United States, Sweden enter World Cup top four

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, October 03, 2003

United States, Sweden enter World Cup top four

Group A winners the United States and runners-up Sweden advanced to the semifinals of the women soccer World Cup Wednesday at the Gillette Stadium here.

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Group A winners the United States and runners-up Sweden advanced to the semifinals of the women soccer World Cup Wednesday at the Gillette Stadium here.

The defending champions U.S. team defeated Norway 1-0 and Sweden upset Brazil 2-1 in the quarter-finals respectively. The both teams came out from Group A, the most difficult group of the preliminary round.

The United States will meet the winners of the match between Germany and Russia, while Sweden to face China or Canada in the semi-finals.

Abby Wambach headed in the sole goal for Americans, who averaged 3.67 goals per game in the preliminary round.

Wambach scored her third goal of the tournament from a free-kick when Norway made a surprising substitution on the 24th minute.

Referee Nicole Petignat of Switzerland awarded the U.S. team a controversial penalty in the 66th minutes, but Mia Hamm failed to extend the lead.

"It was the best game of her (Wambach) life, and she did it for90 minutes," said U.S. coach April Heinrichs. "She was dangerous all day long in the air, but also you could see her will power, and her fighting presence and the competitiveness she brought to her game today."

Norway's head coach Age Steen said, "They scored the goal on a set piece again, they are very strong on set pieces. With Wambach and (Cindy) Parlow they are very strong on set pieces, and we had problems on them."

Top-scorer Victoria Svensson put Sweden ahead with a splendid header in the 23 minute, before Brazil tied it at 1-1 one minute before the break on a penalty kick by Marta.

In the 53rd minute, Malin Andersson curled a free-kick into theleft upper corner of the net to give Sweden the lead for good.

"We played both tactically and technically like we should play against the Brazilian team," said Sweden's head coach Marika Lyfors.

"My players are very mentally strong and I knew we could take them in the second half.

"We did it with our heart, we did with our brain and all our football prowess," she added.

"It is a very difficult game, but we could have won the game," Brazil head coach Paulo Goncalves said. "We couldn't get into a rhythm."

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