U.S. U-21 WOMEN: Americans win sixth straight Nordic Cup

• by Soccer America , Jul 30, 2004

The U.S. under-21 women's national team dominated Sweden on Thursday, scoring its fourth successive 3-0 victory to claim its sixth straight Nordic Cup title and seventh in eight years.

University of North Carolina All-American Lori Chalupny scored just before halftime, and Texas' Kelly Wilson and Rutgers' Carli Lloyd added second-half goals three minutes apart as the Yanks held Sweden without a shot in the title game of the ''unofficial world championship'' for U-21 women.

The Americans outscored their opposition, 12-0, in their most dominant Nordic Cup performance as head coach Chris Petrucelli won the competition for the second time.

''We talked about how explosive this team was coming into the tournament, and that held true with the number of different players that scored,'' said Petrucelli, also the head coach at Texas. ''We showed that at any time anyone on the team was capable of scoring a goal. We had so many different options that it was just difficult to shut us down.''

All six starting forwards and midfielders in Petrucelli's 4-3-3 alignment -- Wilson, Lloyd, Chalupny, Hawaii's Natasha Kai, Virginia's Sarah Huffman and former Penn State star Joanna Lohman -- scored goals during the tournament.

Kai, Wilson and Denmark's Tanja Mejer were the leading goalscorers, with three apiece.

The U.S. women outshot Sweden, 17-0, and held a 12-0 advantage on corner kicks, using superior athleticism and possession to dictate every facet of the match.

''We were dominant from the opening whistle of the tournament to the last minute of the Sweden game,'' Petrucelli said. ''The quality of games we played over the last six or seven months was unprecedented for the U-21 team, so when we came to play this tournament, we had been through a number of different environments and conditions, and we were able to handle anything anyone threw at us.''

Chalupny, among the final cuts from the U.S. Olympic team, pounced on a loose ball for the first goal. A corner kick by Portland's Lindsey Huie had been knocked out of the box, and Keeley Dowling headed the ball back in.

Wilson made it 2-0 in the 57th minute, winning a bouncing ball by heading it past a defender, sprinting past and collecting the ball on her thigh, then slotting the ball past goalkeeper Kristin Hammarstrom.

Lloyd tallied in the 60th with a shot that deflected off a defender and Hammarstrom. Kai fed Lloyd after running onto a ball from Stanford's Jenny Farenbaugh.

The third-, fifth- and seventh-place games finished in ties, with penalty kicks deciding each. Finland beat Denmark for third, Iceland topped Germany for fifth, and Norway beat England for seventh.

NORDIC CUP
in Iceland

Group A
W L T GF GA Pts
Sweden 2 0 1 5 2 7
Iceland 0 0 3 4 4 3
Denmark 1 1 1 4 5 4
England 0 2 1 3 5 1

Friday, July 23
Sweden 2 (M. Hammarstrom 31, Lindqvist 52) Denmark 0
Iceland 1 (Kristinsdottir 45) England 1 (Gallagher 27)

Sunday, July 25
England 0 Sweden 1 (Seger 8)
Iceland 1 (Arnardottir 19) Denmark 1 (Mejer 29)

Tuesday, July 27
Iceland 2 (Laurusdottir 21, Vidarsdottir 79) Sweden 2 (Forsberg 32, Morstam 45)
Denmark 3 (Mejer 3, 35, Knudsen 45) England 2 (McDougal 56, Johnson 72)

Group B
W L T GF GA Pts
United States 3 0 0 9 0 9
Finland 1 1 1 4 3 4
Germany 1 1 1 3 4 4
Norway 0 3 0 1 10 0

Friday, July 23
United States 3 (Lohman pen. 7, Kai 18, Lloyd 30) Finland 0
Germany 3 (Hagedorn 20, Brendel 32, Sabel 52) Norway 1 (Kaurin 90)

Sunday, July 25
United States 3 (Huffman 37, Wilson 42, 86) Norway 0
Germany 0 Finland 0

Tuesday, July 27
United States 3 (Kai 56, 78, Huffman 64) Germany 0
Finland 4 (Talonen 6, 8, Niemi 31, Hakala 45) Norway 0

Placement games
Thursday, July 29
Championship
United States 3 (Chalupny 45, Wilson 57, Lloyd 60) Sweden 0

Third Place
Denmark 1 (Larsen 89) Finland 1 (Ahohen 29)
(Finland wins penalty-kick shootout, 3-2)

Fifth Place
Iceland 1 (Kristinsdottir 72) Germany 1 (Kliehm 21)
(Iceland wins penalty-kick shootout, 7-6)

Seventh Place
England 0 Norway 0
(Norway wins penalty-kick shootout, 4-3)

U.S. SUMMARY
Thursday, July 29 at Akureyri, Iceland

United States 3 Sweden 0. Goals: Chalupny 45, Wilson 57, Lloyd 60.

United States -- Barnhart; Farenbaugh (White, 88), Oakes, Dowling, Huie; Huffman, Lohman, Chalupny (Thaden, 73); Wilson (Negron, 88), Kai (Sitch, 81), Lloyd (Makoski, 70).

Sweden -- K. Hammarstrom; Fischer, Hoglund (Nilsson, 74), Paulson, Viklund (Aronsson, 60), Christensen, Forsberg (Karlsson, 56), M. Hammarstrom, Seger, Almgren (Morstam, 46), Lindqvist (Nordbrandt, 80)

Yellow cards: Sweden -- M. Hammarstrom 25, Karlsson 90.

Referee: Jenny Palmqvist (Sweden).

Att.: 500.