Hope Solo Will Not Be Punished For Tweet Outburst

Hope Solo will not be punished for her recent Twitter outburst after meeting with the coach and captains of the U.S. women’s soccer team on Sunday.

The tweets sent by Solo criticized former U.S. player Brandi Chastain’s commentary during the team’s 3-0 win over Colombia on Saturday.

Coach Pia Sundhage said of the Sunday meeting:

“We had a conversation: If you look at the women’s national team, what do you want (people) to see? What do you want them to hear? And that’s where we do have a choice — as players, coaches, staff, the way we respond to certain things.”

In her tweets Solo wrote:

“Its 2 bad we cant have commentators who better represents the team&knows more about the game.”

Hope Solo then told Chastain to “lay off commentating about defending” and goalkeeping “until you get more educated” and “the game has changed from a decade ago.”

Sundhage admits that everyone makes mistakes and said after the chat:

“On the field, it’s OK to make a mistake. There’s no such thing as a perfect game. And sometimes you make a mistake outside the field as well. Myself as well. I’ve regretted that I’ve said that or whatever, but at the end of the day if you have good teammates and recognize it and say something that we are proud of, then it is easier to prepare for the next game — because it’s all about the next game.”

The U.S. Women’s team will take on the North Koreans on Tuesday which will determine pairings for the quarterfinals.

Solo did take to Twitter on Sunday to tweet in response to a reporters own Twitter message:

“Discipline? Ha! For what! Never even a topic! We talked about our team deserving the best!”

Sundhage admitted that she didn’t request Solo tone down her tweets:

“I don’t punish people. And I don’t know what’s right and wrong.”

Solo could have been kicked off the squad like she was during the 2007 World Cup when she criticized then-coach Greg Ryan for benching her for the semifinals.

Controversy has surrounded Hope Solo leading up to the Olympics, three weeks ago she has what is believed to be the first positive drug test in the history of U.S. women’s soccer over the banned substance Canrenone. The medication according to Solo was part of a premenstrual prescription provided by her doctor.