Here's Zeigler's article about Solo. His article starts with the answer to a question I asked - "What was the worst part of the entire experience for you?" When she talked to me, Hope stammered slightly, then sighed and told me she couldn't be sure.
By the time Zeigler talked to her, I think Hope had figured it out.
Still won't let me in!
ReplyDeleteIs that the #70 that was deleted on the previous post?
Wish I had the pleasure of seeing it before it was deleted, I was too busy typing! lol
Has anyone asked Abby Wambach or Kristine Lilly for comments yet?
ReplyDeletei think this is my fav part of the article. it gives a positive outlook
ReplyDelete"Solo admits there were some “awkward” moments when she arrived at The Home Depot Center in Carson. But once the players got on the field, once the ball was kicked, what happened in a hotel in China three months earlier faded like a Polaroid photograph left in the sun."
Coach;
ReplyDeleteDon't know if you've solved your problem getting the Zeigler article. I get there either of these ways:
1) Google "Hope Solo" in the news portion of google. The most recent entry is the Ziegler article.
2) google "sign on san diego", click on it, then use their keyword search engine for Hope Solo and it pops up first entry there as well.
good luck. it really is a well done piece of work.
Finally able to read it! :)
ReplyDelete"The next few days are still a blur for Solo."
Yes, she broke. Many of us saw it at the time. To any of you who have lost a parent, especially a parent you cared for deeply, you know exactly what she means. I unfortunately fall into this group. :(
Too bad Coach Ryan & others can't spell the word compassion.
"Solo descended into a deep funk – “an all-time low,” she says – and stopped returning phone calls or e-mails. She seriously questioned whether she would continue playing soccer, despite being 26 and considered by some the best goalkeeper in the world."
This shook me up. If you do read this Hope, remember your true fans remain behind you. Focus on those Olympics, all will be good.
BTW, thanks Meredith for posting the article in an attempt for me to read it. When that comment was deleted, I thought it was someone being nasty with their remarks!
lol Ghost, I swear we posted at the same second!
ReplyDeleteZiegler's excellent piece merely accentuates how cruel the members of the WNT really were. How dare they behave that way to somebody who was emotionally vulnerable because of her father's death only months before! Somethings are far more important than the false "team unity" displayed by Lilly, Wambach, et al. They nauseate me.
ReplyDeleteChris:
ReplyDeleteI'd still like to see Scurry interviewed esp. vis-a-vis her own comments about the 2000 Olympics and how they could have been taken as a "dig" at Siri Mullenix.
Solo gets a pass and can behave any way she chooses because her father died?
ReplyDeleteThat's one side of the story. There is another.
Welcome back KIT!
ReplyDeletei have had a theory about the whole goalie switch for a long time. it goes somethign like this. Scurry comes back and clearly isnt up to form to start. would scurry really be willing to stay on the team through the next world cup knowing there is pretty much no way she would start. i think ryan wanted/needed her as a backup and so maybe he offered her a deal she couldnt refuse. she sits, and waits, and when we get into the heart of the tournament, he finds a way to get her in. it has just always struck me as odd that scurry and ryan seemed well aware she might play and hope has clearly said she had no freaking clue it was about to happen. Ryan has admitted in the past that the one position he knows nothing about is keeper. His comments about not worrying about hopes mental state prior to the game only make me wonder more, because clearly even had we beaten brazil, hope may not have mentally been able to play. I dont think he cared, i think he was already committed to a deal.
ReplyDeleteMy take on a this is that scurry should be the one offering an interview. i take her absolute silence since the world cup, not as covering for the team but covering for her own behind.
just a theory
AARRRGGGHHH!
ReplyDeleteI have been trying all day to get to the article but can't. The tricks suggested don't work because there is no response from signonsandiego.com.
I'll try again later, but if someone can copy and save the text I may need an e-mail copy.
BTW to Anon comment 2 before mine: Hope does not get a free pass. She screwed up, she knows it, and she apologized privately and publicly. It would be nice to have a little something back from the team. That's what bothers me - not even a "we've forgiven her and are glad she's back". It'd be pretty immature to hold the grudge forever.
Anythings possible M. but any way you slice it there is no logical explanation for the switch when the back-up hasn't played for months, barring injury.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, Ryan was the only one out there that needed hindsight to see that!
rtt, I see you are having the same problem I was earlier! :( Just keep trying, it will work. Hope is overloading the site! lol
Unfortunately, anon above can't spell compassion either.
That makes sense. Ryan risks losing the World Cup because he made a deal with Scurry. What else can we make up? I think that Scurry is secretly his love child and that's why he made the switch.
ReplyDeleteAnon,
ReplyDeleteRe. love child, I do believe you have hit the nail on the head! My way of saying it has been that there will be a book & a movie some day. :)
Seriously though, if you can't have some respect for others opinions, stfu!
:)
anon i am not sure ryan expected to lose. I think he was so clueless he didnt think the keeper switch was going to be all that much of a factor whether they won or lost.
ReplyDeletei agree with meredith...it seems that he was clueless and careless more so than a conspiracy. and his quotes about the switch and post-game interviews seems to indicate that he did not think that the switch had any impact
ReplyDeleteGuys, anon was being, umm, sarcastic, which is why I had a momentary lapse in my normally laid back demeanor & told him to stfu.
ReplyDeleteSorry in advance if I offended anyone!
:)
O for peats sake,
ReplyDeleteryan gives his side of the hope story. I would love to tell you what i really want to write, but i cannot because AC would have to delete my post for vulgarity and pure indeceny as i spew a stream of obsenities.
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/azetc/articles/1219ryan.html
hope apparantly is a late night parting hooligan, who played like crap at practice so he dropped her from the starting lineup. but he waited till now to trash her for her own wellbeing. I find it hard to believe anything he has to say when he states things like this,
"When you look back and say, 'Life would have been a lot easier if I had just let Hope fail against Brazil.' Because I think that's what would have happened. I think we actually would have given up more goals with Hope in there than Briana. And looking back I think for me that would have been the best decision. Because then you don't get all the media scrutiny and all that stuff, and you just get a young goalie who wasn't performing well."
"We played small sided games to big goals, where we were going to get a lot of chances like Brazil would get, dribbling in or around the penalty box. On that day, of the 30 or 40 shots, Hope was giving up three times the number of goals Briana was giving up.
Briana was saving them in the top corners. Hope was letting them go right through her hands, and this was two days before the Brazil game. It was so bad that I brought my assistants down to watch and said, 'Look at this.' Now looking back, correlating the late nights and whatever, maybe it makes a little bit more sense."
I cannot say hope wasny out late or anything as I want there, but i also think this is both a bs double standard of the women v. the men as well as if anything his problem in the first place because he is the coach and should know wtf is going on. (apparently he says he didnt know till after they came back)
o and once again it was his young players not his coaching style that led to the failure of the long ball, and the own goal and the red card (which was generated in the us players coming out like a bunch of thugs) was the reason we lost to brazil.
o and one mroe thing, he trying to get a coaching job with the WUSA.
i suddenly feel like i am coming down with my paper topic, (neurotoxic shellfish poisoning) because i think im gonna be sick
Ryan sheds a little more light on things
ReplyDeletehttp://www.azcentral.com/sports/azetc/articles/1219ryan.html
lol i laughed at this comment:
ReplyDelete"get a young goalie who wasn't performing well"
i guess 300 mins w/o allowing goals...saving your ass with england, sweden, and nigeria. yeah she must have sucked.
i didnt think i could despise that man even more but i guess i was wrong. he knows he f-up and now he is trying to find any excuse to justify it.
dp,
ReplyDeletedid this not make you sick
So no regrets?
"I can't say there are no regrets. I think the result of all of it is that I've got the best record of any coach ever, but I'm still not employed, so I regret that. But I don't think I would have done it any different."
and this
We had a young team, and I think we got nervous. And I think our reaction was to play a bunch of long balls instead of just passing the ball. I was constantly on the sidelines trying to calm the team down to play shorter passing, to keep the ball at the back and not to lump it forward, but I think that under the pressure, I think some of the players struggled with it. For a lot of them it was their first World Cup. I knew it was going to be difficult for them because there were so many young players."
guess it was all the players fault after all
maybe he ate bad squid in china. neurotoxic poisoning can create confusion and bizare behavior
yeah meredith that also disgusted me.
ReplyDeletelet's blame all the players for my mistakes in the world cup. he needs be a damn grown-ass man and admit to his faults.
we should send that paragraph you posted to all the usa players see what they think cuz he just trashed every single one of them.
also didn't he NOT play any young players ANYWAY but overused poor Lily and Wambach. Jesus!
ReplyDeleteIm sorry, i know i shouldnt but the bus has to come out. Solo may have thrown scurry under the bus, but ryan just waited for the whole team to enter the crossing walk and ran over them all.
ReplyDeleteStill can't get to Zeigler's story...
ReplyDeleteBut I did see Ryan's. Correct me if I'm wrong, but at the time he never said anything about Hope looking poor in practice - that would have made sense then. And he sure as hell didn't say it to Hope, else why would she have said "You can't live in the past", etc.
I'm not saying he's lying about what happened, because no one seems to be giving a complete account. At this point I'm not sure who or what to believe. But I am sure about one thing: the man did a terrible job at the WC, in all aspects.
I wanna say more, but it's late on the east coast and I'm too tired to think. Write something interesting I can read over my morning coffee. :)
I just watched a movie I really enjoy called "The Family Guy" with Nicolas Cage. It's a fantasy, Christmas time, love story type movie but for poor entertainment value, Ryan's fantasy world appears to have this movie beat!
ReplyDeleteI agree with rtt though, it's past my bedtime, so the reading of it shall wait till the morning.
adios
O.K., I couldn't go to bed without reading it.
ReplyDeleteWhat jibberish! His words don't even warrant the time it takes to comment!
WOW!
Above comment, "poor" entertainment value should read "pure" ... tired! lol
ReplyDeleteYou wanted details and then when you get them you totally dismiss them.
ReplyDeletekit,
ReplyDeletecan you honestly take the mans words at face value.
He blamed the longball game on the players nerves. thats absolute bs. In fact i cannot even tell you the number of times prior to the wwc that ryan TOLD HER TO SEND LONG BALLS TO ABBY. and in an interview he defended the longball saying short passes dont work in the modern game. Then he comes out and says he told them to make short passes and it was all the players the messed up. Thats utter bs, he knows it and anyone who knows the name knowns it. And if anyone had nerves it was him, he looked like he was going to pass out during the nk game.
I dont know what in fact hope was doing in her free time, all i know is her and chalupa where the only players who brought their A game to the wwc so apparently she was doing something right.
also
he specifically said he was playing scurry because of her fast hands and prior experience with brazil. he said nothing about her performance at practice, he said nothing about solo not performing at practice.
the guy is a jerk
her <-- in my post is defender cat whitehill
ReplyDeleteOf course he's not going to come out and say Hope was sucking in practice. He was being diplomatic which he's obviously done with. Probably should have kept his mouth shut as it makes him look a little petty to spill it now but can you really blame the guy with all the crap people have been spewing about him.
ReplyDeleteThere were other players on their A game - Osborne, O'Reilly, Rampone and others.
He does have to take responsibility for the game plan.
Hope wasn't on her A game when she let that ball slip through her fingers.
i think he is making excuses to make himself look good and get a job. Plain and simple.
ReplyDelete@kit
ReplyDeleteI find it strange that you place most of the blame for Hope's post-comment treatment on Ryan and then defend him for these spineless comments.
Let's get this straight... because of the way the Brazilians kick the ball, Hope would have given up more goals... more than 4, which is truly the most the US has EVER lost by. I can't actually recall a good look on goal that Scurry saved from that game.
I'd be able to look at these "facts" if Ryan had any credibility left after that world cup display.
This just sounds like the desperate cries of a man who needs to find a job. "She blows, guys! Really! Really! The only US Keeper with any shutouts in the World Cup stinks! She's only good with her feet and not actually good at the position she's been playing... which is goalkeeping..."
I'm sorry, Greg, I'm not about to canonize her, but Hope Solo is more man than you'll ever be.
I think I feel the worst for Scurry, who gets place in the middle of this. She's already said she's forgiven Hope and put it behind her. She's a legend and deserved to retire surrounded by much more grace.
The details desired are why, repeat why, was a team member publicly humiliated, ostrasized & shunned by the coach & "team leaders"?
ReplyDeleteDid I miss it in this interview?
Oh and yes, tar & feather her for seeing a bit of China with I gather some family members & friends! Such a naughty girl! :)
She wasn't there as a tourist. She was there with her team to win a World Cup. If she disrespected her teammates by ditching a team meal and curfew and was dogging it in practice as a result and then spouted off to the media like she did when she got benched, her teammates reaction to her makes a little more sense.
ReplyDeleteI can see that Hope can do no wrong in your eyes. You've already made up your mind that she's the victim.
rtt,
ReplyDeleteIf you would like to leave an e-mail address I will e-mail the Zeigler article to you if you still can't get in to see it.
Re. your practice comment, numerous athletes at all levels & in all sports don't bring their "A" game to practice.
They elevate their emotion levels and intensity for the games when it really matters. For whatever that's worth. :)
Actually, I feel Hope was wrong to speak out against her coach after the Brazil game, but I UNDERSTAND it.
ReplyDeleteYou are becoming rather tiresome & your comments are going to be categorized along with Ryan's as jibberish. :)
Good article/interview with Boxxy at Daily Pilot:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailypilot.com
/articles/2007/12/20
/sports/dpt-spboxx20.txt
:)
Coach is right about practice - for examples see Plaxico Burress or Allen Iverson.
ReplyDeleteIf Ryan was concerned about Hope in practice he should have talked to her about it. He should have made more effort or been more aware of what the team was doing outside of practice. Obviously Hope has a rebellious streak and took some liberties she shouldn't have. But it certainly appears that he was out of touch with the team (nobody could tell him about Hope's alleged behavior??) and that is completely unacceptable.
Coach: still can't get the article - i you would send it I'd be most appreciative. Thanks -
rttimp@comcast.net
Well, well, well. Ryan Strikes Back. Reminds me a bit of a George Lucas film and partakes of about the same degree of reality.
ReplyDeleteIt'll be interesting to see if this elicits any response from team or coaches (Hope herself, unless she sues the guy, needs to keep her mouth SHUT). At the time the keepers switch was made every other knowledgeable soccer observer criticized his decision. Every one! Including Silvia Neid the WC Champion head coach. Now he says he switched because of 30 or 40 PRACTICE shots?! Presumably on one day. Would you buy a used car from this man?
It has been reported that his own goalkeeper coach, Phil Wheddon, opposed the move. And yet Ryan tries to give the impression that his assistants agreed with the decision. Be very interesting to see if they will back his version of events.
Now he comes out with allegations against Hope that he admits he told her he was NOT going public with. Whether they are true or not, he must have changed his mind about that, too, just like keepers. Yep, you can see right away he's a man of fine judgment and integrity. This guy wouldn't know a high road if he tripped on one.
One thing I will say, though, if the late nights and "other hotel" means Hope was spending time with her boyfriend and missed any team functions as a result, it may go some way toward explaining the failure of the team to rally around her and the severity of the reaction after her outburst. Still, I'd sure want some corroboration of these charges from a more reliable source than this discredited, vengeful FORMER coach before I'd be willing to actually believe such a thing.
Since her outburst Solo has said nothing but "it was wrong, I'm sorry". Even in her recent interviews Hope has not raised any further question about the decision, only stated she was not ready for it. So why does Ryan speak now? If this isn't an attempt by a guy to take down with him somebody he thinks cost him a lucrative job, I've never seen one. Not to mention, by raising all these things now, to give Pia Sundhage new controversies to deal with! Kit, with all due respect, the man is a toad.
well when i read this article, my first instinct as a current law student was to say that i hope what he said about hope was actually true and that for his sake the comments dont get legs, because if they are in fact false, its some pretty nasty slander. I agree with ghost, unless the stuff is pure fiction and she is gonna sue his butt, hope should not say anything. The guy is bitter and in job trouble and has nothing to lose by saying this garbage. Let him sink his own ship. I am still curious though to see if any other players comment because he clearly puts the blame of the failure of the wc on their playing abilities.
ReplyDeleteHe has put the players in a horrible position. They are trying to move on but he's thrown this out there and they will be asked to comment about it but they answer to a new coach.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't a very classy thing to do but probably a very human one.
Kit,
ReplyDeleteWell said. Mostly we think similarly about Hope's blowup in China.
No, I don't think Hope should get a pass. But the reaction of Ryan and her "teammates" to her post-game outburst was way over the top and suggests to me that there was a lot more going on than meets the eye.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Lilly and Wambach led the charge of the Queen B's because Hope was her own woman. She wasn't "one of the girls" (whatever that entails in the WNT context). She is an independent-minded person whose comfortable in her own skin. Such people are threats to anybody steeped in "groupthink," as I believe the WNT was.
Sundhage's greatest challenge will be trying to destroy or redirect this groupthink into something positive, something that doesn't eat its teammates.
As far as Ryan goes, the only thing he said that was right was the fact that it wouldn't have mattered who was in goal in the semifinals; Brazil was quite obviously the better team. The rest is nothing but a despicable attempt at posterior-covering and scapegoating.
Ryan makes Steve Sampson look like Alf Ramsey....
joan said...
ReplyDelete@kit
"I find it strange that you place most of the blame for Hope's post-comment treatment on Ryan and then defend him for these spineless comments."
Joan, I believe kit has been a Ryan supporter from the get go. Actually, I originally joked kit was Lilly, now I think he may be Ryan! :/
Did I miss something here?
Joan - I think Ryan is a man who has made mistakes but has been made out to the devil which isn't fair.
ReplyDeleteI think Hope is a young woman who has made mistakes and has somehow been granted sainthood which is inaccurate as well.
As I said before the Ryan article hit, there is more to the story than just the few public remarks. Ryan gave a little hint of what some of the other issues are. Would have been better for him to continue to keep quiet in my opinion.
She's hiding behind her grief when there were obviously other issues at work (staying out late, missing team functions doesn't have any thing to do with her dad) which she is/was well aware of. He's hiding behind the team when obviously he bears some responsibility for the state of affairs in China. Somehow she gets a pass and he is satan.
mrad, go home!
ReplyDeleteKit,
ReplyDeleteWe disagree on quite alot, but really part company when you suggest Hope is "hiding behind her grief". That's beyond the pale, man.
One doesn't hide behind the grief that comes of the losses that young woman experienced, you sufffer through it.
The differences between Ryan and Solo are primarily two: 1) she had an emotional meltdown at a time when her reserves were very depleated while his meltdown was studied; and 2) she's admitted and appologized for her meltdown and he's spit out this whining revisionist low life interview.
She's a young woman who made a mistake, paid a serious price for it, and is trying to move on. Does that make her a saint? Heavens, no: all too human (to borrow from Nietzsche). But Ryan's leaves him a toad.
Ghost,
ReplyDeleteI admire your continued efforts to reach out to kit and help her/him "get it".
I have complete respect for differing opinions & points of view, but when a statement like the one you refer (Hope hiding behind her grief, Saint, Devil, etc.) is made, it just re-affirms the conclusion I made earlier today & frankly these comments repulse me.
The thought processes are simply in a different realm, on a different playing field if you will.
The thought processes are simply in a different realm, on a different playing field if you will.
ReplyDeleteMine allow for 2 sides to a story dealing with imperfect people on all sids. You refuse to allow that one is not perfect.
I leave that final word to you. :(
ReplyDeletei dont think hope is perfect, in fact i like here edge. Im not saint myself so i relate. she made a mistake and she said she was sorry for it. what i dont like about ryan, is his inabiity to say he made a mistake. I think if he were at least willing to say he should have done things differently or he made a mistake i may have accepted that. At the end of the day, i think the coach can and should hold themselves as responsible for the play of the team. When they place all the blame on the players, it sets off a red flag for me
ReplyDeleteYes Meredith, I don't think anybody here thinks Hope is perfect but some either can't or won't absorb what others are saying before they post.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, nobody's perfect!;)
rofl
Whatever Solo's mistakes may have been before her post-game outburst (staying out late, etc.), they did not warrant the overkill from Ryan and his sorority. Besides, if those "mistakes" were legitimate, longstanding issues, then why did it take so long to deal with them?
ReplyDeleteIf those mistakes were legitimate, longstanding issues, then it just goes to reinforce Ryan's and Lilly's gross incompetance in dealing with people.
I truly smell a rat, here. I really believe that Ryan, Lilly et al wanted to get back at Solo for something unrelated to her post-game comments.
Besides, if Solo broke an "unwritten rule" by criticizing Ryan publicly, isn't Ryan breaking an "unwritten rule" by bringing up previously unpublicized criticisms of Solo long after the fact?
The rationale of those supporting Ryan, Lilly and the sorority makes no sense when you examine it.
Couldn't agree more Joe, so we must uncover the rat to get rid of the smell!
ReplyDeleteCoach & Joe, maybe Kit's been right all along.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Hope got too personal in expressing her displeasure with the decision to go with Scurry. That could have triggered all sorts of team problems and nobody would want to talk about it but they'd want to deal with it internally.
jt, that would be more guessing as to what the problem may have been, etc, etc. There is ample info out there as to what happened and why. More now after Ryan spoke, which unfortunately contradicts much of what he has previously said so he's not very credible.
ReplyDelete"If" Hope broke team rules, Ryan should have said so and penalized her accordingly. You don't come out and say this stuff now. Makes Ryan as a coach look even worse then he already did.
Repeat for the n'th time. The point many of us have been trying to make for months now is that the shunning went way over the top. His attempt to hide behind "team leaders" was pathetic at best. He as the coach is responsible for this.
You don't treat anybody that way, especially someone who has just gone through what Hope went through last summer.
This is what many would like to see explained by someone, more than Sunil saying "many wish they had done things differently".
Have you come up with a name for that movie? :)
Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to all!
Should have just sent her home.
ReplyDeleteIf her violations were that serious, yes, sending her home would be an option.
ReplyDeleteRyan himself is saying that they were not.
So why bring them up now other then to continue to try to shift the blame elsewhere?
The violations which some came to light after the blow up, plus the outburst probably justified sending her home and would have been better for everyone including Hope than the drawn out way it was handled. There was some indecision on Ryan's part.
ReplyDeleteCoach, you're correct about more guessing, more questions, more speculation to try to figure out why the shunning took place as it seemed so bizarre.
ReplyDeleteI guess my point in wondering if Kit has been right all along is that Kit seems to have more insider information than he/she is willing to reveal. That just adds fuel to the further speculation that is already out there and may explain why everybody is far from forthcoming.
Anyway you look at it, it became a real mess.
I really believe that Ryan and his sorority were waiting for Solo to make any kind of a mistake to give them an excuse to pounce on her. Their behavior really has nothing to do with Solo's post-game remarks or her alledged "violations". This smells of a fundamental personality conflict between Solo and the rest of the sorority, and her behavior was just the excuse they needed to go after her.
ReplyDeleteIf Solo was such a "distraction" and if Scurry was so good, then why not just start Scurry and leave Solo off the team when the WWC started? Ryan's explanations about "team violations" would have made much more sense at that time, if they were indeed that serious. Of course, none of that happened.
Joe, I just saw that Dan blog and OMG that's funny stuff!
ReplyDelete