WOMEN'S SPORTS COULD EVOLVE WITH SOLO ACT.

Byline: RAMONA SHELBURNE 

LOCAL

OK, so maybe Hope's Solo act went a little too far.

But she really only needs to apologize to her teammate, Briana Scurry, which she did on Friday via her MySpace blog because none of the U.S. players were made available to the media.

Say what you want about Solo ripping her teammate. But Solo's diatribe against U.S. women's soccer coach Greg Ryan, and his mystifying decision to start Scurry in the United States' 4-0 loss to Brazil in the semifinals of the women's World Cup on Thursday, was probably the best thing to happen to women's soccer since Brandi Chastain ripped off her shirt in 1999.

It was provocative. Dramatic. And dare we say, courageous.

When is the last time a high-profile female team sports star has popped off about a coaching decision to the media? Uh ... never.

Women athletes just don't do that. They're told the public will only like them if they're nice and wholesome. The U.S. women's soccer team has been the nicest of all. It's Girl Power, not Girl Glower, that gets you a Nike commercial, after all.

But nice and wholesome can get a little boring after a few years.

Sports, at their core, are entertainment. And good entertainment has to have drama and conflict. We love to analyze and second-guess. We love cocky showmen like Chad Johnson, we love to hate cocky malcontents like Terrell Owens. They entertain us.

But we have absolutely no idea of what to make of it when a woman does the same things.

When Brandi Chastain ripped off her shirt in 1999, it took us a while to decide how we felt about it. We expected her to smile and hug her teammates, like good girls always do. Instead, she ripped her shirt off.

Some called her crude, others thought it was a clever marketing ploy.

Fortunately, after a few days, most people came around and realized it was pretty darn cool for a woman to celebrate by doing whatever best expressed the unadulterated joy she was feeling in that moment.

So now we have to decide how we feel about Solo. If she'd stopped her rant after ripping Ryan, most people would be patting her on the back right now. But she went on too long, which is what happens when you do a live interview before taking a couple of minutes to compose yourself after the game.

She had a right to feel the way she did. Scurry has been a dominant goalie for the U.S. for years, but she's past her prime and Solo was clearly the successor. Ryan had no business replacing her the way he did. You don't mess with team chemistry like that, especially so late in the tournament.

Some teams can handle that kind of a switch, others can't. Ryan's job is to know which category his his team falls into.

Both Chastain and former team captain Julie Foudy have criticized Ryan's decision to pull Solo in favor of Scurry. Both said he should be fired for it. Their words were even harsher than Solo's. Chastain said Ryan had put the U.S. team "three steps back, all the way to the starting gate."

Foudy questioned Ryan's tactical decisions and coaching style.

"There are so many talented players out there, and you wonder, 'Is this program building? Is it growing? Is that the best soccer we can produce? Is this the direction we want to go in?' I don't think it is," Foudy said in an interview with Yahoo! Sports on Friday.

But Solo went too far when she called her teammate old. That's the kind of thing you think, but shouldn't say.

Solo realized her mistake and has apologized to Scurry, both privately and publicly. But she stood firm in her criticism of Ryan. And good for her.

Not only has she got everyone talking about her sport, she's flashed a light on the weaknesses and mistakes that cost her team the game.

After an embarrassing loss like that, that's what you have to do in order to get better.

When the U.S. men's basketball team finished third at the Athens Olympics, USA Basketball went back to the drawing board, figured where things went wrong and where it was getting beat, then made a very deliberate, public process of getting better. Now, the U.S. appears to be back on top.

But most of the time, the U.S. is so dominant in women's sports, bonehead decisions such as Ryan's don't matter. The U.S. normally has superior talent to make up for bad moves or mistakes. This time it didn't. But in the long run, that's great for women's sports.

Like nice and wholesome, dominance can get old too. It's why few women's sports have broken through into the mainstream.

The U.S. women's softball team is so good, the only drama it creates comes before the Olympics, when the sport's organizers have to choose who'll be on the team. There are only about eight irreplaceable players on the team, but there isn't a big difference in talent among the remaining players on the roster, and those players are so good, they could probably win the silver medal.

But when softball came up for renewal in the 2012 Olympic program, one of the main reasons the IOC voted the sport out was because of a lack of development around the world. It just wasn't competitive enough.

Most sports fans can appreciate greatness, even when it lacks a worthy foil. But after a while, it too can get a little boring. This isn't a nice trait to admit to, but it's true. Just ask Roger Federer, the best tennis player of his generation, whom we only care about when he plays Rafael Nadal on clay.

In soccer, the U.S. has had some better competition. It's won the World Cup twice and finished third three times. Brazil, Norway, Germany, Canada and North Korea can all challenge the U.S. in women's soccer. This is what's made women's soccer popular in this country. The U.S. usually wins -- Thursday's loss snapped a 51-match unbeaten streak -- but there's a chance it might not, so it's worth tuning in.

It's good to lose once in a while. It makes you examine your weaknesses and try to improve. It keeps you hungry.

In this case, Ryan's tactical mistakes -- his emphasis on physical play over possession, his bizarre substitutions of defensive players when the U.S. was trailing 2-0 in the second half against Brazil, and his still-mystifying decision to abruptly insert Scurry into the starting lineup -- were glaring.

Solo had the guts to say it. It wasn't the nice thing to do, but it was the right thing to do.

Ryan, after meeting with the team, dismissed Solo for Sunday's third- place match and has strongly hinted Solo might have played her last game with team. He also barred his players from speaking to the media Friday.

No big-time men's sports team would ever get away with that. When things go bad, you can't just hide in the locker room. Women's sports are rarely held to this level of scrutiny, but this is the next evolution they have to make.

You can't be afraid of your faults. You have to be accountable for them and work to improve. That process isn't always pleasant, though.

Hope Solo's act wasn't nice, but it might end up being the best thing to happen to women's sports in a long time.