US Soccer will honor Hope Solo’s 200th cap at Denmark friendly

U.S. Soccer will honor Hope Solo reaching 200 caps with the USWNT ahead of their January 21 friendly with Denmark, as reported by Grant Wahl at SI.

Solo appeared in her 200th game during the 2016 Rio Olympics in a group stage match against France. The United States beat France 1-0 on a Carli Lloyd goal. Shortly thereafter, the US was eliminated from the Olympics in their quarterfinal game against Sweden, which was followed by Solo’s infamous “we played a bunch of cowards” remark, resulting in a six-month suspension from the WNT.

The suspension has long since been up, but Solo hasn’t played a single game for the United States since and it looks very unlikely she will ever return to the WNT between the seemingly mutual animosity between Solo and the federation and the development of new starting goalkeepers. Solo is also 36 and would be 38 by the time of the 2019 World Cup - not outside the realm of possibility for a goalkeeper, but not ideal, especially given the fact that it would represent regression in the development of the US GK pool.

But the federation will honor her 200th cap anyway, perhaps as an attempt to start burying the hatchet. Will it be super awkward? You might remember that last year Solo apparently told 60 Minutes Sports flat out that Jill Ellis is “a poor leader and bad tactician” and then called out team staff for not contacting her after her suspension. Then there was a much more recent interview in which she made some clumsy comments that came off as demeaning towards Alex Morgan. So yeah, it might be a little awkward.

The United States plays Denmark on January 21 at 7:30 PM ET at SDCCU Stadium in San Diego. The game will air on ESPN.