All of our area’s soccer players would love to make the U.S. National team one day and play in the World Cup or the Olympics.
Well, one former Tri-Cities player has already done that.
Hope Solo was a star for Richland back in the late 90’s.
And on Tuesday night, she came back to town to watch her Bombers play in the state tournament.
After Richland won 2-0, Solo spoke to the team and took lots of time to sign autographs and visit with fans.
She says she hasn’t been back to watch a Richland soccer game in several years.
And she adds that she’s happy to visit with all of the area’s future soccer stars.
Hope Solo says, “It’s long overdue that i’ve made it back and I’ve reached back out and given back to the community, so, I mean, these people support me and they support my career and the least I can do is sit here and sign autographs for 30 minutes. the sport has grown tremendously, especially here in the Tri-Cities, you know, I hope that one day I can get back to the program and to these kids and hopefully come back and coach.”
While Solo is popular for being a Richland star and playing for the national team, she might be best known for what happened earlier this year at the World Cup.
In case you don’t remember, she was benched right before the semifinal game against Brazil, and after the Americans lost 4-0, she spoke out against the decision to keep her on the bench.
Just one month after those comments, U.S. coach Greg Ryan was let go.
But solo had very little to say about her place on the national team.
She was asked, “What has it been like personally for you, bouncing back, I mean, now that ryan’s gone…”
And Solo said, “I’m not going to talk about the World Cup, but its good to be home.”
Solo says she’ll be in the Tri-Cities for a couple of months.
And she said she hopes to make it to the Bombers state quarterfinal game on Saturday afternoon.