Hope Solo Will Be Just Fine Despite Allowing Two Early Goals in Olympics Opener

Hope Solo struggled early by allowing two goals in the U.S. women's soccer opener against France on Wednesday, but she bounced back, and she will continue to string together strong performances.

Uncharacteristically, Solo allowed her team to fall behind 2-0. This was a bad position to be in. In fact, according to the USA Today, no women's soccer team has come back to win from a 2-0 deficit in the Olympics. 

Not a problem for this talented group. Solo tightened up her play and did not allow a goal the rest of the way. Combine that with their offensive explosion—Alex Morgan added two goals—and the U.S. won 4-2. 

But this is not about the team play. This is about Solo, and there is no reason to expect her sloppy early play to persist. There are a couple of factors that led to the early goals, which will allow us to dismiss them as a fluke. 

The USA Today's Robert Klemko points us toward a big one.  

"

Coach Pia says the sun may have been in Hope's eyes during first two goals. Hope Solo says she won't use that as an excuse.

— Robert Klemko (@RobertKlemko) July 25, 2012"

It is great that Solo was not going to offer this up as an excuse. It shows she is feeling good about her ability, and feels her play going forward will make all the statements she needs. That said, there is little doubt that the sun factored into those goals. 

At a position where reaction time is everything, the slightest delay can make all the difference, and the glare of the sun is going to slow down any reaction time. 

The second thing at play here is that this was a very unique environment. In some ways, Wednesday's matches were an opening ceremonies for the Olympics. The actual ceremonies won't take place until Friday night, but these matches got the festivities started off. 

That is a lot of attention, hype and expectations for one match. This alone can create some wacky results from players with overwhelming amounts of adrenaline pumping through veins. 

Solo quickly found her comfort zone in this match, and she will stay in that zone going forward. I don't expect anything but stellar goal play from her going forward.