The United States played its best game of this Women's World Cup and it wasn't good enough to stop the two-time reigning champions from being eliminated in the round of 16.
The Americans' bid to win an unprecedented third consecutive title ended Sunday on penalty kicks. Megan Rapinoe, Sophia Smith and Kelly O'Hara missed with kicks from the penalty spot before Lina Hurtig converted to clinch the shootout 5-4 as Sweden knocked the United States out of the World Cup after a scoreless draw in regulation and extra time.It is the earliest exit in tournament history for the United States, four-time winners of the World Cup.
"We just lost the World Cup by a millimeter. That's tough," said Naeher, who successfully converted her own penalty kick."I am proud of the fight of the team. We knew we hadn't done our best in the group stage and we wanted a complete team performance and the team came out and played great." The loss was somewhat expected based on the Americans' listless play through three group-stage matches. But they played their best game of this World Cup against Sweden, only to have it decided by penalties.
Sweden has never won a major global tournament, either the World Cup or the Olympics. The closest the team has come is World Cup runner-up in 2003. They placed third in the 1999, 2011 and 2019 editions, and won silver medals in the last two Olympics. "Just devastated. It feels like a bad dream," captain Alex Morgan said."The team put everything out there tonight. I feel like we dominated, but it doesn't matter. We're going home and it's the highs and lows of the sport of soccer. So, yeah, it doesn't feel great."
Sweden won all three of their group games, including a 5-0 rout of Italy in its final group match. Coach Peter Gerhardsson made nine lineup changes for the match, resting his starters in anticipation of the United States.
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