More like poor sportsmanship and rudeness in her case.
Advertisement
Look, Solo has every right to be disappointed.
The U.S. team was the defending Olympic champions and also won the World Cup in 2015. But the Americans were not robbed nor were they beaten by a lucky goal. “I also think we played a bunch of cowards”.
Sweden’s Sina Blackstenius scored in the 61st minute to give the Swedes a 1-0 advantage, but Alex Morgan equalized for the USA 15 minutes later. Unless they act there will certainly be a next time with Solo.
Solo didn’t think it was very sporting or fair for the Swedes to spend much of the game with as many as nine players in front of their own net, less interested in scoring a goal than in preventing one. But after Christen Press skied her attempt, Solo made a decision to open up her bag of tricks. It was a transparent attempt to ice Dahlkvist – just as she’d done previous year against Germany’s Celia Sasic in the World Cup semifinals.
It worked against Sasic.
Solo, who had already been taunted mercilessly by the Brazilian fans over social media posts about the Zika virus, caused another stir in the aftermath of the loss by criticizing Sweden’s defensive stand against the top-ranked Americans.
The outcome didn’t reflect the run of play: The U.S. outshot Sweden 26 to 3 and completed more than twice as many passes. They didn’t want to open the game. A physical game. Exactly what they wanted.
“They didn’t try to press”, she added. “It’s the best way when you have to shift a gear because in high school we have games Tuesdays and Thursdays so if we lose on a Tuesday, you have to get them over that and focused on the next game whereas if you have a few days in between it’s a little more hard”. And they tried to counter with long balls.
She had a point, to a point. This wasn’t an exhibition or a shoot for a “Pure Soccer” video. While going 2-0-1 during group play, USA players seemed perplexed why they were so slow to move the ball out of the back and through the midfield. You do what you need to survive and you don’t owe any apologies.
Instead of apologizing, she went on Twitter with what she framed as “the full context of my comments” and tweeted to Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl, “Losing (stinks)”.
Sweden had won only five prior matches against the United States. In 2014, Solo reportedly threatened police officers who arrested her after an alleged domestic violence incident in which she fought a nephew.
And goalkeeper Hope Solo was seething over Sweden’s tactics, calling the team “a bunch of cowards”.
Sundhage insisted she had full faith the Swedes could pull off a massive upset despite scoring just twice in three matches as they sneaked into the last eight as one of the two best third-placed sides from the group stages. But enough is enough.
Advertisement
Perhaps rattled by the Rio fans consistently heckling her with “Zika” chants , Solo was visibly shaken throughout the games.
