Rio 2016: Hope Solo brands Swedish women's soccer team 'a bunch of cowards'

The controversial American goalkeeper made the comments after her team suffered an unprecedented quarter-final defeat to the Swedes

Solo warms up before the US team's penalty shootout defeat in Brasilia ((Getty Images))

Hope Solo, the US women’s football team’s forthright goalkeeper, has branded her Swedish opponents “a bunch of cowards” after the Americans went down to a quarter-final defeat in a penalty shoot-out at the Olympics in Brazil.

“I thought that we played a courageous game,” Solo said following the surprise result. “I think we showed a lot of heart. We came back from a goal down. I’m very proud of this team. But I also think we played a bunch of cowards. The best team did not win today.”

This is the first time the US has failed to make it as far as the semi-finals of a major tournament. The Americans have won gold at almost every Games since women’s football became an Olympic sport in Atlanta in 1996 – the exception being Sydney 2000, where they took silver.

Responding to a question from Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl, Solo accused the Swedes of playing defensively, claiming: “They didn’t want to play great soccer.”

The 35-year-old singled out Swedish coach Pia Sundhage as being responsible for the team’s style of play.

Sundhage, who coached the US team to gold medals in 2008 and 2012, told the Swedish sports website Sportsbladet that she “[didn’t] give a crap” about Solo’s comments, adding: “I’m going to Rio, she’s going home.”

The goalkeeper’s apparent rant drew criticism on Twitter.

Solo is a divisive figure both at home and abroad. She angered Brazilians before the Olympics with some flippant tweets about the country’s Zika crisis.

In 2014 she was arrested and charged with domestic violence in an incident involving her half-sister and nephew, though the charges were later dismissed.

She has been suspended from the US team twice: once in 2007 for publicly criticising then-coach Greg Ryan, and again last year after she and her NFL player husband Jerramy Stevens took a joy ride in a team minibus during a training camp ahead of the World Cup.