Sunday, September 30, 2007

Me and Bri

AC: I'm really disappointed in you, Bri. I can't believe that you went after Lori Chalupny like that. She's been arguably the best and most productive field player out there for you guys in this tournament. You wouldn't be there in the third-place match if it wasn't for her.

Bri: I didn't go after Lori. I was trying to get the ball. I'm a competitor, just like Lori, and I'm going to go all-out for my team.

AC: Well, that's some klutzy aim you've got there, because you missed the ball completely and laid out a teammate instead. How does it help your team to hurt a teammate?

Bri: It was an accident. It wasn't my intention. I'd never go after a teammate on purpose. My target was the ball.

AC: Scurry injures young teammate - how is that for a headline? All I'm saying is that, in all the years I've played soccer, I've never had a goalkeeper knock me out like that. Are you going to apologize and promise never to do that again?

Bri: What? I mean sure, I'm sorry I hurt Lori, but if I hesitate the next time I need to go out to get the ball, that's going to be a betrayal of myself and the reality of what it means to be a goalkeeper.

AC: We don't need real! We need damage control. All I know is, after what I've seen, I don't want you playing behind me.

Bri: You should be so lucky.

AC: That doesn't sound like an apology. You know that trust takes a while to gain and can be easily lost and then tough to regain. How is Lori going to be able to play with confidence when she might fear getting blindsided by you? I think we need to be free from the distraction that you brought on this team. Don't bother coming to practice or the next game. Also, remember that there's a long list of capable goalkeepers in the U.S. that have never hit Lori during a game.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

So... what exactly did Scurry do to you to make you dislike her so much?

amberbs said...

My thoughts exactly. There has been a lot of Bri bashing going on in soccer blogs and she hasn't done anything wrong. Ryan made a stupid decision, but she went out and played like she was told; then Solo whines like a baby to the press about Bri getting the start over her. How exactly is any of this Bri's fault? She just went out there and did her job and kept her mouth shut.

A.C. said...

Oh irony. I don't dislike Bri at all. I've gone out of my way to point out that she was put in an uncomfortable position in the entire situation by Ryan.

However,I don't understand why it's conveniently overlooked by so many (and certainly by Foudy and the like on the ESPN broadcast) that Scurry made "I would have saved those shots" comments herself about another U.S. goalkeeper, Siri Mullunix.

Like Solo, I think Scurry's comments were just about believing in herself, but Solo is getting crucified for it. When Scurry hit Lori Chalupney during the game, it was obviously unintentional, meaning Chalups was collateral damage, but it made me sad to think of how many have been so presumptive in saying that Solo was out to attack Scurry.

Uh, it frustrates me when I try to make subtle comparisons between situations and just get misunderstood instead. I hate spelling everything out, but ok: This post is a extended metaphor - a fable of sorts - to draw attention to the unfairness of both situations. Solo didn't mean to hurt Scurry. Scurry did not mean to hurt Chalupny.

amberbs said...

I could have written a better extended metaphor (This of course is no comment on your writing abilities nor does it imply that I am a better writer than you)

A.C. said...

No worries. I was low on sleep when I wrote the whole thing and I was going, actually for a little touch of humor, so I obviously missed bigtime. I'd blame lack of sleep, but I know too well that just like things one says don't always come out right, the same happens at times with written copy.

And feel free to lay your extended metaphor down here, too.

A.C. said...

I could have written a better extended metaphor (This of course is no comment on your writing abilities nor does it imply that I am a better writer than you)

Oh wait, damn, I am slow this morning! THAT was brilliant!

You did a Hope Solo and expressed belief in your own writing prowess! Then added the caveat that I shouldn't be insulted (though your comment could be taken as a disparagement). Very nice.

Thing is, the first thing I thought was, "More power to you." I've got to work on the defensiveness, and the jumping to offended conclusions of some of the U.S. team members.

I've been around male athletes too much, I guess. Most simply don't take a lot of this stuff personally - they brag and put each other down as a way of bonding, so there's little in the way of hurt feelings.

Anonymous said...

"Also, remember that there's a long list of capable goalkeepers in the U.S. that have never hit Lori during a game."

Ha! Thank you. That was inspired hilarity.

Anonymous said...

andrea, you're defintely going coo-coo.

zhatso said...

It was hard not to be a little pissed at Brianna...certainly I was disappointed....but more than anything it hurt to see that glorious keeper out there floundering before the world, where she had been the Olympic goalkeeper....

Just as it was hard to not want Germany to slaughter Brazil...even though in my heart of hearts I knew that winning would mean exponentially more for Brazil than Germany...Germany has a league...Germany has public respect...Brazil deserves it...

But when Prinz that first goal all my altruism vanished....

So having bonded to Solo for two years (we live close enough to their west coast training center to watch a fair amount of their practices and all the games they play here),,,we were surprised at how we struggled to not blame Scurry.
My daughter plays goal keeper with the autographs of both on her gloves and jersey...

Funny how feelings and loyalties can shift so fast.

A photo at US Soccer site has Wambach and Solo embracing after the game....then a few sentences to the press later, they are't speaking....

Games, rules, skills, training...but we are all still human beings in all our glorious imperfections....which is okay as long as Greg Ryan loses his job...now.

Anonymous said...

GOD that was funny. You know, it's funny how media frenzy can influence even a professional writer, i.e., me.

After the infamous video of Solo's reaction, I didn't even blink. I just thought: 'wow, I guess she's upset, anyway, how's Germany doing?'- something like that. Then, it was all over every sportspage, and I started thinking "wow, I guess it really upset people, the whole team is hurt, maybe Solo misspoke--or maybe she BLEW IT! Now that I think about it and read these 417 web articles and listen to Foudy's special commentary informing me that she broke a rule written in stone and violated the honor of all sports on planet earth, perhaps I, too, should be angry!"

If for some reason the media had not become obsessed over the issue, I think it would have been forgotten. Maybe not by the team - who knows- but surely by the public.

As for banishing her from eating areas and the plane ride home, how juvenile is that? It's like a Christian summer camp mobbing against someone who questions The Pope. I am curious, if anyone here knows - how common is the total eviction/alienation of a teammate in sports?

Surely some football/baseball/basketball playerr somewhere, some year made a similar angry comment?

Anonymous said...

amberbs and ac.'

Subtle metaphors never work on blogs. Too much of an inside joke. No disrespect to you AC, but much better writers than you have tried and failed with that sort of thing.

This entire USWNT has such a high school feel that it may affect the pro league. Mia and her gang were perfect princesses and now the illusion is over and there is no going back.

If Mia and the old gang were still there, Solo would either never have gone public or the damge would have been contained quickly. None of these players have the same gravitas so the team wound up being personified by Ryan, Wambach and Lilly who are all pretty lame in the PR stakes compared to the Queen and her court. I won't follow this team like I did because they now come across a lot more like an evil sorority, a bunch of mean girls. That is hard to root for. That and the fact that they are losers.