Hope Solo called Team Sweden ‘a bunch of cowards’ after Sweden won

hope1

Hope Solo is a problematic person. That’s why I usually avoid talking about her or writing about her. Solo has had a great career in women’s soccer – she been the goalkeeper on the team which won two Olympic golds and one World Cup. She also married a man just one day after accusing him of abuse, and then two years later, Solo was arrested for domestic violence for hitting both her sister and her nephew. Those charges were later dismissed, and that incident barely made a blip on her career – she wasn’t even temporarily suspended during the investigation.

So, Solo was at work in Rio for the Olympics. The US women’s soccer team is the reigning World Cup champion, so of course the expectations were high that Team USA would, at the very least, make it into the finals. Not so much. Team USA lost to Team Sweden in a semifinal game on Friday. And instead of being gracious about the crushing loss, Solo said many words in the post-game press conference:

“We played a creative game. We had many opportunities on goal. We showed a lot of heart. We came back from a goal down. I’m very proud of this team. We played a bunch of cowards. The best team did not win today. I strongly, firmly believe that. Sweden dropped back. They didn’t want to open play. They didn’t want to pass the ball around. They didn’t want to play great soccer, entertaining soccer. It was a combative game. A physical game. Exactly what they wanted. Exactly what their game plan was. We had that style of play when Pia was our coach. I think it was very cowardly. But they won, they’re moving on. And we’re going home.”

“You’ve got to take your hat off to them because they beat us. So they’re going on, like I said, and we’re going home. They don’t have as quality of players as the American team does or as Brazil does, so they have to play a way that’s going to give them hope to beat a team like Brazil or the USA.”

[From the LA Times]

For the love of all that is holy. I get that it’s a crushing defeat. I get that women’s soccer doesn’t get the respect or love that it deserves. I get that every single person on Team USA was feeling raw, confused and angry. But that is the moment for grace, you know? I think it’s fine to say “I still think Team USA has the better team, but a loss is a loss and it hurts like hell. Well played, Sweden.” Instead we get this convoluted mess about the Swedish team being cowardly because… they had a better strategy and they won? Sigh…

Obviously, people are calling for Solo to face some kind of punishment or formal condemnation for her unsportsmanlike conduct. A lot of people are calling it the “final straw” for Solo. Sports analysts and columnists are calling for her head on a plate, pretty much. She probably won’t face any kind of formal punishment but I wouldn’t be surprised if she announced her retirement sometime soon.

Solo also tweeted this, with a link to the full context of her comments. She still called them cowards and the context really doesn’t change that.

Photos courtesy of Getty, Hope’s Twitter.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

114 Responses to “Hope Solo called Team Sweden ‘a bunch of cowards’ after Sweden won”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Jane says:

    Yeah, losing sucks…and so is her attitude.

    • smith says:

      Gosh in that first image (and on her shirt lol) she looks exactly like the actress Jennifer Carpenter (Limitless!! Love it!).

      But yes – this is another in a long line of crimes swinging from the benign to the shocking with this chick.

      What a roll model …

  2. COSquared says:

    Bitterness will take you nowhere.

  3. Nina says:

    awful human being. she will have lots of trouble adjusting to normal life when her career is finally over.

    • ncboudicca says:

      She is awful, and i’ve been having a hard time pulling for the team for the last couple of years because of her. The US Soccer Federation used all of the same excuses for keeping her on the team as an NFL team does when it comes to their perps of domestic violence. I’ll be glad to see the end of her career so I can go back to feeling good about the team.

      • Bridget says:

        I can’t stand her. She is such an awful person. And that’s funny that you mention the NFL, as her ex – football playing husband is an accused rapist. Clearly lots of hometown pride with these two.

        Incidentally, the Powers That be at US soccer have wanted to get rid of her for years, but haven’t been able to.

    • lilacflowers says:

      She has never had a normal life. But instead of learning what not to do from the bad in her life, she continues along the path of being an absolute jerk.

      I hope she loses endorsement deals and her association with US Soccer from this.

      • Bridget says:

        Solo has always been a rotten sport. Her obnoxious and combative comments go back many, many years. But I totally wrote her off when she married Jerremy Stevens.

  4. teatimeiscoming says:

    She’s terrible at it? Wow, she made losing look so easy, letting in all those goals

    • teatimeiscoming says:

      And, in case it’s not obvious: Solo is a crappy teammate and a poor representative of the US Soccer spirit. Shame on her words, shame on her actions, etc.

      • Esmom says:

        Yeah, I kinda wondered what her teammates think of her. Seems to me like she’s had an amazing opportunity to learn valuable lessons not just about soccer but about navigating the world with grace…but for some reason she didn’t.

      • teatimeiscoming says:

        Esmom, I’m willing to bet that most of them are probably deeply embarrassed by her words.

    • nicole says:

      It’s especially hypocritical as she took that extra time to switch gloves before the last Swede’s kick to psych her out. That seems more cowardly than the Swedish team playing to their strengths (as every team does in order to win).

  5. kittTEl says:

    As a Canadian Hope really represents the typical American athlete.

    They love to win gold and if they lose they have a meltdown.

    • teatimeiscoming says:

      Or, sh’es just an a-hole, and her nationality doesn’t matter. She’d be an a-hole anywhere she was born and played.

    • ncboudicca says:

      We lose a lot at many things, in case you haven’t noticed. Words like this are the exception, not the rule, for most professional/elite athletes.

      • joanne says:

        as a Canadian, my opinion is that Hope Solo sucks. there are many amazing, gracious American athletes such as Michael Phelps that don’t always come 1st but behave with grace and dignity.

    • Cora says:

      As a Canadian, Hope Solo is a terrible person and Canada has terrible people, too. And guess what? The U.S. has loads of wonderful, gracious, professional athletes. As a Canadian, I am deeply embarrassed by comments like yours and I apologise to the lovely American readers here. Not all Canadians are so arrogant (and ignorant).

    • OhDear says:

      As an American, I get what kitTEI is saying though. S/he isn’t saying that all American athletes are sore losers; s/he is saying that Solo epitomizes the stereotype of the American athlete who always has to be #1. And a lot of Americans DO have a weird pathological need for the US to be the best, not just in athletics.

      • Amanduh says:

        Any athlete from any country wants to be number one.

      • OhDear says:

        @Amanduh – You missed both KitTEI’s and my point. Athletes want to be the best, but most understand that they won’t be. The stereotype of American athletes (and fans. Or even just Americans generally) is that they can’t accept the latter.

      • Bridget says:

        Yes, because everyone knows that the worst soccer fans in the world are from the US.

      • graymatters says:

        What’s really ugly (American) is this sort of behavior amongst parents in children’s sports. Fortunately, it’s not common and is becoming ever less so.

      • Amanduh says:

        Uh, nope I didn’t. I’ve never even heard of that being exclusively an ‘American’ stereotype.
        “If you’re not winning, you’re losing”…It seems like that’s a “sportsmanship” thing rather than a nationality thing. And I’ve played semi-pro sports in Canada and Europe against Americans…

      • Bridget says:

        @Amanduh: don’t you know most professional athletes from other countries don’t care very much about winning? It’s not like they train for their whole lives for this stuff or anything.

      • msw says:

        ^^ No. It isn’t a fair stereotype. Repeating it is unfair. Stop it.

    • Ennie says:

      I kinda remember a story about how arrogant Mark Spitz was once, and he lost many opportunities at some olympics, that b came a humbling experience and in the next Olympics, instead of being an arrogant boy, he went and ended winning many of the medals he originally wanted, but he was more humble about his wins.
      I may be wrong in how that happen, but that’s a nice story. This solo girl is so arrogant that I hope she really gets bad press. Nice Americans don’t deserve such representatives in sports or otherwise (looking at you, trump).

    • Bridget says:

      As an American, I find that ridiculously offensive. Poor sportsmanship crosses national lines, and to use her as an example of Americans is beyond rude. That would be like me saying that because you’re Canadian you’re inevitably meek.

      • Melissa says:

        The stereotype is that we’re nice. Peaceful. Certainly not meek.

      • ls_boston says:

        Bridget, Some say “the meek shall inherit the Earth”

        Melissa, the stereotype is that Americans are aggressive. Bold. Not poor sportsmen.

        🙂
        The point is that these stereotypes are a double edged sword. If you believe them, every attribute has a ready-made counter.

    • nicegirl says:

      wow. I’m American, a former athlete, and that is pretty offensive to me. Sorry to hear that you feel that way about others. I have no ill will toward athletes from other nations, so there’s that, my “meltdown”, from an American athlete.
      Good Grief

    • Truthie says:

      She is not a typical American athlete, even the soccer team does not condone her words. We also have athletes like “6 feet of Sunshine” Kerri Walsh Jennings, who is all hugs, high fives, and signed volleyballs after every match. Check her twitter to see what she values, it is inspirational to the point of boring. But hey, bad press is so much more noteworthy, isn’t it?

      https://www.reddit.com/r/olympics/comments/4xjahd/hugs_and_high_fives_from_walsh_jennings/?st=iruv37cw&sh=a82d249d

      • Bridget says:

        How about Nathan Adrian, nicest man on earth? Who has literally had a huge smile on his face at the end of every single event he’s swum.

    • Original T.C. says:

      No Hope does not represent the thousands upon thousands gracious American athletes in a country of over 300 million. What Hope represents is the pretty girl with talent who is given multiple chances to be a jerk or say asshole things because “hey she’s soo pretty it’s kind of cute”. Ditto on good looking male athletes or celebrities.

      But in sports I’ve noticed the photogenic female athletes end up being the “face” of their sport and thus given more chances. It brings the sports more views, NBC or ABC or CBS can use the pretty face in promos and advertisers love it too. The evil triad. If Hope Solo looked like a plain Jane or was unattractive she would not have been given these many chances. Many examples of this.

    • LaMaitresse says:

      Sorry, as a Canadian, I find that comment horribly crass. In recent years, especially with the whole “own the podium” scheme, some of our athletes behaviour has been less than desirable, and it was noted by many journalists in The Guardian, to name one paper. You can’t single out one bad apple and tar the whole team!

    • Robin says:

      Wow, what an ignorant, offensive comment. Shows you know nothing about sports…or Americans.

    • As an Australian I find your comment rude and untrue.

  6. als says:

    There used to be a time when you encouraged your kid in sports knowing that he or she will become a person of discipline and character.
    Nowadays, the words professional athlete make you think of a person that can get away wih anything, a cheater, a liar, even a killer.
    Not all of them are like this, but 9 out of 10 sure are.

    • cr says:

      “Not all of them are like this, but 9 out of 10 sure are. ”
      No.

    • Lady D says:

      Like most here, I have been watching the Olympics for the past week. I’ve seen two poor sports. With your odds, the athlete’s village would look like the Gaza strip.

    • als says:

      Several NFL players have been accused of horrid acts of abuse, Pistorius is trying to get away with murder, Tiger Woods did not commit a crime but his life is not an example of discipline and respect, the jog culture has made the likes of Brock Turner sympathetic in the eyes of a judge that was sentencing him for RAPE, Kobe Bryant sexual assault case, Lance Armstrong, Sharapova, etc.

      I don’t have the exact numbers and I don’t need them. I am sorry for the many, many athletes that are still true to sports but some of their most important representatives have shamed them.
      And of course, one can argue that they are human but that is what everybody does all the time. As soon as an athlete is caught with something shitty people come in to save him/ her. Society is defending the ‘gods’ of sports, society always comes up with an excuse. And the corruption within the system is complicit to athletes’ behavior.

      Hope Solo and Pistorius and the rest of them are not isolated incidents.

      • Bridget says:

        It’s interesting that you would say this, because Solo’s husband was the recipient of this kind of privilege. He was accused (as in, there were WITNESSES) of raping a fellow University of Washington student when he played football for the school, and the University essentially let him escape consequence free. That era in the school was utterly shameful and marked by scandal, because the reality is that the ability to play a sport does not make one person better than another, and should not excuse their crimes. BUT to paint all athletes with the same brush as overly entitled football players isn’t fair. For many, many athletes, both children and adults, sport enhances their lives and does indeed instill discipline – and they toil away in obscurity. The failure comes from the adults in their lives, that let athletes skip out on normal consequences for bad decisions. We are all culpable for that.

        Oh, and in case you’re wondering, when asked about her husband’s status as an accused rapist, Solo said something along the lines that we just didn’t understand what actually happened. Mind you, this was a HUGE scandal and there was actually a massive investigation by the major paper here, so she’s just a jerk married to a jerk.

  7. Trixie says:

    Hope Solo is just a mean person.

  8. my3cents says:

    Does anyone else think she looks so much like actress Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter’s TV sister and ex in real life)? Beyond creepy….

  9. kri says:

    Sigh. Another talented , fortunate person who is just a bag of poo.

  10. Kristen says:

    Does anyone remember when the men’s hockey team won gold in 1980? Miracle on Ice? The Soviets were a way better team, top to bottom, but we figured out how to beat them. Strategically. Good thing we don’t call that win “Cowards on Ice.” Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

    Go home, Hope Solo. You are making a fool out of yourself and our country.

    • Sarah says:

      Team Sweden used a good strategy to win the game. Simple as that. Hope Solo is talented but immature.

    • Ally8 says:

      Yeah, that criticism boils down to: after scoring their goal, they didn’t give us the chance to score multiple goals. The nerve!

      Speaking of cowardly and underhanded strategy, there’s actually this more accurate example, which her dumb comments have successfully overshadowed (from CNN):

      “Dahlkvist did well to hold her nerve after Solo forced her to wait by insisting on changing her gloves before facing the penalty. Sundage described Solo’s actions as ‘an act of panic.'”

      So besides unsportsmanlike conduct, we might be dealing with some projecting your own attitude on others here,

  11. QQ says:

    Hope solo is The worst and Im tired of fronting that because she is white and cite we will comtinue to let her cook, she is as petty, prideful, combative and as much of a sore loser as Lolo Jones (who is nothing but an envious tut tuting im lighter-than-these girls Chick as Is!)

    • Lama Bean says:

      Yes! Thank you! I’ve felt Lolo Jones let her attitude and arrogance her the best of her, which is ironic because she was touted as having so much promise and never really lived up to it.

      I thought Solo took a nosedive with the DV and eventual marriage. Seems she’s been an ass for years and I had no clue.

      Sweden outplayed them and it was epic. Basically their former coach knew their weakness and used it against them. I can’t hate on that at all.

      • QQ says:

        *not half asleep now LOL* YES Lolo Is THE WORST she is the embodiment of someone with a Natural physical gift (athleticism , the fact she took her sore lose ass self to another sport and managed to not suck is proof!) but that has been taught zero about being gracious, taking an L without blaming others, she is envious and covets what other BETTER women that barely got any promo/ hype or sponsors (unlike her) cause they dont present barely black, virginal, “pretty”- were able to accomplish,instead of Bettering herself Lolo takes to the media and twitter to bad mouth them and to solicit a pity party and instead of Improving she rather another sport where people basically didnt know her shennanigans. She is also the realization of that Infamous Willie Lynch letter if it was real or whatevs. That one Loses NO TIMES to tell anyone how half white Light and green eyed she is over other women

        Hope Solo Is the Trailer park version of that, With 1/2 The accountability

  12. Alix says:

    So the Swedes were supposed to play like it was some exhibition game, for the entertainment of the crowd, instead of just trying to win? Uh-huh.

    I loathe poor sportsmanship.

  13. Sixer says:

    Ouch. When athletes are sore losers like this, it’s such a national embarrassment, isn’t it? Sympathies, American Celebitches.

    Besides, that’s the entire thing with football/soccer. Do you play cagey? Or do you play open passing? Crowds might like open passing but more games are won defensively. Just ask the Italians! The tension in soccer always comes from the conflict between these styles of play. It’s like tennis with the tension between serve and volley and groundstroke specialists.

    Hope doesn’t just come across as a bad loser. She comes across as stupid about football, which, presumably (hopefully!) she actually isn’t. Not a good look!

    • Locke Lamora says:

      Do you remember when Greece won the Euros playing like that? People acted outraged, luke they cheated or something. Of course we’d all like to watch a beutiful game, but not every team has virtuosos in the midfield. They played to their strenght and kudos to them.

      Personally, I when other teams are playing, I want to see beautiful football. If my team us playing, we could play the ugliest football the world has ever seen, if we win, I’m happy.

      • Sixer says:

        Yep! We have several teams in our top league who always play lovely, flowing football. Their fans love them for it. But none of them has won the title. In the domestic league, which is by far the biggest interest sport here, the players are frowned upon if they make negative statements like this. But it’s almost obligatory for the managers to do it. The various manager feuds are what fuels the gossip, clicks and column inches.

      • Locke Lamora says:

        Oh, I know. I used to follow the Premier league quite a lot, sadly I don’t have that much time now. The feuds were a lot of fun. Mourinho especially. I’m currently rootin for West Ham, because of Bilic. Does he have any feuds?

      • Sixer says:

        West Ham is one of the flowing football teams. My father supports them! No feuds in recent times but now Mourinho is at Man Utd, we should have a colourful season! We are Chelski fans in this house. (Well, I’m not, but everyone else is).

      • Saks says:

        Yes, same that what happened this Euro’s with Portugal (which I’m happy they won because I love Cristiano Ronaldo). It may not be a pretty game and sometimes the result is quite unfair but that’s just football.

    • Nina says:

      yeah there is nothing wrong with playing defensively in football. some teams are also just too good to open up to them. in terms of mens football look how teams play against Germany, they are basically putting 9 man into their own box. why? ask brazil what they did to them in 2014. so why would anyone open up to them?
      its not cowardly to defend and wait for a counter attack. it takes more patience and tactical skill. as you say the italians were always good at that.
      it would be dumb to not play to your own strengths and/or adopt to your opposition. and guess what Mrs Solo it paid of for Sweden.

    • Bridget says:

      Funny part is, the Swedes are coached by the former US women’s coach (who if IRC, clashed with Solo a lot).

  14. lilacflowers says:

    They were creative enough and brave enough to score on you, Hope. The US team could have done with less creativity and more cautious, defensive play from its goaltender.

  15. Alix says:

    Congrats to the Swedish team, and apologies for our insufferable US athlete.

  16. grabbyhands says:

    And Hope Solo continues to be a petty, thin skinned spoiled brat. I’m embarrassed that she is from Seattle.

    Honestly, i don’t care how bad you feel about losing. It’s the Olympics, not the frigging Hunger Games. If you can’t find it in yourself to have ANY degree of civility or maturity about your loss, say NOTHING.

    And frankly, the full context of her remarks don’t make her look better at all.

  17. Nancy says:

    Obviously she has deep rooted issues. Hardly an admirable candidate to represent our country at the Olympics. I remember how Maks on DWTS called her a shitty person and so disliked her after many interviews, he wouldn’t even speak of her anymore. She needs to redeem herself, if possible. HOPE she gets help!

    • OhDear says:

      Didn’t she then accuse him of being violent towards her?

      • Nancy says:

        Yeah she did. She wrote a memoir in which she claims Maks hit her hard on the face and was rough with her throughout the competition. The show offered her a different partner but she refused. It seems to me she wants to win at all costs and if things don’t go her away, she isn’t truthful and turns to violence or slander or at the Olympics just plain bad behavior and unacceptable poor sportsmanship.

      • Montréalaise says:

        Yes, but he denied it, and she has a history of lying about DV – when she was arrested for assaulting her sister and nephew, she not only denied those claims but also said that they assaulted her! Her claims were easily disproven. BTW, I recently read that while the DV charges were initially dismissed because her sister and nephew didn`t want to testify against her, they have been reinstated and Hope is still facing charges. I believe Maksim over her.

  18. Mandy says:

    I think it is time to dump her. Don’t forget- she was also a nightmare on DWTS. She and Max were a dumpster fire.

  19. ls_boston says:

    As horrendous as her first “Sweden cowardly play” comment was, I found her “apology” worse – oh, I just hate to lose hence, I’m entitled to a win or else my verbal diarrhoea. My first thought was that I was glad her team lost. Watched the game, and frankly, the US team played an attacking game and they pushed hard so now I do feel badly for them and won’t include them in my Hope-hate but I’m still so glad Hope Solo was on the losing team.

    Sweden played very good defence. Not to mention, the US (and Hope) got lucky because a second Sweden goal didn’t get awarded with replays showing the cancellation was an incorrect call. So, the Sweden attack was actually twice as successful in the main game as it appears by the scoreline.

    Anyhow, everything about Hope’s comment says that the right team won. If the match plays out according to one team’s strategy, then they dictated the match. Ergo, the right team won. Congrats Pia and Sweden! Bugger orf, Hope! and all the best to US football with another goalkeeper, hopefully.

  20. The Original Mia says:

    She is the worst. I hate she’s a part of the team because there are some great women on the team that don’t deserve to be tarred along with her. We lost. It’s sad, but it’s life. Move on. The women have had a terrific run and they do deserve more money for their play.

    • Ncboudicca says:

      Yes, it burns my butt how comparatively underpaid they are, especially when we look at how often they win. Shameful.

  21. MiniMii says:

    How very Trump-like of her. Rather than graciously accept that her team was beaten, she sulks and calls Team Sweden cowards – basically one step up from calling them cheaters. Attitude like that is childish & unprofessional and certainly doesn’t belong at the Olympics, and neither does she.

  22. Bridget says:

    Hope Solo: garbage person, married to another garbage person that’s an accused rapist. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, jerks.

  23. YupYepYam says:

    I heard a lot of this type of comment from a football losing team (don’t follow the sport but very popular in my country so can’t escaped it), from the player to their coach to their manager. Same point but various wording,: “they play safe/they dont play real football/they just play defense/blablabla.
    Point is, I dont remember those guys got lots of flak for saying it, dunno why when its her it’s seems a big deal..

  24. pikawho? says:

    She looks like Amber from Teen Mom in that picture of her in white with her hand over her heart. I think its the squinting.

    Why are so many footballers, both male and female, such trash humans?

    • Naddie says:

      They’re way too spoiled by media (males), at least the ones in Brazil. Neymar is such an example of this.

  25. Saks says:

    HUGE football* fan here. The US female team plays amazing (for me, the best technical female team along with the French), BUT as in any other sport each team has a tactic when trying to beat most powerful rivals. You won’t see smaller teams trying to go all forward against Real Madrid, Bayern or Barça, for example. And you can be a successful playing defensively, Atlético de Madrid is a great example of a team that has mastered that, perhaps is not the prettiest but it is fair to play that way.

    Anyway, she is a sore loser and a bad person, don’t care about her. I just hope to keep on watching great football!

    Also, this games have been quite poor in sportsmanship no? A sad reflection of our current societies.

    * I won’t ever call it soccer.

    • Melly M says:

      I’m not sure if you’re only referring to athelets, but I am also surprised and dissapointed by the Brasilian audiance.
      The way they booed the Argentianian tennis player del Potro, how they shrieked after every mistake of Us gymnast Mikulak (before he had finished) etc.
      I don’t believe all of them are so unfair but obviously quite a lot of them are, because they are very loud.
      I will also remember these Games for the rude audience.

      • Cee says:

        We are used to being booed by Brazilians. They only booed two countries – the US and Argentina. They cheered for Venezuela.

        I say we win – I’d rather be paired with the US rather than Venezuela. It means we are no longer friendly with that pseudo- dictatorship-communist country.

  26. Puff says:

    Or as the Swedish team manager Pia Sundhage said re Hope Solo: “I dont give a crap. She’s going home. I’m going to Rio”.

    Mic drop.

  27. Jaana says:

    As an avid soccer fan, I get what she is saying. There are teams that play defensively and sit back in their half expecting the other team to come at them. It is frustrating and unfair to the players and the fans because it is often not fun to watch. Yes she could have worded it better but Sweden did play a dirty game.

    • SBS says:

      Sweden played smart not dirty. If anything was dirty it was Solo’s ridiculous attempt at psyching out Lisa Dahlquist. Glad Lisa laughed it off and scored. 🙂

    • Lambda says:

      Sweden did not play a dirty game! (Many other exclamation points implied.) They used a legitimate game strategy and they won and that’s the end purpose, and that’s what they owe their fans. I get it, from a spectator’s POV it could be frustrating. The Italians are playing that very technical, dry soccer, the English rugby team used to play almost like surgeons, and, as a viewer, you don’t want that, you want the fireworks. But that’s for laypersons, not fellow athletes. Hope’s behavior was unworthy.

    • Calma Furiosa says:

      The smart, competent team then counter-adjusts. Most teams don’t take the risk and then spiral when it goes against them.

    • ls_boston says:

      This wasn’t an exhibition match aimed at the audience. It was a technical match aimed at the opponents. Ergo, Sweden played a mental game and their strategy won out. There was nothing unfair about it. They played a tactic that played to their strengths and neutralised the US teams’. The fact that what happened on court was driven by the Swedish teams tactics, explains why they won. One would think that as an “avid fan” that you’d understand this.

    • hogtowngooner says:

      Sorry, Sweden adopted a strategy against a bigger, better team and came out on top. To say it’s unfair just because they didn’t try to beat the Americans in the way you or Solo felt they should is absurd.

      Chelsea won the Champions League in 2011/2012 by the same “park the bus” strategy. Was it entertaining? Not really. But they didn’t cheat. They played fair and won. End of story. And I HATE Chelsea.

  28. bettyrose says:

    I came here to say that I feel a little sad for her. She’s young and full of anger. I don’t know why that is because I don’t know her, but I do know what it’s like to be young and angry, and I hope that she gets help. Lashing out at the world around you (especially given her violent history) only makes your situation worse, creating a vicious cycle. But . . . then I Googled her age, and – wow – she was born in 1981, making her not all that young. Younger than me, but well within the age when I was actively working to overcome my demons. I hope she gets help. Normal people with no fame don’t a get a free pass on that behavior so they have to change.

  29. Krista says:

    I think she is so dispicable. Many of my friends and I grew up idolizing the USWNT. Julie Foudy, Mia Hamm, Briana Scurry, etc were our heroes and incredibly important to us. Watching this woman tarnish the reputation of this team is infuriating. There are so many young girls who look up to these players and Solo is the worst role model.

  30. Lambda says:

    She is SUCH an asshole. Did she expect the other team to deliver her preferred playing style/strategy? Hey, Solo! You had one job and you didn’t do it, take some responsibility.

  31. Reece says:

    She is such an embarrassment! No excuse for that behavior.
    How about, because Sweden was playing a certain type of game then perhaps, just perhaps the Americans should have changed their strategy. If something isn’t working one way then you need to rethink it.

  32. Suzy from Ontario says:

    What happened to good sportsmanship? No class

  33. jc126 says:

    She’s trash. I didn’t know her husband had been accused of rape before, interesting.

  34. LadyLoo says:

    Isn’t it great that Hope keeps giving the world so many reasons to dislike her? You couldn’t accuse her of being boring – or likable.

  35. OhDear says:

    Apparently some American fans want to boycott H&M and IKEA because of Sweden’s win.

  36. Robin says:

    I wonder what other national-team-caliber goalies are out there, who might succeed Solo? She seems like a horrible person in general, and she’s certainly a poor sport. I hope she is off the national team soon.

  37. jesb says:

    And it was the quater finals not semifinals. It was a whole round earlier. Ha! Suck it Hope. Canada for Gold!!!!!!!

  38. EM says:

    I’m never surprised with these types of comments some athletes make. I put it into context. They’ve spent more of their lives training and being fixated on the physical rather than nurture their intellects. Many of them are not the smartest people around – unfortunately.

  39. elns says:

    Good at soccer. Not good with words or being a nice person. I will be interested to see how she survives amongst us common folk without her US National Team Goalie Security blanket.

    She always comes off as a bully, screaming victim.

  40. Cee says:

    This woman is a sore, entitled loser.
    I’m all about rattling the opposing team – when you are in the audience NOT in the field. And if you do it with fun, creative chants all the better.

    Football is not a clean sport by any means but her attitude sucks. The worst thing? Hardly anyone cares about female football and the US team still gets paid less that the male team? They hardly win anything…

    Congratulations to Sweden! From what I’ve seen you played fair and better.

  41. hogtowngooner says:

    She could learn a lot from Captain Canada, Christine Sinclair. They lost a heartbreaking semi-final in London 2012, and the whole team handled it with grace and class but Christine especially so. That’s the way to lose. They play in the semi again tomorrow against Germany – GO CANADA GO!

  42. TalkingAbout says:

    No offense to the Sweden Team, but in one thing Solo was right: the USA and the Brazil Team are much better than the Sweden one. I hope Brazil win in the next match. Those girls really deserve it. Go Marta and Formiga!