Just one year after they captured the World Cup, the United States women’s soccer team on Friday failed to make it out of the quarterfinals of the Summer Games in Rio. The stunning loss to Sweden, which came on a penalty shootout in overtime, ended a long run of success for the American women in the Olympics.
They captured the gold medal in 2004, 2008 and 2012, with the last two coming with Pia Sundhage as the American coach. But Sundhage went home to coach Sweden after that 2012 triumph and on Friday, in Brasilia, an American team that included more than a half dozen of her former players could not find a way to get the best of her.