Sweden Capitalizes on Errors

Three moments of indecision. That’s all it took.

When Greg Brown, Australia’s coach, reviews the game tapes--if indeed he wants to inflict that punishment on himself and his players--he will point to that trio of miscues and know they are the reason the Matildas are all but out of the Women’s World Cup.

It need not have been that way. Australia fought toe to toe with Sweden in front of a crowd of 16,448 at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium on Wednesday night, but at the final whistle the score still read: Sweden 3, Australia 1.

Three little mistakes.

The first came in the ninth minute. It was a rudimentary error, schoolyard stuff.

Sweden was awarded a corner kick on the left. Malin Andersson sent the ball to the far post, where defender Jane Tornqvist, by far Sweden’s most stylish player, found herself completely unmarked and headed the ball powerfully into the back of the net.

Lesson No. 1: Guard the back post.

The second miscue occurred in the 21st minute. This time it was Australian goalkeeper Belinda Kitching who was at fault.

Swedish midfielder Kristin Bengtsson pushed a pass across the face of the goalmouth. Kitching came out of the net to either gather the ball or punch it away. Either way, she failed, the ball deflecting off her fingertips and falling to Hanna Ljungberg, who steered it into net from five yards.

Lesson No. 2: If you’re going to go for the ball, make sure you get it.

Australia might have overcome these mistakes. Certainly, it battled gamely despite being two goals down and even managed to halve the deficit when Julie Murray scored in the 32nd minute after a scramble in front of the Swedish net.

But the third error was the coup de grace.

Goalkeeper Kitching and defender Sarah Cooper both went for a loose ball at the same time in the penalty area, both hesitated and Ljungberg stuck a foot in between them and poked it into the empty net in the 69th minute for her second goal.

Lesson No. 3: If there’s no communication, there’s no hope.

“We’re obviously disappointed,” Brown said. “And especially on their first goal. We knew their set plays. We knew how they were going to take their corners, we worked on it, we discussed it. We put players in position to deal with it, but obviously they didn’t do that.”

Australia can still make it into the quarterfinals, but needs to defeat Russia to have a chance of doing so. Sweden, meanwhile, has an easier task. A victory over Ghana secures its place in the final eight.

“We had to win this game and we were quite nervous before the game, of course, because if we had lost we would have been gone,” said Sweden Coach Marika Domanski Lyfors. “So I’m very happy now. I think we played a quite good game.”

Sweden’s next match may be without Tornqvist, who came out of the game late in the second half after catching an elbow in the face. The blow opened a gash across her nose and forehead that required six stitches.