2007年VOA标准英语-US Women's Soccer Team Seeks Win Against Sweden

By Jim Stevenson
Chengdu, China
13 September 2007

The United States women's soccer team is making its final preparations for a match with Sweden at the Women's World Cup in China. VOA's Jim Stevenson is in Chengdu with a preview of Friday's Group-B contest.

With two opening game draws in Group-B on Tuesday, all four teams: the United States, Sweden, Nigeria and North Korea - are even in the standings. And, each knows a win on Friday will be critical in the push to advance to the quarterfinal round.

The U.S. women next play 2003 World Cup runner-up Sweden. The United States has had success against Sweden, recently. Swedish coach Thomas Dennerby says his team will have to reverse¹ that trend.

"The game against the USA, we have met them two times in the last year and we lost two times, 2-3," he said. "So we (still) have a good chance to take points and win that game. We have got to fight."

Coach Greg Ryan, center, talks to US players at start of practice, 13 Sep 2007

Despite the two victories, U.S. head coach Greg Ryan does not feel his team has an advantage going into this game. To help motivate his squad², he showed his players a video of a recent contest between two other long-time rivals³.

"You know, I do not think you can say who has an edge," he said. "It is another great game. This is why they play. We watched the replay of AC Milan (of Italy) and (England's) Manchester United from the (men's European) Champions League last year. That is why you play these games. That is why we are all here. There is not an edge. It is all who performs on that day."

Manchester United had a good lead in that Champions League semi-final before AC Milan stormed back to win 5-3. Ryan is trying to make sure Sweden does not make a similar comeback. While a loss would not eliminate⁴ either team, defeat would make it more difficult to appear in the quarterfinals.

1 reverse   

v.推翻，颠倒，反向；n.反面，逆境；adj.反向的

参考例句：

• His answer was just the reverse of what I expected.他的回答正好与我期望的相反。
• Please reverse the positions of two pictures.请把两张图片的位置倒转过来。

2 squad   

n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组

参考例句：

• The squad leader ordered the men to mark time.班长命令战士们原地踏步。
• A squad is the smallest unit in an army.班是军队的最小构成单位。

3 rivals   

竞争对手( rival的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• one of the President's chief rivals 总统的主要政敌之一
• She always managed to outsmart her political rivals. 她总有办法表现得比她的政敌智高一筹。

4 eliminate   

vt.排除，消除，根除

参考例句：

• Can we ever eliminate poverty from the world?我们有朝一日能消除世上的贫困吗？
• You must eliminate an unknown quantity.你必须消去一个未知数。