Hope Solo could be left off US World Cup team: Report

Hope Solo faces the possibility of being left off the American roster for this year's Women's World Cup if the goalkeeper fails to complete tasks set for her by the U.S. Soccer Federation, which may include alcohol counseling.

The troubled soccer star was suspended for 30 days last Wednesday for what the U.S. Soccer Federation called "an incident that occurred during the current WNT training camp" in Carson, California.

On Monday, USSF President Sunil Gulati answered questions about Solo being left off the team.

"Look, that's possible," he said. "We hope that's not the case. We hope she's making progress and joins the team. That's certainly the goal, hers and ours."

Jerramy Stevens, Solo's husband, was driving a team vehicle when he was arrested last week on suspicion of driving under the influence, a person familiar with the details of the arrest told The Associated Press last week. 

Solo was ordered to refrain from drinking alcohol last June after she was arrested on domestic violence charges at her sister's home in Kirkland, Washington. The charge was dropped this month.

Speaking on a conference call with U.S. coach Jill Ellis, Gulati said he had to speak carefully because of the involvement of "health-related issues." Asked whether Solo had been asked to undergo alcohol counseling, Gulati said "I think neither of us denied or confirmed that."

"She's been given time to deal with some issues, and we think that in this period she'll certainly start that process, and we'll evaluate," he said.

Gulati said the length of the suspension was determined during conversations he had with Ellis and USSF Secretary General Dan Flynn.

"Thirty days seemed to be the appropriate suspension under our rules and given the circumstances," he said. "So there are a number of things that Hope is being asked to do in that 30 days. We're not going to get into the specifics of that. And then we'll evaluate where things stand at the end of that period and make the decision going forward."

Solo will miss exhibition games at France (Feb. 8) and at England (Feb. 13). She could return for the Algarve Cup tournament in Portugal in March.

Hope Solo to stand trial for domestic violence charges: Report

Hope Solo will stand trial early in 2015 on misdemeanor assault charges following a brawl with two members of her family last summer.

The 33-year-old goalkeeper, who has won two Olympic gold medals with the USA women's national team, has pleaded not guilty to the domestic violence charges.

The trial is set to begin on January 20 with Kirkland Municipal Court Judge Michael Lambo setting Solo's next court hearing for January 6, according to the Seattle Times.

Solo is charged with two counts of fourth-degree domestic violence assault stemming from the June 21 altercation with her sister and 17-year-old nephew at a family gathering where alcohol was being served.

The nephew told police (via the Times) that Solo had been drinking and was angry because her husband, former NFL player Jerramy Stevens, refused to take her to the airport to catch a flight. 

 She reportedly told her nephew he was “too fat and overweight and crazy to ever be an athlete,” the documents allege.

The teenager called Solo a name, told her to get out of the house and then walked to another part of the house, documents say. Solo allegedly followed him and called him crazy.

Prosecutors allege that Solo attacked the teen, punched him in the face and tackled him after he retorted that both she and her father were crazy.

When the teen’s mother tried to intervene, Solo attacked her as well, the document says. The teen tried to pull Solo off his mother and then broke a wooden broom over her head, the document reported.

The 17-year-old then allegedly “got an old gun that did not work” and pointed it at her in an attempt to get her to stop assaulting him and his mother and to leave. The handgun was ultimately determined by police to be a broken BB gun.

Solo has claimed she was only acting in self-defense.

There was also an email from a Kirkland city prosecutor to Solo's attorney, Todd Maybrown, three and a half weeks ago, which offered a plea deal to Solo if she plead guilty to at least one count. It is not clear if Maybrown or Solo responded. It may be, because at this point, Solo's career and endorsement deals could be affected if she is found guilty of a crime.

In the interim, Solo will continue to play for the U.S. national soccer team as it prepares for next summer’s World Cup. Her presence on the national team has been met with some criticism after the NFL was grilled by the media for the league's lax handling of domestic violence by its players.

Hope Solo and Abby Wambach Do Stupid Soccer Tricks on Letterman Show

Hope Solo and Abby Wambach, two members of the silver medalist US Women's World Cup soccer team, appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman and took shots at four moving taxi cabs outside the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York City yesterday.  Solo, a goaltender, finally put a ball right through the sliding door; while Wambach's kicks sailed wide or bounced off the taxis.

Maybe the US goalie should have taken one of the penalty kicks during the championship game loss to Japan on Sunday?

The losing American team is still getting a rousing welcome home after being upset by Japan.   They were greeted at the airport by fans when they arrived back in the United States and Letterman was one of the first stops for the two stars of the team.  You would have thought they won the whole enchilada.

Solo and Wambach, seated on a couch next to Letterman's desk, looked nervous and demure--a stark contrast to their individual on-field persona.

Letterman opened the interview with the obvious. "Tough loss," the gap-toothed host said.  Both players shook their heads before he lobbed this bon mot," It looked like you were all over those people, the Japanese."

Solo said she received a "good luck" email right before the game from a friend--and one of the opposing Japanese players-- and responded by emailing back; "Whatever happens, happens."  Letterman then joked, " You should have said 'Would it have killed you to lay down.'"

Letterman finally admitted," I know nothing about the game," but never asked the question everyone wanted to know: Do you think you choked?

Solo did answer that question in an interview on ESPN.  It sounded like an apologetic "No."  Then she added, "Only if you truly don't know the game."

While the US team licks their wounded egos, the same darlings of the media are still getting the star treatment for coming in second.

This week's cover of Sports Illustrated will feature a photo of Solo with the headline;  "HEART AND HEARTACHE- Japan Shocks the US..."

Shouldn't Japan's veteran leader, Homare Sawa, be gracing the SI cover for winning the World Cup?

Amazingly, the US women's team gets the winner's treatment.  I didn't see a photo of LeBron James on the cover of SI for being upset by the Dallas Mavericks or the brooding faces of the men's 2004 Olympic basketball team who came home with bronze.

The US appearance in the World Cup may have drawn more fans to the sport of women's soccer, but give the winner's their due.

Japan's upset could cost the most recognizable faces of the US team-- Solo and Wambach-- millions of dollars in endorsements said Bob Dorfman.

Dorfman, who rates endorsement potential of athletes as Creative Director of Baker Street Advertising in San Francisco, thinks the deals could dry up fast.

"I heard there were some marketers who were planning on using them-- but decided not to because of the loss," said Dorfman.  "Everyone likes a winner."

Rumors that GoDaddy.com had it's sights on goalie Solo joining Danica Patrick in their racy ads, but after the loss they backed off. 

GoDaddy.com spokesman Nick Fuller said," At this point in time, GoDaddy.com is not pursuing a sponsorship deal with Hope Solo."

Getting attention and attracting new fans to the sport are still viable assets for the two break-out female stars claims Dorfman.

They can still work in the "glamor" areas like Patrick and Maria Sharapova do, he said.

While it lasts, Solo and the rest of the team should enjoy all the adulation the USA can throw at them; for if they played for North Korea, chances are, they would probably be serving some sort of penance on a work farm.

Tweet Victory For US Women's Soccer Team On Sunday

The US Women's soccer team may have lost to Japan in Sunday's Women's World Cup Championship match up but, after being upset, they were a part of a record for the number of tweets sent after the game.  The story-book ending for Japan was tweeted about more than any other event in history.

The wild finish to Japan's penalty kick victory over the Americans in the championship game help set the record of a staggering 7,196 TPS-- that's tweets per second-- according to Twitter.

To put it into perspective, Osama Bin Laden's death topped out at 5,100 TPS.

The previous record of 6,939 TPS was set just after midnight on New Year's Day 2011 in Japan.  Coincidentally, after the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Twitter reported 5,530 twitters per second.  Japan used the disaster as inspiration during their unbelievable title run.

For all the geeks keeping score, here's how the Women's World Cup TPS record stacks up against the men's.  Last year's men's World Cup opener between host country South Africa and Japan --  I'm seeing a trend-- boasted only 3,282 TPS at it's peak.

Other notable big-tweet days include the Green Bay Packers victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV which hit the 4,096 TPS mark and the Royal Wedding with William and Kate which scored a commoner-like 3,966 tweets per second.

The US/Japan record was almost topped on the same day after the Copa America quarterfinal match up between Paraguay and Brazil came in at 7,166 TPS.

Before the Women's World Cup Final, even President Obama tweeted the US squad to wish them well: "I'm thinking:  Score a goal, be a leader, let's get this done."

The President may the only person in the world who still uses proper English in his tweets.

According to Twitter, it handles over 200 million tweets a day and has over 200 million registered accounts.  Some claim that total is more like 300 million.

One trend I'm noticing about tweeters is they tend to be Japanese and are partial to soccer.

No matter how annoying tweeters pecking away are, they still aren't as bad as vuvuzelas.