Last year, she was suspended for 30 days by U.S. Soccer after her husband, former National Football League tight end Jerramy Stevens was arrested for DUI while driving a team van with Solo as a passenger. It was the USA women’s first exit from a major global competition before the semifinals. “I thought we had many opportunities on goal”, Solo said.
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Following the goal, the US brought on both Crystal Dunn and Megan Rapinoe as the team shifted to a more attacking formation as it looked for the equalizer.
“I don’t give a crap”, the former Team USA coach said about Solo’s words (via Sports Illustrated). And goalkeeper Hope Solo was seething over Sweden’s tactics, calling the team “a bunch of cowards”. With Sweden needing just to score one spot kick to win the match, Solo caused controversy by saying she needed to change her gloves in an apparent attempt to delay the game. “I’m going to Rio, she’s going home”.
Then an hour into the game, Sweden’s Stina Blackstenius took a through ball from the middle of the field and tucked her shot past a charging Solo and inside the right post.
Rubbing salt into the wounds was the fact Sweden’s coach, Pia Sundhage, previously coached the United States team for five years and was manager for gold medal winning campaigns in Beijing and London.
It was a stunning ending for the USA women, who only a year ago had captured the World Cup to great acclaim and then had been honored with a ticker-tape parade in NY. And that’s how Sweden scored first-on an well-played counterattack in the 61st minute. Substitute Stina Blackstenius split US defenders and slotted the ball past Hope Solo.
This is the first time the U.S. has failed to make it as far as the semi-finals of a major tournament.
Sweden faces the victor of Brazil vs. Australia in the semifinals on Tuesday, Aug. 16.
“Sweden dropped off”, Solo fumed.
The American shot putter waited until her last throw to knock off arguably the best woman to ever compete in the event – two-time defending champion Valerie Adams of New Zealand. Now the Americans were even. Moments later, Solo almost blocked another shot, which would have put the United States ahead. At the top of the box, Dunn flicked a header that caromed off Jessica Samuelsson and fell to Morgan for a left-footed one-timer into the lower-left corner, her fifth career Olympic goal.
USA goalkeeper Hope Solo’s social media commentary earned her the wrath of Brazilians before she arrived in Rio.
Sweeden was challenged with some of the best attackers in the game and their plan was to play more conservative and hold the possession longer than the United States. “We defended very well”, Sundhage responded. And the fact that.it went to penalty kicks says something about our defending.
“We played a creative game”.
The Americans won their first two matches in Brazil before a surprising 2-2 draw in Manaus against Colombia, which had already been eliminated.
In the 99th minute, Megan Rapinoe was subbed off for Christen Press.
Cowardly or not, Sweden’s defensive strategy against the United States got the job done. The two teams played to a scoreless draw at last year’s World Cup.
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Ranked sixth in the world, Sweden had struggled in its Olympic group with a 5-1 loss to host Brazil and finished 1-1-1. In May, she announced that she was “begrudgingly” going to play, and crowds chanted “Zika!”.
