{"id":1311561,"date":"2019-06-18T19:24:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T01:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/us-wants-win-vs-swedes-even-if-it-would-mean-tougher-path\/"},"modified":"2019-06-18T19:24:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T01:24:00","slug":"us-wants-win-vs-swedes-even-if-it-would-mean-tougher-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/us-wants-win-vs-swedes-even-if-it-would-mean-tougher-path\/","title":{"rendered":"US wants win vs Swedes, even if it would mean tougher path"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
United States’ Carli Lloyd, center, celebrates with Lindsey Horan and Tierna Davidson, right, after scoring the opening goal during the Women’s World Cup Group F soccer match between the United States and Chile at the Parc des Princes in Paris, Sunday, June 16, 2019. (AP Photo\/Thibault Camus)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

LE HAVRE, France \u2014 Victory is the goal for the United States in its group stage finale against Sweden, even though a loss might give the Americans an easier path through the knockout rounds of the Women\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s in our team\u2019s DNA to want to win and do really well,\u201d defender Abby Dahlkemper said Tuesday, two days ahead of the Group F finale.<\/p>\n

The defending champion U.S. and Sweden both enter with two wins and have clinched berths in the round of 16. The top-ranked Americans have the better goal difference and with a win or draw would play Spain in the round of 16 and could face No. 4 France in a quarterfinal at Paris\u2019 Parc des Princes and No. 3 England in the semifinals.<\/p>\n

The team that finishes second in the group meets the Netherlands or Canada in the round of 16, then could have a quarterfinal against No. 2 Germany, which would not have the backing of a large home crowd the way host nation France does every match.<\/p>\n

U.S. coach Jill Ellis says she can\u2019t convince her players not to tackle in practice, so asking them to hold back against Sweden is a losing cause. Ellis thinks it is dangerous to try to tailor results based on possible matchups.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to win every game, so I think that\u2019s where we\u2019re at and that\u2019s what we want to do,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cI think if you get too much into manipulating or planning or overthinking something, I just don\u2019t think that that\u2019s a good message.\u201d<\/p>\n

The United States has played Sweden six times in the group stage at the World Cup, including a 0-0 draw four years ago in Canada.<\/p>\n

They met again in the quarterfinals at the 2016 Olympics, where the Swedes \u2014 led by former U.S. coach Pia Sundhage \u2014 bunkered in on defense and advanced on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw. It was the earliest exit for the Americans at an Olympics. U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo infamously called the Swedes \u201ccowards.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only meeting since then was a 1-0 U.S. win in a 2017 friendly at Goteborg.<\/p>\n

After the U.S. opened with a record-setting 13-0 rout of Thailand, Ellis changed seven starters in a 3-0 win over Chile.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to go far in the tournament, you\u2019ve got to have (fresh) legs,\u201d Ellis said, explaining her rotation.<\/p>\n

No. 9 Sweden started with a 2-0 victory over Chile and followed with a 5-1 win over Thailand.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a completely different match, and it will be very important for us, naturally,\u201d Sweden coach Peter Gerhardsson said. \u201cWhen you go into the second round we\u2019ll have more matches against teams like the U.S. rather than matches against the one with Chile. But we have to win the matches to get through it, it\u2019s all about how games develop and how players perform but it will be a different match and we will approach it differently tactically.\u201d<\/p>\n

No. 13 Spain made its World Cup debut four years ago and was eliminated in the group stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re both talented,\u201d La Rioja defender Celia Jimenez said. \u201cI think any team that qualifies for the World Cup, it\u2019s because they\u2019re good enough. The U.S. has a really powerful team, they play a direct game, they like to be dangerous, but at the same time I think Sweden is as well a really good team. They also tend to play direct, so they kind of are similar teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

United States’ Carli Lloyd, center, celebrates with Lindsey Horan and Tierna Davidson, right, after scoring the opening goal during the Women’s World Cup Group F soccer match between the United States and Chile at the Parc des Princes in Paris, Sunday, June 16, 2019. (AP Photo\/Thibault Camus)AP | AP LE HAVRE, France \u2014 Victory is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1311561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 07:25:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1311561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}