Hope Solo

BEIJING - Hope Solo’s sure hands made up for the butterfingers of U.S. relay runners on a seesaw day for Americans at the Olympics.

Goalkeeper Solo punched a ball that was flying toward the net to save a 1-0 victory over Brazil for the women’s soccer team. With a gold medal hanging around her neck, she salvaged not only her reputation but a brutal slate of performances on Thursday in Beijing.

By fending off a flurry of shots by (Ital)Mah-Velous(Ital) Marta, Solo vindicated herself 10 months after she was ostracized by her teammates for her blunt criticism of their 4-0 loss to Brazil in the 2007 World Cup semifinals.

That was an ugly time for U.S. women’s soccer and women’s sports. Solo spoke her mind about a coaching decision to replace her with Briana Scurry. She was absolutely right, but her teammates took it hard and shunned her as if they were members of a junior high clique. They wouldn’t even eat with her or fly home from China with her.

They regrouped under new coach Pia Sundhage and mended their relationship with Solo.

“A gold medal takes away all the pain in the world,” Solo said. “Honestly, I went through hell. Things change over the course of time. A lot came out. One thing was the role of female sports - you don’t have to be best friends.”

The U.S. track team could have used some teamwork.

At Bird’s Nest Stadium, both U.S. 4×100 relay teams dropped the baton between the third and fourth legs. They were eliminated before the qualifying round was over.

They’ll have to watch as Jamaica goes for world records and a sweep of gold medals in the sprint events.

What a shame, but this isn’t the Junior Olympics. The U.S. should have seamless exchanges by now, especially given its gaffes of the past.

It was an embarrassing case of deja vu for Lauryn Williams, who took off too soon and couldn’t get the baton from Marion Jones at the Athens Olympics. This time, Torri Edwards let the baton go too quickly after slapping it into Williams’ hand.

“Somebody somewhere has a voodoo doll of the U.S.,” Williams said. “I have no idea what could have gone wrong. Our plan was to come out here, have safe passes and lay it all on the track tomorrow.”

Instead, the baton clattered to the ground. Williams dashed back to retrieve it and finished the race out of a sense of duty, four seconds behind seventh-place Italy.

Here’s an opportunity for Elmer’s Glue to become an Olympic sponsor.

In the men’s race, Darvis Patton and Tyson Gay bungled their exchange. Poor Gay, who went from being a contender for three golds to a man who didn’t even run in a final.

“It’s kind of funny all the love I got last year and now I’m going home with no hardware,” Gay said.

Meanwhile, Jamaica cruised as Usain Bolt took the night off except to accept his gold for the 200. Jamaica’s national anthem was followed by a rendition of Happy Birthday. Bolt turned 22 Thursday.

Fans would love to see Bolt perform another world record dance and make Jacques Rogge eat his words. The International Olympic Committee chief reprimanded Bolt for his theatrics. Rogge needs a Tsingtao or three.

Fans - and NBC - love a little jiggle. Just look at the ratings for women’s beach volleyball, which concluded in pouring rain Thursday with a second straight gold medal for Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, who defeated China to win their 108th consecutive match.

Then the volleyball throwbacks - the ones who play indoors - upset Cuba’s women’s team to advance to the final for the first time since their coach, Jenny Lang Ping, led China to a gold-medal victory over the U.S. in 1984.

Carli Lloyd scored in the sixth minute of extra time as the United States won their second straight Olympic women’s soccer gold medal with a 1-0 victory over Brazil on Thursday.

Since women’s soccer first featured at the Olympics in 1996, the USA have now claimed three gold and one silver medal, while Brazil won their second silver.

But while Lloyd scored the winning goal on Thursday, the hero for the Americans was goalkeeper Hope Solo, an ironic twist after last year’s controversy at the World Cup.
 

After losing to the US in the gold-medal match in the Athens Olympics, Brazil exacted revenge on Team USA at the 2007 World Cup, snapping their 51-match winning streak with a humiliating 4-0 triumph in the semi-finals.

The loss was highly controversial for the US as Solo was benched in favour of veteran Briana Scurry by then-coach Greg Ryan, who was promptly fired following the Americans’ third-place finish.

Solo, who made a number of comments suggesting that she should have started in net and would have made the saves, came up big for the Americans against the favoured Brazilians on Thursday.

Brazil controlled most of the possession but were unable to generate too many chances as the United States focused on keeping things tight early on.

Leading scorers Cristiane and Marta dazzled with the ball down the sidelines but could not get anything going down the middle of the field as the US forced long-distance shots or ambitious crosses from the wings which Solo was able to deal with.

Solo made the best save of the match in the 72nd minute when Marta worked herself free on the left side of the penalty area and fired a hard left-footed shot from close range that the US goalkeeper just got a right hand on before the ball was cleared away.

Angela Hucles had the Americans’ best chance in normal time, blasting a shot from 20 yards away that was stopped by Brazil’s sprawling goalkeeper Barbara in the 86th minute.

After the match went to extra time, Lloyd put the US on top as she received a pass on the left side of the 18-yard box and her left-footed shot beat Barbara and found the back of the net just inside the right post.

Brazil, who had 13 corner kicks in the game, supplied heavy pressure over most of the game’s final 24 minutes but attempted too many individual moves against multiple defenders to generate a clear opportunity.

With time winding down, Marta made a run down the right wing and delivered a dangerous cross into the box, but Solo was there to deflect the ball away from danger with oncoming Brazilian forwards in the area.

In the bronze-medal match, Fatmire Bajramaj scored a pair of goals as two-time defending World Cup champions Germany beat Japan, 2-0.

Bajramaj put Germany on top in the 69th minute, knocking home a rebound from a tough angle on the left side of the six-yard box. She scored again in the 87th minute to give the Germans some insurance.

Japan were denied their first-ever medal in the event, while Germany have now earned the bronze in three consecutive Olympics.