It has been quite a memorable Olympics for Hope Solo – for all the wrong reasons.
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United States’ Carli Lloyd lies on the ground during a quarter-final match of the women’s Olympic football tournament between the United States and Sweden in Brasilia Friday Aug. 12, 2016.
As Sweden celebrated, US captain Carli Lloyd crouched on the field at Mane Garrincha Stadium in disbelief.
The United States, who dominated large parts of the match, have won four of the last five Olympic golds and had never not reached the Games final.
The five-time World Player of the Year was on her knees in tears of relief seconds later, though, as Barbara parried Katrina Gorry’s spot-kick to keep the hosts alive.
Lloyd then had a header called back for offside in the 115th minute, and Lotta Schelin was offside on her attempt against Solo a minute later – although replays appeared to show otherwise.
“According to Hope Solo, I think you should define what is a good team”, Sundhage said afterward. “I strongly and firmly believe that”. “They always win and I heard it was likely that they were going to, and [WM coach Denny] Snyder said it would be a good game and that they should come out on top”. I think it was very cowardly. But they won. They’re moving on. Stefan Henze, a canoe slalom silver medalist at the 2004 Games, underwent emergency surgery in a Rio de Janeiro hospital. The local fans are still upset about her posts on social media about the Zika virus. “Zika!” almost every time she touched the ball in the opening match against New Zealand.
The 2-2 tie against Colombia in the group stage also found Solo in the headlines after she made two uncharacteristic errors.
Full Hope Solo quote on Sweden after U.S. was eliminated from the Olympics today. The assistant ran over and gave them to her. Dahlkvist watched the drama and smiled.
A minute later, she scored.
THE SWAMP: In another embarrassment for the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center, a planned practice session had to be called off to give officials more time to clean the green-tinged water – a four-days-and-counting scenario that prompted American diver Abby Johnson to dub it “the Swamp”. She was among 14 players on the Olympic team who were members of the US team that won the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. It was not to be.
Solo blamed the loss on Sweden’s tactics. “They didn’t want to open play”. They didn’t want to pass the ball around. It was a combative game, a physical game. Exactly what they wanted and exactly what their gameplan was. Exactly what their game plan was. And for sure Pia adjusted to us. “It’s harder, especially for [U.S. goalie] Hope Solo because it’s one-on-one and it’s hard for a goalie but they should be proud to get to that point because they could have lost 1-0”.
On the women’s side Katie Ledecky completed the sweep by winning the 800 freestyle in 8:04.79 – beating her own world-record time – to become the second woman in history to win the 200, 400 and 800 freestyle races at the same Olympics. That’s the best team in the world. We won the game.
“We had that style of play when Pia was our coach”. We defended very well. And the fact that … it went to penalty kicks says something about our defending. “The U.S. played better in the attack, we played better in the defense”. “And at the end of the day we won the game and that’s what counts”.
“It is OK to be coward if you win”, Sundhage shot back.
Sweden took the lead in the 61st minute, when Stina Blackstenius beat United States of America defender Julie Johnson on the counterattack and slid a shot past goalkeeper Hope Solo.
The United States was eliminated by Sweden after a penalty shoot-out. It came down to penalty kicks, and Morgan’s opening shot was blocked by Swedish keeper Hedvig Lindahl. It sent the game to penalty kicks, which figured to favor the USA with Solo in front of the net and two of the game’s top scorers in Morgan and Lloyd, the reigning world player of the year, taking its shots.
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Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia set a world record in the 10,000 meters with a stunning solo run to win the first gold medal in track. This team is not going to crumble.
