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Hope Solo's New Book: So Classy

Grizzly

By Grizzly
in Women's National Teams

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Grizzly Newbie

Grizzly

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http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/soccer-dirty-tackle/former-u-women-coach-denies-hope-solo-claim-223417111--sow.html

Hope Solo has returned home after winning her second Olympic gold medal as a member of the U.S. women's national team, but claims made about the 2007 World Cup fallout in her well-timed new book "Solo: A Memoir of Hope" are diverting attention from her Olympic success. And now former U.S. coach Greg Ryan is denying an allegation Solo makes in the book that he shoved her during a heated meeting where Ryan told her she wouldn't be playing in the team's semifinal against Brazil at that World Cup. The U.S. went on to lose 4-0 with veteran Brianna Scurry in goal. Solo drew sharp criticism from teammates and fans for going on live television after the match and saying,"It was the wrong decision, and I think anyone who knows anything about the game of soccer knows that."

Here's the passage from Solo's book that makes the claim against Ryan (via Business Insider):

"We were both silent. I had nothing left to say so I stood up to leave. Greg leaned over and pushed me back down on the couch. Hard. 'You f***ing leave when I say you can leave,' he said."

Ryan, who became the head coach of the University of Michigan women's team in 2008 after his contract with the U.S. expired, was quick to refute this version of events. From Fox Soccer:

"This allegation is completely false," Ryan said in a prepared statement released to the media. "I did not shove or push Hope as I've been accused in her book. I would have been terminated immediately by US Soccer had this allegation been true. I have openly discussed the contents of the meeting and this is the first time that this accusation has been brought to light."

A coach physically assaulting one of his players is obviously a serious accusation and it is curious that Solo wouldn't bring this to the attention of the U.S. Soccer Federation at the time, rather than waiting five years to publish it in a book. Solo does write that there was a witness to this incident though, and she makes it clear that she felt she didn't have many friends within the national team around that time.

Related video from Yahoo! Sports:

Solo's contempt for Ryan is also made clear elsewhere in the book. "If I had made a list of all the people I thought might coach the national team, Greg Ryan would probably have been dead last," she says as a way of introducing him. And in an excerpt published by ESPN, she says that teammates Abby Wambach and current captain Christie Rampone were among the "older players" who made her apologize to Scurry in front of the whole team -- an apology that her teammates deemed "insincere" before suspending her from all team activities.

It's probably best that this book was released after the U.S. won gold in London rather than before.

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loyola Newbie

loyola

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I remember those comments about Scurry like it was yesterday. She did put Ryan on the spotlight with those and with the pressure he had on his shoulders it wouldn't surprise me if it happened. He lost his cool and did something stupid. I can see that happenening TBH.

I guess if she didn't go to the US fed about it might have been because she thought they wouldn't take her seriously with what just happened.

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Grizzly Newbie

Grizzly

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I remember those comments about Scurry like it was yesterday. She did put Ryan on the spotlight with those and with the pressure he had on his shoulders it wouldn't surprise me if it happened. He lost his cool and did something stupid. I can see that happenening TBH.

I guess if she didn't go to the US fed about it might have been because she thought they wouldn't take her seriously with what just happened.

Obviously no one that was not there can say one way or the other what happened. However, stating something like that in a book that you are releasing just after an Olympics in which you are hoping a Gold medal will pump up sales is certainly not going to give you any credibility especially because scandal will give you even more scales. Also hard to explain why you did not follow the proper procedure when you are obviously following the most improper procedure by releasing this in a book you want to make money off of.

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Cheeta Grand Master

Cheeta

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My recollection of the "public" portion of the event in question was it was all incredulous. A WTF? moment. Ryan acted stupidly. Beyond stupidly, the results showed that and he was subsequently, and immediately fired when the team returned to the USA. Also remember Solo being exiled from the team (whilst abroad), punished with the Scarlet Letter for saying aloud what everyone was thinking.

Don't know what happened behind closed doors. He said, she said. Given how things played out though, I'm inclined to believe the lady's version of events.

Disclaimer; Every dyed in the wool 'keeper I've ever know is batty.

Will also agree the timing for airing this sort of dirty laundry maybe isn't the best either. But then again, maybe the timing is absolutely perfect.

There are some pretty distorted perceptions of the so-called "Team First" culture which can infect a closed program. Sporting, business or otherwise. Shooting a spotlight on that culture while unflattering isn't always a bad thing.

The Team First culture...I remember a few of our ladies vigorously voicing support for Pellerud after he got the chop. (Another one of those WTF? moments). As sincere as it was at the time I'm quite sure it all seems embarrassing at this point for some of our Bronze Medal wearing Lady Canucks. Does Hooper get credit for being the canary in the Pellerud coal mine? Not yet. But her leading the dissent, and being vilified for it at the time by the majority of her team-mates has to be acknowledged for what it was. A shinning light onto what was the terrible rot which had set into the program at every level.

But here we have it. A cast of characters, Ryan, Solo, and Wambach. This is one of those bad-guys & bad-guys tales isn't it? Can't be bothered to read the thing. I'll wait for the Quinton Tarantino movie scripted off the rag to appear on Netflix because I wouldn't pay to see it the theatre either.

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Grizzly Newbie

Grizzly

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^^ If a player wants to say publicly that a coach is poor than fine. But to say that you teammate is a poor player like Solo did shows really poor character even if it is true. And if there was some team or coach culture or a serious incident that needed to be exposed then the time to do it would have been when the incident occurred. If you don't trust the official federation channels then go to the media. Waiting for years and then writing about it in a book you want to sell well and make you a lot of money equals no credibility.

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Unnamed Trialist Grand Master

Unnamed Trialist

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Solo, and Wambach. Anyone want to give me a view on Abby? I don't know how she is normally, in this tournament she was the FIFA designated player-ref, starting with that appalling move to get the Colombian suspended. The whole play was suspicious, she goes on the counter and the marker does put a hand in her face, could have been a foul or even a yellow; she stays down for ages then screams at the ref; after game complains and gets the committee to look at game footage, and they suspend a player who is obviously not going to continue in the tournament: the most vindictive mean-spirited innoble behaviour imaginable, especially given the ease she went in for a deliberate foul to injure one of our players in the extra period in the semis (was that her who went for a knee?), and leaps with elbows out habitually--but has she always been like that?

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The Ref Community Regular

The Ref

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Let us not forget Alex Morgan who in the game against New Zealand she kneed the GK Jenny Bindon and left her unconscious. For the U.S. tactics which are unsporting and contrary to FIFA's Fair Play there is not only plenty of video evidence but there is their proper admission of their behavior. They are good players that really don't need to resort to this kind of tactics. But as long as their coach looks the other way, nothing will change. If Ryan became a problem, the history is repeating itself.

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Cheeta Grand Master

Cheeta

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LOL. Missed that. Wow. Read the article twice and I'm still sitting here laughing. Very sporting. And AT THE OLYMPICS! LOL.

Perfect. Well done, lassies. Sums you up perfectly.

LOL. Who signed off on that? What suit decided this was a good idea? Geezus effing Christ this is one of those "If it has to be explained to you, YOU just don't get it and never well".

Nike huh? Those the clowns which brought us the voice of Tiger Woods' ghost Dad to the "what did you learn?" sorry-for-whoring-around commercial? That one got what it deserved to.

Still laughing...thanks.

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