Untold: Hope Solo vs US Soccer – the turbulent rise of a legend before public scandal and teammate tension rocked career

HOPE Solo is one of the most polarizing figures in USWNT history.

The goalkeeper won over 200 international caps in an illustrious career, in which she won the Fifa Women’s World Cup and two Olympic gold medals.

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Getty

Getty

But Solo suffered a tumultuous fall from grace , including a DUI arrest in a Walmart parking lot while her twins were in the car.

The 43-year-old was found passed out behind the wheel with her two-year-old twins in the backseat in April 2022 in North Carolina.

Now the Hall of Famer’s rollercoaster career is being told in the Netflix documentary Untold: Hope Solo vs US Soccer.

It is scheduled to be released on September 3.

Solo is without question one of the greatest goalkeepers in women’s soccer history.

After a stunning high school and college career, Solo was first called up by the USWNT as an 18-year-old at the University of Washington in 2000.

It was the first of 202 international appearances, which included a record 153 wins and 102 shutouts.

In 2005, Solo became the No. 1. goalkeeper, a position she held for more than a decade.

She helped the USWNT win Olympic gold in 2008 and 2018, plus the Women’s World Cup in 2015 after finishing runners-up four years earlier.

Solo played for numerous teams in the United States and Europe in her career but did not win any club honors.

She was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in in 2022.

Many of Solo’s on-field achievements have been overshadowed by the personal and professional dramas in her life, however.

Solo was benched during the 2007 Women’s World Cup semifinals by head coach Greg Ryan in favor of the 36-year-old Briana Scurry.

The US lost the match 4-0 to Brazil.

Afterwards Solo said controversially : “[Starting Scurry] was the wrong decision. And I think anybody that knows anything about the game knows that.

“There’s no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves.

“I feel never-ending guilt, shame and embarrassment. I was mother-shamed around the world

Hope Solo

“And the fact of the matter is, it’s not 2004 anymore.”

Solo later recounted in her memoir that she was accused of “committing treason” with her comments by her teammates.

“They told me that you don’t throw a teammate under the bus, that I had broken the code, that I had betrayed the team,” Solo recalled.

“I was told that I had ruined everything this team was built on, and that I had torn down what Julie Foudy and Mia Hamm and Lil and all the players who paved the way for us had created.”

Solo was then accused of being insincere with her apology.

The goalkeeper managed to secure her place for the 2008 Olympics in China – but the controversies continued.

Solo was first arrested in Seattle in 2014 under suspicion of assault of her sister and 17-year-old nephew while she was drunk.

Netflix

Netflix

According to Reuters, Solo was hosting a party at her house when she became violent against her relatives and left them “visibly injured.”

Solo claimed she was a victim in the altercation.

The domestic violence charges were eventually dropped in 2018.

In 2016, Solo was suspended from USWNT for six months after she lashed out after a match against Sweden and called the team “a bunch of cowards” at the Rio Olympics.

The US Soccer president Sunil Gulati said that Solo’s comments were “unacceptable and do not meet the standard of conduct we require from our national team players.”

Solo had already upset fans in Brazil by posting a photo on social media of herself covered with mosquito netting and armed with insect repellant

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Solo’s husband, Jerramy Stevens , a former NFL tight end, has also faced issues with the law, and was arrested in 2012 just hours before the couple’s wedding.

He was arrested under suspicion of assault against Solo but was released and never charged.

In 2015, Stevens was arrested for driving drunk in a US Soccer team van with Solo in the passenger seat.

Solo was suspended by the USWNT for 30 days for a “poor decision,” according head coach Jill Ellis.

“It’s been a painful year,” Solo told People in 2015 .

“I almost lost my career. It’s been traumatic and embarrassing.”

Solo has long been an advocate for equal pay for the USWNT and better working conditions in the NWSL.

And in 2017, she announced her candidacy to run for US Soccer president.

She used her speech prior to the 2018 election to air her grievances against the federation.

“For those of you who think the state of soccer today is good enough, then you should vote for more of the same,” Solo said.

“The establishment is backing two candidates who represent continuity, who represent not change and who will deliver more of the same.

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“Failure on the pitch, conflict and chaos off of it and not the progress that we need.”

Solo found work with the BBC for the 2019 Women’s World Cup.

But her biggest controversy came in 2022 when she arrested for being was asleep behind the wheel of a GMC Yukon, with the engine still running and her children in the back.

She later pled guilty to DUI and she was also charged with misdemeanor child abuse and resisting a public officer at the time.

Solo entered an alcohol treatment program and received a 24-month suspended sentence.

“I put doubt in others of my ability and commitment to motherhood,” she said on her podcast.

“I’ve disappointed my husband, my friends and family and it has caused arguments between Jerramy and me.

“I feel never-ending guilt, shame and embarrassment. I was mother-shamed around the world.”