One of the monster storylines in Day 13 of the Beijing Olympics is Hope Solo with her fantastic saves during the Gold Medal game versus Brazil. This was eleven months after she was banished from the bronze medal game in the most recent World Cup. The whole thing could be summarized as Solo being critical of then-Coach Greg Ryan for not playing her and for choosing Athens starting goalkeeper Brianna Scurry instead. I read somewhere that it was because Solo was weak in her reflex saves against a powerful team like Brazil. During the gold medal match, she kept the US in the game for the first 85 minutes, making at least six key saves. In the 72nd, Solo threw up her right arm to stop a close-range bullet shot from Brazilian striker Marta that really looked like it was coming through. Hope also punched Marta’s corner shot away in the final minutes of extra time. Reflex saves, anyone?
Seattle Times Photographer Rod Mar has awesome shots of the game here.
The finals of the Diamond Ball Tournament (a friendly tune-up before heading into the Olympics) will feature the highly anticipated match-up between super-powers US and Australia after both squads went 2-0 in their respective groups. The tourney also featured 2006 WC silver medalist Russia (ya know, that squad that knocked Sue and company out of the WC gold medal match back then?) and emerging China.