sweden 2 usa 1

and so, sweden pulled off the upset no one saw it coming. i think the turning point in the game was the penalty. it gave sweden an early lead. and dahlqvist did very well to put it away, not allowing herself to be distracted by hope solo's mind games.

after that, usa struggled against a well-organised swedish defence. things got worse when amy lepailbet, who gave away the penalty, deflected fischer's freekick the other way. luck deserted the americans, and sweden went into half time 2-0 up.

usa didnt have the ideas to unlock the swedish defence, and were reduced to taking long shots. they did pull one back from a corner.

but sweden held on, and shouldnt have had the schelin goal disallowed very late in the game. she was onside.

schelin might have not scored in this tournament yet (officially), but she is really leading the line, pulling her team up.

the one moment which confirmed that she is one level above her team is during the last 30 seconds of injury time, when sweden had a corner. obviously, no one went into the box. the short corner was taken and schelin held the ball, then weaved her way on the goalline past 2 americans into the box, cut it back, but no one ran with her.

that move underlined her class, as well as her attacking instincts.