s team sacrificed their integrity for victory and the spoils that come with it.
Yes, Solo is far and away the best goalkeeper in the world, maybe the best ever to play the women’s game. With her in the net, the U.S. won the last two Olympic titles and reached its first World Cup final in 12 years. It’s a heavy favorite again in this year’s tournament.
Yet she also has a toxic and divisive history with her own teammates, and her irresponsible and shameful behavior has tarnished both her team and her sport.
While it is Solo’s actions that have made her the center of controversy time and again, including Sunday’s damaging report by ESPN’s Outside the Lines, U.S. Soccer isn’t blameless, either. By refusing to hold Solo accountable for her transgressions — as it certainly would have a less-talented player — U.S. Soccer contributed to the very muck it found itself wading through on the eve of its most prestigious tournament.
“That was a long time ago,” coach Jill Ellis said, making yet another excuse for Solo. “I’ll be honest, we’ve moved on.”
Solo did not meet with reporters after Sunday’s training. FIFA rules only require players to be available on game day, though a request to speak to her was made through U.S. Soccer.
There was little new in the OTL report, but it paints a very unflattering picture of one of the biggest stars on this U.S. team. The goalkeeper was drunk and verbally abusive to police after she was arrested following a dispute with her half-sister and nephew, according to the OTL report, and she threatened to attack the officers.
At one point, OTL said, she told an officer her necklace was worth more than the officer made in a year.
But the report isn’t much kinder to U.S. Soccer, indicating that the federation was content to rely on Solo’s version of events rather than investigate the incident on its own. There was no evidence anyone from the federation reached out to prosecutors or police, OTL reported. Nor is there anything in Kirkland Police Department public records requests that indicate anyone from U.S. Soccer tried to get a copy of the police report.
GALLERY: HOPE SOLO THROUGH THE YEARS
Teresa Obert, Solo’s half-sister, said neither she nor her son were contacted.
“I was surprised they didn’t investigate,” Obert told OTL.
She shouldn’t have been. It’s true Solo’s arrest occurred before that horrific Ray Rice video, which forever changed the way this country — sports leagues in particular — views domestic violence. But U.S. Soccer has always been careful to give Solo a wide berth, willing to bail her out of just about anything so long as she is doing the same in goal.
When Solo went off on then-coach Greg Ryan for benching her for the World Cup semifinal in 2007, the federation remained silent. Instead, it was Solo’s teammates who meted out discipline, banishing her and forcing her to take a different flight home.
Even after her domestic violence arrest, the federation didn’t suspend or discipline her. Quite the contrary. Not only did U.S. Soccer publicly celebrate Solo as she closed in on a shutout record in September, it allowed her to wear the captain’s armband for a game that month.
Charges against Solo were eventually dropped, though prosecutors have indicated they plan to appeal.
It was only when Solo’s husband, Jerramy Stevens, got busted for driving drunk in a U.S. Soccer van — with the goalkeeper riding shotgun — that the federation did anything. Convenient that the federation saw fit to suspend her, for all of 30 days, only after the Americans were already safely through to the World Cup.
Not surprisingly, U.S. Soccer had little to say Sunday, leaving Ellis and her players to handle it. Though Ellis and Carli Lloyd, Solo’s closest friend on the team swore it wasn’t a distraction, it’s not exactly the ideal way to prepare for their first World Cup game Monday.
But that is the choice they made, all of them. U.S. Soccer, the players, their coaches — they all decided long ago that Solo’s superior skills outweighed her off-the-field antics. Integrity, after all, won’t win you a World Cup title or an Olympic gold medal.
But the world’s best goalkeeper might.
Follow columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.
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