USWNT anticipate 'challenging' knockout match against Sweden

United States women’s national team veteran Alex Morgan expects a “challenging” last 16 match against Sweden on Sunday, given the opponent’s transitional moments and technical players. 

The upcoming knockout game stands as the sixth consecutive World Cup meeting between the two countries, with the American side boasting a 3W-1L-1D record to hold the edge. Though the Stars and Stripes know the opponent well, Morgan and  head coach Vlatko Andonovski insists the team cannot depend on previous results. 

"What's happened against Sweden in the past is in the past, we obviously take away a lot of things in terms of their playing style and how to break them down. But I don't think there's any feelings towards the games that we played in the past that we're bringing to this game," said Andonovski. 

Morgan added: "Every single tournament I believe we have faced Sweden since I've been on this team. So it's definitely nothing new. In friendlies, I probably faced them around 20 times. So, yes, we know them very well. We know Sweden is a physical team.

"They are a team that drives on set pieces. They are really good in their transitional moments. They have very technical players and are great with finding spaces and exploiting that. and they've always had a good mentality."

Sweden qualified to the round of 16 after topping Group G with three consecutive victories. The team scored nine goals throughout the group stage, with four coming from set pieces to inspire Andonovski to study their technique. 

"We did train set pieces a lot," the coach said. "We spent a lot of time analyzing and trying to counter that by defending that. We spent some time working on it in training as much as we could, obviously, not much time between the game, but also it's something that we worked on coming into the tournament because we knew that It  would be part of the tournament."

The USWNT enters the match after two disappointing ties against the Netherlands and Portugal, drawing heavy criticism and doubt. This is only the second time since 2011 that the American side qualifies to the knockouts without leading the group. 

But looking back at the first round performances, Morgan admits the team has analyzed mistakes and moved on to perform at a higher level. 

"We've broken down, you know, what went wrong, how we can fix that in possession, out of possession, how we can capitalize on the chances we have in front of goal, how we can create more chances in front of goal, how I can put away the chances that I'm given."

Should the USWNT triumph, the team would face Japan.

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