America's once-shunned women's goalie makes save in gold-medal victory

BEIJING — Every once in a while, a sports story ends just how Hollywood would have scripted, wrapped up nice and neat with a bow on top. Hope Solo's journey to an Olympic gold medal is one of those stories.

A year after being banished from the U.S. women's soccer team, goalkeeper Solo made a handful of key saves to help beat Brazil 1-0 in overtime on a soggy Thursday night in front of a crowd of 51,000 that included footballer Pelé and basketballer Kobe Bryant.

When it was all over, after the U.S. had clinched the gold with a 96th-minute goal by midfielder Carli Lloyd, Solo ran to the bench, pulled out a giant fake gold medal she had packed in her bag, put it around her neck, and ran back onto the field with a cellphone to call her brother. She could not stop smiling and bouncing giddily throughout the medal ceremony.

The teammates who wouldn't eat with her last September were hugging her and mugging for photos with their arms around her.

"It's almost too perfect an ending," the former Washington goalie said. "These things happen in Hollywood and fairy tales. They don't usually happen to me, with my family or my life. I still can't believe it."

Last September, at the Women's World Cup in China, the U.S. was humiliated 4-0 by Brazil in the semifinals. After the game, Solo blasted then-coach Greg Ryan for benching her in favor of Briana Scurry. Solo was riding a 300-minute shutout streak, and felt she should have started.

"It was the wrong decision and anybody who knows anything about the game knows that," she said at the time. "There's no doubt I would have made those saves."

The words stung Ryan and Scurry, and the team was so insulted it voted to ostracize Solo. They did not allow her to attend the bronze-medal game, eat with the team, or fly home with the team.

"I went through hell," Solo said. "But one gold medal helps take away all the pain. In a way, I'm glad I went through it because I learned a lot about myself, and my close friends and family."

Ryan lost his job after the controversy, and new coach Pia Sundhage took over. Her first order of business was to restore chemistry on a team that had appeared fractured beyond repair.

"I asked the players two questions: Do you want to win? Yes. Do you need goalkeepers to win? Yes. We needed to get past it, and on this day, you can see we did."

Brazil dominated for 90 minutes of regulation, displaying beautiful passes and exquisite ball control. Most impressive of all was Marta, the two-time FIFA player of the year. Her lightning-quick feet and nifty moves kept U.S. defenders on their heels all night.

She made a spectacular shot in the 72nd minute, but Solo came up big, punching it away with her forearm. She also launched a powerful free kick in the 117th minute, but it bounced just wide of the post.

After the game, Marta, goalkeeper Barbara, and forward Cristiane sobbed.

"I have no idea why we can't win a final," Marta said. "It's something I'm going to keep asking myself for a long time. You keep asking what you did wrong. I'm more mad than sad. Again we had a chance to win the gold, and again we let it slip away. We lost focus when we conceded the goal. We always play well during the tournaments, but in the finals we can't score. It's hard to say why that keeps happening to us."

One reason is that they didn't have Solo in their net.