Today saw Hope Solo became the first goalkeeper in history to earn 100 international shutouts as the U.S. Women’s National Team defeated South Africa, 1-0 in the final friendly before the Olympic roster is set. USWNT coach Jill Ellis will inform players tomorrow whether or not they are going to Rio.
The public announcement should be made early this week.
You already know who the starting #1 will be, and the announced official crowd of 19,272 fans at Soldier Field also saw that #1 earn her 150th career win over a country that the U.S. was facing for the first time ever.
Hope Solo was named Woman of the Match for this one, and afterward she met the media in the mixed zone. The full audio of which is at the bottom of this post. The most important topic of the day is #EqualPlayEqualPay, a political campaign that the USWNT has now taken up a notch.
Here’s more on that via the New York Times:
Beginning with an exhibition match this weekend in Chicago and continuing through the Olympics next month in Brazil, members of the team said on Thursday that they would embark on a campaign that they hope will increase the pressure on the United States soccer federation to pay the women compensation equal to their counterparts on the men’s national team in their next collective bargaining agreement.
The campaign, in the short term, will be sartorial: the players plan to wear T-shirts with the hashtag slogan “Equal Play Equal Pay” at media availabilities ahead of their game against South Africa in Chicago on Saturday.
We asked Hope Solo to make an additional statement on #EqualPlayEqualPay and you can hear what she said to say in the audio file below. Yesterday, we also asked her thoughts on all the major off-the-pitch concerns surrounding the Rio Olympics, and you can read the transcript/listen to the interview here at this link.
Solo spoke out about the serious concerns surrounding the Olympic games, and in the clip below you can also hear her take issue with a reporter’s question, or at least the phrasing of the question. The reporter was praising the defensive effort in front of Solo today, and did so in a colorful manner. Hope Solo interpreted the wording of the question into implying that she didn’t have to do anything today and thus became defensive.
So you can hear all that and more below:
https://soundcloud.com/p-m-banks/hope-solo-talks-uswnt-equalplayequalpay
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication.
He also consistently appears on numerous talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram