The match finished 1-1 after extra time, which sent the game to penalties.
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Sweden inflicted America’s first defeat in 15 games at the Olympics.
“But I also think we played a bunch of cowards”.
USA soccer fans have taken to social media to condemn Solo’s comments, calling her “sore loser” and “very disappointing”. I thought we had many opportunities on goal. Nevertheless, I am so proud of the way we played tonight, our fight, our heart, and the skill we showed.
Solo’s gripe was that Sweden – under the guidance of Pia Sundhage, who had coached the USA team through the 2012 Olympics – had sat back for much of the game, content to let the Americans push the action.
On the other hand, coach Sundhage might know the American women’s soccer team better than anyone except current coach Jill Ellis, led the USA squad to Olympics Games victory in 2008 and 2012 before she returned to her homeland.
“I’m going to Rio, and she’s going home”.
“We would just call for people to treat their opponents with the sort of sportsmanship we expect at the Olympic Games”. “I’m going to Rio”. “I think it’s something that happens automatically, you get really inspired and focused. But they won, they are moving on and we’re going home”.
Sundhage, who is Swedish, coached the USA from 2008 until 2012, when she became coach for Sweden.
There was across the board feedback of Solo on online networking tailing her remarks.
The locals did not find her posts amusing and heckled her with chants of “Zika!”. But it is Sweden that will play either Australia or host Brazil in the semifinals. Solo called for time, waved to the referee, peeled off her gloves and asked an assistant coach for another pair. While that outcome was unexpected, head coach Jill Ellis gambled at these Olympics by taking several younger, first-time Olympians over proven Olympians to try to get them experience before the 2019 World Cup in France.
Asked to clarify, she said: “Sweden dropped off”. It was not to be.
Solo lets one through in Friday’s penalty shootout. She was at the center of a domestic violence case when she allegedly attacked her half-sister and her teenage nephew in a drunken rage back in 2014. Rather than play the ball over the ground, creating overloads on the flanks and cutting the ball back to their many attacking weapons, they offered the Swedes the kind of attack the tall and sturdy women were best equipped to defend. It was a combative game. Exactly what their game plan was.
Because in truth, the Americans played right into Sweden’s strengths.
“The best team did not win today”, she added. “Well, usually – especially with the Americans – a good team is when they’re winning”.
When confronted with Solo’s comments, Sundhage wasted little time on them. That’s the best team in the world. But for once they didn’t go the whole way through.
The result spared Marta’s blushes after the five-time World Player of the Year saw her penalty saved. “Passions run very high, people say things they then regret”, International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said. “And the fact that there were only two goals and it went to penalty kicks said something about our defending”. A game is won by playing better and making winning plays.
“It’s OK to be a coward if you win”.
After a scoreless first half, Stina Blackstenius scored in the 61st minute to give Sweden a 1-0 lead. First was star Alex Morgan, whose opening attempt was stopped by Swedish goaltender Hedvig Lindahl.
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United States goalkeeper Hope Solo fails to stop a penalty during a penalty shoot-out. Things don’t generally go the way you need them to. It was the Americans’ to play blithely into the trap that had obviously been set for them.
