Hope Solo Wishes She Had Done One Thing Differently

 USA Goalie Hope Solo did not resort to theatrical tricks when she injured her knee late in the World Cup Final on Sunday against Japan, and elected to play through it. The injury occured early in the second period of extra time, with the U.S. clinging to a one goal lead. Japan went on to win the Women's World Cup with PKs, and Solo is questioning whether she did the right thing.

Here is a quote from Solo that appeared in a Yahoo! sports article by Martin Rogers, followed by more blogging  from Scott.

“Part of me wishes I had never gone down to keep the team’s confidence up,” Solo said. “There was an option earlier on of going down and getting the trainer on and doing the antics. I wanted to get up, I didn’t want to win that way. But I wonder now if I did the right thing.”

I imagine Solo isn't the only player from the US team that will have flashbacks of Sunday's loss. The American women had plenty of opportunities, and frankly, should have won the World Cup. Japan's first goal came after the US twice tried to clear the ball to the middle of the goal. That's Soccer 101 and the Number 1 ranked team in the world failed to use common soccer sense.

 The US also had a tremendous height advantage over Japan, making the second Japanese goal (which came on a corner kick) repugnant.

Congrats to Japan, they earned the victory and deserved to win. However, Hope Solo shouldn't put a ton of blame on herself for not giving in to theatrics. That's not why the US lost on Sunday.