Hope Solo: Dancing with the Stars Will Make Solo Better Soccer Player

As everyone may know, Hope Solo has taken a break from her day job as goalie for U.S women's national soccer team to participate on Dancing With the Stars. She was able to waltz her way into the second round, but this is just the beginning of good things for the soccer star.

Solo has always been a very outspoken athlete. She knows who she is, what she believes in and is not afraid to call anyone out when she feels they are in the wrong.

Case in point: the 2007 FIFA World Cup. Solo was benched in the championship game for Briana Scurry, who had not played once during the tournament. She was not happy about the decision—not that she should have been; she was playing as well as any goalie in the world at that time—and let her opinions be heard.

Solo had every right to be angry, but she made the whole situation public. She criticized her coach and showed no support to her teammate, which is not what you want when you are getting ready to play in the most important game that any of them will ever play.

But now that she is on Dancing With the Stars, Solo will have to learn discipline and self-control in order to be successful.  In turn, she will take what she learns as a dancer and apply it to what she does on the soccer field.

Solo's intensity is one of the things that make her great, but it can also consume her. She gets lost in her own head and that filter that she should have isn't there.

No one is ever going to tell Solo what to do, and that is fine because she should be her own person, but now she can become an even better athlete and person. Dancing can be a very strenuous activity, but it is also very soothing to the soul.

Solo does not have to completely change—she is still one of the best goalies in the world—but a little tweak here and there will make her even more dangerous when she is protecting the net.