September 12, 2007

Hope Solo: More balls than Jon Conway

By now, I'm sure most of you have seen Hope Solo's big mistake in the US-North Korea game yesterday morning. Many people have given her credit for the way she rebounded from the error, making big saves late to preserve the draw. I give her even more credit for the way she handled things in the post-game interviews.

"A day in the life of a goalkeeper. The conditions were very slick, very wet, those balls spin like crazy, but no excuse, it happens and I'm just glad I still had a good game."

On overcoming the play, "It was more difficult than I have had to do on the field besides playing the day after my dad's passing. So I think I've been tested and tested mentally to find a way to get through things and I knew at that point I needed to find a way because they were going to keep pushing for that third goal."

Thanks to El Presidente Goff and the Soccer Insider for the quotes and coverage from China.

Let's contrast that with Jon Conway's actions after his mistake at Foxboro that cost the Red Bulls three points. Our friend Ives Galarcep had a great post about it here. Conway was the first one out of the locker room after the game, which isn't his usual routine, and avoided answering questions about the mistake. Five days later, Conway finally spoke to someone about the play. Of course, in the course of explaining what happened, he tosses in this line about his two years with the club, "I’ve been probably one of the more consistent here over that span so I can’t really complain about making one mistake."

It was just something I found interesting...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good post. I'll be honest, this is the first year I've kept up with the Women's World Cup, but it has been fun and hard to watch (the draw). Never uninteresting though (except the Germany v. Argentina). I have fallen in love with Hope Solo though. She is a great talent and apparently can handle herself well in the media.

Longshoe said...

Be careful with the Hope Solo love around here, I already called dibs...

Just kidding. Sort of.

I did love how she handled herself after the match yesterday, she's a true professional.

I've always loved the Women's World Cup, and I'm glad ESPN is giving it the proper treatment this time around. Women's soccer at the highest levels is really great to watch. I did get a little bored with April Heinrichs' style of play, I'm very glad Greg Ryan has opened things up for the US team.

Anonymous said...

The Cupcake Nation says "more photos of Hope please".