While I will admit I have not really cared much for the women’s world cup.  I have turned it on in the morning, and watched as much as I could.  While I might not follow the women’s team nearly as much as the men’s team, I do root for them and hope we win each game we play.  And winning games can be much more difficult when the coach steals the spotlight like he did the last two days with his questionable decision.

For those of you who don’t follow women’s soccer and I know there are many of you, here is what happened.  Two days ago Greg Ryan, who is the women’s national team coached announced that he would be starting Brianna Scurry in goal over Hope Solo.  Hope Solo had started every game since June, including all three group games, and their quarterfinal against England in Europe.  Hope Solo had two goals scored on her in the North Korean game, but since that game had a shutout streak of almost 300 minutes.  Of the first two goals scored on her, she did allow one to slip through her fingers, however it was wet that day, and that did play a part.

Greg Ryan said he was starting Scurry because of the way she played against Brazil in June, and probably also because of her play in the 2004 Olympics against Brazil.

Brianna Scurry is by no means an amateur, and would be a starter on most national teams, but the timing of the decision is very debatable, and I would rank it as one of the worst coaching decisions I have ever seen, and if it wasn’t for Greg Ryan’s unbeaten streak of 51 games is his saving grace.  But there are other examples of coaches who had good records who got fired, because they could take their team to the next level.  Grady Little got fired from the Boston Red Sox, because he kept Pedro Martinez in the game against the Yankees in game 7 of the ALCS.  In which the Yankees won in large part because of a tired Pedro on the mound.   Marty Schottenheimer last year was fired by the Chargers, despite having a record of 14-2 in the regular season, but was out coached in the playoffs.  And last Tony Dungy was let go by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, because they didn’t think he could get them to the next level, and he eventually went on to win last years super bowl with the Colts.

While I don’t think putting Brianna Scurry lost the game for the US national team, the red card, and Brazil just outplaying USA were the main reasons.  I feel the decision distracted enough to give any edge the US might have had, and tipped in Brazil’s favor, and time will tell if Greg Ryan will learn from that mistake.