Victory takes US to the ‘next level’ Dominating Sweden gives Americans momentum
LE HAVRE, France — The United States faced its toughest test of the Women’s World Cup, and the defending champions were again dominant Thursday night, beating Sweden 2-0 to serve up revenge against the fierce rivals that stunned the Americans in the last Olympics.
Lindsey Horan scored within the first three minutes, the fastest goal of this tournament. The United States went up 2-0 on an own goal off Jonna Andersson in the 50th minute that gave the Americans a tournament-record 18 goals in the group stage. The U.S. did not concede a goal in group play for the first time.
“We needed this next level and responded to that. That’s the ignition needed,” U.S. coach Jill Ellis said.
Already assured a spot in the round of 16 before the game, the United States finished atop its group and will head to Reims to face Spain on Monday. Sweden will play Canada in Paris.
The meeting was the first tournament game between the teams since the quarterfinals of the 2016 Olympics.
“We’ve been part of some very big games against them, and we haven’t beaten them in a major tournament in a while. So it feels good that we can go into this tournament and we can play well against a quality side and get a result,” defender Becky Sauerbrunn said.
Ellis made seven lineup changes for the game against Chile but for Sweden she went back to a lineup similar to the one she used in the opener. Lloyd, who played every minute of the 2015 World Cup and scored three goals in a 5-2 victory over Japan in the title match, came in off the bench to start the second half.
She replaced Alex Morgan, who was involved in a couple of collisions in the first half and at one point held her right knee.
A hip contusion kept defensive midfielder Julie Ertz out of the game after she started in the first two.
“Alex took a knock in the first half and it was just, ‘Let’s be smart about this.’ Similar vein to Julie. It is a zero risk game in terms of having players available for the next we we
round,” Ellis said.
The victory gives the top-ranked United States a potentially more challenging path to the final. If the team can get by Spain, that could set up a quarterfinal clash against No. 4 France in front of its home fans in Paris, and then a possible meeting with No. 3 England in the semifinals.
The U.S. was on the attack from the start and went ahead early when Horan scored off a corner kick.
Tobin Heath dribbled in front of Andersson then blasted an angled shot in the 50th minute from eight yards out that went over goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl at the near post. The goal was reviewed by VAR after it appeared Lloyd was offside. It was later determined to have come off Andersson for an own goal.