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The United States women's national soccer team beat Colombia 3-0 to earn a spot in the quarterfinals, but that wasn't the main story coming out of Saturday's contest with regards to the Pac-12 faces.
When women's soccer commentator and former USWNT hero Brandi Chastain offered some criticism of defender Rachel Buehler of Stanford, former Washington Husky Hope Solo went to her defense.
Its 2 bad we cant have commentators who better represents the team&knows more about the game @brandichastain! #fb
— Hope Solo (@hopesolo) July 28, 2012
Lay off commentating about defending and gking until you get more educated @brandichastain the game has changed from a decade ago. #fb
— Hope Solo (@hopesolo) July 28, 2012
It's unclear what Chastain did to provoke Solo, although the two have had a prior history with each other. She might have said bad things about Buehler or been too highly critical. It's also possible Chastain just might be a terrible announcer, which would be par for the course for US soccer commentators at the Olympics.
Solo has known to get into her verbal tiffs in the past. But it's clear that she didn't care for the criticism and was probably sticking up for her teammate. It'll be interesting to see how this affects everyone involved in today's games. Hopefully these points of contentions won't overshadow the rest of the USWNT's games, but this figures to develop into a huge story that Solo will eventually have to address.
As for the actual soccer, Solo barely had to save anything, as Colombia barely managed any shots on goal. Megan Rapinoe was brilliant with a goal and an assist. Alex Morgan (Cal) did not score despite a few decent opportunities, but she did provide the assist to Rapinoe on the first goal. USWNT coach Pia Sundhage hopes that Shannon Boxx will hopefully be available later on in the tournament.
The United States will try to clinch the top seed in their group (and stay ahead of everyone else) by winning the rest of their games.