BRASILIA, Brazil _ Pia Sundhage says her best memory as a soccer coach came in 2011 when the U.S. beat Japan in the waning minutes of overtime in a World Cup quarterfinal.
Sundhage was the U.S. coach then, and the Americans hadn't played an overtime period in the quarterfinals of a major international tournament again until Friday, when they met Sweden in the quarterfinals of the Rio Olympics.
Sundhage's memories of this match may be even fonder, now that she's now coaching Sweden, which upset the top-ranked Americans on penalty kicks following a game that ended in a 1-1 draw.
Lisa Dahlkvist delivered the winning penalty in the fifth round. Lotta Schelin, Kosovare Asllani and Caroline Seger also scored for Sweden.
Lindsey Horan, Carli Lloyd and Morgan Brian scored for the U.S., but Swedish keeper Hedvig Lindahl made a first-round save on Alex Morgan before Christen Press sent her kick well over the bar in the final round.
With the win, Sweden goes on to the quarterfinals, where it will meet the winner of Friday's late quarterfinal between Australia and Brazil. The U.S., the three-time defending champions, will go home, after failing to reach the final for the first time in the history of women's Olympic soccer.
Gone, too, is the Americans' dream of becoming the first team to win a World Cup and Olympic title in consecutive summers.
The U.S. was lucky to even force overtime, scoring on a Morgan shot in the 75th minute. Sweden's goal came from Stina Blackstenius in the 61st minute.
Well acquainted with the Americans' offensive firepower, Sundhage elected to have her team sit back and play defense, showing only an occasional interest in trying to score. So the U.S. put Sweden on the ropes and kept it there, delivering shot after shot.
If it had been a boxing match instead of a soccer game, it would have been stopped in the early rounds. Instead, Sweden absorbed the blows, hoping for a one-punch knockout.
And the Swedes almost got it when a long pass from deep in the U.S. end launched Blackstenius on a counterattack midway through the second half.
With U.S. defender Julie Johnston in hot pursuit, Blackstenius dashed up the right wing and into the box before sliding a low-right-footed shot past U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo and into the net at the far side to give Sweden a 1-0 lead.
It marked the first time Solo, who gave up two goals in the group-play final with Colombia, had allowed scores in back-to-back games since October.
Morgan answered 14 minutes later on a play that started with a long Tobin Heath service for Crystal Dunn that was just a bit too high. After the ball cleared the leaping Dunn, it continued into the box, where it struck Sweden's Jessica Samuelsson in the upper body and caromed right to Morgan.
Morgan alertly jumped on the lucky bounce and turned it into a game-tying goal.
That may have been the only time the ball bounced the Americans' way, though. In the opening half, the U.S. controlled the ball for more than three-quarters of the time, getting off more than half a dozen shots. Yet it had nothing to show for it, sending shots over, around and off the goal frame but never between the posts.
Although Swedish keeper Lindahl was responsible for some of that, the U.S. was frequently its own worst enemy, occasionally rushing shots while at other times blowing scoring chances by being too ambitious with attempts.
