After Sweden

Sweden needed the win more than we did and after a hard-fought scoreless draw Friday night, probably needs a win against Australia Tuesday to advance.  The United States, meanwhile, is in a good position with four points, although if we lost to Nigeria and Australia beat Sweden, Australia would win the group with six points.  The U.S and Nigeria would be tied but the second place spot would probably go the the Americans on goal differential.

There are six groups of four and the top two in each group go through, as will four of the six third place teams.  In other words, after two weeks of play, only eight of 24 teams will be eliminated.

Back to the Sweden match: the New York Times story is here.  Both teams had chances and both were victimized by a bad call.  Somehow the officials missed Nilla Fischer's mugging of a U.S player in the box but they later missed a hand ball by Sydney Leroux in the box.  Swedish keeper Hedwig Lindahl, who was properly named player of the match, came up big a number of times, including on a hard shot by Carli Lloyd which was a great chance.


The American defense of Meghan Klingenberg, Becky Saerbrunn and Julie Johnston played well and it was Klingenberg who saved the game in the 77th minute.  Caroline Seger was open about 10 yards out to the left and looped a ball towards the upper right corner, past keeper Hope Solo, only to see Klingenberg, the shortest player on the field, head it off the line into the underside of the cross bar and out, where it was cleared.  The goalline cameras showed the ball had not crossed the line.

Off the field the Hope Solo story will not go away.  After recent reports that she was really the aggressor in a domestic violence incident last year (the charges were dismissed on procedural grounds, which the prosecutor appealed), a United States senator called for Solo to be kicked off the team, the president of U.S. Soccer defended her and her roommate, Lloyd, was asked about it after the Sweden match.  She replied,"Hope Solo news, that's so old news. Hope is my roommate, and we don't even talk about it. It's all old news, we just laugh about it."  The laughing about it comment caused some to criticize Lloyd because obviously domestic violence is no laughing matter. 

In an interview with Philly.com's Jonathan Tannenwald, Lloyd explained her remarks: ""Obviously, it wasn't the best choice of words," she said. "The laughing bit of it was the fact that, you know, we're a couple games deep into the World Cup, and the team is solely focused on the World Cup, the games, and the preparation. The fact that we're still being asked these questions about Hope's case is kind of tough."

 Back on the field, today was a rest day.  The final games of the first stage begin tomorrow.  Thus far, only Japan and Brazil have won both of their first two matches.