August 22nd, 2008
I remember talking with Galley Friend and Women’s Soccer Phenom H.W. about the Hope Solo mess while the U.S. women’s team was getting crushed by Brazil a couple years ago. H.W. patiently explained to me that Coach Ryan’s decision to pull Solo in favor of Briana Scurry was a judgment call, but that Solo’s complaining about it in the press was a worse sin.
Well, the U.S. team just spanked the Brazilians in a re-match. The key difference was having Hope Solo in goal. You would think that women’s sports would learn something about professionalism from this: The most offensive aspect of the Solo controversy was that the players on the U.S. voted not to let her play in the next game. Because you, now, sports teams are democracies. There’s a deep lesson about professionalism in all of this. (At the time, Czabe had a great email about the entire affair.)
My fear, however, is that some other lesson will be learned. The team will take away how important conflict resolution skills are, or forgiveness is, or some other crap.
As Czabe puts it, “Hey Greg Ryan? How does my ass taste now?”
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