Even though the opening ceremonies for the 2016 Olympics won't go down until Friday, a few events have already started, because fitting everything into the two-and-a-half week duration of the games would be logistically impossible/f***ing bonkers.
And because of the weird format, nobody would blame you if you were unaware that the U.S. women's soccer team played their first contest on Wednesday, in which they beat New Zealand 2-0.
In the game, New Zealand only managed four shots because, well, have you never seen a soccer game before? Out of those four shots only one was on goal. That, as you may have guessed from the score, was stopped by U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo. When Solo picked up the ball she was booed/jeered/greeted with a loud chant of "Zika!" by the Brazilian fans who were apparently unhappy with a pair of tweets the goalie had sent out in July:
Now in case you, unlike yesterday's fans, have better things to do with your life than keep up with every joke athletes crack on Twitter, here are the pair of tweets that prompted the reaction(s):
In addition to those fairly innocuous social media stunts, she also said in February that she wouldn't go to Brazil due to fears of the Zika virus, though, she obviously changed her mind since then.
After the game, Solo didn't really seem to care about the fans' taunts:
She also added "The Brazilians—they love soccer—it’s part of their culture, so I expect it. They’re having fun. At least it’s loud in the stadium. I’d rather have that than hear a needle drop."
SMH, time to go back to the drawing board. Fans will have until Saturday afternoon (when the USWNT plays France) to come up with something new.
To learn more about Hope Solo and other Olympic hopefuls, visit Teamusa.org. The Olympics begin Aug. 5 on NBC.
