Sweden Coach Sundhage Savaged, Matildas March On, England to Attack Hosts
Should she stay or should she go? That’s the question exercising women’s-football-following minds in Sweden after the national team was dumped unceremoniously out of the World Cup by Germany and fingers of blame began pointing at head coach Pia Sundhage.
While European rivals France and England, as well as Germany, moved into the quarter-finals along with the USA, Japan, Australia and China, the Swedes—after surprisingly and disappointingly finishing only third in their group—had to pack their bags and go home to a less-than-enthusiastic welcome.
Performances had been flat and, while players such as star name Lotta Schelin have been heavily criticised, Sundhage—an iconic figure in Swedish women’s football—is bearing the brunt of the fans’ anger as one of the traditional powerhouse nations of the women’s game appears to be on the wane.
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Some of the best, most closely contested games I’ve seen in women’s football have been between Sweden and Germany, among them the 2003 World Cup final in America and a pulsating group game, followed by another meeting in the final, at the 2001 European Championships in Germany. Each game was won by the Germans, but only after a real battle. At this World Cup in Canada, though, there was no battle. It was easy for Germany, as the 4-1 scoreline suggests.
Martin Hederberg of Swedish Radio told me: "When Pia arrived as coach (December 2012) she was written up like a hero, and then at the 2013 European Championships in Sweden the team was unlucky to lose to Germany in the quarter-final, it was a game they could have won.
"But they did not come up to that level of play in this championship, and people in Sweden are not satisfied with this result against Germany. I don’t think that Pia has developed the team, we don’t seem to have players coming through from the Under-17 and Under-19 teams, and it’s a big discussion in Sweden now whether she should stay or go."
If she goes, it will be a sad day for a woman who was welcomed with open arms when she was appointed national coach. It looked like a match made in Scandinavian heaven. Sundhage was idolised after a glittering, 146-cap playing career in which she led her country to a 1984 European Championship triumph and to third place in the 1991 World Cup.
Success followed when she stepped into coaching, first with Swedish club sides and then, after proving herself at club level in America with the Boston Breakers, as the USA’s head coach. She missed out at the 2011 World Cup, when her team lost the final to Japan, but she led the U.S. to Olympic Gold in 2008 and 2012.
Now Sweden, who have been to every Olympics in which women’s football has been played, could miss the cut this time after failing to meet the qualifying marker as one of the top three European nations at the World Cup.
They should get the chance via play-offs, however, as England are highly unlikely due to football politics to take the place they have earned. It’s not 'England' but Great Britain that appears at the Olympics, and though there was a women’s Team Great Britain at the last edition, that was because the Games were on home soil.
The English FA would love for England to be represented, even as Team Great Britain, but the other three nations in the Great Britain arrangement—Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland—are absolutely against the idea, as it would mean their individual FIFA voting rights could be lost and watered down to one for Great Britain as a single entity.
So it could all work out for Sweden, who would have to take on Switzerland, Norway and the Netherlands—the three European teams who like themselves fell at the round of 16—for a place at the Brazil Olympics.
Sundhage could make it in any case. I understand that, if she does leave her post with Sweden, Nigeria would be interested in handing her their head coach’s role. Brazil, I’m also told, would also be interested.
Nigeria are an up-and-coming women’s football nation with some fine young talent, as they displayed in the same Group of Death in which Sweden were involved here. But, as Sundhage has demonstrated in the past, her interest lies at the senior elite level rather than in youth development.
So, Brazil? That would give her a direct route to the Olympics, for which Brazil do not have to qualify as the host nation. But the Brazilian team, on the evidence of this World Cup, are past their sell-by date with ageing stars and apparently not too many youngsters coming through to herald a bright new era.
Matildas Deserved Brazil Scalp
The team that Brazil lost to in the round of 16, Australia, showed far more vitality and were better organised than their opponents and, after celebrating their country’s first-ever knockout-stage win at a World Cup, the Matildas will hand world champions Japan a tough test when the two teams meet in the quarter-finals at Edmonton.
While the Matildas have been firing on all cylinders since they kicked off the tournament one or two of the big guns, notably the USA and France, waded ponderously through some of their group games but have nevertheless made it into the quarter-finals.
France and Germany Set for Almighty Scrap
France woke up in their final group game, bouncing back from a shock 2-0 defeat by Colombia to trounce Mexico 5-0 and then imperiously sweep aside South Korea with a 3-0 win at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium in the round of 16.
I feel that it’s sad for the tournament that France will now face Germany in the last eight, as this could have been a tremendous final if both teams on the day had been on their mettle. Germany were certainly that against Sweden, though after two glaring misses in the first few minutes, their head coach Sylvia Neid was in a near-apoplectic state of fury in the technical area.
“I’m a very emotional and impulsive person,” said Neid after the game. Perhaps it was as well, then, that those missed opportunities came at the start of the game rather than just before half-time, otherwise the cups may have been flying in the German dressing room.
USA Yet to Look Like World Cup Winners
If Germany now get past France they will meet the winners of the USA-China quarter-final, with the U.S. expected to go through and—as America always expects—to go on and win the final. They have not looked like potential champions to this point, though, and concern is mounting among supporters as well as those critics who have already been having digs at head coach Jill Ellis.
Like her old boss Sundhage in the USWNT, Ellis has been coming under fire as her team fails to deliver the swashbuckling performances and victories that were achieved in America’s days of yore. But perhaps she should be given more leeway after being appointed little more than a year ago and thus having no great time to put her own stamp on the team.
Having been assistant to Sundhage at both the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, she was well versed in "the American way," but she went into the top job intent on changing that style ahead of the World Cup. She told me a few months after taking charge: “What Japan showed in the 2011 World Cup is that ball retention has to be a big part of the women’s game.
“You need athleticism and pace, which U.S. teams have always had, but you also need to build more through the phases. Like the best men’s teams, you have to be able to put your foot on the ball and move it around.
“So the message to our youth teams has been ‘technique, technique, technique,’ and we’ve now got that in the senior team—the starting XI are all technical players, unlike a few years ago, when only four or five of them were."
Confident England Ready to Attack Canada
If they can combine that technicality with the athleticism for which they are renowned, the USA could yet blossom and triumph in Canada. But to do that, they may have to meet the host nation in the final, and what a contest that could be.
Canada are set to meet England in their quarter-final in Vancouver, where the national team and its English coach John Herdman is based and where the Canucks will be supported to the hilt at a sold-out BC Place Stadium.
Though they are a couple of places below England at eighth in the world rankings, home advantage could well prove crucial in Canada’s favour. But England, who reached the last eight by beating Norway to record their first-ever World Cup knockout-stage victory, are ever more ambitious.
Head coach Mark Sampson told me: “It’ll be tight against Canada, but they’re finding it difficult to score goals and, although they’re very tight at the back, we’ve scored six goals in our last three games. We are absolutely determined to keep our journey going, and there’s a belief among the players that we can go all the way.”
Game on!
Tony Leighton is covering the Women's World Cup on location in Canada. All quotes gathered firsthand unless otherwise stated.
