Pia’s Swede Silver Lining (Pia Sundhage interview)

Pia Sundhage, who won Olympic gold with the United States in 2008 and 2012, took Sweden to their first ever Olympic football medal in Rio, losing two-one to Germany in the final. She learned from Japan at Wembley in 2012, she says, that a team can come out as winners of silver rather than losers of gold. Of the quarter-final against Jill Ellis, her former assistant, and the side she tearfully left in 2012, she is unrepentant: she was proud to win on penalties against a team known for mental strength, thinks it good that people engage with how her side play, and notes that low pressure and counter-attack worked. Her job, she says, is to win the next game.