The gang over at Why Homeschool have put together a fine edition of The Carnival of Homeschooling, Soccer Edition. Be sure to scroll through the many fine articles, tips and advise on offer.

I particularly like the 3 things they urge you to say to your player before and after matches, and I can say I've been saying approximate variations of those things for years.

But what this made me think of, strangely, is the sad saga of Hope Solo and the US women's national team. The story has nothing to do with Hope and everything to do with coach Greg Ryan in what can only be described as a massive coaching blunder. And I, for one, loved Hope's comments after the debacle against Brazil. Unfortunately, Hope's impetuous comments gave Ryan the cover he needed to survive another day, as criticism deflected from coach to player. You can thank (or blame) the media for that, as ever, but at least a couple of correspondents got it exactly right: Ryan alone owns this calamity, and scapegoating Hope won't change that.