Sweden has never won an Olympic women’s soccer medal.
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At 3-3, Sweden goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl stopped Andressa’s shot before Lisa Dahlkvist beat Barbara to end it, stunning the packed home crowd at the Maracana Stadium.
Neid expects that the match on Saturday will be bittersweet.
The two met in the hallway at Maracana on Thursday before meeting with reporters.
Marta, who was cheered every time she touched the ball, said: “This loss won’t take away from all that we have done to get here. Simple answer”, Dahlkvist said, laughing while describing how she tuned out the din at the almost full stadium. The Americans, knocked out in the Rio quarterfinals by Sweden, would go on to the final that year.
They would pick up another draw, setting up a round-of-16 fixture against Friday’s opponents, Germany.
When she finally rose, she and Sweden coach Pia Sundhage shared a warm embrace. She’s been very, very successful.
Sweden’s hero Lindahl described the baking sun in Salvador during the Scandinavians’ shock quarter-final win over three-time defending gold medallists the United States on penalties as “her enemy”. They wanted to see us playing in the final here in Brazil. In 2016, both the men and women’s teams have a chance to do something no country has ever done, win double gold. Although fully capable of the piercingly skeptical stoicism one might ascribe a German technician in such settings, coach Silvia Neid was as relaxed and jovial as her old foe and friend from Sweden.
Sundhage has had an equally illustrious career. “Through the whole 120 minutes we did try our best, we tried everything, that’s why it is so frustrating”, Brazil’s head coach Vadao said.
“‘They praised our team and said they were sorry for taking Brazil out of the final”. They failed to score, but for the second match in a row, ended up in a penalty shootout.
The results:Sweden 0 draw with Brazil 0, win 4-3 on penalties. However, since a slow start in group play, Germany has earned two clean sheets in the knockout stage to advance to the gold medal match. Outspoken USA goalkeeper Hope Solo blasted Sweden as “cowards” after their first Olympic defeat in 15 games stretching back eight years.
Germany is the second ranked team in the world, but for much of the tournament the team did not look like one of the world’s best. We’ve seen that more clearly than ever in these Olympics, when Sundhage has transformed her Swedish team into a bus-parking, counter-attacking team that has pulled two upsets in the knockout rounds against the USA and Brazil despite being outshot by a combined 60 to 12 in those games. Behringer’s right foot can break through most things, but if she isn’t on song then it’ll could be hard. Either way, what the golden duo have transformed with what has been a time of huge change; from tactics to everything else, they both deserve an incredible amount of praise. But I can dance.
The Swedes paid tribute to her, with coach Pia Sundhage saying: “I think she had a fantastic game and created problems for us”.
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You are reading news and information on LongIsland.com, Long Island’s Most Popular Website, Since 1996. “That’s a compliment to her”, Solo told The Associated Press during the Olympics. AP material published by LongIsland.com, is done so with explicit permission. This includes the preparation of derivative works of, or the incorporation of such content into other works.
