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When the United States announced that they had suspended Hope Solo for 30 days, they did not specify exactly why they banned her. Jill Ellis only said that she made a "poor decision," but more assumed it had something to do with the DUI her husband got while she was in the passenger's seat at 1:49 on Monday morning. According to TMZ, that is the case, but there's more to the story: Stevens was driving a U.S. Soccer team van at the time.
Solo was at U.S. training camp so being out at 2 a.m. is concerning to begin with. As is being in the car with a drunk driver and then reportedly becoming belligerent with the police officers to the point that they had to "go out of their way to try to keep Hope out of cuffs."
Now we learn that Solo had borrowed the team van to do all of this. And it's earned her a suspension from the team.
While Solo's suspension is for just 30 days and will keep her out of the remainder of training camp, as well as friendlies against France and England, it won't necessarily end after a month. She is only eligible for reinstatement after the 30 days, with U.S. Soccer reviewing the situation before deciding whether she should be allowed to play again.
There have been calls for her to be left out of the team for good now. Solo was facing charges of domestic violence until last week, when the charges were dropped, and now she has this incident in a borrowed team vehicle. It is worth asking if she is worth the trouble.
The U.S. is six months from the start of the Women's World Cup and if they decide to allow Solo back then she does something else to merit a suspension before the tournament, they'll be in a really bad spot. At this point, they probably need to decide whether they can trust Solo to stay out of trouble and be their goalkeeper for the next six months -- if not longer, with the Olympics next year -- because if they can't, this might be the time to make a change instead of crossing their fingers through July and playing with fire.