Hope Solo calls victorious Sweden “cowards” after U.S. women’s worst ever tournament finish
August 12, 2016
The U.S. women’s team lost to Sweden and former coach Pia Sundhage in the Olympic quarterfinals, marking the team’s worst ever tournament finish and the first time they have failed to medal at the Olympics. After losing the decisive shootout 4–3 on unlikely misses from Alex Morgan and Christen Press, goalkeeper Hope Solo decided the best course of action was to insult Sweden by calling them cowards.
Full Hope Solo quote on Sweden after US was eliminated from the Olympics today. pic.twitter.com/UZVCAeur6m
— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) August 12, 2016
This is incredibly rich given that Solo stalled before Sweden’s last spotkick by unnecessarily changing her gloves — much to the amusement of Lisa Dahlkvist, who went on to score and end the game.
Dahlkvist to Solo:
"Hihi, change ur gloves. Change ur contacts. Heck, change a kidney while you're at it.." #USAvSWE pic.twitter.com/b3U4iKuYT3— Saladin 📎 (@AbsoIuteBanana) August 12, 2016
Sweden opened the scoring in the 61st minute with a well executed goal on the counter and Alex Morgan 77th-minute equalizer was more a product of a Sweden mistake than the U.S.’s skill. In extra time, Carli Lloyd had a goal rightly disallowed for a foul on the defender just before scoring and Sweden immediately had a goal wrongly disallowed at the other end for a terrible offside call.
If we’re being generous, we could say that Hope Solo purposefully made an inflammatory statement to take the attention off from her teammates who missed their penalties, but given Solo’s history, this seems more like a case of Hope being Hope. That said, Sundhage isn’t too worried about it.
Pia Sundhage's response to Hope Solo's cowards comment: I don't give a crap. I'm going to Rio, she's going home. (via @sportbladet). #USASWE
— Linda Eriksson (@Linda__Eriksson) August 12, 2016