U.S. Soccer starting goalie Hope Solo is one of my favorite players in any sport at any time but when she created a mini-firestorm by criticizing NBC analyst and former player Brandi Chastain on Twitter yesterday she screwed up (Hope Solo slams Brandi Chastain). The last thing a team playing at this level needs is drama because drama becomes distraction which becomes an excuse for defeat.Chastain played on teams that won two Women's World Cups and two Olympic championships, teams that gave birth to women's soccer as an international sport. It should be remembered that women didn't have a world cup until 1991 or play soccer in the Olympics until 1996. If not for Chastain and her teammates it's quite possible Solo would not be playing on TV at all. But she doesn't need to thank the players that came before her, she doesn't even need to like them, she does need to respect what they did and should have just shutit. She should have taken a cue from teammate Abby Wambach who took a punch to the face against Colombia and quickly put it behind her.
After a bad Flyers loss in the past season's Stanley Cup playoffs Sarah Baicker, the Flyers editor for Comcast SportsNet Philly, tweeted
"There's a fine line between swagger (good) and arrogance (bad)."
Just another lesson some of us never learn. What? Oh shuit,
this wasn't about me ...
What did Chastain say that sparked the whole controversy? "Rachel Buehler with the giveaway there. As a defender, your responsibilities are defend, win the ball, and then keep possession, and that’s something Rachel Buehler needs to improve on during this tournament." Seriously, that was it. Chastain made the 1996 national team as a defender,
maybe she would know, maybe that is why NBC pays her.
Finally possibly the easiest explanation for it all. Hope Solo's memoir, yes memoir, will be released next month.
