About the only doubt that concerns the USA women heading into its Concacaf Olympic qualifying semifinal against Costa Rica Friday is whether a quadriceps injury might sideline starting keeperHope Solo. She trained lightly on Wednesday and stepped up her workload in the last pre-match session Thursday.
“We have to make a decision whether she is 100 percent to goor not,” said Coach Pia Sundhage. “And if she isn’t, we have a tremendous backup goalkeeper.”
A decision to insert backup goalie Nicole Barnhart may not matter against theTicas, who have been beaten by the Americans in all of their meetings with combined scorelines of 34-0.
Solo’s participation on the television program “Dancing with the Stars” limited heravailability to the national team following last summer’s Women’s World Cup, and she had been bothered by her quad during a pre-Christmas training camp. She aggravated the injury Monday in the finalgroup game against Mexico, a 4-0 victory in which she didn’t have to make a save. “I’m trying to get my quickness back, and my sharpness back, and my kicking back, so I’ve been focusing a lot on mykicking,” she said. “And I think it just fatigued and it pulled a little bit.” The winners of the USA-Costa Rica (8 pm ET on Universal Sports Network) andCanada-Mexico semifinals earn the two Concacaf Olympic berths.