Behold: A match that seems to be predictably unpredictable. How’s that to decide the final spot in the Women’s World Cup final?
Sweden for five matches has played a prototypically Swedish brand of soccer. It drops 10 players behind the ball and dares opponents to try to score. Passes that could slice up less fastidious defenses become turnovers. Crosses into the box are swept away with ease. Shots on target get pawed down by the tournament’s top keeper, Hedvig Lindahl.
Then, what’s this? Stina Blackstenius or Sofia Jakobsson somehow behind the opposing back four? A good Swedish clearance by any other name is a precise and practical through ball, the kind that undid Germany and Canada, too, and gave the United States plenty of trouble in group-stage play.