Ryan discounts the technique-driven short-passing game

"I've definitely seen them play better," said Sweden captain and three-time FIFA Women's World Cup veteran Victoria Svensson about the new-look Americans. "Six or seven years ago, with Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy in the team, they would try to play the ball on the ground a lot more and pull teams apart that way... Now they just try to bang it up to Abby (Wambach)."

"Back then, you could get away with playing little passes all over the field and have success doing it. But in the modern game, a team that just knocks the ball around the middle of the park is going to get killed doing it," continued Ryan, who replaced 1991 world champion-turned-coach April Heinrichs in 2005 and signaled a shift from the technique-driven short-passing game to a more physical and direct style.