Full Time: USWNT faces Sweden…again

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I’m currently typing this from the Melbourne Fan Zone and watching what I can only describe as the hip-hop Wiggles. I’m Emily Olsen, here with Meg Linehan and Steph Yang — welcome to Full Time!

“It wouldn’t be a major tournament if we weren’t facing Sweden,” U.S. captain Lindsey Horan said at a media availability on Thursday.

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It’s true. This will be the seventh time the U.S. and Sweden will meet at a women’s World Cup, the most-played matchup in the tournament’s history. The U.S. has a 4-1-1 record in the previous games.

In total, it will be the 10th time these two teams have faced off between the World Cup and Olympics, but just the second time they’ve met in the knockout rounds (the U.S. faced Sweden in the 2016 Olympic quarterfinal, with Sweden advancing on penalties). The U.S. will look to erase the ugly memory of the sides’ most recent major tournament meeting: a 3-0 loss to Sweden, which opened the USWNT’s subpar 2020 bronze medal Olympic journey.

Sweden players said they were excited, not afraid, of a matchup against the No. 1 ranked team in the world, especially since the U.S. dropped points to Netherlands and Portugal in the group stage.

I mean, the reason I’m sitting here eating fries in a fan zone in Melbourne and not Sydney is because the U.S. failed to top the group (don’t get me wrong, I’m not mad about it).

“There’s no sugarcoating it, we had a bad game against Portugal, we have moved on from that and are looking forward to this match,” U.S. forward Alex Morgan said. “We’ve prepared every second we possibly could between the end of that match and the start of tomorrow, on creating more chances, on