Wow. The top backet is loaded. The U.S. is actually advantaged by a second place finish in the group. I may be excessively cynical, but FIFA is FIFA. If there was any game playing going on in establishing the brackets way back when, I wonder if any friendly little FIFA helpers assumed the U.S. would win its group and stacked things accordingly. In which case the U.S. really crossed things up by losing to Sweden. The best laid plans ....
Not that anyone should question FIFA’s integrity.
I hadn’t stopped to think about it, but I see that it’s Great Britain here, as opposed to England in the World Cup. In theory that enlarges their player pool, but I don’t know their team well enough to know if it actually makes a difference this time. Does anyone have a handle on the UK permutations?
Hopefully we can play Sweden again in the final when USA peaks and Sweden is past peak because they are very good.
I have seen Swedes posting on reddit that this is actually their best women's team ever.
Now consider this: “Team GB” did not technically even qualify for Olympic soccer. That place was earned by the England team.