Hope Solo explains what led to the dispute with former US team teammates

The relationship between Hope Solo and US soccer is known for its crowd-pleasing ups and downs – but even she couldn't believe how the ride ended.

Things began to heat up after the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, where Solo's outstanding performance as a goalkeeper helped lead the U.S. team to victory. But when she returned to Seattle, Solo had a rude awakening.

“I was trying to get a home loan,” Solo recalls in the Netflix documentary Hope Solo vs US Soccernow available to stream. “I had to show my employer’s contract to prove how much money I was making with the [United States Soccer] Federation. That's where I found out that I didn't have an employment contract.”

When Solo tried to get answers herself, she was told, “You are asking questions that are above your pay grade.”

“We were screwed over by the U.S. Soccer Federation,” Solo explained. “We had no health insurance, we had no retirement plans, we had no maternity leave.”

In 2016, with the help of a lawyer Rich NicholsSolo “convinced” teammates Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Carly Lloyd And Becky Sauerbrunn to sue the US Soccer Federation for wage discrimination, citing the unequal pay of the successful women's team and the still young men's team as the reason.

However, after the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, everything collapsed.

After the U.S. national team lost to Sweden 5-4 on penalties and was eliminated from the Summer Olympics, Solo called the Swedish national team “a bunch of cowards” in her post-game press conference. A few days later, the U.S. Soccer Federation suspended Solo and terminated her contract, citing her violation of “the principles of the organization.”

“I was fired, completely fired,” Solo told Netflix's cameras. “You take away someone's dreams, their money, their accolades. I lost contracts. They took so much from me.”

Even worse, Solo said, the teammates who once supported her were reportedly nowhere to be found. “All I could think was that they were cowards,” Solo said.

After Solo's suspension, she was more motivated than ever to push forward with the equal pay lawsuit.

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“I turned to my teammates and said, 'I'm finally going to file a lawsuit against U.S. Soccer in federal court for violating the Equal Pay Act and Title VII,'” Solo recalled. (Title VII protects employees and applicants from workplace discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.)

Solo said she had received “no response” from her former teammates.

In 2018, Solo filed the lawsuit individually, without the support of Morgan, Rapinoe, Lloyd and Sauerbrunn.

“We were making progress, 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 – reached a $24 million settlement with the federation in an equal pay lawsuit.

According to Solo, the agreement was pure window dressing. “It was celebrated as a heroic moment of equal pay at last,” she said.

“They did not get equal pay,” attorney Nichols explained in the documentary. “The world thinks they agreed to equal pay. No, what they got was $24 million to settle the lawsuit and a promise from US Soccer that we will agree to equal pay in the future under certain conditions.”

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Solo strongly opposed that moment. “We weren't looking for a settlement,” she argued. “We wanted to change the situation for women across the country forever. For the rest of history. We failed. We failed. Yes, we made improvements. But that wasn't our goal.”

Solo concluded, “I think they took the easy way out.”

According to the documentary, Solo's lawsuit against US Soccer will likely be dismissed following the settlement reached by her former teammates.

UNTOLD: Hope Solo vs US Soccer is now available to stream on Netflix.