The United States takes on Sweden Friday evening in the second group game of the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada. It will be a unique scenario, as Swedish native and coach Pia Sundhage – who led the USA to two Olympic gold medals and a silver medal in the 2011 WWC – will be on the opposite touchline from many of her former players.

There’s been a lot of recent news this week about comments Sundhage made concerning her former team. The Swede particularly singled out Hope Solo, describing the goalkeeper as a challenging player to work with. This comes with some irony; it was Sundhage who helped bring Solo and many other teammates together in the wake of the goalkeeping fiasco during the 2007 Women’s World Cup.

For those who don’t remember, Solo had been performing admirably as the Americans reached the semifinals. On the eve of their match against Brazil, then-head coach Greg Ryan dropped Solo in favor of longtime veteran Briana Scurry; Brazil won the semifinal emphatically. Following the game, Solo told a reporter there was no doubt in her mind she would’ve made critical saves had she played, leading to her being ostracized by Ryan and most of the players. When Sundhage took over, she was instrumental in closing that gap, but her comments over the past few days may provide the U.S. with some extra motivation.

Many analysts say the Americans didn’t perform particularly well in their opening match against Australia, despite the 3-1 win. Captain Megan Rapinoe excelled, among others, but there were times when the team was treating the game more as a friendly rather than part of an international competition. With many players on this year’s squad on the team that lost to Sweden in the group stage in 2011, they’ll be keen to avoid the same mistakes that put them in the predicament of a quarterfinal with Brazil four years ago. With Sweden blowing a two-goal lead against Nigeria in their opening match, expect both teams to be pushing early for that critical first goal.

How much of the Women’s World Cup have you been able to watch so far? Do you think Team USA can go all the way, and claim its first title since 1999? Leave a comment below!