Being There

In the last two years of high school, I played goalkeeper for my school’s varsity soccer team. So I was intrigued to see an interesting story in the NYT this weekend covering the continuing story of goalkeeper Hope Solo, who is a member of the U.S. National team.

For those unfamiliar with the controversy I’m talking about: at the World Cup last year in China, Solo was benched in the semi-final match against Brazil, the U.S. coach opting to go with Briana Scurry instead. Scurry is a longtime member of the team and helped them win the Olympics in 2004; she let in four goals against Brazil and the U.S. lost 4-0, ending their World Cup run. Hope Solo had started every match before the loss and had recorded three straight shutouts leading up to the semi-final. The controversy came from her remarks after the game, where she openly criticized the decision to start Scurry and said, “There’s no doubt in my mind that I would have made those saves.”

Video and more after the jump.

The article in the NYT talks a bit about the fallout from the controversy among the team, some of which was shocking to me. Solo was not allowed to go with the team to the third place match of the Cup. The team left her in the hotel when they left, and forced her to take a different flight home. Longtime friendships were shattered irreparably. All this over speaking her mind about a what she thought (and I agree) was a very poor decision. In addition, she was also dealing with the recent death of her father, who according to the article was homeless and a somewhat strange, though present, figure in her life.

What I think is most interesting though, is the article’s assertion that the fallout from her remarks was somehow so much more widespread and harsh because she was a woman on a women’s sports team. There seems to be some sort of idea out there that women’s teams work well together due to emotional bonding and friendship. Thus when these off-field relationships are harmed, the team’s performance is harmed. This is in contrast to say, players in the NBA, who only need respect each other to get the job done, and who are allowed to openly criticize teammates, league-mates, coaches and administrations without much extra fanfare.

I’m not sure I fully buy into that concept, but I’m absolutely certain that women’s sports do not have to be held to the “BFF or you’re off the team” standard that this incident suggests the U.S. soccer players were adhering to. No, Hope Solo is not off the team - in fact she’s preparing alongside her teammates for the Olympics. But her closest friends on the team have shunned her, and defend banning her from the third place game because she was “a distraction.” One player even suggested she was using her father’s death to gain sympathy! It’s amazing how these teammates, hurt at the words of an angry goalkeeper who just saw her team’s World Cup chances (and her chances to dedicate a World Cup win to her late dad) go up in flames, immediately struck back in ways that were just as bad or worse as saying something negative to the press.

I wonder if in the future this sort of incident will be laughable, as professional women’s sports gain momentum and individuals gain more notoriety. But for now it’s extremely troubling to me, even without the suggestion that if a male player had done the same thing, his teammates would have somehow left that off the field and continued on together on it.