Soccer: Holders U.S. suffer penalty heartache against Sweden

By Andrew Downie

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Sweden knocked the United States out of the women’s Olympic soccer tournament on Friday, recording one of the sport’s biggest shocks by beating the holders 4-3 on penalties in the quarter-final after the two sides drew 1-1 after extra time.

Lisa Dahlkvist converted Sweden’s final penalty after Alex Morgan and Christen Press missed for the holders in the shootout. Linda Sembrant also missed for Sweden.

The United States, who dominated large parts of the match, have won four of the last five Olympic golds and had never not reached the Games final.

Sweden scored against the run of play after 61 minutes when Stina Blackstenius ran on to a defense-splitting pass and calmly slotted the ball past U.S. keeper Hope Solo.

The U.S., however, kept plugging away and scored a deserved equalizer after 77 minutes as the ball ricocheted off the face of Jessica Samuelsson and fell perfectly for Morgan to fire home from eight meters.

Sweden will play in the semi-finals against either hosts Brazil or Australia, who face each other on Friday.

China play Germany and Canada face France in the other two last-eight ties.

(Reporting by Andrew Downie; editing by Toby Davis)