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Sara Thunebro scores Sweden’s second in their 6-1 romp over Iceland
Iceland 1 : 6 Sweden
By Kara McDermott
Sweden created a showdown with the US on Monday to earn a spot in the championship match by handily beating Iceland 6-1. This loss, and China’s earlier loss to the US means these two teams are out of contention to advance first or second out of group, thus denying the a podium run.
In two days, Sweden fixed the finishing issues that so plagued them in their first round of play against China. In both games they played confident, graceful soccer but now it seems the final and most important piece is falling into place.
They started early in the 11th minute when Antonia Goransson took a long shot that was kick-saved by keeper Thora Helgadottir. The deflection went to Kosovare Asllani who put it away to start the night under cloudy skies in Albufeira.
Just a few minutes later, Sara Thunebro shot long from the left side, and with a little help from an obliging far post, ricocheted the ball into the net past a diving Helgadottir. Even while being pummeled, Helgadottir continued to come through for her beleaguered defense. In the 29th minute she stood down a dangerous Lotta Schelin with a double save.
The legendary Swede was long to be denied though. In the 43rd minute she followed up a shot from Asllani that was deflected by Helgadottir to hit the net for herself.
This gave Sweden a very comfortable lead, but still Marie Hammarstrom left no doubt by burying a close range shot from the right side in stoppage time of first half to put her team up by four goals.
HALF TIME: SWEDEN 4 : 0 ICELAND
If Iceland had any hope that Sweden would back down in the second half, it died early when Asllani secured her brace in the 47th minute, making her the top goal scorer of the tournament so far with her teammate Thunebro. Susanne Moberg finished the night in the 64th minute to give Sweden the highest-scoring game of the tournament so far.
Iceland had some solid plays, drawing gasps from the crowd on several chances in the last minutes, and managed to steal the shutout away in the waning minutes off of a goal by Mist Edvardsdottir in the 86th minute. In the end, they were simply outmatched. Sweden’s touch on the ball was more polished and their speed up top wore down Iceland’s defense.
Iceland will finish group play against China on Monday March 11 while Sweden plays the USWNT.
