Hope and Glory
That was a pretty good movie, actually. Rent it sometime if you haven't seen it.
It's cool to see Meredith Viera get excited for the team. She actually knows more than a bit about soccer and I think that's what also made this interview a good one. I really like what the players said about Pia as well.
This was great - watching them in the background this morning on the Today Show bantering about was sweet - I was a bit surprised Christie wasn't up there with Carli, Hope & Kate though - guess she decided to step back for this one - or she was exhausted from NO sleep! lol
ReplyDeletePia's back through 2012!
Darn, I wanted her to be available to be scooped up by Canada! ;)
I love that the US won gold, Hope made numerous saves to keep us in it, and Wambach and Lily had nothing to do with it.
ReplyDeletePiss off, Ryan!
here is a little expert with a Greg Ryan quote:
ReplyDeleteEarly in the second half of U.S. women's soccer team's 1-0 victory over Brazil, U-M head coach Greg Ryan sought a quiet spot -- within view of the game -- to return a phone call. It was interrupted by a spectacular play.
"Oh, my gosh!" Ryan said. "Did you just see that? Hope Solo just made a fantastic save."
There was genuine joy in his voice; not a hint of animosity.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080822/SPORTS06/808220420
It's more than ironic that Hope Solo, whom that idiot Greg Ryan brazenly sat on the bench against Brazil in the WWC semifinals last year, kept the U.S. in the game for 85 minutes.
ReplyDeleteIt's more than ironic that Carli Lloyd, perhaps the only player on the WNT who supported and befriended Solo during her "exile," scored the winning goal.
This is called divine payback.
What makes this even more gratifying is that the victory came without the lead troublemakers who persecuted Solo (Lilly, Wambach, Whitehill) and the person who could have ended the whole controversy with some public comments (Scurry) but didn't.
All four of those "persons" need to come out right now and apologize publicly for the cruel way they treated Solo.
And none of them should ever wear the national uniform again in international competition. Ever.
As far as Ryan goes, he knows that Solo's performance in the gold-medal final puts him on the coaching scrapheap for the rest of his professional career. He's trying to make the best of it and salvage something. I seriously doubt that he didn't know Solo's quality as a 'keeper; if he didn't, than he's more stupid than any of us realized.
ReplyDeleteThe whole controversy surrounding
Solo wasn't really about Solo. It was about Ryan and some cowardly females misusing the notion of "team" to cover his sorry, incompetent posterior.
I guess what is problematic is if there was genuine surprise in Ryan's voice. Hope was always capable of those saves - Pia believed it and let her do it. Greg didn't, and we know what happened then.
ReplyDeleteI worried when the change was announced that more than anything about strategy, it revealed a coach who fundamentally didn't have faith in some of his players.