Moments after the USA women’s soccer team were ousted by Sweden in the Olympic quarterfinals Friday, controversial goalkeeper Hope Solo lashed out at her victorious opponents.
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United States’ Christen Press reacts after missing a penalty kick during a quarter-final match of the women’s Olympic football tournament between the United States and Sweden in Brasilia Friday Aug. 12, 2016.
Hope Solo, two-time Olympic gold medalist and world cup victor, was frustrated and did not hold back what she had to say after the game whatsoever. The best team didn’t win today. “I strongly and firmly believe that”. Nevertheless, I am so proud of the way we played tonight, our fight, our heart and the skill we showed. You saw us give everything we had today.
“Losing sucks. I’m really bad at it”, Solo said in her tweet confirming and resending the comments she made to Sports Illustrated. “I came here to do one thing, and that’s to help our team win, our country win”.
“It’s O.K.to be a coward if you win”, she said.
United States of America coach Jill Ellis tried to diffuse the row.
“They executed her game plan very well”.
Germany will face Canada in Belo Horizonte on Tuesday, while Sweden will face the victor of Friday’s other quarter-final between hosts Brazil and Australia. “I thought we had many opportunities on goal”, Solo said. “But I also think we played a bunch of cowards”. “But they won, they moving on and we’re going home”.
After winning four gold medals at the Rio de Janeiro Games and looking unbeatable, Phelps finally ran out of steam in what was the final individual race of his career – unless he decides to come out of retirement again. It was the first loss of the year for the four-time Olympic champions. They didn’t try and press. “They didn’t want to open the game and they tried to counter with long balls”, continued Solo.
The equalizer opened the floodgates for the US, which began wave after wave of attack on the Swedish goal, but the teams ended regulation tied at one, largely due to the Americans’ inability to put their chances on target. 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.
Don’t sit here and complain about the tactics Sweden used when the USA used the exact same strategy in their last match during the group stage against Colombia. A week before the startling loss, the two time Olympic gold medalist defended her comments, and said she was “focused” on winning.
Team USA’s elimination follows a hard couple of weeks for Solo in particular, who was boo’d by the Rio crowd after several controversial Instagram posts in which she joked about the Zika virus.
Last month the 35-year-old posted a picture of herself with a mosquito net over her head and a huge bottle of insect repellent in hand with the message: “Not sharing this! Get your own! #Zikaproof #Road to Rio” on her Twitter account.
They will be joined in the semi-finals by Germany, who beat China 1-0, and Canada, who overcame France by the same margin.
Melanie Behringer netted the victor 14 minutes from time after Chinese substitute Wang Shanshan was sent-off for two quickfire yellow cards.
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But neither team could add to the scoreboard for the remainder of regular time or in the 30 minutes of extra time.
