Unexpected curveball not changing USA's focus ahead of Australia test
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA --
An investigative reporter for ESPN sorted through a June 2104 police report and talked exclusively to Hope Solo's half sister about a domestic violence dispute in which Solo was charged before the case dismissed this past winter. The story hit the Internet with the explicit aim to make the biggest splash possible, forcing U.S. Soccer and members of the team to answer this exact question: Will Solo be the starting goalkeeper for the U.S. in its opener against Australia?
Upon hearing the question, U.S. coach Jill Ellis did an impression of Mount Rushmore before finally requesting the room full of media to "draw your own conclusion."
On the eve of USA's Women's World Cup start, instead of talking about Alex Morgan's return to action -- she will play -- Ellis and Abby Wambach were asked, essentially, whether this was a good time to litigate Solo's past history of trouble. That suddenly included a domestic violence case that had been dismissed by a Washington state judge, though there's a chance the case could be appealed based on a technicality.
On the wider issue of Solo's roster spot, which she narrowly reclaimed after a suspension this winter, the short answer from U.S. Soccer was that there's no question about Solo. U.S. Soccer has already made its bed with Solo, arguably the best keeper in the world. Now, the team is solidly in a bubble, and Solo is well ensconced in that bubble, too. After myriad instances in which U.S. Soccer could have banished Solo, she has by all accounts been a model citizen since coming back from her month-long suspension this winter.
The story seemed to indicate U.S. Soccer did not do its due diligence with Solo's domestic violence case, in part because she is brings value as a world-class keeper. U.S. Soccer indicated that the case had been dismissed and it wasn't their job to play judge and jury. And here it reared its head again before Monday's huge clash, though Wambach emphatically shut down any notion that the team was going to get caught up in any distraction, even one centered around a player who has presented the biggest issues of citizenship and integrity to the U.S. soccer program.
"Did we hear the stir, as in the ... in what? In her being here and playing for our team? Yeah, no. We're here to play soccer and I'm excited to be a part of this team,'' Wambach said. "Hope's my teammate. We are creating a bubble and we want nothing to penetrate that bubble right now. Our focus is on playing Australia [Monday] and beating Australia and getting three points.''
She was not done, even when the question was asked again about Solo and the new look at the domestic fight that landed Solo in jail for two days one year ago this month.
"You would be surprised how normal life is right now. We had a fantastic session and everyone's happy in the locker room. All our focus is on what we individually can do to help us win games and what we can do individually to help us beat Australia. That is our our focus and nothing is going to get in the way of that focus,'' Wambach added.
Solo is one of 23 players on the U.S. roster, though the rate at which she has caused U.S. Soccer and her teammates to integrate Solo's off-field issues into their psyches makes her status in some ways different. But if this was a time to address the ways in which Solo has been given second and third chances; if this was the time to litigate a court case that was emphatically dismissed by a judge because the victims in the case twice refused to be deposed, the U.S. team was having none of it.
There are certainly some big questions surrounding this U.S. women's team as it opens its 2015 Women's World Cup group play against Australia at Winnipeg Stadium. For instance: Will the U.S. come out jittery and seriously challenged, just like host country Canada did on Saturday when Christine Sinclair's winner barely managed a 1-0 win against China?
"We need to not only get points but to score goals so that if something terrible were to happen later on in our group, then we can go through in a different fashion. We know what it's like. We lost to Sweden in 2011 and we didn't come out first. So we need to get as many points as we can and score as many goals as possible and let in as few as possible,'' Wambach said.
The U.S. can take some guidance from Canada's situation. Like the U.S. fighting 16 years of World Cup futility, Canada is desperate to prove it is one of the elite teams in the world; desperate to play well and find a way to the final in Vancouver on July 5. With the eyes of its own nation upon them, Canada proved that things don't always go the way you visualize them, especially when there are four years between the biggest soccer tournament on the planet and you want nothing more than to prove you can carry not only your own ambitions but those of your country.
Or, how about this question: Can the U.S. women pound home a resounding opening-match victory the way Germany did on Sunday and let everyone know, in no uncertain terms, the U.S. is ready to stick it to all who doubt their prowess and firepower? Germany, the No. 1-ranked team according to FIFA's world rankings, positively obliterated Cote d'Ivoire in its opener, drilling a 10-0 win to stake its high-octane claim from the get-go. The Americans were watching, champing at the bit for their turn in front of the world-wide cameras.
They are not the best team in the world anymore. That was established in 2003 and 2007 and 2011, when the U.S. lost their bid to win a third World Cup. They may not be the best team this year; not with Germany ranked No. 1 and France called the best attacking team in the world and Japan better than they were in 2011 and Brazil always Brazil and Sweden capable of causing so many problems. This World Cup is one of nerves for the U.S. They know that winning here would be a coup, since there is no easy path to victory.
"We finally feel like the World Cup is here. We've waited for years. We've waited so long. Now the games are being played on television.'' Wambach said.
"We're starting to get that feel. Those are the things we want to be focusing on. Those are the things that should be written about. The beautiful goals that we saw [Sunday]: Germany, Norway. The goals that we saw [Saturday]. This is going to be a spectacular event and for me. I'm going to talk about all positives throughout this tournament no matter what,'' she said.
