Hope Solo's road back to World Cup redemption

DRESDEN, Germany (AFP) - When her side take on Brazil in the women's World Cup quarter-finals, USA goalkeeper Hope Solo will have come full circle since her costly outburst four years ago in China left her blackballed by her teammates.

At Germany 2011, the USA finished Group C as runners-up after last week's 2-1 defeat to Sweden, while the south Americans won all their games in Group D to set up the quarter-final, except this time Solo will be in goal for the US.
In the semi-final of the 2007 World Cup, she was dropped by coach Greg Ryan when her team met Brazil and with veteran Briana Scurry between the posts, the Stars and Stripes were hammered 4-0.
After the match, Solo let her frustrations get the better of her, criticising Ryan and deriding Scurry's performance.
Her harsh words left her ostracised from the squad and the shot-stopper for Florida-based MagicJack admits she learned a few lessons the hard way.
The squad refused to train with her before their third-place play-off and she flew home alone.
"2007 broke my heart," says the goalkeeper. "My confidence was on the floor. Thirty people wouldn't talk to me or even look at me. It was as if I had a contagious disease."
There were mitigating circumstances in Solo's defence: her father Jeffrey, a Vietnam veteran, died shortly before the tournament and she scattered some of his ashes in her goal at every match.
"The only one who really knew me was my father," she said. "He saw every one of my college games, in rain or snow, whatever the weather, he travelled miles, just to see me.
"He did everything for me what he could. From him I learned so much."
After her father's death and her World Cup outburst, Solo struggled emotionally.
"She was in a depressive mood for a long time," recalls her mother Judy. "It took a while before she felt better again."
Ryan left in December 2007 and the arrival of Sweden's Pia Sundhage as coach in 2008 saw Solo brought back into the national squad, but the relationship with her team-mates remained strained.
It took a dramatic save from Solo at the final of the Beijing Olympics against Brazil to help seal a 1-0 victory and bring her back into the team fold.
But then a shoulder injury threatened her career and she went under the knife in 2010.
The rehabilitation took nine months, she still has 11 screws in the shoulder and still gives her pain at night.
"It was one of the worst shoulder injuries I have seen in an athlete," said her physiotherapist Bruce Snell.
But the pain will all be forgotten if the two-time winners USA see off Brazil to book their place in the last four against France in Moenchengladbach next Wednesday.