Hope Solo. It's a complicated name, punctuated with controversy. Like the taste of cilantro and the two-party system, Solo is a topic steeped in deep division. Now, a new film about the legendary former goalkeeper of the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team endeavors to illuminate the woman beyond the headlines.
"Hope Solo is undeniably the best goalkeeper in the history of U.S. soccer, man or woman."
"Hope Solo vs. U.S. Soccer," the latest installment in Netflix's "Untold" anthology documentary series, seeks to challenge the greater public's understanding of the beleaguered soccer player. First came Solo's misdemeanor assault charges in 2015 after an altercation with family members. Then, the once-premier goalkeeper of U.S. Women's soccer suffered a career-killing blow when the USWNT's governing body, the U.S. Soccer Federation, suspended her and terminated her contract in 2016. The reason was chalked up to comments Solo made about Sweden's team following the U.S. final match against the country at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil. Solo, somewhat of a league firebrand, had called the Swedes "cowards" while speaking about the team's style of play in a press conference after the game.
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But according to the film, director Nina Meredith and Solo herself, that career-altering decision stemmed from Solo's staunch and vocal stance in demanding equal pay from the Federation, an organization that legal counsel and film participant Rich Nichols refers to as "draconian."
"When her career ended by U.S. soccer and not by her own accord, that was incredibly difficult for her and a very difficult period for her," Meredith told Salon. "But I believe that's possibly one of the reasons she did sit down with us, to reclaim some of her narrative and get some closure."
Closure in Solo's life isn't isolated to soccer alone, either. For all her woes on and off the field, (including a highly publicized DWI arrest in 2022), perhaps the most revelatory aspect of "Hope Solo v.s. U.S. Soccer" is the player's past. Her complicated family life largely centered around her father, a mysterious man with two identities and two families who spent much of his later life living in the woods in and around where the Solo family lived in Washington state. As the documentary shows, the volatility that culminated in Solo's ousting from her professional career ultimately began years earlier, in her personal life.
Untold: Hope Solo vs. U.S. Soccer (Netflix)Now, Solo lives with her husband and twins in rural Asheville, North Carolina, where Meredith says she "found a sense of peace and closeness to her father."
"I think they wanted to get away from it all," Meredith says. "To cancel out the noise and to just start focusing on what really matters for her now, which is her family and being a mother."
Check out the interview with Meredith, where she elaborates on Solo's trailblazing fight for equity in professional sports, and why she may not have faced as much public and professional scrutiny had she been a male athlete.
The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
What would you say is so compelling about Hope Solo that it warranted a documentary about her?
Oh man, I'm not sure where to start. Hope Solo is undeniably the best goalkeeper in the history of U.S. soccer, man or woman. I think we know that if we followed her career — her........