Pia Sundhage is well aware of the U.S. team’s unparalleled success in women’s Olympic soccer. She’s partly responsible for it: When the Americans won their last two gold medals, in Beijing and London, Sundhage was their coach.
She’ll be standing in front of the other bench Friday, coaching Sweden against the U.S. in a quarterfinal in Brasilia. She has no illusion about the difficulty of the task she and Sweden are facing.
“We’re going to play the best team in the world,” Sundhage said Thursday. “Olympic champions and the world champions. That is challenging and inspiring.
“Everybody knows, when it comes to the quarterfinals, anything can happen.