Germany beats Sweden, China ousts Cameroon
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Germany provided a dominating reminder of why it is deserving of its favorite tag at the Women's World Cup by beating Sweden 4-1 on Saturday to progress to the quarterfinals.
In the day's other game, China scored early and hung on for a 1-0 win against Cameroon.
Celia Sasic scored twice, and Anja Mittag added a goal for the Germans in the round-of-16 game.
Now the two-time World Cup champions will travel to Montreal, where they will face the winner of Sunday's match between France and South Korea.
Disappointing as the finish was for Sweden, which ended the tournament without a victory, coach Pia Sundhage acknowledged it was going to take a near-perfect effort to beat Germany.
"Germany is a very good team, and they deserve to advance," Sundhage said. "We fought and we tried, but it was not good enough."
Mittag opened the scoring in the 24th minute, and then Sasic scored the next two — including a penalty — in staking Germany to a 3-0 lead by the 78th minute.
The Swedes finally countered with Linda Sembrant scoring a header off Therese Sjogran's free kick in the 82nd minute. Sweden nearly cut the margin to 3-2 a minute later, when Sofia Jakobsson broke in alone. However, Jakobsson was stopped by goalie Nadine Angerer, who came off her line to cut the angle.
Dzsenifer Marozsan then sealed the win by scoring in the 88th minute.
Sweden had the misfortune of opening the tournament in the so-called Group of Death, alongside the United States, Australia and Nigeria. After three ties and a third-place finish, the Swedes then had to play in their third time zone in two weeks, and face Germany on three days' rest.
Aware of how tired the Swedes might be, Neid said the plan was to apply the pressure from the opening minute.
"We couldn't go into this match in a let's-wait-and-see-what-happens attitude," coach Silvia Neid said. "We wanted to deny them the feeling that it would be simple to play against Germany."
Mittag put Germany on the board as she combined with Sasia and fired in a shot from outside the area that went in off the post.
Mittag enjoys the chemistry she and Sasic have developed, with the two sharing the World Cup scoring lead with five goals each.
"We know how to play together. She likes to go deep. I like to be close to the back line," Mittag said. "It's just good for both of us."
Mittag drew the penalty that led to Sasic's goal in the 38th minute, as she was tripped by Amanda Ilestedt, and Sasic sent the goalkeeper the wrong way from the spot to make it 2-0.
The Germans have won 12 of the past 14 meetings since defeating Sweden 2-1 in the 2003 World Cup final.
China's Wang Shanshan scored early to secure victory over Cameroon.
China, which will play the winner of Monday's game between the United States and Colombia, won despite coach Hao Wei serving a touchline suspension after he was sent off from the team's final group stage match against New Zealand.
Cameroon, No. 53, was the lowest ranked of the 16 teams that advanced to the elimination round. Many players remained on the field sobbing after the final whistle.
Wang Shanshan scored in the 12th minute, taking a feed from Li Donga off a corner kick and popping the ball past Cameroon goalkeeper Annette Ngo Ndom.
Wang Lisi, who came into the match with a team-leading two goals in Canada, charged in on goalkeeper Ngo Ndom in the 50th minute, but stumbled and her kick went wide.
Ngo Ndom came far out of the goal in the 60th minute and it almost cost her when Wang Shanshan's shot got past her, but the ball rolled just wide.
Cameroon pressured in the final minutes. Gaelle Enganamount looked to challenge China goalkeeper Fei Wang, but couldn't connect. Sub Henriette Akaba's header in the 87th minute sailed off the mark.
There was a scary moment in stoppage time when Han Peng collided with a Cameroon player and the two knocked heads. The collision caused a cut on Han's head, which trainers taped before leading her from the field. She returned to play the final few moments.