A SOCCER RIVALRY IS BORN

The U.S. women’s national team plays Sweden on Friday night in the Women’s World Cup. This meeting with an old friend has taken on a slightly more acidic tone, though.

Pia Sundhage, Sweden’s greatest women’s soccer player, is now that side’s coach. She previously coached the Americans (2007-2012) and led the 2009 squad to the championship game of the Women’s World Cup, where it was upset by Japan 3-1 on penalty kicks.

Sundhage talked a little minor trash about some of the U.S. players to the New York Times, essentially calling Abby Wambach old (she’s 35) and describing keeper Hope Solo as “a piece of work.” She also said midfielder Carli Lloyd was a bit on the fragile side emotionally.

So, we get a little bit uproar, and Sundhage walked back some of the comments, or at least clarified them, at a news conference on Thursday. Not that she was wrong in the first place, at least about the first two.

Wambach, a two-time gold medal winner in the Olympics, clearly is near the end of her career. And any Google search of Solo brings up all manner of unsavory actions and legal problems. Lloyd was a star in the Olympics who didn’t always respond to Sundhage’s coaching style and was benched by her before the 2012 Olympics.

The U.S. team has carefully tried to keep its business to itself, encasing itself in what it has called the Iron Bubble. We’ll see if emotion can seep through all that iron in this Group D match.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .