I bet Hope Solo is loving these disussions. It stimulates interest. She wants us all to go out and buy the book and read "the rest of the story".
I want to know if Ryan acts like Bini - the whole life project thing taken to (sometimes creepy) extreme - combined with the sorority rush atmosphere and weird patriarchal overtones that are uniquely American. Spill the tea! Rabble, rabble. Warning: I have pitch forks! Speaking of football players and autobiographies though, has anyone read Kelly Smith's book?
I bet Smith's book isn't as juicy. Boring life accomplishment stuff. That would never make me go to B&N right after work. I need controversy.
We're talking about the woman who pissed off another football player so much that said football player wrapped her hands around Smith's throat during a game, right? The one that started a small shove fight with Bompastor during the WWC? How can she be boring life accomplishment stuff with those types of incidents?! Well... I guess she's pretty quiet off the pitch...
I agree that, in general, if a person is not willing to do more than say [singson]"I know something you don't know"[/singsong] then they probably are better of not saying anything. But, I can see how someone might want to point out that one side of a story isn't the entire story but also not really want to sell out their source. Would I do that on a public board? Not if I didn't have proof that I could talk about. To riff of of BostonRed's joke (I loled), did it not take the various parties involved in the Harkes/Wynalda affair a while to publicly admit to the transgression? And those guys didn't have the same unity & protect the teammates b/c we have to fight for every crumb from the Fed hardwired into them in like the former players did. As for as coaches/women's team staff not saying something publicly, many of them, too, have a "keep team stuff private b/c we've got to fight for every crumb the Fed might want to drop our way" mentality. Also, the soccer coaching community is *very* small. If you want to keep working in soccer, there's got to be a really big end game payoff with no risk to self to spout off. Coaches and staffers and players of the women's programs are use to keeping most off field stuff to themselves. That's true for most teams. The exceptions kinda prove the rule--one of Shaq or Kobe ended up blowing the whistle on the other's serial affairs which is a huge no-no among teammates. Bob Bradley's run USMNT was all about keeping things within the team. And non-women's team Fed staffers keep stuff to themselves or else you'd have read more about certain travel agencies connections to other Fed folks. As for the women, back in the day, aside from the relationship w/ the Fed (a relationship that the players very much needed an all for one approach), keeping everything in-house helped protect teammates. Only one example: The Fed got very lucky that Hamm was married early on. And that Foudy/Brandi married their college coaches b/f anyone in the media cared how that might look. In 1991, 1999, and even 2003 the bisexual or lesbian players would very much need to be protected from public outing for their playing and post playing careers.
As opposed to weird patriarchal overtones that are uniquely French? Patriarchy isn't limited to one country and France is certainly not as egalitarian w/ respect to women's rights as some want to think--eg acceptance of sexual harassment at the work place.
I said the weird mix (the two together) was uniquely American (or at least of USSF promotion?)! Certainly, patriarchal overtones in and of itself are not unique. The French are apparently plenty fiery if the whole Juvisy-Bouhaddi rumors are true. But then again, I think the US promoted the 'girl next door' thing pretty hard so it may be difficult to match that drive.
Smith's book is really worth reading on the account of her strong alcoholism problem. Nothing worth reading otherwise on her personal life, she doesnt mention famous boyfriends or any juicy stuff. Her recollection of football games and season are curious at times some imprecision is funny to read. Regarding what happens around the French camp, people actually asked for stuff not to be disclosed publicly and you can actually be sued under French laws for privacy
Example? That being said, I'm not all that surprised. I remember an interview with Press after a hat trick game and she had to be reminded as to the context and didn't remember what the second goal was like. Maybe there are so many chances or a game is so long and it's so instinctual that everything blurs together? (This seems improbable for goals given how rare they are... and yet, it was hard for Press to remember just after the game...) As in a person who is a party in whatever has happened, if another party involved requests that information not be disclosed, the first cannot say anything for fear of being sued regardless of whether the first agrees or not?
Smith for example misrecalled the number of games played in the season 2006-07 and other stuff. 22 leagues games when she says 20, stuff like that. Regarding privacy/defamation on French camp, players personal life information tend to pop out on various women's websites in the anonymous comment sections from people in the know...
Ah. Okay. BTW, I saw an excerpt the other day, and I wondered if you'd comment on it, shlj, since you're one of our resident French speakers on this site. Hope said that as a GK in France, one of her problems was that she'd default to English during the game's pressure moments. No surprise there... So, she'll call "away!" to her defenders but her defenders would hear "j'ai" as in mine (?) and so leave it for Solo. This obviously is pretty problematic to happen. But, my question would be, "j'ai" -- is the sound really that close to away? (Is j just not pronounced in French? And the ai is not like aight, it would be more 'ay' for an English speaker?) I know Allie (Alexandra Long) had a problem with hearing her name when the coach was trying to shout "allez" during practice. As a general interest question, do you know of any other language mix ups that have happened in L1 feminine? Edit: Completely unrelated. BROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!
Not to be totally mean, but Katreus could you and shlj continue your (interesting) convo about the French league to a more appropriate thread. Thank you.
At this point, my response would be "who wasn't"? Most people get on with it and act grown-up, subsequently making major efforts to maintain relationships with friends, workmates, teammates, in order to create a stability that wasn't there during the formative family years. Others develop a persecution complex and a sense of entitlement. I don't plan to read the book to find out how she views herself, but I tend to think that if even Sundhage, a Swedish socialist who believes in freedom of expression and workers' rights, etc., warns Solo not to publish before the Olympics... then there's a bigger problem than Hope Solo being picked on by the "veterans".
Though she did get divorced after the 1999 World Cup and then remarried between the 2003 Cup and the Olympics. Didn't seem to be scandalous, though -- everyone just thought she and Nomar were a cool couple. (And I don't know of a reason to think otherwise.)
espnW talking heads talk about Solo & the book. They agree she can play the game but, ah, they're not fans of off-field Solo.
Check this out folks: http://espn.go.com/espnw/more-sport...mates-supported-tweets-againt-brandi-chastain
I couldn't give a tinker's damn about what Shelley Smith or Jemele Hill think about Hope Solo. They feel that they have the right to say whatever they want as sports reporters , and she has no right to speak. To quote Shelly Smith, "I just want her to be quiet. I don't want her to go on a book tour. I don't want her to be on Nightline. I don't want her to do anything". Give it up.
Does she actual write in the book that she had missed team meetings? What meeting was it that she claims Ryan pushed her back onto a couch as she tried to leave? the benching?
Yes, they were all on the Today Show as a team the morning after they won. And Solo was indeed asked if they were hung over this time during the team interview. Solo responded that, "no, they were all hydrated." Which made everyone laugh. Someone said, "with water!" And that was it. Kind of like Hope's twitter comments became a non-issue a couple of days later. Turns out the team doesn't have to live in constant shame because of Hope Solo.
So a prominent sports tv talking head can say stuff like that about male athletes all day long and it's fine. But if one says it about Solo you're all "How dare she!!" If you write a book (or have Ann Killion write it for with you) then you've got to expect that people might have opinions about it and those opinions might not be nice ones. The current and former USWNT members might stick to the code and not talk out of school to tell their side. But you and Solo can't expect others to do the same. She's the one that set up the spotlight and turned it right on herself. Thanks for the recap. Going on Today=good. But the Today Show folks did have to ask them about their partying, so I wasn't off base.
"Hell yeah, Hope," my teammates cried. Christie Pearce Rampone and Abby Wambach and others offered up high fives. "Somebody finally said it," they said. It was a bonding moment for our team. "Pia told me that she, in fact, did press mute when she watched the games of ours that Brandi worked from the booth. My teammates shared the opinions that I had voiced on Twitter. We were tighter than ever." Hope in a few ways is saying the team is closer than ever and in fact, feels like it's a true team for the first time, partially and mostly thanks to her twitter comments about brandi....???
After the benching (and after the Brazil game, and after the ensuing interview), she says Ryan told her it was because she had missed curfew and a meeting. She claims that he was coming up with a "new" reason for the benching.