REPERCUSSIONS

Hope Solo Suspended for 6 Months

For calling Olympic opponents “a bunch of cowards.”

U.S. Women’s National Team goalkeeper Hope Solo has been suspended for six months from the national team for “conduct that is counter to the organization’s principles,” according to U.S. Soccer. After her team lost to the Swedish team at the Olympics, Solo called the team a “bunch of cowards” in an interview. “Taking into consideration the past incidents involving Hope, as well as the private conversations we’ve had requiring her to conduct herself in a manner befitting a U.S. National Team member, U.S. Soccer determined this is the appropriate disciplinary action,” U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati said in a statement Wednesday. Solo said she was “saddened by the federation’s decision” late Wednesday, noting that she had “never wavered” in her commitment to the sport. “I could not be the player I am without being the person I am, even when I haven’t made the best choices or said the right things,” she said in a statement on her Facebook page. “My entire career, I have only wanted the best for this team, for the players and the women’s game and I will continue to pursue these causes with the same unrelenting passion with which I play the game.”