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October 01, 2007
Sologate
We had a bit of a glitch with the blog software which has now been resolved (mostly), so we're back on the air.
There's no Quakes news right now (which probably means there's a lot getting done in the background, by the way), so we'll jump back into the U.S. Women's goalkeeper controversy with one tidbit.
As you might recall, one of the USA women publicly criticized a coaching decision and, by extension, one of her teammates. Specifically, she said, "I put myself into that entire game, and I've always felt — and I still feel — that if I were playing, we would have won."
Hope Solo said that, right? Well, actually no — that's a quote from Briana Scurry about goalkeeper Siri Mullinix's performance in the gold medal game of the 2000 Olympics, putting the lie to the idea that it's always been peace, love, and sunshine among the team's players. Granted, Scurry did not say this during the tournament, but it's an interesting quote in light of the scandal that has surrounded Solo since she publicly blasted coach Greg Ryan and Scurry suffered some collateral damage.
The other unfortunate thing about Sologate is that it's taking the spotlight off of a lot of other issues that should be addressed with the team's coaching and style of play. We don't have time to get into all of that right now, so we'll let Scott French, the managing editor of MajorLeagueSoccer Magazine and a former Soccer America staffer, explain it all. He's covered the U.S. Women since forever and it's also worth noting that the criticisms leveled at Ryan in the piece we've linked to were written on September 25, before it was known that Scurry would start the Brazil match.
Posted by Jay at October 1, 2007 03:47 PM
Comments
Best part of that Scurry quote? It took place 4 years later. She definitely had time to think about unlike Solo. She apparently almost didn't give that interview.
According to the CBC reporter who got the quotes, it was comments from US Soccer's PR person that set her off.
If she had managed to keep her head and ignore the thoughtless comment by Aaron Heifetz, the hotseat would be rightfully on Ryan. Hopefully, it still is.
Posted by: Guy Gayle at October 2, 2007 08:27 AM
US Soccer needs to be restructured from the top down The coached of both the women and the men should be fired immediately and Sunil Gulati should resign in disgrace for what he has done to US Soccer. Solo was right in a way, not in coming out in the media about a team mate but in being pissed off about help the girls get there and then having to watch that debacle from the bench. I don't blame her for being pissed off. US Soccer is a mess.
Posted by: Delle Alpi at October 2, 2007 10:53 AM
Greg Ryan is responsible for the counterperformance of the USA Women Soccer team. It is unbelievable the level of incompetency of the National team trainer. His decision to bench Hope Solo for the World Cup semifinal game with Brasil, points out that the National team is coached by a "trainer" who does not understand the meaning of high performance and does not know the minimum (basic) requirements for a team to win in a very tough competition. Besides his proven mediocrity (he should coach a high school/college team) coach Ryan has manifested a total lack of verticality on handeling Hope Solo comments. It is regretable that the leader of the National team is a "master of spin factor" coward who does not have the strength to resign for his failure and blunt incompetence (read amateurish stupidity) and prefers to deflect (spin) the discusion on Hope Solo, rather than commenting the performance (total dismantling) of the USA team in the game with the part time Brasilian team . One year before the Olympics, USA Women Soccer team is a second grade team, without identity and without chances for a gold medal. The heads of the Federation should realize that there is a big difference between a College competition and the World Cup or the Olympics.
Posted by: Sorin at October 3, 2007 03:22 AM