Hope Solo

Like, this is so cool.

When I was told I was playing against the US team as a 16 year old in goals, I was like, I'm going to be playing against Hope Solo.

I'm going to be playing against Alex Morgan.

I'm going to be, Megan Rapinoe, like all these incredible, incredible athletes that I literally just thought I would like that, you know, when you see them on TV and they just almost feel like, like I'm never going to meet these people.

HAO went on to win 231 caps for her country.

But as well as on-field success, O'Reilly and her contemporaries were known for the mainstream personalities their success spawned, as well as their advocacy with players such as Megan Rapinoe, Carly Lloyd, Hope Solo, Alex Morgan and countless others becoming big names with big voices.

We're really proud of that.

We reminded ourselves and each other many times that winning gave us the platform and people view us as winners, which give us relevance.

Maybe it's like...

Hope had that position, Hope Solo had that position for a very long time, and she was one of the, if not the best goalkeeper in the world.

So it was kind of like Alyssa, Ashlyn at the point, had to just wait their turn and weren't getting a lot of opportunities to play and whatnot because... you have like the best goalkeeper in the world.

And then all of a sudden, like Alyssa was up and Alyssa got that position and she started...

Like that was probably the most consistent position.

Um, woman's side, obviously there was so many great players, uh, but like, don't know like Alyssa Nair and um Hope Solo were obviously two incredible goalkeepers um and even I think you could argue there's like Hope Solo was just in a league of her own when she was at her best um and then on the men's side obviously we have Timmy but uh I don't know I think they're still looking I think they're we'll probably see that position group kind of get more and more because I would say yeah you're right like I don't think either goalkeeper put up very good

like i think it's like i would

argue that that was one of the worst performances out of the team

It's do you fill a need that they have?

I think the best example I can think of is Hope Solo.

She wanted to go play for the national team, and she was told the best way to get to the national team is become a keeper.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's, it's gonna be huge because you have to have a goalkeeper, especially when a back line...

And I remember looking behind me and, and, you know, having, like, a Hope Solo or a Alyssa Naeher.

You have s- you have a player who's super confident, who's gonna speak up, who's gonna tell you exactly where they need you to be and where to be and how to do it because they are leading that spine of the team.

And so defensively, the structure is so important, and you have to have a goalkeeper who has that confidence, who understands the game, and they have the vision of the whole field.