No Hope for Solo . . .or the U.S.--Fire Ryan!!

When the 2006 U.S. Men's National Team received an inauspicious draw into a group of death with Ghana, Czech Republic and Italy it was understood that the U.S. could play to their full potential, do nearly everything right and perhaps still find themselves on the outside looking in on the second round of the World Cup. And if that had happened there wouldn't necessarily have been good reason to make a drastic change at head coach.

But that didn't happen. The United States looked apprehensive and unprepared in their three first round matches. Their performance was unacceptable. So when the US Soccer Federation decided to let Bruce Arena go, it was unquestionably the correct decision.

This was true despite the fact that Arena had previously taken US Soccer to unprecedented heights, guiding them to easily the most satisfying and most important victory in US National team history when they beat their bitter rivals, Mexico 2-1 in the round of 16. To top things off in 2002, the US dominated Germany for much of their quarterfinal match and came tantalizingly close to their first ever semifinal appearance in the World Cup.

So firing a historic coach was the right decision for the men in 2006. Knowing that, there is absolutely no doubt what-so-ever that the U.S. Women's Coach, who has no such accolades as Arena, deserves to be fired immediately--as in before tomorrow's third place match.

The U.S. Women (like their counterpart men last summer) were drawn into a virtual group of death with North Korea, Sweeden and Nigeria for this year's Women's World Cup in China. Expectations for the U.S. Women are higher than the men--the women have never not made it to the semis of a World Cup. But considering their tough group, failure might not have necessarily warranted firing.

But even before controversy erupted for the United States, the American women appeared to be on shaky ground. They opened up the tournament with their toughest match of the first round against North Korea, a 2-2 tie. Granted both Korean goals came during an injury to the U.S.'s top player Abby Wambach, which left the Americans down a player--but even still--North Korea dominated the U.S. for much of the match.

Then, the Americans appeared to correct things, taking care of business by shutting out their next two opponents in the group of death to advance to the second round of the World Cup to face England (and perhaps more importantly avoiding a match-up with defending champion Germany, who the runner-up in their group, North Korea, were forced to face). Again, the U.S. was uncharacteristically dominated by England in the first half of their second round match. But the Americans persevered--thanks in part to the goalkeeping of Hope Solo, the U.S.'s previously unquestioned starting keeper.

So the United States came out and dominated the second half against England and went into their semifinal match with uber-talented Brazil having not conceded a goal in nearly 300 consecutive minutes (since their first match against North Korea, a match that Solo preserved with several late clutch saves). Not to mention that the Americans were on a 51 game unbeaten streak (most of which came behind Solo). So who does the U.S. start in their bid to get back to the World Cup Final?

Briana Scurry.

Sure, Scurry is definitely a legend with a World Cup title to her credit, but Coach Ryan (with 0
World Cup titles to his credit) was not only taking away a dream opportunity from Solo when he made this insanely bad decision, he was also putting a legend's legendary status at risk.

He decided to start Scurry, who went into the Cup looking for an uneventful swan song view from the bench, which, if she were lucky, might happen to include a second World Cup title. Instead, she now has to shoulder the burden of unanswerable questions tagged to the end of her carrer. Questions such as--was her presence the cause of the end of a dream for America in 2007.

The brutal truth of the matter is that the U.S. was not the best team at the tournament. For example, Germany easily disposed of the North Korean squad that gave the U.S. fits, beating them 3-0 in the quarterfinals. Sunday, when defending champion Germany faces off with Olympic Gold Medalists Brazil, the two top women's tems in the world will be playing eachother for the World Cup championship.

But, also brutally true is the fact that the U.S. might very well be the second best team in the world with Hope Solo as their goalie. Now, that is no longer true. Coach Ryan had the audacity to kick Hope Solo off the team for her comments following the U.S.'s semifinal meltdown against Brazil. A game which Solo could only watch from the sidelines due to her coach's decision--a decision that is easily among the worst ever in professional sports.

There is no doubt that Solo didn't handle her benching very well after the game with the media. But Ryan, and the rest of us, should remember--Hope Solo doesn't get paid to handle historic coaching gaffes. She gets paid to make saves. And she did just that until she had that job taken away form her by her own coach.

He benched a goalkeeper who was in the process of accumulating 300 minutes of consecutive shutout minutes in the biggest tournament in women's professional soccer. He pulled a fast one on his own team. And while Germany may well have beaten the U.S. in the final any how, had they gotten there behind their starting goalkeeper, we will never know what may have been.

So, while it will be Solo who will not get to take part in the U.S.'s third place match on Sunday because she has been kicked off the team, it should be her coach that suffers such a fate. And if the U.S. Soccer Federation has any sense, that will soon be the case.