Hope Solo opened up about her 30-day suspension in a new blog. (Photo copyright Meg Linehan for The Equalizer)
Hope Solo says in her newly-created blog that she used her 30-day suspension from the United States women’s national team to “reassess [her] life and career.”
Solo was suspended from the team following a January incident in which her husband, former NFL tight end Jerramy Stevens, was arrested for driving under the influence, using a U.S. Soccer team van with Solo in the passenger’s seat.
Solo said in the blog post that she saw a therapist for the first time to discuss her issues, “finally addressing all the pain and anger that was inside of me.” She also worked with an “Eastern medicine healer in Seattle who had incredible experience helping some of the greatest athletes perform at the highest levels.”
All of this was shared with her teammates via email, according to Solo, before re-joining the team for the Algarve Cup in Portugal earlier this month.
The 33-year-old goalkeeper described a very receptive scene from her teammates both when she departed camp in Los Angeles in January and when she returned in March in Portugal.
After I addressed my personal stuff, my e-mail turned to the World Cup. There had been a lot of change over the last year with the team, and with all of that change came a lot of questions — who was going to play where, what our lineup was going to be, that kind of thing. I just said: Look, it doesn’t matter where we play, how we play, or who’s on the field. We’re not going to look back and realize that we made excuses, and that they kept us from winning. At the end of the day, we’re not a team that makes excuses. We’re going to find a way to win, and we’re not just going to find a way, we’re going to look the part. We’re not just going to survive, we’re going to thrive. We’re going to win this World Cup. I think it was something that needed to be said, and it was awesome to see everybody’s responses back. Some were a little bit more sentimental about it, and other people were like, ‘Hell yeah, let’s do this.'”
Solo also said that she worked on her kicking game in her 30-day absence. She went on to praise the play of her young defense, in particular Becky Sauerbrunn and Julie Johnston, who had a breakout Algarve Cup.
