Ellis declines to respond to Solo’s shots
REIMS, France – The war of words between Hope Solo and U.S. coach Jill Ellis is going to be decidedly one-sided.
Ellis declined to take the bait Monday when asked about Solo’s criticism of her management style, ability to handle pressure and game preparation. Ellis did not answer the question directly and she did not mention Solo’s name.
Nor did she mention that Solo was essentially fired from the U.S. team for bad behavior.
“I mean, comments are comments,” Ellis said, smiling. “I feel over the past five years, I’ve made a lot of important decisions and I have processes to make those decisions and (I) own those processes. At this point, everything and every focus is about this group of players that are here and now.
“Pundits are out there. That’s part of it,” Ellis added. “And part of the message always is to make sure the focus is on the internal part of the game. And that’s where we are. Yep.”
Solo, the winner of the Golden Glove in the past two World Cups, is working for the BBC at this year’s tournament, which begins for the USA on Tuesday when it faces Thailand.
During a podcast released Saturday, Solo was asked about Ellis’ lineup choices. She said she didn’t agree with them and proceeded to criticize Ellis as a coach overall.
Solo also criticized the younger players on the U.S. team, saying they “spend most of their time on social media and can’t carry on a conversation.”
“She’s not the leader I wish her to be,” Solo said of Ellis. “She relies heavily on her assistant coaches. She cracks under the pressure quite a bit. But oftentimes it doesn’t matter because the quality of the players on the U.S. team is superb.”
Specifically, Solo pointed to the 2016 Olympics, when the USA lost to Sweden on penalty kicks in the quarterfinals, its earliest exit ever in a major international tournament. Ellis stopped showing the teams video of goals it had conceded, Solo said, because she didn’t want to ruin anyone’s confidence.
The USA conceded only two goals before the Olympic quarterfinals, both to Colombia. The first came on a ball that Solo bobbled, and another came on a direct kick in the closing seconds.
“How are you going to grow to become a better player, a better defense unless you look at your mistakes and you learn from them and you grow from them? Jill didn’t have that quality. She didn’t bring that sense of leadership to us,” Solo said. “You could tell that — perhaps she didn’t show us the goals because perhaps her nerves were getting the best of her.
“So for me, Jill never had that leadership quality.”
Solo was effectively banned after the Rio Olympics for what U.S. Soccer called “conduct that is counter to the organization’s principles.” She had called Sweden “a bunch of cowards” following the quarterfinal because of its tactical decision to bunker in on defense.
That was not her first transgression, however. She caused a rift during the 2007 World Cup when she criticized then-coach Greg Ryan’s decision to sit her for the semifinal, throwing Briana Scurry under the bus in the process. She was suspended in early 2015 after her husband was arrested for drunken driving while behind the wheel of a team van; Solo was a passenger.