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Untold: Hope Solo vs US Soccer (2024)

‘Untold: Hope Solo vs US Soccer’ (2024) or Hope Solo vs Herself?

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by

MJ-A
in

In many ways, Hope Solo is a duplicate of the Tonya Harding story. Both athletes were products of the non-conformist Pacific Northwest, had a non-nurturing home life, were fatherless, and struggled economically. Both were determined not to be defined by their circumstances, but to rise above them and become champions. Of course, the reason you learn their stories is because their wings melted in the sun.

As an episode of the Netflix Untold docuseries, Hope Solo vs US Soccer explains how Hope overcame her upbringing and became the USWNT’s best goalkeeper. But although the title and content try to blame US Soccer for the termination of Hope’s career, the film is very honest in showing how the biggest threat to her legacy was herself.

What we learn about Hope Solo’s playing career

Update Sep-30-2024: For the first time, I am revising some of this review because I discovered that the docu lead me to misconstrue some of the facts about Hope Solo’s early life. Where did I get the revised facts? By reading Hope’s 2012 memoir, Solo: A Memoir of Hope, written with Ann Killion. I am putting the revisions in red font.

Hope’s father exited the family when she was around 7 years old because he went to prison for embezzlement. According to Hope’s memoir, she next saw her father at around age 13-14, when she played in Seattle and recognized the homeless man watching the game as her dad. He was living in the woods around Seattle. Hope’s high school life was chaotic due to her mother’s alcoholism and conflict with her stepfather. For stability, she ended up living with teammate Cheryl Hirss’ family in her last summer of high school.

Heavily recruited, Hope initially wanted to play soccer as far from home as possible. But, she ended up at the University of Washington (UW). The docu says she wanted to remain near her father, but the memoir does not list that as a reason. Instead, the choice was more influenced by Cheryl’s also playing at UW, the coaches Leslie Gallimore and Amy Griffin had been her regional ODP coaches for years, and she wanted to be closer to home and family. Her memoir says that walking the campus and seeing the nearby forest convinced her that the Northwest was really her home.

Although Hope was a high school All-American as a high-scoring forward, regional ODP coaches Gallimore and Griffin saw her as a goalkeeper. Hope had started playing in regional ODP as a GK at age 13 and played on a team 3 years up. In high school, Hope also played on Richland High School’s state cup-winning basketball team. They were known as the Bombers (for the Hanford nuclear plutonium facility). Once she got to UW, Hope’s athleticism and shot-stopping ability helped UW win the PAC 10 conference for the first time — in her sophomore year.

A volunteer social worker helped her father get healthcare and housing in Seattle, and in 2000, her mom joined AA and stopped drinking. Her life stabilized.

In 2000, Hope got her first call up to a USWNT camp, at age 18. 

In Jan-2001, her father was accused of murder. He had an alibi and was no longer considered a suspect, but he was not exonerated by DNA evidence until 2011.

She made the Olympics roster in 2004, but she didn’t get on the tournament field until WWC 2007 in China, where she was the starter.

By 2005, Hope had been through the collapse of the WUSA and had played in Sweden. Greg Ryan had been April Heinrichs’ assistant and was made interim USWNT head coach. He added Hope to the roster and since Briana Scurry took time off, Hope became the starting GK. The USWNT proceeded to play 46 games under Greg without a loss (other than a PK shootout), and Hope started in 36 of those games.

However, in Jun-2007, Hope’s father died of cardiac failure. When Hope returned to the team during its pre-WWC send-off tour, the pressure had gotten to Greg. He became moody, and he seemed to be taking it out on Hope by yelling at her everyday. In Aug-2007, they left for WWC 2007.

WWC 2007 ended up not being her big break on the big stage, but instead created the chasm between her, USSoccer, and her USWNT teammates.

Coach Greg Ryan pulled Hope from the semi-final game for Briana Scurry. Forced to sit on the bench during that bad loss, Hope told the media that she would have made those saves. This crossed the line with her teammates and made her an immediate outcast. Not only was she not allowed to play in the 3rd place game, but she was not even allowed to travel with them.

For the 2008 Olympics, new head coach Pia Sundhage brought Hope back on the team. The USWNT won Olympic gold, they had a good WWC 2011 final, and at WWC 2015 they won gold again under Jill Ellis. But at the 2016 Olympics, Hope again made news after they were eliminated by Pia Sundhage’s defensive-minded Sweden. Hope called the Swedes cowards, and shortly thereafter, US Soccer CEO Dan Flynn flew to Seattle to tell Hope she was terminated from the USWNT.

What we guess about Hope Solo’s team relationships

This review started with facts about Hope Solo’s career, but the film itself starts by emphasizing that almost no USWNT teammate or coach was willing to talk about her. The list of refusals included: Mia Hamm, Abby Wambach, Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, Julie Foudy, Briana Scurry, Heather O’Reilly, Heather Mitts, Cat Whitehill, Meghan Klingenberg, Jill Ellis, Stephanie Cox, Kate Markgraf, Ashlyn Harris, Ali Krieger, and more. As far as the USWNT, only 99er Michelle Akers (who never played with Hope) and coach Pia Sundhage were willing to participate in the film.

Hope says she was blackballed and betrayed. It seemed interesting that the film had all these images and footage of the players and yet none of them agreed to be interviewed. It seemed that none of them attended her 2022 Hall of Fame party either. These are women who typically travel across the country and the world to support each other. To me, their absence said a lot.

Hope probably alienated a lot of her teammates after she originally organized them to fight for #EqualPay but then filed a separate lawsuit. In the film, she denies that the USWNT lawsuit achieved its goals. Her harangue against the USWNT #EqualPay effort feels like sour grapes that do not reflect well on that part of her legacy.

As well, Hope and her PR agent claim victory perhaps a bit too loudly when they discuss Hope’s Jun-2014 arrest for domestic violence against her half-sister and nephew. The film also includes the damning police cam video of her DUI arrest in Mar-2022. Generally, the film presents Hope in a way that feels like it must be truthful because it is so glaring and uncomplimentary.

Update Sep-30-2024:

I am really glad I read Hope Solo’s memoir, and I encourage anyone interested in this story to do the same. I can empathize with her being an introvert who isn’t comfortable in social group settings, and she is truthful and blunt. So based on the book, I don’t feel that she would purposely mislead anyone; she believes what she says.

In Meg Linehan’s podcast, Coach Gallimore said that Hope did not get to see the docu until after it was released, so essentially Hope had no say in the film. This is how the producer brothers Chapman and Maclain Way work:

Our agreement with our athletes has always been ‘We will tell your whole story, but that includes everything, the highs and the lows, maybe some things you’re not so proud about.’

This episode was in the last year of the Way Brothers’ 4-year deal with Netflix. Unlike the prior seasons, they did not even give interviews about the show. This made me conclude that they had lost interest in it because they were moving on to their next project, and the film was edited to increase drama or controversy. The problem is that, after reading Hope’s memoir, I don’t exactly trust the filmmakers.

In Conclusion

Early in the film, Hope claims that in 2015 she was “getting into the money” around US Soccer, and they must have told everyone not to talk to her. But this claim is never really fleshed out any further than saying US Soccer made a lot of money from the USWNT but never compensated the women adequately. The threat from US Soccer is unconvincing, and the title would have been more correct as “Hope Solo vs herself”.

It also nagged at me that the few who gave extensive interviews were from her high school and college years. And that her USWNT co-workers still hadn’t forgiven her after 2, 8, 10, or 17 years.

On the other hand, the memoir gave me a different perspective. Hope Solo’s looks, athleticism, and mentality helped her rise above a pretty terrible background. She has a family history of alcoholism, hard-partying, and unwise choices, and given her injuries, she is probably still on a lot of painkillers. We forgive murderers for a lot worse than what Hope is still getting cancelled over.

Overall, I feel this well-told film presents a balanced view of a talented athlete. It raises our sympathy and/or gives us reason to write her off. Hope Solo is too often a bad girl caught doing bad things.

So am I going to buy her merch now? Maybe so.

8 Soccer Movie Mom Rating = 8

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