Sweden women’s soccer has advanced to the quarterfinals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia-New Zealand 2023 with a penalty shootout victory over defending champions the United States.
Sweden defeated the United States 5-4 on penalties after a scoreless first half and extra time in the round of 16 at Rectangular Stadium in Melbourne, Australia on Saturday (June 6).
It ended the Americans’ bid to become the first team to win three consecutive Women’s World Cup titles, joining Canada in 2015 and France in 2019. This is the first time the U.S. has been eliminated in the round of 16 at a World Cup. They are a perennial powerhouse, having reached the quarterfinals in all eight previous World Cups.
Sweden, who finished third in the last edition of the tournament, will try to reach the semifinals for the second straight time on Nov. 11 against Japan.
After 120 minutes of scoreless play, the teams’ fates were decided in penalty kicks.
The United States seemed to have the upper hand.
The two teams traded kicks until Sweden made a mistake on the third. In the third, USA’s Christie Mewis converted, while Natalie Bjorn (Sweden)’s shot was off target.
However, the U.S. missed a chance to break away.
Neither kicker was successful in the ensuing fourth, and the USA missed a chance to close out the match when Sophia Smith (USA) missed her fifth and final kick. Sweden tied the game at 3-3 with a dramatic conversion by Hannah Benison.
A sixth kicker followed, and at 4-4, the seventh kicker stepped up.
Kelly O’Hara (USA) calmly aimed for the right side of the goal but hit the goalpost, giving Sweden a chance.
Lina Hurtig stepped up for Sweden. Hurtig’s shot was caught by goalkeeper Alyssa Nair (USA) but was later ruled to have crossed the goal line, giving Sweden a 5-4 victory.
The Swedish players celebrated with tears of joy, while the U.S. players consoled each other with hot tears.
The Netherlands, ranked No. 9 in the FIFA rankings and runners-up four years ago, beat South Africa (No. 54 in the FIFA rankings) 2-0 in the round of 16 at Sydney Football Stadium in Sydney, Australia.
The Netherlands, who last reached the final at the 2019 tournament in France but had to settle for a best-ever runner-up finish after losing 0-2 to world No. 1 USA, finished first in Group E (W1 D1 L7).
The Dutch, who reached their third round of 16, defeated South Africa to advance to their second quarterfinal since the World Cup in France.
The Netherlands will face Spain (ranked sixth in the FIFA rankings), who thrashed Switzerland 5-1 the day before, in the quarterfinals on Nov. 11.
South Africa, who crashed out of the group stage after three games at the 2019 tournament in their first appearance, finished second in Group G behind Sweden (3 wins, 9 points) and reached the first round of 16 (1 win, 1 draw, 4 points), but could not get past the Netherlands.
South African forward Magaiga, who plays for Sejong Sports in the South Korean Women’s Professional Soccer WK League, started and played until late stoppage time, but was unable to prevent the loss.
Magaiga has impressed at the tournament, scoring South Africa’s second goal of the Women’s World Cup in the group stage against Sweden.
The Netherlands opened the scoring in the ninth minute through Jill Rohrt.
It was her fourth goal of the tournament, tying her for second on the tournament scoring list with Germany forward Alexandra Pope, whose team was knocked out in the group stage after a 1-1 draw with South Korea.
She is one goal behind top scorer Hinata Miyazawa (Japan-5).
The Netherlands ended South Africa’s hopes of a comeback with a 23rd-minute goal from Linut Beerenstein. 안전카지노사이트
