By VictorM: The USA Women's soccer team has been a dominant force in the world, and entered the 2007 World Cup in China as one of the favorites. But on the semifinal match they were humiliated by a faster, more skillful Brazil team, losing to the colorful Brazilians by a score of 4-0, a score that is misleading; it could have been worse.

The big controversy before the game became much larger after the game. The US coach replaced Hope Solo, the regular goalkeeper, with Briana Scully, who had not played a game with the team in over three months. Would the US have beaten Brazil with Hope in goal? Of course not, but there's no doubt that a couple of goals were easy saves for Hope. No matter how you look at it, this was one of the biggest bonehead moves I've seen in the sport.

Should Greg Ryan, the USA coach, be fired? Yes! Not because he's a bad coach. In fact, his record with the USA is excellent. But this move justifies my belief that national team coaches should be replaced with certain frequency. The reason being that since they are not the ones dealing up close with new players, like club coaches do, they tend to revert back to the ones they are most familiar with. This was Bruce Arena's downfall when he selected the men's team for 2006, and the team proved too slow and too old for the task. And it was the case now with Ryan.

Hope Solo is the future of American goalkeeping. She should have played against Brazil. Ryan screwed up because he reverted to the old trusted player. But besides that, the midfield was slow and lacked creativity. Ryan has plenty of young talent to pick from but again, he stuck with the old-timers. Bonehead!

It's time to thank Greg Ryan for some excellent years, and to pick a new coach for the USA Women's National Team.