Goalkeeper Hope Solo will not play for the United States for six months after being banned for calling Olympic rivals Sweden “a bunch of cowards”.<\/p>\n
The 35-year-old World Cup winner made the remarks after her side lost 5-4 on penalties to the Swedes in the quarter-finals of Rio 2016.<\/p>\n
US Soccer president Sunil Gulati said Solo’s comments were “unacceptable”.<\/p>\n
Solo, who will not be eligible for the national side until February, said she was “saddened” by the decision.<\/p>\n
Writing on her Facebook page,<\/i> the Seattle Reign star said: “I could not be the player I am without being the person I am, even when I haven’t made the best choices or said the right things.”<\/p>\n
At present, Solo will only miss two games for the US, against Thailand and the Netherlands next month. However, US Soccer has yet to finalise the fixture list.<\/p>\n
They played 14 games in the same six months of the 2015-16 season.<\/p>\n
In January 2015, Solo, who has made more than 200 appearances for the US,\u00a0was suspended for 30 days following an incident during a training camp.<\/p>\n
Media reports claimed she was in the car when husband Jerramy Stevens was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.<\/p>\n
Sweden went on to reach the final in Rio but lost 2-1 by Germany.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Goalkeeper Hope Solo will not play for the United States for six months after being banned for calling Olympic rivals Sweden “a bunch of cowards”. The 35-year-old World Cup winner made the remarks after her side lost 5-4 on penalties to the Swedes in the quarter-finals of Rio 2016. US Soccer president Sunil Gulati said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":242829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n