Outlook: When Sweden beat the U.S. in the 2016 Olympic quarterfinals by putting as many as 10 women in front of the goal and playing for penalty kicks, it showed the rest of the world the recipe for beating the reigning World Cup champions. Coach Jill Ellis is expecting to see the same strategy in France because when teams play the U.S. straight up, the Americans have lost just once since August 2017. That loss came in France to the World Cup hosts last January, by the way. If everything goes to form, the teams could meet against in the quarterfinals in Paris. Between the loss in Rio and early 2018, Ellis called 60 players into camp, allowing 15 to make their national team debuts.

Source: Los Angeles Times June 02, 2019 12:56 UTC