Sweden really shows Italy who's the boss in World Cup victory

As the only person that I know that is even bothering to follow the Women's World Cup I feel as though it is my duty to inform anyone that even mildly gives a rip what is going on in New Zealand and Australia right now. I have actually found the games to be just as exciting, perhaps even a bit more exciting that the "real" World Cup matches and for one main reason: There is far less theatrics on the part of the players in that people generally aren't faking fouls in order to get free kicks. This is something that seriously irritates me about the World Cup and just football of the soccer variety in a general sense. I would really like to see very harsh penalties for players that engage in this sort of crap even if it happens after the game via video review. It shouldn't be, but is, a big part of why some teams win over others.

So, getting back to the point the game between Sweden and Italy was something I was looking forward to because I haven't seen too many Europe on Europe matches thus far. The only one I did watch was England vs Denmark and that was relatively boring as it ended in a 1-0 victory for England with the only goal being scored in 6-minutes and giving us a false impression of how high-paced the game was going to be. For the remaining 90 minutes most of the game took place in the mid-field with England controlling the pace but still getting very few shots on target.

I expected the same from Sweden and Italy and for the first 45 minutes I was exactly correct.

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I don't know what happened at around minute 40 because Sweden started looking like a completely different squad than was on the pitch in the first parts of the game as they went on to completely the rest of the game and scored a delightful 5 goals in the next 50 minutes.

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3 of these goals happened within 6 minutes of one another at the end of the 1st half and the 4th came a mere 5 minutes into the 2nd half. I think it was only because Sweden then decided to pump the brakes that this didn't end up being 10-0 or more because they played more defensively from that point forward yet still managed to get yet another goal in the 90's minute.

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Sweden just looked unstoppable and while it also has nothing to do with the sport and might be a bit sexist, I have to say that I think thy could quite possibly be one of the best-looking teams to ever play the game also.

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Looking at the stats it appears as though Sweden used their possession wisely since for most of the game they didn't even have the ball. Italy was unable to form anything resembling offense though with only one shot on goal in the entire match. From the 8 that I saw the others were well off target and honestly, some of them shouldn't have even been considered a shot because even if the goal was twice as big as it is it still would have missed.

With this victory Sweden guarantees they are moving to the bracket stages and it will be interesting to see how they fare against better teams. I was hopeful that Italy was going to test them and well, if Italy is a good team they certainly didn't look like they were against the Nordiques - if that is even a term.

The next game I am looking forward to is Korea playing against Morocco a bit later because they are in a "must win" situation. With a draw or loss they are guaranteed elimination from the WC.