Swedish Women's Soccer Gets a Boost

A little over a month ago, I wrote on this blog about my undying passion for Women’s Soccer. More specifically, I was discouraged by the challenges of watching the Olympic women’s soccer matches on TV in Sweden—especially when it wasn’t necessarily the Swedish team playing. I love watching the US women play and they did, in case you missed it, win 2012 Olympic gold.

Pia Sundhage

I also mentioned how wonderful the US Women’s National Team (USWNT) coach, Pia Sundhage is. I admire her enthusiasm, her soccer knowledge, her fun and calm attitude and of course, her winning record with the US team. To quote Sports Illustrated, "In just under five years with the U.S., Sundhage compiled an 89-6-10 record, winning two Olympic gold medals and finishing second at the 2011 World Cup."

Pia Sundhage, as I mentioned in my last post, is Swedish.

And now…

She’s just announced that she is stepping down as coach of the USWNT and moving back to Sweden to become the head of the Swedish National team.

Whahooo! This is great news. I am not the hugest fan of how the Swedish national team currently plays and I think Pia will bring great energy and new ways for the team to come together and play great soccer. (Note: Nice slide show of Pia on the Swedish page linked above. It's written in Swedish but just click the small blue box nearly half way down that says "Visa bildspel.")

Marta

Marta Vieira da Silva (known simply by her first name like all the Brazilian greats), who many say is the best female player in the world, comes from Brazil. She played in the professional league in the US and I saw her play many times for my home team, FC Gold Pride in the Bay Area. (now defunct league…don’t ask…painful subject). Marta previously played professionally for Umeå in northern Sweden. Why am I writing about Marta? Well because Marta also decided to move back to Sweden a few months ago and she signed with Tyresö FF here in Stockholm.

Awesome, Ted! (What? You never watched “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”?)

Two last points...

* Please don’t fail to notice that I am a trailblazer…both these women made their decisions after I moved from the US to Sweden.  (lol)

* Birthdays (I'm just saying...)

• Pia Sundhage: February 13
• Marta: February 19
• Kristin Lund: February 21

Watching Women's Olympic Soccer in Sweden

It's a whole other cup of tea, watching the Olympics from a foreign country.
Admittedly, I am not a huge Olympics fan. I like looking at how fit everyone is (seriously, swimmers and their shoulders!) but I find it a little dull in general. However, I am a HUGE soccer fan.

Women's soccer fan.

The US Women's team celebrates a goal in the qualifying matches (photo: Yahoo Sports)

Sometimes I watch men's soccer but I don't find it nearly as interesting.

It was a little difficult at first to figure out how to watch the games I wanted to watch. I would turn on the Swedish TV and they would have a sort of "Olympics magazine" type thing going where they just talk right through the actual bits I wanted to see. This guy, in particular, André Pops, does tend to go on and on...Dude, show the American games!

André Pops is ruining my game! (photo: Folkbladet.nu)

Yeah, so obviously Sweden is going to concentrate on their own teams. And they have shown the Swedish women's soccer team but I knew the team wasn't going to go far (they squeaked through the qualifying matches and lost to France in the Quarter Finals.) But the US women, they are so worth watching!

One day when I turned on the TV to watch the US game, old André just talked and talked with a couple of other windbags and then finally they said, ..."and now we will show you the second half of the US game."

Argh! Agony!

I surfed over to NBC's website in the US to see if I could see the highlights. Bingo! They have lots of highlight videos. So I clicked "Play" and then I got a message that said the videos could only be watched in the USA.

Double agony!

Then I finally cottoned onto the fact that Swedish TV (SVT Play) is showing the games on their website. Even the US games. Hallelujah!

Now I am living in bliss as the US team just beat New Zealand in the Quarter Finals. Whahoo!


My favorite player? 

Well, since you asked...It's been Abby Wambaugh for a long time. Go, Abby, go!

Abby Wambaugh fights North Korea for the ball (photo: Yahoo Sports)

Favorite coach? 

Of course it's Pia Sundhage, the US women's coach. She is admirably calm and collected on the sidelines...never screaming...always looking like she just plain old enjoys soccer. And where is she from?

Why, Sweden, of course!