Seattle Reign And US Women’s National Team Still Have Hope, Literally

Hope Solo, Reign F.C. and US Team’s goalie, and Seattle soccer darling had a bit of a scuffle with the law back in June, if you’ll remember. She indulged in a bit too much fermented grape juice and got into a family feud with her half-sister, Theresa Obert, and 17-year-old nephew, Christian Obert, leaving them with visible injuries. She spent two nights in jail as a result; she pleaded not guilty to two counts of fourth-degree domestic assault (the standard charge for any altercation involving family members up in these parts) then was released on her own recognizance. Solo took to social media afterwards, apologizing to her fans, coaches and teammates for her actions.

On Monday she was back in Kirkland Municipal Court for her pretrial hearing, ironically in the same courtroom her husband (former Seattle Seahawk Jerramy Stevens) stood in two years ago when he was accused with domestic violence (that case was dropped). At the hearing, the trial was set for November 4th, the earliest possible according to Solo’s attorney Todd Maybrown.

That’s good news for the Seattle Reign F.C. and the US Women’s National Team. Seattle is headed for the playoffs in the National Women’s Soccer League as it wraps up its second regular season (the championship game is on August 31^st). They sit atop the standings with 54 points, while FC Kansas city sits in second with only 41 points, and the Washington Spirit in third with 35 points. The Reign have already earned the right to host the semifinal match on August 24^th at 8pm PST at what is apparently now called “Moda Pitch” Memorial Stadium (wait, what? Is that who paid for the turf?)[1]. They will also wrap up their regular season in Portland against former Seattle teammate and US National heartthrob Alex Morgan. While their ticket to the championship may as well be booked, they can still knock the Thorns out of playoffs and could give the team the best point-per-game number in all of women’s professional soccer history (all eight seasons, which I’m sure you’ve been closely watching). All sarcasm aside, this team is really, really good. If you’re not paying attention, you should be.

As for the WNT, World Cup qualifying matches take place from October 15th through the 26th,and you better believe they’re happy to have Solo guarding the goal. She’s about to break the U.S. Soccer Shutout Record. With 71 shutouts in her 152 caps since debuting in the goal in 2000, she is on pace to surpass Briana Scurry’s record set between 1994 and 2008 (also 71). Solo is on the roster to play against Switzerland in a sold-out match In Cary, North Carolina on August 20^th, four days before the semi-final in Seattle. To say the least, she’ll be busy, but will surely be grateful for the opportunity to set a career milestone and focus on her team before worrying about her pending court date. Solo and the WNT will head into the match against Swiss, one of six teams who have already qualified for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, with a 2014 record of 7-2-3.

Solo will continue to practice and play pending trial. Seattle’s managers will be awaiting the outcome of this debacle before they make any decision. Maybrown has already filed a motion to dismiss, but the judge won’t hear arguments on that until the hearing in November. If the motion is denied, or if the case is not dropped for some reason before that, then Solo could face up to six months in jail. The decorated athlete, however, stated she is confident that her name will be cleared.

[1] Memorial Stadium is where high schools in the Seattle Public School system without adequate football fields play their Friday night games and where hoards of concertgoers flock to mourn the end of summer at the Bumbershoot music festival. This is honestly the first I’ve heard of such name as the local news, when it chooses to discuss women’s soccer, refers to it as Memorial Stadium. I can only assume this is not to further confuse those who are unaware we have a women’s professional soccer team.