Goalkeeper’s 2014 arrest not concerning to team, U.S. coach says

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/06/2015 (4096 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On the eve of her team’s first game at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, American head coach Jill Ellis is keeping focused in a growing storm.

Hours before Team USA met the media in the belly of Winnipeg’s stadium on Sunday, and a little over a day before they begin their World Cup hunt against Australia on Monday night, ESPN published new reporting casting a troubling light on the circumstances surrounding goalkeeper Hope Solo’s 2014 arrest for domestic violence involving her nephew and half-sister.

But though Ellis said she had not read the story — she learned about it from the team’s media officer, she said — she suggested she wasn’t concerned about what it might say. And USA midfielder Carli Lloyd, who shares a room with Solo, said they hadn’t discussed it once.

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“Hope’s been fantastic,” Ellis said, before her team headed for their training. “That was a long time ago, I’ll be honest, we’ve moved on. She’s been a fantastic player and a teammate. None of that’s (reporting) even resonated with us, and I’m sure many of the players aren’t aware of it.”

Earlier on Sunday, before the American media juggernaut really filled up the press conference space,  Nigeria’s coach insisted his team knows little about who they’ll face on the pitch.
 
Maybe it was a joke, but if it was, Edwin Okon was sticking to it, as he met the media in the stadium’s basement press conference bunker on Sunday afternoon. On Monday, they’ll open their World Cup – and Winnipeg’s – by squaring off in a 3 p.m. match against Sweden.
 
The Swedish team had delivered their pre-match media duties earlier, before hitting the field to train for Monday afternoon’s match. Then, Team Sweden coach Pia Sundhage said she’d had trouble scraping up film on the 33rd ranked Nigerian team, who most observers position as a long shot to make it out of Group D – but no worries, Sundhage added, they had a lot of confidence in their scouting team.
 
So an hour later, when it was Team Nigeria’s turn to face the cameras, a reporter with Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet figured he’d put a similar question to Okon.  “Can you tell me about the Swedish team, what you know about them?” Kristoffer Bergstrom asked.
 
“I know nothing about the Swedish,” the head coach replied.
 
“Nothing?”
 
“Yes… nothing,” Okon insisted, as media from around the world issued up a curious giggle.
 
But though a puzzled Bergstrom replied that he didn’t believe it, both the coach and Super Falcons captain Evelyn Nwabuoku stuck to their guns: they don’t know anything about fifth-ranked Sweden, nuh-uh, and that’s just part of their plan. “Sweden has been in successful in the past, but that’s got nothing to do with the present,” Nwabuoku said, a minute later. “With due respect to them, for all they have achieved, I think football is supposed to be played on the field. And that’s what we’ll do tomorrow.”
 
Well, this much is for sure: the world is in Winnipeg, now, and the whole Women’s World Cup vision here is starting to feel real. On Sunday, media from around the world buzzed around the stadium hallways, flashing accreditation from outlets from Japan to England. Questions echoed in a symphony of accents, including from a Fox Sports crew with slick American TV diction; languages intermingled in the halls. It’s time.
 
Meanwhile, for Swedish coach Sundhage, what happens on Monday is more than just their first game of the tournament. It will also mark the first time that Sundhage, a 55-year-old legend and Swedish hall of famer, will coach under her own country’s flag at a Women’s World Cup. “That is something special,” agreed Sundhage, who previously coached the American squad. “I’m really proud of the fact that I have two Swedish players next to me. Hopefully we can put the team together, and play some really great football.”

Melissa Martin
Reporter-at-large

Melissa Martin reports and opines for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Every piece of reporting Melissa produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.