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Message: [QUOTE="Plebe, post: 4013806, member: 6927"] So they tied them 3 months ago in a friendly, but they also lost to them 5 years ago in Rio ... so I guess I'm caught somewhere between seeing this as a changing of the guard or an anomalously bad result. I will say, my recollection of the 2019 WC is that the US team hardly outclassed the competition. I seem to recall them winning very close games in the knockout stage, all against strong European sides, by simply capitalizing on their chances in the biggest moments. Even in this game, despite the lopsided scoreboard, the US out-possessed Sweden 52-48% and did have scoring chances, all of which went begging. I concur that the center of power in women's futbol has been shifting decidedly to Europe, for about a decade now. Once the powerful infrastructure of men's European club soccer began to devote resources to developing women's sides, the national teams were sure to improve. Interestingly, 2 of the top 3 teams in the FIFA rankings — #2 Germany and #3 France — are not even at the Olympics. The European federation was the only one that, instead of conducting a separate Olympic qualifying procedure, simply used the 2019 World Cup as its qualifying tournament, and UEFA's 3 spots went to the 3 teams (Sweden, Netherlands, England) that reached the WC semifinals. (France, the last team to beat the US before today' game, lost in the WC quarterfinals to the US.) [/QUOTE]