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World Cup

Hope Solo played it fair in 2011 vs. Japan, but would she now?

Martin Rogers
USA TODAY Sports
Hope Solo makes a save during training on Monday.

VANCOUVER — With the clock ticking down in the 2011 Women's World Cup final, the Americans leading, her knee starting to throb viciously and destiny apparently beckoning, Hope Solo refused to cheat.

Solo didn't do what most men's international soccer players and some women's players would in such a situation. Instead of feigning a more serious injury and attempting to stall the game in order to take any momentum out of the action, the United States goalkeeper played it fair.

She first resisted the temptation to halt play and call for the team's trainer. As the pain worsened, she eventually waved for the doctor to come onto the field, but took just a minimal amount of time when her knee was inspected by U.S. medical staff.

And, in the fraught moments after Japan had produced a dramatic comeback in the final moments of extra time to shatter the USA's hopes of winning the title, Solo wondered if her decision to avoid dirty tricks had cost her the team the trophy.

"Part of me wishes I had never gone down to keep the team's confidence up," Solo said at the time. "There was an option earlier on of going down and getting the trainer on and doing the antics. I wanted to get up, I didn't want to win that way. But I wonder now if I did the right thing."

It is surely unjust to consider a conscious act of fairness as a mistake, but if indeed it was one, it is unlikely to be repeated when the same two teams square off for the chance to win it all at BC Place on Sunday.

Because nowadays, you see, the U.S. has a harder edge to its play, one that is probably not averse to using an occasional cynical trick or two to clinch a victory.

Such an approach would not have been acceptable under former head coach Pia Sundhage, whose commitment to forbidding stalling tactics late in matches was mightily noble, but highly unusual in the modern game. Current coach Jill Ellis encourages a more conventional, if slightly sneakier, approach.

"Pia was a staunch opponent of any kind of time wasting or any kind of tactical shenanigans," midfielder Megan Rapinoe said. "You don't want to go too far, but I think a good amount of it is smart to kind of kill off the game. They definitely took a different approach and Jill embraces that more than Pia did."

Captain Carli Lloyd said Sundhage even ordered her players not to dribble the ball into the corner late in games, a standard tactic used to kill the clock. Ellis is also more likely to make a defensively-minded tactical switch if the team is ahead.

Back in 2011, Solo hurt her knee in a collision with Japanese player Yukari Kinga during extra-time. When she eventually received treatment and returned within seconds to the field, Homare Sawa produced a stunning equalizer with a flick of her right cleat to send the game to penalty kicks, where the Japanese prevailed after Lloyd, Shannon Boxx and Tobin Heath all missed.

Few players on the U.S. team remembered the Solo incident when prompted at their media session on Friday. Solo did not attend, continuing her policy of shunning all interviews since scrutiny over her ongoing domestic violence saga reached its highest point a week into the tournament.

"From knowing Pia, the way she coached us, she wanted us just to play," said veteran defender and 2011 captain Christie Rampone. "So I think that was probably more in Hope's head than stalling. Now, leading onto a different coaching staff, we would be doing what we can to finish off a game."

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