Greg Ryan lost his job today as the U.S. women's national soccer coach, less than a month after his controversial decision to bench goalie Hope Solo and his team's subsequent meltdown against Brazil.
U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati made the announcement, and he said he will be part of a three-person committee (along with Mia Hamm and U.S. Soccer's secretary general, Dan Flynn) that will determine the next coach for Team USA, which needs to regroup for the Olympics next year.
Gulati said there was no specific incident that led to the decision not to bring Ryan back, but everyone knows the loss to Brazil was the final nail in Ryan's coffin. There was no hope that he could continue to coach Team USA after that.
But she hasn't been banished for good, and when Team USA begins a three-game series with Mexico in St. Louis on Saturday, Solo will be on the roster. It's not clear whether Ryan will pick Solo or the woman she was benched for, Briana Scurry, in St. Louis, but presumably both of them will get some playing time against Mexico, either in St. Louis Saturday or in one of the following games, in Portland and Albuquerque.
This is a magnanimous gesture from Ryan, but it's also the only move he could make if he wants to salvage his own reputation. As much as Solo was criticized for her comments about Ryan and Scurry, Ryan was criticized more for benching Solo in the first place. He won't be Team USA's coach for much longer, and at least he's not going out holding a grudge.
Germany beat Brazil 2-0 today in the Women's World Cup final, becoming the first nation ever to repeat as Women's World Cup champions.
Germany's goals came from Birgit Prinz (her 14th World Cup goal) and Simone Laudehr. German goalkeeper Nadine Angerer was perfect again, with the highlight coming when she stopped Marta on a penalty kick. Germany got out of the World Cup without conceding a single goal.
Everyone who thought the tumultuous last few days for the U.S. women's national team would result in a listless performance against Norway in the third-place game was wrong. Team USA beat Norway 4-1 behind Abby Wambach's two goals.
Wambach scored in the 30th and 47th minutes, and when Lori Chalupny and Heather O'Reilly added goals at the 58 and 60-minute marks, it was 4-0 USA. Obviously, the American women came to play.
But it seems extraordinarily unlikely that today's performance is enough to save the job of coach Greg Ryan, who has been widely criticized for his decision to bench goalie Hope Solo in favor of Briana Scurry prior to Team USA's 4-0 loss to Brazil. Ryan's contract expires at the end of the year, and someone else will almost certainly be coaching the Americans when they return to China for the Olympics.
But I don't think many people know much Solo's background, especially her relationship with her late father, who was homeless for most of Hope's life. This great video from ESPN tells the story:
I'm a Hope Solo fan, and that life story is part of the reason. She seems like a tough young woman who's not going to let anything stand in her way. She wanted to dedicate a World Cup title to her dad, and it's a shame that she didn't get the chance.
Hope Solo, the goalie who was benched prior to Team USA's 4-0 shellacking at the hands of Brazil, has been quite vocal about just how wrong coach Greg Ryan was to make that decision. And although she's been criticized in some quarters for calling out Ryan and teammate Briana Scurry, there's one place where everyone seems to agree with Solo: Her MySpace page.
Solo's Friends Comments include:
hey hope! I'm very upset about the decision your coach have made yesterday!and it's a pity that we can't see a final USA vs. germany I would have really enjoyed this! I wish you the best for your future and that it was the last time for you sitting on the bench... :) greetz
And:
I want you to know that I'm 100% behind you. I think Coach Ryan made one of the 2 biggest coaching blunders in the history of sports (right along side Tretiak being benched in the 1980 Olympics in the USA/USSR hockey game, although I'm thankful for that one).
And:
I truly believe that what your coach did was so WRONG!!
The guy who makes the 1980 Olympics comment seems a little old for MySpace, but other than that, I think these comments are RIGHT!! Ryan really did screw this up.
"It was the wrong decision, and I think anybody that knows anything about the game knows that," she said. "There's no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves. And the fact of the matter is it's not 2004 anymore. ... It's 2007, and I think you have to live in the present. And you can't live by big names. You can't live in the past. It doesn't matter what somebody did in an Olympic gold medal game in the Olympics three years ago. Now is what matters, and that's what I think."
Obviously, we'll never know if that's true or not, and even if she would have made those saves, Team USA might have lost anyway. But Ryan's job is to get his team ready to play, and his team wasn't ready to play today. Solo had tears in her eyes as she was speaking and might regret her emotional comments tomorrow. But that doesn't make them wrong.
Now the question: Who starts for Team USA in the third place game?
(UPDATED) The debacle is over, and the score is 4-0 Brazil. Brazil trounced the United States today in the Women's World Cup semifinal. An own goal from Leslie Osborne got things started in the 20th minute, then Marta scored in the 27th, Christiane scored in the 56th and Marta scored again in the 79th.
This is the 23rd time Brazil and the U.S. have played in women's soccer and only the second victory for the Brazilians. Is it just a matter of time before Brazil becomes the superpower in women's soccer that it is in men's soccer? Marta's presence makes that seem quite likely: She's the best player in the world by a large margin.
The Americans will complain about the refs, especially how Shannon Boxx was sent off after getting a second yellow card on what one of the TV announcers called "The worst call we've ever seen in our lives," and I agree that it was a bad call. But it gets a little tiresome that Team USA can never lose a soccer game -- men's or women's -- without the American media complaining about the refs.
The big story will be whether coach Greg Ryan made the right choice by benching goalkeeper Hope Solo in favor of Briana Scurry. I think it was the wrong decision, but I don't think it's the reason for this result. Brazil is just the better team.
Do I actually know who's a better goalkeeper, Briana Scurry or Hope Solo? No.
Do I have an opinion about the news that Scurry will replace Solo as the U.S. goalkeeper against Brazil in the women's World Cup semifinal? Yes. I think it stinks.
U.S. coach Greg Ryan caught everyone by surprise when he made the change, which was apparently motivated by the superior big-game experience of the 36-year-old Scurry. Former American team captain and current ESPN analyst Julie Foudy -- who unlike me actually does have an informed opinion on such matters -- doesn't like the decision.
"I think Bri will be fine, and the move will be fine," Foudy said. "But I just think it becomes a distraction when you're too focused on that rather than the game. To me it's a sign of worrying too much about the opponent. I think you just play. You know they're good. You know their strengths and weaknesses but you don't have to make such a drastic change."
If the Americans beat Brazil and go on to win the World Cup Final on Sunday, Ryan will be a genius. If not he'll be an idiot. I'm betting on the latter.
A new women's soccer league announced today that it will begin play in 2009, and although it's a seven-team league with dozens of players, whether it succeeds or fails may be about one player: Abby Wambach.
Wambach is the best women's soccer player in America, and it's clear that Women's Soccer LLC hopes that this month's Women's World Cup and next year's Olympics can make her a Mia Hamm-type star in time for the league to start play in a year and a half. Wambach sounds ready:
"A league was the most important component to getting me completely prepared to play at the next level," said Wambach, the leading scorer for the U.S. women's national team. "What this means is that more women will have more opportunity to not only play at the next level, but also fulfill lifelong dreams of being a professional athlete."
The 1999 Women's World Cup was the height of popularity for women's soccer in America, and the WUSA wasn't able to capitalize on that success. I'm extremely skeptical that any women's pro soccer league can become a financial success in the United States. But Wombach has a year to become the kind of star who can carry a league.
Goalkeeper 
Team USA goalkeeper 
A new women's soccer league 
