By Gil LeBreton
glebreton@star-telegram.com
MANCHESTER, England -- Even when they were down 1-0, and then 2-1, and then 3-2, the U.S. women's soccer team still had Hope.
But Hope was part of the problem Monday. With a berth in the London Olympics' gold medal game hanging in the balance, U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo kept giving Canada reason to believe.
Never mind that the Canadian women were outplayed for much of Monday's semifinal game at historic Old Trafford. Never mind that nearly all of their offense was the handiwork of Christine Sinclair.
With the match deadlocked 3-all after 90 minutes and two periods of overtime soccer looming, the Canadians seemed content to just drop back, clog the penalty area and get the game into a shootout.
And why not? Solo had been giving up goals all night. Clearly, the Canadians liked their chances if it came down to firing penalty kicks at the U.S. goalkeeper.
But in soccer, it ain't over till it's over ... and then some.
In the final minute of stoppage time in the second overtime period, Heather O'Reilly lofted a centering pass in front of the Canada goal, and Alex Morgan, pony-tail flying, went high to meet the ball and plunk a header into the back of the net for the game-winner.
Morgan's teammates swarmed her.
"I told Alex, 'I think I'm in love with you at this moment. You just sent us to the gold medal game,'" teammate Abby Wambach said.
The 4-3 victory means that the United States will play Japan in a World Cup title game rematch on Thursday night at London's Wembley Stadium.
It almost didn't happen, though.
As the second overtime period ticked down, Heather O'Reilly of Team USA found her thoughts shifting toward an inevitable shootout. Goalkeeper Solo checked the grass where she'd have to stand.
"I have nothing to say, because I have no idea what just happened," Solo would say later, shaking her head.
"We tend to keep things interesting, but there's something to be said about this team always finding a way to win."
Morgan, O'Reilly and earlier Megan Rapinoe, who scored two memorable goals, ended up taking Solo off the hook.
Solo's defense didn't always help her, but her feet always seemed to be a second or two behind Sinclair's.
"Yeah, we made her look good," Solo said afterward, less than graciously.
"She's a good player. She was very deserving of that first goal. I kind of felt like a sitting duck because she was wide open in the 6-yard box."
Solo said she didn't want to dissect the three Canada goals right now.
"We still have to go back and watch footage of the goals, watch our defense and see what went wrong," Solo said.
She didn't plan to be looking in any mirrors, it seemed.
"At the same time, we gutted it out and found a way to win," said the goalkeeper. "I'm not going to hang myself on any of the goals right now."
Instead, Solo wanted to talk about the comebacks -- all three of them.
"I don't know why we want to make things so dramatic, but we do," Wambach said. "But this is what this team has always been about."
While the Americans reflected on their resilience, the Canadians fumed about the referee's call that led to Wambach's goal.
Canada goalkeeper Erin McLeod was whistled for holding onto the ball longer than six seconds.
The violation gave the U.S. team an indirect free kick, and Rapinoe's rocket hit the arm of Canada defender Marie-Eve Nault, giving Wambach a shot at a penalty kick. She promptly buried it in the left corner of the net, knotting the game at 3-all.
"We got robbed on this one," McLeod told reporters.
Until the winning goal, McLeod had been winning the battle of goalkeepers.
For Solo, it’s been an eventful Olympics. Her arrival in the UK was trumpeted by timely published excerpts of the 31-year-old’s soon-to-be-release autobiography, entitled “Solo: A Memoir of Hope.”
In it, in sort of a “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” revelation, Solo talks about hanky-panky in the Olympic Village.
Next, Solo decided to Twitter-bomb the popular Brandi Chastain, former national team star, for her critical comments on NBC about the Olympic squad’s defense.
“The game has changed,” Solo tweeted.
Julie Foudy, another former teammate of Solo and Chastain,described her reaction to the Twitter mess in a word: “Sadness.”
“Regardless of how you feel about someone's commentary, let's put this in perspective,” Foudy said on the ESPN women’s sport website. “Not only is Brandi one of Hope's former teammates . . . but Brandi is one of the legends of the game. She was, is and always will be one of the great ambassadors of women's soccer . . . This was not the local pub team coach commentating on the game.
“I am sad I am forced to respond to this, sad that what should have been kept as a private conversation between former teammates becomes a public discussion.”
So the London Olympics began, and before you could say, “Mind the gap,” Solo had given up two goals to France.
And now there is Monday’s performance, with no hint of accountability on Solo’s part.
If she plays the same way against Japan in the final, the United States will lose.
What do I know, though? I’ve only been watching soccer at the Olympics since 1976.
When last I checked, Solo now has an autobiography, her own line of skin care products, a nude spread in the ESPN magazine and a Dancing With the Stars alumni card.
Maybe she is as distracted as she seemed to be at times during the match Monday night.
Maybe, too, she’ll be the rock behind the U.S.defense Thursday that she has often been in the past.
For the Americans, there’s always Hope.
Gil LeBreton, 817-390-7697Twitter: @gilebreton
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