Hope Solo: No Discipline for Tweets About NBC Commentator
Hope Solo on Sunday learned she won't be disciplined for a series of Twitter blasts aimed at NBC commentator Brandi Chastain following the American women's soccer team's 3-0 win over Colombia Saturday at the London Olympics.
Chastain, a former player on the U.S. women's team, found fault in the Americans' defensive play during the broadcast of the game.
"We had a conversation: If you look at the women's national team, what do you want (people) to see? What do you want them to hear?" Solo's coach Pia Sundhage told reporters Sunday. "And that's where we do have a choice — as players, coaches, staff, the way we respond to certain things."
Solo set things off with four tweets following Saturday's game.
"Its 2 bad we cant have commentators who better represents the team&knows more about the game," tweeted Solo. She also told Chastain (photo, right) to "lay off commentating about defending" and her teammates "until you get more educated" and "the game has changed from a decade ago."
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Sundhage didn't criticize her team's star goalie – a veteran of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" – but made clear she thought the tweets weren't a good play.
"On the field, it's OK to make a mistake. There's no such thing as a perfect game," Sundhage said. "And sometimes you make a mistake outside the field as well -- myself as well. I've regretted that I've said that or whatever, but at the end of the day if you have good teammates and recognize it and say something that we are proud of, then it is easier to prepare for the next game -- because it's all about the next game."
The Americans next play North Korea on Tuesday.
Chastain, best known for shedding her jersey after scoring the winning goal in the U.S. team's 1999 World Cup triumph, downplayed the incident in a brief statement to reporters.
"I'm here to do my job, which is to be an honest and objective journalist at the Olympics, nothing more than that," she said.
Solo seemed somewhat less than contrite Sunday when she took to Twitter once again, answering a reporter's tweet:
"discipline? Ha! For what! Never even a topic! We talked about our team deserving the best!"
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