Sweden Ends U.S. Girls’s World Cup Reign with 5-4 Victory on Penalty Kick

Sweden beat america 5-4 on a penalty kick Sunday to sentence the defending champions to their earliest Girls’s World Cup exit after the groups had been tied on the finish of additional time.

Lina Hurtig struck the profitable spot-kick at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium to cap a madcap shootout within the spherical of 16 conflict, although U.S. goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher parried the ball on the road and the end result wanted to be confirmed by evaluate of video.

Sweden heads right into a quarter-final towards Japan in Auckland on Friday nevertheless it was the primary exit earlier than the semi-finals in 9 World Cups for the Individuals, who had been bidding for an unprecedented third consecutive title.

Gloomy U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski was not satisfied Hurtig’s spot-kick had crossed the road

“It’s a troublesome second, a second the place it’s laborious to undergo,” he instructed a press convention.

“You have got hopes that the ball didn’t cross the road.

“That simply exhibits how merciless this recreation could be.”

Sweden’s Magda Eriksson stated her workforce had proven coronary heart if not their finest recreation, having been dominated for a lot of the match.

“We’re so glad proper now,” she stated in a radio interview.

“I don’t understand how we managed to remain on this recreation.

“We didn’t play our greatest recreation, however not directly we confirmed we’re hard-headed, we confirmed coronary heart, we by no means surrender. We took it to further time, we took it to penalties and we managed to win.”

Younger U.S. ahead Sophia Smith was left shattered, having had an opportunity to win the match for the four-times champions when she stepped up within the penalty shootout solely to blast the ball over the bar.

She was not the primary participant in her workforce to overlook.

The talismanic Megan Rapinoe, famend for her peerless file in shootouts, thumped the U.S.’s fourth kick over the bar after Sweden’s Nathalie Bjorn additionally fired excessive.

9 Months

Andonovski stated the U.S. had been practising penalties for the final 9 months.

“I do know we had been criticised for the way in which we performed … I believe we got here out at the moment and had been all in regards to the grit, the resilience,” he stated.

Goalkeeper Zecira Musovic was Sweden’s hero, having made 11 saves earlier than the shootout to maintain them within the match.

Usually starved of possession, the Swedes didn’t have a shot on objective till the eighty fifth minute when substitute Sofia Jakobsson danced into the realm, solely to shoot straight at Naeher.

Naeher saved Rebecka Blomqvist’s fourth shot for the Swedes within the shootout however Smith’s miss saved the Scandinavians in it.

After Naeher and Magdalena Eriksson transformed their spot-kicks, Kelley Ohara despatched her effort pinging off the proper publish, permitting Hurtig to step up and ship the champions out of the match.

The U.S. will surprise how the match needed to go to a shootout, having dominated the play and unleashed 21 pictures, together with 11 heading in the right direction.

Trinity Rodman proved a menace down the proper wing early, testing the Swedish keeper twice within the first half-hour.

Lindsey Horan thumped a header towards the bar and Musovic denied her once more with a low dive when the U.S. skipper fired a deflected cross on the far publish.

Musovic produced one other fantastic save to cease an Alex Morgan header and see the Swedes into further time, then foiled a Lynn Williams shot within the first interval.

Rapinoe got here on to switch Morgan in further time however couldn’t conjure the magic that helped the U.S. to back-to-back World Cup triumphs in Canada in 2015 and France 4 years in the past.