Why the Brazil Game was so Special to Hope Solo

In my post below, I already analyzed Coach Ryan's decision to bench Hope Solo. I decided to watch more on YouTube to find out about the women's soccer team. There is a user named Martynny who has excellent Youtube video of the women's national team. If you are looking for Hope Solo video, she is the place to go.

Martynny has a video that she said explains why not playing against Brazil may have hurt Hope's feelings so badly. This is documentary-type footage, shot before the World Cup, I believe. I haven't seen this story mentioned in coverage of the team, so I wanted to bring it to your attention, while giving Martynny full credit for pointing this out.

UPDATE: I give up on trying to break stories online, ha. Beaten again! The well-informed Michael David Smith saw this video too, and USA Today has a story on it today. So I'm not the exclusive source for this: sorry.

Warning; this video is sad, so if you cry easily, be prepared.



For those of you who can't watch the video; Hope explains that her dad was finally going to come watch one of her games. It was going to be the US game against Brazil in New York City in 2005. However, he suffered a heart attack the week before and died, so he never got to see her play. So it's safe to assume that the Brazil game had a lot of extra meaning to Hope, and that she would have wanted to win for her dad. Sigh, I guess we're reminded again to be careful about judging people's motives.

Anyway, here are some nicer, funny videos of Hope to lighten the mood and give you a more complete perspective on her.

30 second brief interview with Hope.


Hope talks about the "Goalkeeper's Union" (4.5 minutes or so)


Hope plays video game soccer against Drew Carey (scroll to about 3:13 minute mark). It's funny. For the record, Hope enjoys video games.