Could Sweden go for a tactical loss here, to avoid playing USA in the 2nd round?

Mind you, playing the Netherlands isn't likely to be much easier!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Quoting Mark in rec.sport.soccer:

Could Sweden go for a tactical loss here, to avoid playing USA in the 2nd round?

Mind you, playing the Netherlands isn't likely to be much easier!

You know that Sweden not only have to lose and Italy have to win, Italy
must also overcome 10 goals GD (or 9 and overcome the goals scored gap).


--
Manchester United FC - CHAMPIONS
Latest: England '13 (20th) Europa '17, UEFA '08, World '08

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Quoting anders t in rec.sport.soccer:

Quoting Mark in rec.sport.soccer:

Could Sweden go for a tactical loss here, to avoid playing USA in the 2nd round?

Mind you, playing the Netherlands isn't likely to be much easier!

You know that Sweden not only have to lose and Italy have to win, Italy
must also overcome 10 goals GD (or 9 and overcome the goals scored gap).

Sorry, should be:

You know that Sweden not only have to lose and Italy have to win, Italy
must also overcome 10 goals GD (or exactly 10 and overcome the goals scored gap).

Sweden starts with 9 reserves. Only the mid defense is the usual.


--
Manchester United FC - CHAMPIONS
Latest: England '13 (20th) Europa '17, UEFA '08, World '08

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Wednesday, August 2, 2023 at 3:24:51 AM UTC-4, anders t wrote:

Sweden starts with 9 reserves. Only the mid defense is the usual.

And they comfortably beat Argentina and get the USA in the Round of 16 as a prize for their efforts. From all the pemature post-mortems on the USWNT in the American press, you would think they are out of the cup already. In the end, the players will take
all the criticism as "nobody believed in us" motivation, and they'll go on to win the whole thing.

Elsewhere, Italy, who wouldn't have gone very far anyway, bows out to a 92nd minute South Africa winner. They had gifted South Africa a horrendous own goal in the first half, and then Girelli (criminally left on the bench) missed a sitter that could
have put the game away in the 86th minute. Ah well... time to rebuild for the azzurre.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Wednesday, August 2, 2023 at 3:46:07 PM UTC+1, Futbolmetrix wrote:

On Wednesday, August 2, 2023 at 3:24:51 AM UTC-4, anders t wrote:

Sweden starts with 9 reserves. Only the mid defense is the usual.

And they comfortably beat Argentina and get the USA in the Round of 16 as a prize for their efforts. From all the pemature post-mortems on the USWNT in the American press, you would think they are out of the cup already. In the end, the players will

take all the criticism as "nobody believed in us" motivation, and they'll go on to win the whole thing.

Elsewhere, Italy, who wouldn't have gone very far anyway, bows out to a 92nd minute South Africa winner. They had gifted South Africa a horrendous own goal in the first half, and then Girelli (criminally left on the bench) missed a sitter that could

have put the game away in the 86th minute. Ah well... time to rebuild for the azzurre.

Are Italy as bad as their results in this year's World Cup suggest?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)