Poulin among those not pleased with Solo's outburst

I admit I didn't get up to watch every minute of every Women's World Cup game that involved the U.S.

But I also admit that I tried, and certainly caught the extended highlights on the official Web site after the matches were over and the sun was up.

But neither bleary eyes nor darkness masked the team's 4-0 defeat to Brazil in the semifinals.

As I often do, I passed around links to post-match stories to some of my soccer friends. Also as usual, I get replies from various sources. Some always comment, others chime in only when they are really passionate about something.

Anne Poulin is one of the latter, and she was certainly passionate. And as she played a season for Nottingham Forest's women's team in England, I take her e-mailed pretty seriously.

What then, of U.S. coach Greg Ryan's decision to switch goalkeepers in mid-stream? Not a big deal to Poulin.

"They have trained with both keepers in residency camp for the last two years," Poulin said. "So Bri (Scurry) got beat on her near post. (Hope) Solo let one slip through her hands. Let's hold the other 10 players in front of the GKs accountable. I remember Marta making our backs look like toddlers."

But to the topic of Solo's comments following the match -- Poulin was less forgiving.

"I would be getting ripped by my Forest teammates if I were there now," Poulin said. "I would be absolutely embarrassed to be an American footballer after that, female or not."

Poulin's point, and it's well-taken, is that we don't yet operate our women's soccer game the way most of the world does. And so something like getting dropped for a big match becomes bigger than ever -- and it would certainly always be big for a team to change goalies at the semifinal stage of a tournament.

But I take you back one calendar year, to the 2006 men's World Cup in Germany and the hosts' decision to go with Jens Lehmann instead of Oliver Kahn. The non-starting Kahn often looked like a month of rain on the bench. But when it came time to speak, he said all the right things, and gave Lehmann a very public hug prior to the quarterfinal penalty kick shootout -- in which Lehmann made 2 saves and the Germans ousted favored Argentina.

So I called Poulin, who is now club coaching in the Chicago suburbs, awaiting the start of the St. Charles North season -- where she will do a little head coaching this spring with her sister Ruth Vostal expecting twins to be born sometime before the season starts.

Did she still feel the same way?

"I'm not a goalie, and I know that's a different position to midfield," Poulin said. "But I think you have to remember that the person replacing you has your same jersey on. It's not club soccer or even college. This is a world class stage and it's all about the team putting in the effort together."

Poulin tapped her experience in England -- and her experience watching the men's game from a very close vantage point for a season to see how such decisions can be handled and turned into positives.

"Players on our national team, almost all of them would like to play as a professional," Poulin said. "And people in the professional game sometimes get dropped down. I know it's hard. Your team's playing well and you have been playing and you want to keep playing. But our team is supposed to be full of world-class athletes and she's got a talented backup behind her."

A league setup in this country might help. More matches to play. More quotes to be given. There would also be more people with which to interact before the team heads to the big tournaments.

But we are still without a league structure here. The women's league that is to work in conjunction with MLS has been put back another year, to 2009.

For those who'd never heard of Hope Solo, that's because she played a season in Sweden and another in France in preparing for the World Cup. Our best have two options, compete as a mostly full-time player for the U.S. team or play overseas.

Poulin said she hopes to continue her career at a high level as soon as possible, and would like to do it in the U.S., if possible.

"It would have been nice to get the league going on the heels of the World Cup," Poulin said. "But I also understand that they want to get it right. And for me personally, it's not going to be that bad."