US makes the right decision

Glad to see that US Soccer made the sound decision to get rid of women’s coach Greg Ryan.  As I wrote previously, he deserved to be fired before the World Cup even ended.  His decision to bench Hope Solo and her 300+ minute scoreless streak was unforgivable.  It should be filed under the, “Insanely Stupid,” cateogory of bonehead coaching moves.  

 US Soccer isn’t publicly attributing Ryan’s firing directly to the benching fiasco. U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulatibut said today that, “there are many factors considered in this analysis, and it certainly isn’t just about one loss or one particular coaching decision.”  But make no mistake–it couldn’t be more directly related. Look at Ryan’s record as head coach of the US Women’s National Team:  45-1-9.  One loss.  That came after a ridiculously stupid goalie change. 

Pretty direct. 

 Having said that, and in all fairness to both Gulati and Ryan, the US didn’t exactly dominate in their World Cup games–they were the ones who were dominated for strectches against up-and-comers like England and North Korea.  And its true that the rest of the world are catching up to the typical women’s soccer powers.  But all that surely made the decision only that much easier.  It was the right decision, the only decision.  And for my money . . . one that could have been made a long time ago. 

So I quote the best sports movie ever made (duh–Hoosiers) as Coach Ryan exits:

 ”Good riddance, you jackass!”