Solo Career Best for Team

Hope Solo might be the best thing to happen to women's soccer since the 91ers (if you don't know who they are, read my DVD review from earlier today). She's grabbing intriguing headlines for the US women's soccer team -- a squad that otherwise embarrassed itself this month and would be wallowing in anonymity at the moment.

In case you missed it, Solo, the starting goalkeeper, was benched just before the team's loss to Brazil in the World Cup semifinals. The clearly ill-advised choice helped send the American packing after a 4-0 thrashing. During the subsequent press conference, Solo stated the obvious, saying coach Greg Ryan made the "wrong decision." She also pointed out that "it's not 2004 anymore," a clear reference to using players who are past their prime. Her typo-prone Myspace apology wasn't enough to make up for her transgression and she was essentially kicked off the team. She was even banished from watching the team's consolation match in person.

Depending on old players is nothing new for this program. Many people think more should have retired after the 1999 World Cup. The team's core stayed through the 2003 Cup, where they were knocked out early. They stuck around for an Olympic gold medal in 2004, and finally were able to go out on top.

Back to Solo. She is not taking her clothes off in Playboy (love ya', Amanda Beard). She doesn't rely on fishnets and short skirts to draw a crowd (no disrespect to our lovely local roller derby squads). She has a big mouth.

Sports will always have talkative hotheads that cause dissension within their own team. You may have heard of Terrell Owens, Kobe Bryant, and Bode Miller. The common theme? All these athletes are really, really good. And so is Solo. She hasn't allowed a goal in 298 minutes.

The other thing about these athletes is that they've all been bad news for their teams. Owens has bounced around all over the country. Bryant ran off Shaq and we have yet to see how much damage his comments will do to this year's Lakers. Bode Miller left the national team.

But Solo might be different. While her comments were made at the wrong time and the wrong place, she was right. And unlike most other controversial sports figures, she doesn't have any other well known character issues.

WUSA, the women's pro soccer league, folded in 2003. A new league is scheduled to replace it in 2009. An exciting, talented headline maker like Solo might be just what women's soccer needs. Even if she was off her out of line.

AP Photo/Julie Jacobson