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Why is anyone surprised with her benching - remember its politics first at the federation.

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It is a sweet story and I am sorry about her situation but many athletes have far worse stories and that doesn't excuse them either. She made it about her. In a team sport you can't make it about yourself especially if you are playing for your country.

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This was the worst day of you life, you have been publicly humiliated by a person you trusted (your coach), the goal that you have worked for your entire life is within reach and at the very last moment, without any warning and with only a cursory explanation - you are benched. At the end of all this, when you are still fighting your emotions some reporter asks you how you are feeling. The US PR man tells the reporter that she should limit her inquiries to players who actually played. The humiliation and anger comes poring out and before you know it, you say things that you never meant to say. Anyone who thinks that they are above this is delusional, this was a young person who was deeply hurt and upset. So maybe a little understanding is in order here.

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Yeah, MDS, stop being such a sally. Solo made a mistake, and the team needs to move on. Should she feel slighted? Yeah, maybe, but throwing a teammate under the bus like that is inexcusable. How could you look Scurry in the eye after that? It's terrible.

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Hope Solo simply told the truth about her coach benching her and Briana's performance wasn't exactly a gold medal performance between the pipes. She didn't throw Briana under the bus. I am sure that the two ladies will kiss and make up. I am sure Briana is feeling the pain of all US soccer fans but she would be wise to forgive and forget and start a new streak of wins. About Greg Ryan what were you thinking? Were you smoking funny stuff as we say in New Orleans.

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Two wrongs don't make it right.

Ryan's decision was a decision any coach has the right to make, but he made it in the wrong way. He told Scurry, if early press reports are correct, he may play her IF the opponent was Brazil. His mistake well before the game was not telling the team or the goalie who was starting and playing well this was on his mind, and the substitution a possible outcome which would advance the team.

If he'd done that, Solo possibly would have accepted the decision better than she did, since she and the team had been shown some respect by the coach, and the team would not have been in a quandry as to the decision.

Regardless of outcome, 4-0, 1-0, or 12-0 at least they'd have moved forward together.

Ryan's tactical ineptitude was exposed at the highest level throughout this tournament; his subs horrible, and the fact he has the team playing long-ball is dreadful. He MUST go and go quickly. A coach's job is to prepare his team to play, it was evident the goal-keeper decision, and the way it was implemented as well as the tactics and preparation used were made by a person who is not a top-notch coach.

Solo: her comments were in anger and frustration, and should not have been made, in any venue. The comments were unprofessional, most especially toward her team mates. It will be a tough reconciliation, if there ever is one. She may have permanently damaged herself as being reliable behind the team and between the sticks. Right now, if I was a defender, I'd not want her guarding my back--it's a position of trust, and trust must be there is it's is to work. If she's kept her mouth shut, Ryan would be taking more heat than he is. "Silence speaks volumes."

I believe WNT has made a gigantic leap backward, hopefully they'll play a strong match on Sunday, then regroup and rebuild. Hopefully, the bone-heads at USA Soccer will start doing something FOR soccer in the US and not TO soccer in the US. They are getting to be as bad as the English FA.

Getting shod of Ryan and his staff and bringing in competent coaching would be a good first step for the WNT.

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Ryan is a bonehead! The USA deservesbetter. Hope deserved better! Takes out of the net someone who never gives up a goal and puts in someone who gives up 4 in *one game*! Dumb as* move! Not fit to coach at this level. Go back to AYSO.

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What Hope Solo did is something I would do when I am about to quit my job. Ripping apart your coworkers is not something anyone who wishes to continue to work at her job would do, especially publicly in front of a global television audience. I am convinced that with Marta and Christianne of Brazil playing as if they were possessed, it would not have mattered who was in goal that day. Was it not the same Hope who conceded two goals against North Korea a far less fancy opponent than Brazil. How would she have felt if Briana had a press statement saying that she could have saved the two goals that Hope conceded against North Korea. One of the goals sailed right through her hands in that game. By the way the game ended in a tie. I admire Briana for not dignifying Hope's comments by joining in the media spectacle that Hope has created...making many soccer fans in the world believe that we are soar losers. Other teams lost in the World Cup and their players were not criticizing their teammates and coaches. I hope that in the future Hope (pardon the pun) will be more considerate to her teammates who play the beautiful game simply for the love of it and not to gain notoriety at the expense of others. Hope should not bring despair to her teammates.

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I hate when people use sap stories for sympathy.

Who cares about her father. She has no morals and she should have shut her mouth.
Brianna has done more for US soccer then she ever will.

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Her name is Solo, how appropriate! her comments reflects a very self-centered and arrogant person. Soccer is a team sports and she had no business making those comments. First of all she should have been benched after the first game when she failed to stop two very easy shots and caused the U.S 2 points against South Korea. Against Brazil she would not have stopped these goals as she claimed. The goals where not Briana Scurry's fault, very few goalkeepers in the world could have stop these shots. It was Brazil's day and everything that could have went wrong for the U.S unfortunatly did go wrong including Shannon Boxx's red card. soccer is a cruel but beautiful game. I m glad she apologized for her comments

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I think Hope should have probably took a deep breath and thought about what she was going to say before she said it. I can't blame her for it, because i know i would have done the same thing. But to say that Brianna Scurry has done more than Hope will ever aspire to is wrong. you can't limit a person's success like that.
Yes, it probably wasn't the best thing to say what she said, but she is a human being, and if any of us are human beings, we know what its like to make mistakes. No one is perfect. Give her a chance. She's probably bottled little things up, and the decision to start brianna as keeper in the game agaist brazil probably triggered a rather harsh response.
You can't judge someone just off a bad day. She was upset. She probably could have handled it better, but what would you have done in that position? There will be other tournaments and world cups. This isn't the end of Hope Solo. Brianna Scurry neither. They're both excellent in what they do. I think scurry proably could have put a little more effort into some of the saves, but thats my opinion. The US NT are human beings and they aren't perfect. Don't expect perfection. Just believe that they can do whatever they set their mind to. After all, they are the greatest team you've never heard of.

HOPE SOLO is still my favorite Keeper.

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What a stupid decision by Ryan - to bench the goalie who has been key in the unbelievable undefeated run of the U.S. women's soccer team. Not to take anything away from Briana Scurry, but Hope Solo should have been in goal against Brazil. I hope Ryan gets blackballed from coaching women's soccer at the national level - he's incompetent.

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Anyone who has played women's soccer knows it all politics with a code of silence. I'm sorry that Solo is taking the heat, yet I'm glad she spoke up.

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Hope Solo's knee-jerk reaction to being abused is not a mistery. The REAL question is WHY coach Ryan made that insane, last minute, decision; which doomed the team---substituting a cold and stiff player with zero playing time in that tournament, for the one that had kept the team victorious through all four previous games.

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What is signified by the black armband that Hope wore when she was on the bench against Brazil?

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I played soccer with Hope in high school. Back then she played forward and she led the team to winning the state championship. She is someone who is absolutely passionate about winning, and she expected 120 percent from her team mates as well as herself. What she said wasn't a good idea *from a politically correct viewpoint. However, when you want to win as badly as she does, you just aren't going to let in four goals. No way.

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I'm sure the plethera of NBA players and NFL players that do this every week get away with it ... why?

Take into consideration that Hope didn't play against Brazil in June because her father had just died .. right before the first USWNT team game he was going to see her play in live. Then to find out that that game was the reaosn she was being benched ... AND to hear Bri talk about the fact that both of them lost their fathers as the reason why Hope would take the benching well and still be friends with Scurry.

So basically her coach benched her because her father died at the wrong time in his eyes, and her replacement even brought it up that the benching had been discussed back in June when Hope was sitting out due to her fathers death. You talk about Hope being unprofessional? Usually the back-stabbing is limited to working hard to prove the other player should be benched, not taking advantage of a death in the family to promote your own goals.

I know I wouldn't have exploded in front fo the press like that myself, but I sure would have settled things in the locker room, jail time be damned.

When Scurry stood there and didn't call off the defender on what should have been an easy save but turned into an own goal, the game was lost from that point forward. It wouldn't have gone in with Hope in goal, end of sentence.

The team lost because Ryan is an idiot and Scurry was all too happy to take advantage of the situation. Yes, she's done a lot for US Soccer, but so did Chastain and nobody cared that Ryan basically kicked her off the team.

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Whether or not you agree with what Hope said, or her actions, this is a sad story. And it takes one very strong person to carry themselves the way she has. I love Hope, and will continue to support her through everything. One question, though, is that her mother or grandmother that was speaking?

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