The US women’s soccer team beat Colombia 3-0 in Glasgow, Scotland on Saturday to advance to the quarterfinals at the Summer Games in London. Megan Rapinoe, Abby Wambach, and Carli Lloyd all scored for the US, but the real games began after the contest ended. That’s when goalkeeper Hope Solo went off on NBC commentator and former Olympic gold medalist/World Cup winner Brandi Chastain. Here are all the tweets she sent after the match:
Its 2 bad we cant have commentators who better represents the team&knows more about the game @brandichastain! #fb
— Hope Solo (@hopesolo) July 28, 2012
Lay off commentating about defending and gking until you get more educated @brandichastain the game has changed from a decade ago. #fb
— Hope Solo (@hopesolo) July 28, 2012
Its important 2 our fans 2 enjoy the spirit of the olympics.Its not possible when sum1 on air is saying that a player is the worst defender!
— Hope Solo (@hopesolo) July 28, 2012
I feel bad 4 our fans that have 2 push mute, especially bc @arlowhite is fantastic.@brandichastainshould be helping 2 grow the sport #fb
— Hope Solo (@hopesolo) July 28, 2012
It’s unclear what specifically prompted Solo to send the tweets, but it seems like there is some long-standing friction between the two. Last October, Chastain was pretty harsh on the national team for losing the World Cup and said changes needed to be made to the team. Her criticism must have stuck with Solo who sent a tweet at Chastain in January (h/t Fourth-Place Medal):
“@brandichastain hey brandi did you find anything positive in our game? Curious minds over here…”
Then in an interview with LBS two weeks ago, Chastain criticized Solo for her positive drug test. And during Saturday’s match at the Olympics, Chastain called out Rachel Buehler’s defense while the game was scoreless.
“As a defender, your responsibilities are defend,” Chastain said after Buehler gave away the ball. “Win the ball, and then keep possession. And that’s something that Rachel Buehler needs to improve on in this tournament.”
Chastain supplies honest and sometimes harsh criticism as a soccer commentator, and Solo lashes out in defense. This was just the latest episode in a beef that’s been brewing for a while.
Photo credit: John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE
