TONY SHARD’S VIEWPOINT: When you play all your life and have a chance to make a World Cup Final, and after apparently gaining the confidence of the coach for 44 of the previous 51 games, you would think she has grounds for complaints. Then the coach, based on a game that happened 3 years ago, decides to forget the previous 3 years and play somebody else in goal. Finally to top it all off, the player that replaces you gives up two goals that you would probably of stopped (although this doesn’t mean that the US would have won the game). Yes, Hope certainly has grounds to have MAJOR issues with the coach’s selection policy. There is probably not a coach in the world, given the situation, that would have taken that gamble. On the opposite side though, every coach will tell you, issues should be dealt with in-house and that dirty laundry should not be washed in public. 

Should she have gone public with her opinion?

Only when your hopes to play in a world cup finally have been cruelly and inexplicably taken away from you could you really answer that question.   

One thing for sure, if Greg Ryan would of gone public and apologized for putting Hope Solo and Brianna Scurry in this situation, (and having ESPN report on negative issues instead of positive issues), then he would gain a lot more respect than trying to defend his gamble, which to every rational person out there, obviously did not work.

 WHAT IS YOUR VIEWPOINT?????? WAS HOPE SOLO RIGHT IN TELLING THE WORLD HER OPINION OR WAS SHE WAY OUT OF LINE?????

With Brazil in the finals of the World Cup, we thought it would be appropriate to send well wishes from MSA players to Katia, Brazillian National Team Player!  Katia has been a 3 year member of the MSA staff.

Obviously, the whole staff at MSA LOVES Katia – we think that she is one of the nicest, sincerest, and most talented female athletes in the game. So, if you went to camp with Katia, or, if you just want to send her well wishes, now is your chance!

England making the quarter final of the Women’s World Cup is a great step for women’s soccer in England. In a sport that is male dominated, the Women’s team is finally starting to receive the exposure and credit that they have long deserved.

Only a year ago, no one believed that the Women’s National Team would return to England as hero’s, or so they should be considered. In a country that is obsessed with soccer, women have had a rough time being taken as serious players. Although England has developed their own Women’s Professional League, it’s reliancy is dependent upon the success of the partnering men’s program.

Recently, Charlton Athletic Football Club, got relegated to the Championship, a division below the English Premiership, which resulted in Charlton drastically having to cut their budget. The first thing Charlton did was dismantle the women’s program, which was very competitive and represented one of the top programs in the country, a move that surprised no one, due to England’s history of not supporting women in sports. If it was not for the dedicated staff who saved Charlton’s Women’s Program, the talent of these female athletes would have been thrown away.

With the Women’s National Team tying the reigning champions in the group stage (Germany), what we would like to know is how many times has the Men’s National Team tied the reigning champions in the World Cup Finals? And, if the Women’s National Team ever did win the World Cup, would the country of England celebrate and support them like the USA did in 1999?