Saturday, September 29, 2007

Greg Ryan finds his scapegoatHope Solo must die for Greg Ryan's sins

U.S. Women's National Team head coach Greg Ryan, team captain Kristine Lilly and forward Abby Wambach confirmed Saturday in a press conference in Shanghai, China, that goalkeeper Hope Solo would not be a part of the team's preparation in advance of the USA's third-place match with Norway on Sunday.

Ryan made the decision in consultation with his team, sighting the disruption caused by Solo's comments to the press following a loss to Brazil in the tournament semifinals on Thursday evening in Hangzhou.

"We did not have Hope attend practice today," said Ryan to a press gathering in the team hotel. "She will not be attending the game tomorrow (Sunday). We have moved forward with 20 players who have stood by each other, who have battled for each other, and when the hard times came – and the Brazil game was a hard time – they stood strong. Now it is the 20 that have stuck together that will be ready to go out and compete against Norway. That’s our whole focus, and that’s what we’re going to do."

The team's leadership echoed those comments, making a point to highlight how this team has stuck together across their 22-year history.

So it was that, already down two goals in the second half, Ryan substituted defender Tina Ellertson for forward Heather O'Reilly.

"We brought Tina on to defend Marta, and I thought she did a very good job," Ryan said. "And we tried to push Christie Rampone up the field, because Christie is very good at not only defending but attacking going the other way."

Instead of adding an offensive threat like Natasha Kai or Aly Wagner to try to force Brazil to play in its own end, Ryan made a defensive move to bandage a wound already inflicted.

In some ways, it was a fitting gesture for a national program at an uncertain crossroads.

With the game long since decided, Marta broke in on goal in the 79th minute and, with her back to goal, flipped the ball up in the air with the back of her foot. As the crowd started its collective inhale, she spun around Ellertson, corralled the ball, deked Cat Whitehill out of the way and fired home her second goal to push the score to 4-0.

Labels: soccer