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USA Ready for Swedish Challenge

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The U.S. team warms up for its training session at the historic Orjans Vall Stadium, which hosted two matches in the 1958 World Cup
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The U.S. WNT held its stadium training today at Örjans Vall in Halmstad ahead of tomorrow's match against Sweden airing live on Universal Sports Network at 10 a.m. ET.
This afternoon, there was a press conference with the three head coaches and three captains from this three-team Volvo Winners Cup and here are a few selected quotes from the presser -- which was held in a room packed with Swedish and Japanese media -- from U.S. head coach Pia Sundhage and captain Christie Rampone.

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SIX OF THE BEST: Pia, Christie, Sweden head coach Thomas Dennerby, Sweden captain Nilla Fischer, Japan captain Aya Miyama and Japan head coach Norio Sasaki
U.S. head coach PIA SUNDHAGEOn the tournament:“It’s great to be in Sweden. Looking around (the dais at the press conference) I see two great coaches and three great players. As everyone knows, it is important to play games. Playing against both Japan and Sweden will be very important to prepare for the Olympics. It couldn’t be better. We went to Japan in March and played against Japan and Brazil and now we have the second chance to play another tournament. We are very happy that we were invited and we are hoping for good games.”
On if the U.S. team will continue to play its style developed under Sundhage:“We are always trying to improve the game, and depending on who is in the team, it will look a little different. I have to say, this is one of the best teams I have ever seen, and when I look at the bench, we have good players there and we left good players back home in the States. So we will continue with our playing style, that won’t change, and it’s about finding the rhythm and playing compact defense. We could change some players and I think some of the players have improved their games tremendously so hopefully we have a better team going into the Olympics.”
On if she will utilize her 22-player roster over the course of two games in three days:“Hopefully we will avoid playing one player two times 90 minutes, but it will be hard, because at the same time we want to play our team together and get a cohesive team. We will make some changes from the first game to the second so we can compare two matches. But we need to play games, so we are very happy about that.”
U.S. captain CHRISTIE RAMPONEOn the team’s pre-Olympic preparation:“Our preparation has been great. We just named the team before heading to Sweden so it’s really exciting that we are here playing two great teams. Now we can focus and pay more attention to the details that we need to fine-tune before the Olympics.”

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