Girls, Girls, Girls
Posted on July 31, 2012 12:37 pm
Congratulations to the World Champion US National Women’s Deaf Team, who stormed undefeated through the field in Ankara, Turkey, culminating in a 1-0 win over Russia in the final.
US Soccer trotted Hope Solo out for what was billed as a media conference but in the event amounted to a well-crafted statement after which only one question was allowed before they whisked the US GK back behind the iron curtain which is Olympic security.
She used her brief appearance to assure everyone that, in regard to her Tweets after the Colombia match:
“I have my beliefs that the best commentators and the best analysts should be analyzing come Olympics, come World Cups, and it’s only my opinion. You can take it or leave it, to be honest, so it’s my opinion, and I think analysts and commentators should bring energy and excitement and passion for the game, and a lot of knowledge, and I think it’s important to help build the game, and I don’t think Brandi has that.”
Ever since she aired her petulance for the benefit of her worshipful followers, she and they have labored mightily to change the subject; her original point was that Chastain doesn’t know much about the game and that she should devote herself to promoting the US Women.
But she – and they – quickly turned it into a debate over whether Chastain is a good commentator.
Cute, but not particularly honest.
And even that one she pretty much misses, saying the problem is that Brandi:
a) lacks “energy and excitement and passion for the game”, a ludicrous statement regardless of how you feel about her talents with a microphone
b) doesn’t have “a lot of knowledge”, which is an astonishingly stupid thing to say about a woman who has made 192 appearances for the US.
c) should concentrate on “building the game”, which, whatever it means, probably doesn’t appear anywhere in her NBC contract.
She then sniffed: “I don’t really care to answer any other questions about Brandi.”
Left unasked and unanswered was the question of whether Solo’s well-worn Attention Whore act was really appropriate, mature or constructive in the middle of a team competition at the Olympics.
Again, the question is not, as Solo and her Sycophants would have it, whether Chastain is a good commentator. She’s not.
For years the people who broadcast soccer on TV jammed that blithering dunderhead Marcelo Balboa down our throats, too, and he makes Chastain look like Andy Gray. Somehow I don’t recall Kasey Keller carping about how he was ignorant or should have been more of a cheerleader for the team.
It would have been wildly inappropriate, childishly petulant and entirely unprofessional.
Like, for example, Hope Solo.
Then there’s the very odd, Elizabeth Lambert-esque roundhouse right with which Colombian midfielder Lady Antebellum Andrade coldcocked Abby Wambach.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ELF3qHgywU
Here, for the comedic effect, is Andrade’s description of the above:
“Nothing happened
“It was just a normal part of the game. We were both running, she ran across me and we collided. I had my hands in the air. It was an accident.”
This stunningly ludicrous lie did not impress FIFA, who issued her a two game ban.
There was no immediate word on what if any action will be taken against Referee Helen Keller, who saw no need to blow her whistle.
For her part, Wambach, who was seen repeatedly trying to hold her badly swollen eyelid open as she continued to play, has a lovely shiner but is otherwise fine.
Meanwhile, Andrade is demanding an investigation into the thuggery of the US team.
I don’t follow the women’s game as much as I should. Will other teams begin resorting to thuggery in order to stop or slow down the USWNT?
Other teams have been trying this tactic for years. Maybe the worst was Nigeria in the 1999 Women’s World Cup. Nigeria outfouled the United States by 29-3, and DiCicco pulled Hamm off early in the second half to protect her after she had taken a boot to the chest. U.S. won, 7-1, anyway.
heh. I remember that game. Nigeria got the goal and the US team collectively went “ah, hell naw” and started scoring.
and trying to not have their ankles broken. not that the US didn’t get a couple of payback hits of their own. that team knew how to send a message.
I was reminded of the line from Blazing Saddles, to wit, “If you shoot him, you’ll just make him mad”. You could feel the collective temperature of the team go up after the Nigerians opened the scoring.
And yes, that team could lay down the hammer on every level.
I was at the game in Chicago. And that was my thought as well when Nigeria scored. Now you’ve really pissed them off. And the barrage came quickly and painfully for the Nigerians. Who were generally bad sports and just hacked their way through the game.
It would have been great to talk about people with disabilities playing our game. I have seen a school for the deaf here in Brooklyn play hearing HS teams and beat them.
They communicate with each other using directional communication pointing, and things like getting their head up. That tells players off the ball that they are ready to pass.
The Brazilians also use non verbal. Their foot position on the ball tells the receivers what pass they are going to make. It would be great for deaf players, but it is hard to do it. So the dribblers don,t lose the ball when they try to do it.
I saw blind players in a tournament in Hong Kong it was amazing.
That’s nothing. I see blind refs every week in MLS.
Can we bring back Briana Scurry?
You must be Greg Ryan. One of the dumbest management moves in the history of sports.
It is really hard to believe how that whole mess became a “Hope Solo is being mean to a team mate controversy” instead of ” the US Coach is a comnplete idiot” controversy. He allowed Solo to take all the heat for his incredible mistake.
Had Solo kept her mouth shut, Ryan would have taken more heat. Instead, the cameras & talking points ended up being all about Solo. The pre-match articles/talking points were “Ryan is an idiot & gambling dangerously” All Solo had to do was walk past the reporters w/ her mouth shut and let others plunge the knife into Ryan. But she couldn’t.
This.
Agreed. Just as Solo’s comments took the media’s attention away from Ryan, Solo’s more recent comments took the media’s attention away from Andrade’s sucker punch. Both comments were ill-advised and poorly timed, but then again, maybe if Chastain jumped up and shouted,”DOWN GOES FRAZIER” we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
She nearly did. She sounded like she wanted to hop out on the field and slug someone.
As for Ryan and Solo, we should remember one thing: Who’s still with the national team?
Brandi was one of the on-field enforcers back int the day when the team wanted to send a ‘stop going for our ankles & knees’ message.
Considering that the three biggest weaknesses of US Soccer commentators are: 1)talking way too much 2) talking like viewers have no knowledge of the game 3) making excuses for poor play (field too wet / too dry, unlucky, etc) instead of just saying it was poor play, the criticism of Chastain is off base. She is not a good commentator but she certainly should not become even more of a cheerleader for the US team.
But those points should all be things fans and media professionals debate amongst themselves. Not an Olympic athlete who didn’t see the broadcast ranting on twitter about 30minutes after the game in question.
Unfair to blame the CR. Her job was to watch her quadrant where the at was taking place. She could not have seen that foul. The AR *may* have been able to see it, if anyone is to blame its the weak side AR.
Now, the CR did miss many other calls going both ways that she should have cautioned which happened before this event which may have curtailed some of this later behavior.
Exactly. Soccer’s three-person crews just aren’t well-equipped to deal with off-the-ball stuff.
Wasn’t it the fourth (or maybe even fifth) official who caught Zidane?
hey, look!!!!! another hope solo story!!!!!Lowest Common Denominator
This chick is turning the WNT into a joke.
An Olympic athlete should not bring unnecessary drama to her team in the midst of competition. Solo has (once again) done a very good job of sucking up all the oxygen in the room so that the attention is on her. Not many folks talking about Rapinoe’s play or Morgan’s goals. Or Abby’s play (only the punch).
Solo has used one of her tried and true tactics (twitter rants) to get attention so that she is the story and no one else on the team eclipses her in media mentions. But I’m sure that’s just accidental
(August 14 is when her book comes out)
It’s Hope’s fault you(generically) are posting about her?
Damn her, she has me doing it too now!
Hope Solo is the like the hot chick that is really full of herself in your high school that you no longer even look at because her personality makes her so unattractive.
Ding, Effing, Ding, Effing, Ding. Give that man a prize!
One of the best soccer announcers was a guy who lived in Mass. His real job was working for Harvard university bringing in foreign students into the school. I can’t remember his name he did the 1994 WC. Remember when Romario scored that great half volley against the Dutch in there 3-2 win. He called that goal “Pure Eligance ” and it was. I guess some people thought that language was corny. But not me I thought it was perfect words to describe that Romario strike of the ball. He also used words like team shape that a coach and a player would understand. I miss his commentary
Seamus Malin was terrific. I once heard him do play-by-play instead of color and he was even better at that. He was my favorite American soccer announcer that I’ve ever heard.
Who is better then you Roger no one
That right he was great.
I think the stations wanted him do dumb down his commentary for the so called new fans. They didn’t care whether the fans they already had loved him.
This. ^
Was Seamus Malin the originator of the “bulge in the ole onion bag” phrase? I miss his commentary. Is he still working?
No, that was Tommy Smyth, who provides color and in-studio commentary for ESPN. I like Tommy, but he’s such a ManU lover that he’s a little hard to take when he does their matches.
Tommy Smythe did NOT coin that phrase. Toby Charles used that LONG before Smythe ever got in front of a microphone….and did it better too.
The Irish soccer announcer Tommy Smyth would make me laugh out loud when he did the St.Patricks day parade here in NYC. He knew everyone at the parade even people just standing on the street in the crowd just watching it.
“lacks ‘energy and excitement and passion for the game’, a ludicrous statement regardless of how you feel about her talents with a microphone”
She could have said that about any other member of the medal winning 1999 team and merely been boo’ed by fans, but saying that about Brandi, whose celebration picture is a world-wide icon representing passion for women’s soccer, is hilarious. Conan O’Brien should hire Hope as a writer.
OMG Hope Solo had an opinion! You would think media people would realize that is their bread and butter, and if all athletes kept quiet 90% of the media would not be needed.
Whoa, you mean a gifted pro athlete has a huge ego and maturity issues? Gosh, what a surprise.
Hope Solo needs media training. That’s it. I’m certain that all drawbacks to her personality is part of what makes such a good goalkeeper.
Hopefully in media training they’ll teach her how to not make herself look like a fool via twitter.
She’s 31. She’s not a new kid. She’s using her media training to get the media to talk about her and not other people.
She doesn’t need media training at all. In fact, she could probably give media training. She’s going to sell a good deal more books because of this current media frenzy.
Well to be fair Chastain does say some of the dumbest things about tactics for someone that has played at a high level. Also US commentators do tend to jabber way too much about things not pertaining to the action on the field.
Solo and the Sycophants would make a great band name.
Here’s what I propose:
From now on, at least until after the Olympics, whenever journalists or bloggers covering soccer or the USWNT are forced to mention Solo, simply refer to her as “the keeper,” or “the USWNT keeper” or whatever. Otherwise do not reference her. Do not discuss her. Instead talk about Morgan and Rapinoe and Abby and Rampone and the rest. They’re plenty interesting enough to talk about.
that would drive her batty. hahaha
Every four years we’re introduced to another set of talented, but over-hyped, over-promoting US Olympians. Instead of rooting for them, I start rooting against them. Now that Michael Phelps has been rendered human, I’m looking forward to Lolo Jones crashing out of the hurdles (again) and Marta blasting goals past hopesolo.
So you basically look forward to people faiingl?
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Well, it’s pretty obvious that the rest of the team doesn’t have a problem with Hope.
Did you notice the goal celebration after Abby score vs North Korea? It was specifically planned to include Hope.
Nine players waving their arms together before they all turned and pointed at Hope and Christie Rampone dancing “the worm” side-by-side.
When what a player takes from a team outweighs what they contribute, said player has failed their purpose. While true of most things in life it seems apt to mention it here about Solo (wonderful choice for a last name there sweetie-pie).
Wonder how much of a media monster she’ll become as her overrated skills begin to fall to the ravages of time and (God forbid) should actually be replaced by a better GK and face the specter of losing face-time (which seems to be more important to her). The book-tour circuit just ain’t gonna cut it for an ego like hers.
An average player, lousy teammate and one of the ugliest personalities I’ve come to recognize. Can’t wait until she fades into obscurity.
I’ve seen ice hockey players take errant pucks and sticks, directed elbows and body slams against the boards and most come away still on their skates.
Football players fall like a house of cards if so much as an opponent’s shadow crosses their path. Yes, Abby has a shiner to show for the sucker punch. Yes, it was a punch. But I didn’t go for the drop to the pitch routine that nearly every footballer resorts to for effect.
Maybe I’m a purist, but that stuff takes beauty away from the game.
You get hit in the eye while running at top speed and try to not hit the ground. Good luck w/ that.
Sola has become a total jackass. It’s a shame.
Ok, new conversation:
Rapinoe: best American winger ever? I am in favor. Discuss.
Depends on how you categorize a couple of past USWNT players who played outside in the 4-3-3 and were responsible for more tracking back and wide play than forwards in a 3 front typically do now. I find Jennings Gabara’s ability and play tends to be discounted by today’s fans.
That said, Kristine Freaking Lilly.
Toby Charles was the best commentator ever to be heard here in these United States.
And Ms. Solo best not let in a clanger from here on out because she will not like the manner of attention she will receive afterwards.
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