USA vs Sweden LIVE: Women’s World Cup updates as Netherlands through

United States coach Vlatko Andonovski mounted an impassioned defence of his team’s standards and said criticism of their World Cup campaign was unfair as the defending champions prepare for Sunday’s round of 16 clash against Sweden.

The USA head into their first knock-out clash in Melbourne under fire after having scraped through the group phase with draws against the Netherlands and Portugal.

Retired USA great Carli Lloyd gave a scathing assessment of the Portugal game, saying the post that saved the Americans in stoppage time was “player of the match”.

Andonovski said the criticism was out of order: “For someone again to question the standards …. and mindset of this team after everything that they do, I personally don’t think it’s the right time to do that,” he told reporters on Saturday.

“And I don’t think it’s the right thing as well. I’m very happy with where they’re (the players) at, how they hold themselves accountable and they keep raising the standards.”

In-form Sweden are confident they can beat holders United States in Sunday’s Women’s World Cup last 16 tie when they go head-to-head on Sunday, the latest in a long list of clashes between the two heavyweights at major tournaments.

The two teams have met in six previous editions of the World Cup, each time in the group stage. Sweden ended the Americans’ 2016 Rio Olympic run in the quarter-final and won 3-0 in the group stage at the 2021 Tokyo Games.

They had contrasting routes to this year’s knockout stage, with Sweden topping their group with a perfect record while the U.S. scraped through after finishing runners-up. But the third-ranked Swedes are not expecting anything less than the best.

“I don’t care about favourites and things like that,” coach Peter Gerhardsson said. “We have the possibility to win the game, and that’s the most important thing… We know what we’re up against.

“You can talk about revenge or underdog mentality. For me, that’s not going to make the difference tomorrow. It’s the players who play. The history is nothing.

“I have great confidence in this squad and in all the preparations that we’ve made… Our feeling is that we believe we can win this game.”

South Africa’s players soaked in the applause at the end; although defeated by the Netherlands, they left the Women’s World Cup with their heads held high. After reaching the knockout stages of the World Cup for the first time, a place in the quarter-finals proved to be a step too far but only after they pushed the 2019 runners-up in a contest that could have played out very differently on another day. It took a sensational performance from Netherlands goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar to end South Africa’s dream run.

Van Domselaar was superb, player of the match after denying the excellent Thembi Kgatlana while she threatened to tear the Netherlands apart. Kgatlana was electric, with the noise inside the stadium rising as the waves of South Africa counter-attacks rolled towards goal, Despite Jill Roord’s early opener, the equaliser felt like it was coming as long as Kgatlana could repeatedly run at the terrified Dutch defence. A Netherlands system and philosophy that is built on possession and control could do nothing to stop the South Africa captain once she took off.

But thankfully for the Netherlands, they still had Van Domselaar, and without her this last-16 tie could have veered off course.

South Africa coach Desiree Ellis: “We knew we had to score more goals and the chances we had in the first half we could have been out of sight. Yesterday we spoke about underdogs but we have shown at the World Cup that there are no underdogs.”

Netherlands head coach Andries Jonker: “If you said to me before the tournament that Germany and Brazil would be out before the last-16 I wouldn’t have believed you, I wouldn’t have believed that these big teams could be upset and I didn’t expect the other sides to close the gap.”

Netherlands head coach Andries Jonker: “We deserved to win. We played well to start but then we started to play against ourselves. We lost too many balls and helped them play on the counter-attack. But in the end we deserved to win.”

South Africa will leave with their heads held high – but Kaylin Swart looks devastated after her error.

Four goals now for Jill Roord, which puts her in a tie for second place in the golden boot standings.

The Netherlands will be without Daniëlle van de Donk in the quarter-finals, with the Lyon player in tears at the end after picking up her second yellow card of the tournament.

The South Africa players are heading on a lap of honour around the stadium and it’s nothing short of what they deserve.

Daphne van Domselaar is awarded player of the match, which just goes to show how close South Africa were today.