Told of Solo’s comments in her postgame news conference, Sundhage retorted: “It is okay to be a coward if you win”.
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Their determination paid off just after the hour mark. And with the next kick, Lisa Dahlkvist beat an outstretched Solo for the win.
Tied after three rounds in the shootout of Friday’s match, Sweden captain Caroline Seger shot past Solo.
A snatch-and-grab goal but exactly the situation that Sundhage was trying to create. “We would not stop them expressing their opinion within boundaries”.
With 12 minutes to go, the Americans’ pressure finally paid off when Morgan managed to snatch an equaliser. A moment later, Lindahl made a soaring save on Heath’s threat. Alex Morgan netted the equalizer in the 78th and the match went to extra time. It was the first time that an Olympic women’s match had gone to penalties.
She had been the target of derision from Brazilian fans since the Olympics had begun, and now she needed to rescue her teammates, who had quickly fallen behind in a penalty shootout against Sweden in a quarterfinal match in Brasília.
If you think Solo’s criticism of Sundhage comes out of nowhere, Sundhage had some thoughts of her own past year about her former goalkeeper.
Sweden celebrate their shoot-out victory.
The United States women’s soccer team was eliminated by Sweden in a penalty shootout in the quarterfinals Friday, a startling loss for the four-time Olympic champions.
Said Sweden coach Pia Sundhage, who once coached Solo when she was in charge of the US national team: “It’s OK to be a coward if you win”.
“We played a bunch of cowards”, Solo told Sports Illustrated.
Tournament favorites usually don’t win – even big ones like the USA women’s soccer team. I strongly believe that.
“I think we showed a lot of heart”. You saw us give everything we had [Friday]. “They didn’t want to pass the ball. They didn’t want to open play”, Solo said. They didn’t want to open the game. It was a combative game, a physical game.
“They executed (a) game plan very well”, Ellis said.
This is a debate that runs and runs whenever a team manages to beat a favourite while not playing free-flowing football.
“I’m always nervous about commenting on reports of reports, but if those were the comments, then it is disappointing”, Adams added. It worked, you have to commend the Swedes for executing it perfectly, and it comes across as nothing but sour grapes from the controversial goalkeeper.
The loss was a bitter pill for the USA team, which had won the last three Olympic titles and is the current Women’s World Cup champion, but Solo’s remarks earned her a torrent of criticism.
She later conceded on Twitter that “losing sucks”. The old cliche-“if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all”-would have worked perfectly in this situation”.
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Solo did not take the loss well, calling the Swedes “a bunch of cowards” because they dropped back, clogged the midfield and played a defensive style. The last time the teams met in the Olympics was at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
