A pair of goals from Swedish forward Stina Blackstenius spelled catastrophe for the United States on Wednesday, as they suffered a shock 3-0 defeat in their Tokyo 2020 debut.
This report produced by Freddie Joyner.
The world champion U.S. women's soccer team were trounced by Sweden in a 3-0 upset on Wednesday, ending an epic, 30-month winning streak on the first day of the Tokyo Olympics women's soccer tournament.
Fifth-ranked Sweden put the pressure on almost immediately with three shots in the first eight minutes, while the four-time Olympic gold medalist U.S. team showed little sign of their 44-game unbeaten run, at one point missing a wide open net at close range in the second half.
After the match, star U.S. midfielder Megan Rapinoe admitted, "We got our asses kicked, didn't we?" adding that she thought her team was nervous and "just doing dumb stuff." The match was personal for Team USA: Sweden knocked the four-time World Cup winners out of the tournament on penalties in the quarter-finals in 2016.
But their much hoped-for revenge in front of an empty Tokyo Stadium was not to be.
The defeat at the ’16 Rio Games marked the U.S. team's earliest exit in Olympic history, after previously reaching the final of every edition of the Games since 1996, when women's soccer was introduced.
The U.S. will face New Zealand next in the group stage, while Sweden will play Australia, both on Saturday.
USWNT annihilated by Sweden in Olympics opener
