USA Soccer: That's a Winner

RyanActive — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:12:29 GMT

United States women's soccer goalkeeper

Hope Solo

made a beautiful save in the 72nd minute of the gold-medal game against Brazil, one of about 10 stops she made during the crucial match.

She said she would almost a year ago after not playing against Brazil in the World Cup. Now we believe her.

Solo and the rest of the defense led the United States to a 1-0 victory over Brazil and a gold medal in the Beijing Games. The lone goal was scored in extra time, when

Carli Lloyd

poked one through in the 96th minute.

Solo and the defense then held on.

This is a big victory for the Americans, who probably weren't favored to win. Though they played well against Brazil in friendly matches leading up to Beijing, Brazil still had bragging rights until now.

"We've seen Brazil three times since that last match, but it wasn't the same," Solo said. "On the world stage is when teams really come to play so it sat with us a little bit but we were confident in our team defending, so I knew it going to be a different game altogether."

In some ways, the Olympics have been disappointing for the Americans (Michael Phelps
aside). Softball lost a gold it was a huge favorite to win. Track and field has had several setbacks. Women's gymnastics lost the team competition to China.

Women's soccer provided a little relief in the post-swimming Olympics for the USA. It took us 100-plus minutes of action to figure it out, though U.S. defender Lori Chalupny
knew long before that.

"We just look in each others' eyes and we believe and we know that we can do it," Chalupny said. "It's just a feeling that we have and nobody can break that bond. It's awesome."

Solo selected for Olympics, Scurry left off roster

jspitzberg — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:45:28 GMT

[!http://www.surroundedbygirls.com/images/fepl/hope-solo070928011701.jpg!|http://www.surroundedbygirls.com/images/fepl/hope-solo070928011701.jpg]

bq.

CHICAGO -- Goalkeeper Hope Solo is among 18 players picked for the U.S. Olympic women's soccer roster, nine months after she was kicked off the team at the World Cup.

Briana Scurry, who took over from Solo for last year's World Cup semifinal loss to Brazil, was left off the roster by coach Pia Sundhage, who replaced Greg Ryan following the World Cup debacle.

Solo was the starter for most of 2007, but Ryan surprisingly replaced her with Scurry for the semifinal, which the Americans lost 4-0. Solo criticized Ryan, saying she would have made the saves, and was dropped from the team.

I'm happy to see Sundhage picking on athletic merits, rather than bizarre motivational ploys or petty squabbles. As to the rest of the roster, I'm surprised that the US is only taking three forwards to the Olympics. Granted Wambach is a force and the US has lots of attacking talent in midfield with Wagner, et al. But might it limit the US' options if they need to change the pace or rhythm of a match, or (god forbid) have to chase one in search of a goal?

Finally, while there are quite a few veterans on the roster, most American will never have heard of any of these players... well, save for Solo after the aforementioned dust up. But no Hamm, Lily, Chastain, Milbrett, or Fawcett. NBC (and US Soccer) and going to have to rev up the old PR machine to sell this team to us all over again.bq.

Olympic roster

GOALKEEPERS (2): Nicole Barnhart, Hope Solo.

DEFENDERS (6): Rachel Buehler, Lori Chalupny, Stephanie Cox, Kate Markgraf, Heather Mitts, Christie Rampone.

MIDFIELDERS (7): Shannon Boxx, Tobin Heath, Angela Hucles, Carli Lloyd, Heather O'Reilly, Lindsay Tarpley, Aly Wagner.

FORWARDS (3): Natasha Kai, Amy Rodriguez, Abby Wambach.

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Blog Posts From Active.com 2008 Olympics Tagged With hope_solo

USA Soccer: That's a Winner

Solo selected for Olympics, Scurry left off roster