US goalkeeper Hope Solo fails to stop a shot during a penalty shootout in the quarter-final match with Sweden.
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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.
“The best team did not win today”, she added.
“You saw us give everything that we had today”.
More like poor sportsmanship and rudeness in her case.
Solo’s teammates were similarly disappointed after the upset.
The Swedes beat the USA 4-3 on penalties following a 1-1 draw in the quarterfinals.
The 35-year-old was booed by sections of the crowd during the quarterfinal for this gesture, and her post-match comments were met with equal disdain by Sweden’s former USA coach Pia Sundhage.
Trailing 1-0 in the second half, the Americans managed to get the equalizer from Alex Morgan.
United States’ Megan Rapinoe, kicks the ball past Sweden’s Lisa Dahlkvist during a quarter-final match of the women’s Olympic football tournament between the United States and Sweden in Brasilia Friday Aug. 12, 2016. United States of America goalkeeper Solo may have kept the team alive with a fine save from Linda Sembrant, but after Christen Press missed, the Swedes just needed to score their next penalty kick.
Solo, already booed throughout this tournament for her controversial comments about the Zika virus, made herself even more unpopular right before the shootout’s final penalty kick. At last year’s World Cup, the two teams played to a scoreless draw.
It worked against Sasic. Her shot was saved and immediately US were on the backfoot.
Solo, who played her 200th worldwide last week, played well in her opening two games, with wins over New Zealand and France, but had a nightmare in the 2-2 draw against Colombia and was at fault for both goals.
“They dropped into a 50”, she said. They didn’t want to pass the ball. “They didn’t want to play great soccer”, Solo said.
“It was a combative game, a physical game”. Things don’t always go the way you want them to. They didn’t try and press. They didn’t want to open the game.
She had little to do against Sweden as the United States struggled to break down their opponents, who tried to hit them on the break.
And her point was? Yeah, I mean it’s going to hurt, ” Lloyd said. You do what you need to survive and you don’t owe any apologies.
There’s no question she’s the greatest goalkeeper in soccer, but she’s a disgusting representative for the United States.
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In 2014, Solo faced domestic violence charges after allegedly attacking her half-sister and her teenage nephew. She was suspended in early 2015 after her husband was arrested for drunken driving while behind the wheel of a team van; Solo was a passenger. But enough is enough.
