I will side with Solo slightly here because the media neglects that the feud was with former coach Pia Sundheim. Sundheim has thrown Solo and other US players under the bus before.
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/06/pia-...-piece-of-work
So when it was Pia's team that knocked out he US in the Olympic Quarterfinal. I think it's natural for Solo to call Pia a coward.
For US soccer it's all for image. US Women's Soccer has to be perfect to get attention, Olympic Golds and World Cup Golds. Anything less is failure.
To not medal and have Solo comments all over the media, US Soccer is scared.
So it's an easy bandaid solution to slowly phase her out.