They simply folded

The U.S. women's soccer team has been the leader of promoting women's athletics on the national and international levels for a decade now.
Until now.

Today, they're an embarrassment and have a lot work to do to regain respect.
The embarrassment was caused by the decision to shun Hope Solo by of a bunch of thin-skinned players who acted like little girls with hurt feelings instead of real athletes.
Solo might not have shown herself to be the best teammate, but the rest of the team didn't show any more class.
The team could have rallied around each other in spite of Ryan's decision and in spite of Solo's comments. They didn't. They simply folded.