Unjust penalty for Solo

As each goal shot past keeper Briana Scurry, the cameras quickly zoomed in on Hope Solo. Her body language couldn't disguise her anger. Her disappointment was palpable.

The U.S. national soccer team was getting embarrassed by Brazil. Her sudden replacement in goal was getting torched. Their chances at another World Cup championship were dashed by one of the worst coaching decisions in sports history.

And all Solo could do was sit and seethe, as the intrusive television cameras chronicled her profound disappointment.

After 298 minutes of shutout soccer, Solo was pulled by coach Greg Ryan before the semifinal with Brazil in favor of the veteran Scurry. He went with the rusty hand, instead of the hot hand and, like so many of his decisions since, this was unfair to Solo, to Scurry and to the rest of the U.S. team.

Unable to contain her disappointment after the U.S. lost 4-0 to Brazil, Solo, responding to a question about Ryan's folly, said, "It was the wrong decision, and I think anybody who knows anything about the game knows that."

And then she said the 12 words she'll probably regret for a lifetime: "There's no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves."

Of course, Solo shouldn't have said that. She should have stood up for Scurry, even if she knew how poorly Scurry had played. She should have simmered in silence.

She made a mistake. A small mistake that Ryan has blown out of proportion.

She shouldn't have said those 12 words. She knows that. But the way she has been treated by Ryan since is unconscionable. It is vindictive, spiteful and premeditative, as if Ryan is trying to blame her for all of his mistakes during the bronze-medal-winning performance in China.

Ryan didn't merely suspend her for the bronze-medal game against Norway. He excommunicated her.

Solo practically was under house arrest at the Westin Hotel in Shanghai. She couldn't eat meals with the team. She couldn't attend the game. She couldn't even join her teammates to accept her bronze medal.

After his team was humiliated by Brazil, Ryan humiliated Solo. She, not he, became the scapegoat for the loss.

The punishment hardly fit the crime.

Solo, a former Washington Huskies standout from Richland, had no history of problems with her coach or her teammates, but she was treated as if she were some kind of constant clubhouse lawyer.

She was a good teammate who made one mistake, but on a team that preaches unity, she was ostracized. A team that always talked about keeping its problems internal aired this to the world, day after day after day.

There was no forgiveness for Solo's single heat-of-the-moment comment. One strike and she was out of sight.

None of her teammates or coaches bothered to factor in Solo's heartbreak after being benched before the most important game of her career.

Nobody considered the fact her father, Jeffrey, died of heart failure in June and this tournament was her best chance to honor his memory. Before each of her four World Cup starts, she sprinkled her father's ashes in the goal box.

If the severity of Solo's punishment was supposed to send a message that this team stands up for one another, Ryan blew it. He prolonged the moment so that it became a public-relations nightmare.

He turned this into "Hope against The World," placing an implied gag order on her. And what did it prove?

Ryan, not Solo, mismanaged this situation, mismanaged the team. Ryan kept this controversy going by booting Solo from the team and treating her as if her offense was treasonable.

All of this makes us wonder, who is running this program? And where are the people to whom Ryan is accountable?

His contract expires on Dec. 31, and he should be gone on New Year's Day. His substitution patterns before and during the Brazil game were curious, to say the least.

In defense of his move to bench Solo, Ryan quoted a gaggle of stats about 36-year-old Scurry's previous two successes against Brazil, but none sounded logical.

Solo, 26, and the starting goalie the past two years, was getting better with every game. She surrendered two goals in the opening tie with North Korea, then was unbeatable. She made four stops on four corner kicks early in the game against Sweden, which might have saved the tournament.

Things should get worse for Ryan as they slowly get better for Solo.

Even though she isn't allowed to suit up for the three-game series with Mexico that continues with Game 2 tonight in Portland, Solo is back with the team.

She apologized to her teammates in a written statement last week, saying, "I made a mistake, and I take full responsibility for my actions. I let my teammates down and have lost their trust."

But as the team makes the transition from the glory years — the mid-1990s through 2004 — as the world gets better and winning becomes more difficult, U.S. women's soccer needs players like Hope Solo.

She is energetic, charismatic and marketable, not to mention the best in the country at her position.

She made a mistake. She broke that unwritten rule in sports that players aren't supposed to publicly criticize their coaches or their teammates. She strung together 12 words she shouldn't have spoken.

But her punishment was cruel and unusual. And, when the team gathers again to prepare for Beijing and the 2008 Olympics, the coach who levied that punishment should pay the price for his poor judgment.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com