Hope Solo (Sore Loser?) Insults the Swedish Women's Soccer Team

Photo of Solo from the Washington Post

I have to admit that I have never liked the US women's soccer team. The USA is a very racially and ethnically diverse country, yet the women's team is almost always made of all-white girls. I find this to be very problematic. There's something wrong here that needs to be fixed.

Speaking of problematic, after the US women were eliminated from the Olympics, the goal-keeper, Hope Solo, verbally attacked the Swedish team for being 'cowards'. A coward is someone who is scared or frightened to do something others would expect him/her to do. Solo said that the Swedish team, which beat the American team, had not taken risks and had played purely defensive soccer.

However, the US women have been so dominant in international competition because of circumstances in the USA which other women on other national teams do not enjoy.  For example, all of the US women played college soccer. In the USA colleges which receive money from the US government HAVE TO provide a fair amount of money to women's sports programs if they have men's sports programs. So the college teams these women played for all received excellent funding from their colleges/universities.

The US women also play for professional women's soccer teams. In Japan, which has been highly competitive with the US team, and which beat the USA in 2011 for the World Cup, the women hold down 9-5 jobs and train when they can. Sweden has a women's soccer league, but I would still argue that the USA will always be dominant as long as the college system exists. The US women play highly competitive soccer throughout college on especially well-funded teams in organized athletic conferences.

So how dare Hope Solo attack the Swedish women?! The American team approaches soccer competition with an advantage over other teams and in what often seems to me to be an arrogant and aggressive manner. If the Swedish women are 'cowards' then maybe the US women are 'bullies' - people who are bigger and stronger and who enjoy physically scaring and frightening others.

Thank you Sweden for beating the US women! The cowards beat the bullies.

By the way, I wanted to introduce you to the expression "a sore loser". This is a player who does not take a loss with character and dignity, but who complains and attacks the opponent after a loss. In the USA we believe that if you compete as well as you can, you can be proud even if you do not win a game. If you complain after a loss, you are called a sore loser. To be sore means to be in pain or to be suffering. It is an insulting term.

The article about Hope Solo's attack on the Swedish women:

http://www.businessinsider.com/hope-solo-rips-swedish-womens-soccer-team-us-loss-olympics-2016-8

Vocabulary from the article about Hope Solo and her insults against the Swedes:

to rip someone or something - in this case it means to verbally attack s/o or s/t

a coward - someone who refuses to take action because of fear

to suffer a loss - to experience a loss...try to remember you can use the verb 'to suffer' with the words 'loss' or 'defeat'

a brutal meltdown - a meltdown is when everything goes wrong, usually because a person or group panics or loses their sense of calm. So a brutal meltdown would be an extreme case of totally failing to do what one had intended to do

to be less than complimentary - to be less than complimentary is to be insulting and not to reach the level of complimenting someone

courageous - showing courage, bravery, a lack of fear

we showed a lot of heart - we demonstrated a lot of character, courage, we showed inner strength

a combative game - like a war

They dropped into a 50 - I apologize ...I have no idea what she's talking about

to press - to be aggressive on offense

conservatively - without taking risks

lost in this rant is Solo calling out Sundhage - a rant is a long and angry speech. "...lost in this rant..." means that people are missing the fact that in Solo's rant against Sweden she specifically attacked the coach of Sweden, Pia Sundhage, who used to be the American coach and who is, apparently, someone Solo doesn't like.

a simple reply to the jab - the jab means the insult. Sundhage's reply was: "I don't give a crap what Hope Solo says." 

to be heated - to be upset (this term is rarely used, don't worry about using 'heated' in this way - 'heated' is, however, often used as a adjective in this manner: they had a heated debate, a heated discussion, a heated argument...meaning a passionate debate, discussion, argument)

to be gracious - to show good character, kindness, a lack of anger and hatred

to bow out - to lose a competition and to leave