Cal Sports Report

Cal at the Olympics: Alex Morgan, U.S. Soccer Team Stunned in Opener

Sweden ends Americans' 44-game unbeaten streak in the first game of group play

Jake Curtis

Cal at the Olympics: Alex Morgan, U.S. Soccer Team Stunned in Opener
Cal at the Olympics: Alex Morgan, U.S. Soccer Team Stunned in Opener /

As expected former Cal star Alex Morgan was in the starting lineup for the U.S. women's soccer team in its opening game of Olympic group play against Sweden on Wednesday.

What was not expected was that the Americans lost to Sweden, 3-0, at an empty Tokyo stadium, ending the U.S. Women's National Team's 44-game unbeaten streak. What was even more unexpected was that Sweden dominated the game.

"It felt like there were holes everywhere defensively," Morgan said, according to ESPN. "I didn't feel like we were pressing together, and then when we were on the attack and we'd lose the ball, we didn't have the numbers around the ball to win it back."

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Sweden was the team that eliminated the United States in 2016 Olympics, beating the Americans on penalty kicks in the quarterfinals.  But this one was different because Sweden totally outplayed the Americans, who came to Japan as the heavy favorites and had not lost a game in Olympic group play since 2008.

“They’re obviously physical, they’re very organized, they’re hard to break down,” Morgan said of the Swedes.

The loss does not eliminate the U.S. from medal possibilities. It was just the first game in Group G play. The Americans next face New Zealand on Saturday (4:30 a.m. California time), then face Australia on Tuesday. The top two in each group, along with the two best third-placed teams, advance to the quarterfinals.

Playing in an empty stadium, Sweden scored the only goal of the first half, with Stina Blackstenius scoring in the 25th minute.

Carli Lloyd replaced Morgan to start the second half, but the Swedes added a second goal in the 54th minute:

The last loss suffered by the American women came in January 2019 in a friendly in France. Forty of the games in the 44-game unbeaten streak had been victories.

The U.S. is the reigning Women's World Cup champions and has reached the gold-medal match in five of the six Olympics Games since women's soccer became an event. The Americans have captured four of the six goal medals awarded in women's soccer at the Olympics.

New Zealand Loses to Australia

In another Group G women's soccer game, New Zealand, which features two former Cal players, lost a 2-1 match to Australia.

Betsy Hassett, who played at Cal from 2009 through 2012, played all 90 minutes for New Zealand in the midfield, while Daisy Cleverley, who last played at Cal in 2019, came off the bench for New Zealand and played 22 minutes.at midfield. Neither recorded a shot.

New Zealand faces the United States on Saturday.

day 1 soccer standings

Cover photo of Alex Morgan (13) getting knocked down is by Jack Gruber, USA TODAY Network

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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