Women’s soccer: Sweden shocks world champion America | Sports | DW

The Women’s Olympic Football Tournament got off to a bad start for the American superstars. World champions around the charismatic captain Megan Rapinoe at the start of their golden quest to Sweden lost 0:3 (0:1) and suffered their first defeat after 44 matches. “They slapped us a little, didn’t they?” Said Rapinoe, stunned. “We were very negative today, a little nervous and did stupid things.”

Double packs of Blackstenius and Marta

Stena Blacksteinius (25/55) and Lena Hurtig (72) struck the neck of the four-time Olympic champion at Tokyo Stadium – the team that has been unbeaten since January 2019 and traveled to Japan as the favorites. However, the Americans had to be warned. Because the Swedes had finished chasing gold for the United States at the Summer Games five years ago in Rio de Janeiro in the quarter-finals. Before kick-off, the players of both teams got to their knees to take a stand against racism.

Meanwhile, the Brazilians have lived up to their favorite role against China. At Miyagi Stadium 5-0, 35-year-old striker Marta scored her Olympic goals 11 and 12 (9/74).

The Germans are not there

After the gold medal in Rio de Janeiro, German footballers missed the Tokyo qualifiers due to the quarter-final against the Swedes at the 2019 World Cup.

ml/sn (SID, dpa, Eurosport)