Wambach Leads U.S. To Win Over Sweden

By Gary Rose, Special to SportsTicker & NC Sports Magazine

CHENGDU, China (Ticker) -- Abby Wambach scored a pair of goals to lead the United States to an impressive 2-0 victory over Sweden in their second Group B game at the Women's World Cup on Friday. Wambach converted a penalty in the first half before completing her double midway through the second period as the U.S. showed why it is ranked number one in the world with a solid performance.

The victory means coach Greg Ryan's team will have four points and are well-placed to make it through to the knock-out stages with just Nigeria to play on Tuesday. "I am so proud of my players," Ryan said. "This game could have eliminated us, and our big players stepped up today. Abby (Wambach) and Kristine Lilly were brilliant, and we had a great performance from our goalkeeper after struggling a little in the first game."

With two of the best teams in the tournament on show, the game unsurprisingly got off to a frantic start with play swinging from one end to the other. The U.S. saw a deflected free-kick in the 15th minute comfortably collected by Sweden goalkeeper Hedvig Lindhal, who was then called into action to palm away Cat Whitehill's free-kick. "Our midfield stood strong tonight, and this was the difference in the game," Ryan said. Lori Chalupny warmed the gloves of Lindhal just before the half-hour mark with a rasping drive as the U.S. continued to attack. Sweden sent a free-kick over the bar soon after but it was the Americans who took the lead in the 34th minute. Lindhal misjudged the bounce of a free-kick and as the ball looped over her head the on-rushing Chalupny was fouled in the box and the referee pointed straight to the spot. Wambach stepped up to slot home her 76th goal in 95 games for her country. "If you like football, you have to like a player like Abby Wambach," Ryan said. "This is the truth, and she made the difference in tonight's game."

Just after the restart Lilly flashed a shot over the bar from close range while for Sweden Stina Segerstrom headed into the hands of Hope Solo as they looked to grab an equalizer. But instead the U.S. extended its lead through a clinical strike from Wambach just before the hour mark. The University of Florida striker latched onto a cross before powering a shot beyond the hapless Lindhal. "Kristine hit the ball up to me long on the second goal," Wambach said. "It fell perfectly for me, and all I had to do was bring it down and hit it. "Forwards will always tell you they were trying to do just what they did. In this case, I just tried to hit it as hard as I could and luckily it went in." The United States' defense was doing a solid job of stemming Sweden's attacks to ensure their two-goal advantage remained intact. Lilly headed wide in the 70th minute as they pressed for a third while the Scandinavians struggled to really pressure Solo in the U.S. goal. But she had to be at her best to palm away a Victoria Svensson cross as the game entered the closing stages while defender Stephanie Lopez had to be alert to clear with a Sweden attacker lurking. The Swedes started to dominate the latter stages of the game and Hanna Ljungberg should have done better late on but she could only stab her shot wide of goal as the U.S. held firm to ensure the clean sheet and the three points.