USA, Sweden have built up years of on-field animosity
The cheery relationship between the United States and Sweden women's soccer teams might have started to go south in 2015, when former U.S. coach Pia Sundhage, after heading home to take her native country's national team job, spoke about some of her ex-players on the American team.
It certainly veered into dicey territory after Hope Solo's post-game comments. Angered and frustrated by the USWNT's exit on penalty kicks against the Swedes in the 2016 Olympics, Solo was as ungracious a loser as you can be, describing the opponent as a "bunch of cowards" for its defensive game plan.
Perhaps things shifted when Sweden got irked when the USWNT mentioned "playing seven games" to the media — meaning they expected to reach the final — before the sides met in the 2019 World Cup.
Or maybe time has just moved on in women's soccer, and the old days of communal friendship and smiley camaraderie don't really exist in the same way anymore.
Whatever it is, the two teams that meet each other in the most anticipated of this World Cup's round of 16 clashes Sunday (coverage begins at 4 a.m. ET, with kickoff at 5 a.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app), don't like each other much anymore. Too much has happened. The stakes are too high now.
There's a lot of water under the bridge, and we're not talking about the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
[USA vs. Sweden: Prediction, scouting report for round of 16 matchup]
The game's in Melbourne, anyway, this showdown between a Sweden squad that's absolutely flying and a USA group that could have easily been flying home.
Perhaps it is just what the current team needs to shake itself into life after a tepid group-stage performance, once again serving as the ultimate reminder the USWNT is no longer the big bully on the world stage.
"I don't think any of us could have predicted that," Jill Ellis, who coached the USA to the 2015 and 2019 titles, told reporters this week when asked about the new parity in women's soccer. "I was thinking that (there would be) one more iteration of the World Cup before we started to see even more parity that we're starting to see right now."
Will Vlatko Andonovski get it DONE against Sweden?
There is undoubtedly a strong technical and tactical aspect involved in what needs to improve if Vlatko Andonovski's side is to stand any chance of adding a third straight World Cup title. But there is a mental portion to it as well. The team looked disjointed and hamstrung during a victory over Vietnam and failed to fully find its footing in draws with the Netherlands and Portugal.
Maybe coming up against a rival, one where there has been some animosity, can go some way to shaking the group out of its funk.
Revenge is as good a motivating factor as any and Sweden has had the upper hand of late in this ongoing tussle. That 2016 Olympic quarterfinal was a milestone moment in some ways. It had been the first time the USWNT failed to secure at least silver at the Summer Games.
Solo claimed later her "cowards" jibe did not bother the Sweden players — hmm — but the controversial goalkeeper's outburst still earned her a lengthy suspension by U.S. Soccer.
That incident came a year after Sundhage riled the USA team before the 2015 World Cup, in an interview with the New York Times. The coach stated that if she was still in charge of the Americans she would drop star forward Abby Wambach to the bench, and said that if Carli Lloyd did not feel she had the trust of the coaching staff, she could be one of the worst players on the field.
It wasn't received well, to put it mildly. Wambach did indeed come off the bench in that tournament. But a month later, Lloyd scored a hat trick in the World Cup final.
Carli Lloyd scores hat trick in 2015 World Cup final
Adding more fuel to the fire, the two teams have met with stunning frequency.
At the 2019 World Cup, the USA easily won 2-0 in the group stage, quashing ill-judged pre-game speculation that they might "tank" to avoid host nation France in a later quarterfinal.
But Sweden was stronger and better in a group showdown at the Tokyo Olympics, winning 3-0 before going on to claim the silver medal, the win set up in large part by the attacking excellence of Stina Blackstenius, who appears to be in a hungry mood again in Australia and New Zealand.
"Every time we play them it is a massive battle," USA captain Lindsey Horan told reporters. "That's the main focus now. What can we do to expose them? It is going to be a battle."
There have always been battles, with both these programs being among the pioneers of the women's game at the international level.
Along with that, however, there used to be a lot of community.
At the first Women's World Cup in 1991, a strong friendship developed between the teams. Both squads even stayed at the same hotel in Guangzhou, China. With the USWNT program having its own chefs and Western food, they shared their produce with the Sweden squad when it got sick of the local fare.
After the USA beat Norway in the final, they got back to the hotel to find the Sweden players had arranged their bronze medals on the wall to spell out USA. The two teams celebrated together into the night, Sundhage — then a player — entertaining everyone by performing on her guitar, according to a 2019 feature by late sports writer Grant Wahl.
It's a bit different now. Every team is in its own bubble, and the stakes have risen.
With its tournament life on the line, maybe it is time for the USA to lean into the spiky part of the history.
Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider newsletter. Follow him on Twitter @MRogersFOX and subscribe to the daily newsletter.
