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Note to Note: I have to update this post now that I've seen the deciding goal that Hope complained about. At first viewing it looked like Wambach was massively offside, but having watched it a couple more times I think I'm falling prey to the 'she's really far ahead of the defense so she must have been off' fallacy, and in fact when the ball is served she's in line with the defense. But from Hope's perspective it must have looked very different.

Several years ago I defended Hope Solo during the World Cup debacle, not because I thought what she said was right but because I thought the culture of omerta surrounding women's soccer was unhealthy. The PR need to present the sport and its athletes as 'perfect,' where perfect meant they had no conflict and contained strong emotions on the field while always being good friends and 'ladies' off of it was sending a poor message. Despite Solo's continuing to prove over the years that she is not a little self-obsessed, I will do the same today. Solo has a tendency to air frustrations immediately without thinking about them. Now she has an international forum in Twitter which enables her further. These frustrations are often not pointed in the right direction, but maybe that's actually a strange lesson she learned from the World Cup: don't go after teammates (and lord freaking knows her defense deserves it), instead turn your anger outward at entities it can't actually hurt. Although Solo would do well to reflect further on her own role in Atlanta's terrible season, her criticisms of the league's playoff race being fixed are ridiculous enough not to be damaging to anyone. In the sense that DC draws good crowds and is a recognizable national presence, especially with the most well-known American player at its helm, I think the league is pretty happy the Freedom got in. But almost any team gaining that fourth spot would have made a compelling story. Bad refereeing is indeed an endemic problem but one that is an embarrassment to rather than promoted by WPS. In short, Solo was clearly being whiny and threatening to take her ball and go home when things didn't go her way. This won't make a dent in the mainstream media the way her earlier comments resounded across the spectrum. But in the women's soccer world, we're all chattering about it. Perhaps it will spawn some 'Solo: The Mouthy Star Who Won't Back Down' coverage in local papers. Neither of these things are so bad. There have been few enough passionate conversations this year league-wide, aside from those about how and whether WPS is going to survive. Seeing it treated like a normal sports environment for once ('Did you see what that idiot Ochocinco said today?') is almost refreshing. If From A Left Wing's intimations are to be believed, and I have no reason not to trust them, there are darker things going on behind the scenes than one narcissist goalie. We should enjoy the chance to treat our sport like people treat any other: as the home of both noble and wacky individuals who are going to have conflict and do stupid things and maybe surprise us in the end. What will this year's Sky Blue moment be?

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