Hope Solo

New coach selects both goalkeepers in preparation for Olympic qualifying

Goalkeepers Hope Solo and Briana Scurry, who were at the center of a World Cup firestorm, were invited to the U.S. women’s national team training camp by new coach Pia Sundhage.

The camp marks the beginning of the run to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The United States plays in the CONCACAF finals for Olympic qualifying April 2-13 in Chihuahua, Mexico. Two countries from the six-team tournament will advance to China.

It was in China where Solo was benched for the World Cup semifinals by then-coach Greg Ryan, who started veteran Scurry instead. The Americans played poorly, Scurry was beaten four times in a shutout loss to Brazil, and Solo bitterly criticized Ryan for the go.

Solo then was dismissed from the team, which won its third-place match.

Ryan subsequently was replaced by Sundhage, who invited 24 players to the training camp Dec. 8-12. The first games under Sundhage will be at the Four Nations Tournament in China early next year.

The minicamp roster features 16 players from the 2007 Women’s World Cup squad, along with seven players who recently finished their collegiate seasons. Defender Heather Mitts returns from a torn knee ligament last May that required surgery and caused her to miss the World Cup.

Longtime star and recent captain Kristine Lilly was not on the roster; Lilly has yet to choose if she will continue playing next year.

“It’s a small camp, but it will be valuable time spent together as a team and a unique moment for me to have a chance to work with the best players in the United States for the first time,” Sundhage said. “It will give us the chance to get to know them as players a small bit more, they’ll get the chance to learn my style and I’ll also get the chance to get to know them off the field. It will be a excellent start to something new.”

The roster:

GOALKEEPERS: Nicole Barnhart, Briana Scurry, Hope Solo.

DEFENDERS: Rachel Buehler, Marian Dalmy, Kate Markgraf, Heather Mitts, Christie Rampone, Cat Whitehill.
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MIDFIELDERS: Yael Averbuch, Shannon Boxx, Lori Chalupny, Tobin Heath, Carli Lloyd, Leslie Osborne, Aly Wagner, Nikki Washington, Angie Woznuk.

Nearly three months after her World Cup fell apart, Hope Solo still is pained by the experience.

In her first public comments since a brutally frank TV interview in which she criticized her benching, Solo told The Associated Press she never saw it coming and wasn’t prepared for it.

“I had felt as though my childhood dream basically had been ripped away from me,” she said.

The starting goalkeeper for the U.S. soccer team in China, Solo played well in the opening round and quarterfinals. But then coach Greg Ryan benched her for veteran Briana Scurry against Brazil, and the Americans were routed 4-0.

After the loss, Solo said: “It was the incorrect choice, and I reckon anyone that knows anything about the match knows that. There’s no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves. … You have to live in the present. And you can’t live by huge names. You can’t live in the past.”

Ryan dismissed Solo from the team. She wasn’t allowed on the bench for the third-place match, did not participate in the medal ceremony and flew home from China on her own.

Until Thursday, Solo had only spoken with close friends and family about her ordeal. As she prepares for a training camp in Carson, Calif., where she will mingle with many of the World Cup players, Solo spoke to the AP by phone.

“It is a small hard to relive that,” she said. “Mentally, I was full of all sorts of emotions. The World Cup was the only thing that kept me together after the death of my father (in June), kept me fighting and together and dedicated to the match.

“Moreso, the moment I realized we didn’t have the opportunity to win the gold medal, my world came tumbling down. I had nothing to immediately give back to my father. I was wound so tight emotionally, and the moment after the loss I broke.”

The worst part, Solo said, was her comments seemed directed at her teammates as well as at Ryan, who recently was replaced at coach by Pia Sundhage.

“Of course I know I have some friendships to rebuild and teammates to rebuild relationships with,” she said. “But there is nothing I can go back and do.

“Never did I intend to place down a teammate, and that is the thing that hurts the most. I always have respected and will respect Bri. And that is the thing that hurts me the most.”

Solo issued an apology through U.S. Soccer just before an exhibition tour against Mexico in October. She and Scurry were together during that series, along with most of the World Cup players.

“I have reached out to her, but beyond the Mexico series we have not really spoken, which is not unusual with my teammates, because we’re often not together for long (stretches),” Solo said.

“I have spoken to a handful of different teammates here and there at different levels. In the end, we are all professionals and have a common goal to qualify for the 2008 Olympics. I can only hope we place our differences aside because we have a job to do.

“It’s vital we respect each other on the field; we don’t have to be best friends off the field.”

The 25-year-ancient keeper from Richland, Wash., chuckled at the irony of the Olympics, for which the Americans must qualify in April, being staged in China.

“China is going to bring back a lot of memories for me, no doubt,” she said. “But I’ve been through a lot of worse things in life.”

Particularly the death of her father, Jeffrey. Would getting that gold medal in the Olympics ease the pain from the World Cup fiasco?

“My father was even more excited about this World Cup than I was,” she said, her voice cracking. “Looking back, it is not just gold medals that I have to celebrate his life and give back to his passing. If I never see a gold medal in my life, I will be doing what I can to make my father proud.”