The relationship between Hope Solo and U.S. Soccer has been a notoriously public roller-coaster — but even she couldn’t believe how the ride came to an end.
Things started to come to a head following the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, where Solo’s stellar goaltending performance helped guide Team USA to victory. However, once she returned home to Seattle, Solo was met with a rude awakening.
“I was trying to get a home loan,” Solo recalled in the Netflix documentary Hope Solo vs. U.S. Soccer, available to stream now. “I had to get my employer’s contract to prove how much money I make with the [United States Soccer] Federation. That’s when I found out I did not have a working contract.”
After attempting to get answers on her own, Solo said she was told, “You’re asking questions that are beyond your pay grade.”
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“We got f–ked by U.S. Soccer,” Solo explained. “We had no health insurance, we had no 401(k), we had no pregnancy leave.”
In 2016, with the help of attorney Rich Nichols, Solo “convinced” teammates Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd and Becky Sauerbrunn to sue the U.S. Soccer Federation for wage discrimination, citing the pay inequity between the successful women’s team and the fledgling men’s team.
However, things all came crashing down following the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
After Team USA was defeated by Sweden 5-4 in a penalty shootout, eliminating Team USA from the Summer Games, Solo called Team Sweden “a bunch of cowards” in her postgame media availability. Days later, U.S. Soccer suspended Solo and terminated her contract citing “conduct that is counter to the organization’s principles.”
“I was fired, completely fired,” Solo recounted to Netflix cameras. “You’re stripping somebody’s dreams, money, awards. I lost contracts. They stripped me of so much.”
Even worse, Solo said, the teammates that once had her back were allegedly nowhere to be found. “All I could think about is these are cowards,” Solo said.
After Solo’s suspension, she was more motivated than ever to move forward with the equal pay lawsuit.
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“I reached out to my teammates and said, ‘I’m finally going to file in federal court against U.S. Soccer for violation of the Equal Pay Act and Title VII,’” Solo remembered. (Title VII protects employees and job applicants from employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.)
Solo said she received “no response” from her former teammates.
In 2018, Solo filed the lawsuit individually without the backing of Morgan, Rapinoe, Lloyd and Sauerbrunn.
“We were making headway and then guess what?” Solo said. “The other players filed their own class action lawsuit.”
In 2022, members of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team — led by Rapinoe, Morgan and others — settled an equal pay lawsuit against the Federation for $24 million.
According to Solo, the settlement was all smoke and mirrors. “It was celebrated like this hero moment in time where there’s finally equal pay,” she said.
“They did not get equal pay,” attorney Nichols explained in the documentary. “The world thinks they settled for equal pay. No, what they got was $24 million to settle the litigation and a pledge from U. S. Soccer that if certain conditions are satisfied in the future, we’ll agree to equal pay.”
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Solo pushed back on the moment wholeheartedly. “We weren’t in it for a settlement,” she argued. “We were in it to change the landscape for women across the country for the rest of time. For the rest of history. We failed. We failed. Yes, we made improvements. But that’s not what we set out to do.”
Solo concluded, “I think they took the easy way out.”
According to the documentary, Solo’s lawsuit against U.S. Soccer is likely to be dismissed following her former teammates’ settlement.
UNTOLD: Hope Solo vs. U.S. Soccer is available to stream now on Netflix.
