For more than a decade, she loomed menacingly between the posts, a muscular, hyper-focused, lightning-quick goalkeeper who seemed able to stop anything.
But in the end, the one thing Hope Solo couldn’t stop was herself.
On Wednesday, U.S. Soccer suspended Solo for six months in response to the harsh comments she made two weeks ago about the Swedish women’s team that beat the United States in the quarterfinals of the Rio Olympics. More significantly, the federation terminated her contract with the national team, sending an unambiguous signal that her days tending goal, at least for the Americans, are probably over.