Coached by Pia Sundhage, former head of the U.S. women’s squad, the Swedes hung back for most of the game, playing to their strengths and waiting for a moment to strike.
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“I also think we played a bunch of cowards”. I think we showed a lot of heart.
In what might have been her final major tournament game for the United States national team, goalkeeper Hope Solo uncharacteristically let the soccer ball get past her on more than one occasion.
And I’m not talking about her keeper skills. They played more attacking football than we did.
Calling the game “combative”, she added: “Sweden dropped off”. They didn’t want to pass the ball.
“Sweden dropped off. They didn’t want to open play”.
From alleged domestic violence to coarse language, Solo has been in hot water before.
Sweden’s Stina Blackstenius scored in the 61st minute, then the USA’s Alex Morgan equalized in the 77th.
Neither team could find the winning goal in regulation as the teams went into extra time tied 1-1.
“You’ve got to take your hat off to them because they beat us”, Solo said. As a high school freshman, she said, she even wanted the exact same uniform as her. Goalkeepers like Solo motivate Brown to make herself a better player in the net, and even on the basketball court.
Solo began trending on Twitter shortly after a postgame interview in which she called her Swedish opponents “a bunch of cowards“, lambasting them for their conservative strategy of sitting back on defense and hoping to strike on the counterattack. “They’re moving on and we’re going home”.
Solo was wrong for making what seemed to be a joke of the fears, tweeting a pair of photos with the hashtag #zikaproof, one of her covered in funny-looking anti-mosquito gear, the other of mosquito repellent spread all over a bed, and she became enemy No. 1 of Brazilian fans who booed her everywhere she went.
It’s the single most disappointing result in American women’s soccer history, not to mention the earliest exit from an global tournament by a wide margin.
The Americans failed to reach the semis for the first time in the history of Olympic women’s soccer. A Swedish player was down on the pitch at the time, but the USA pressed forward and got the equalizer.
After getting blasted by Solo after Friday’s match, Sundhage delivered a solid comeback: “I don’t give a crap. We’re going to Rio, and she’s going home”.
Sundhage declined to discipline Solo for that incident.
Sweden coach Pia Sundhage, the former USA coach, asked about Solo’s comments, told Swedish reporters: “I don’t give a crap”.
When pressed about why she believes the Swedish side played like cowards, Solo talked about their decision to bunker and defend – noting that this was a similar style of play the US deployed when Sundhage was their coach and they had Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan up top as target forwards. “Yeah, I mean it’s going to hurt”, Lloyd said.
“Unfortunately the better team didn’t win”. Not this time. This time she went pure loser and lout. “It’s a little bit of a bumpy road”.
But Sundhage had good reason to take that approach.
There was nothing shameful about how the U.S. played in Brasilia, just how goalkeeper Hope Solo reacted when the chips were down.
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She elaborated on her “cowards” quote a bit later on Friday – but stopped well short of apologizing. I was really optimistic. The Swedes came out 4-3 winners in the first ever shootout in Olympic women’s soccer. She denigrated her teammate Briana Scurry after the US lost in the 2007 World Cup, and slammed former USA player Brandi Chastain for her relatively innocuous criticism of the USWNT during the 2012 Olympics.
