(Getty)
A new video shows an emotional Hope Solo finding out about her six-month suspension from the United States Women’s National team after calling Sweden’s Olympic team ‘cowards’ after the U.S. lost to them in the quarterfinals.
It’s hard to conjure up a lot of sympathy for Hope Solo. The suspension is more a lifetime achievement award than for this single incident. Hope Solo’s prolific skill has kept her a fixture of the women’s national team, but the goalkeeper has constantly been a distraction over the past decade. She has no one to blame but herself after putting her foot in her mouth yet again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=j_cu1hMwsgI
With that being said, U.S. Soccer doesn’t come out of this looking particularly good either. After years of enabling Solo’s volatile behavior by keeping her around, U.S. Soccer suspended her for poor behavior only after it became clear at the Olympics that her skills are declining.
Plus the six-month suspension is mostly symbolic because the national team will have no important matches in that timeframe. This was obviously a PR move, when a more substantive one would be to simply to stop naming Solo to the team for upcoming national team matches without making a contrived public statement.
