It's no secret that USWNT goalkeeper Hope Solo has a shady history in the past few years; frankly "shady" is putting it lightly. Her marriage to former NFL tight end Jerramy Stevens (using "former NFL tight end" VERY lightly here) has been spotty with a few incident where and there, but nothing they, nor the public, couldn't work past. But now with Solo in the spotlight at the Women's World Cup, people are bringing up what happened last year around this time. Basically she was arrested on two counts of domestic violence towards her half-sister and then-17-year-old nephew. She was extremely belligerent when arrested and constantly berated officers while being arrested and booked. The whole
story is pretty wild if you want to read it. So basically now people are calling for her to be suspended from the World Cup and beyond. Olbermann is chirping, Dennis and Callahan in Boston are chirping, and I get it; if action was taken against Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson, then Hope Solo should be no exception. I will say that comparing it to Ray Rice's case is insane; Rice is on tape dragging an unconscious woman out of an elevator after rag dolling her, and Hope Solo drunkenly scrapped with a 6'9" 17 year old boy and her sister with no video, just her word against theirs. That said, even if she was the aggressor, thats exactly what I want out of my World Cup keeper. Ruthless attitude and not afraid to hit you square in the teeth if she gets the chance. She has an edge now. Hope Solo has always been a talker, and her play has certainly backed her up considering she's literally one of the best goalies on the planet in either men's or women's soccer. Like I would probably take her at least as Tim Howard's backup right now over Brad Guzan, Nick Rimando, or Bill Hamid. She would easily start for a lot of other countries men's squad. So maybe this street red is what was missing 4 years ago when the USA lost to Japan in the WWC Final. Both goals from the Land of the Rising Sun came from close range; one was a blunder by the USA defense in front of Solo, and the other was form a corner kick. You think those Japanese players go near Solo at all with the ball if they knew she had a rap and spent time in the clink for domestic violence? For sure not. They probably kick that ball straight out of bounds or softly roll it to Solo out of fear. Australia has scored the only goal on the USA in this years World Cup, and it came on a good finish from past the penalty spot, no where near Solo. You think the Aussies wanted any of her up close? No way. Hope Solo is one of the best keepers in the world, she has new found street cred, and she's going to lead the USA to a WWC victory.
(This is meant to be satire)
