=== USA '03: Swedes in must-win against North Korea ===

Philadelphia, PA (My Sportsbook) - By Swedish standards, Sunday's 3-1 defeat at the hand of the World Cup-holding United States, their Group A opener at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. was anything but stellar.

The loss ended a 15-match unbeaten run for the Swedes, who now sit third in the Group A table.

Now the Swedes, once considered to have a chance to lift the Cup, must make up some serious ground against a formidable North Korean side which had its way with Nigeria, handily winning 3-0 at Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday.

A loss for Sweden would most likely mean the end of the tournament for Marika Domanski-Lyfors's troops as the Swedish boss expressed her displeasure with her team's performance against the U.S.

"I'm not happy with anything about the match," she said on FIFA's web site. "We weren't aggressive enough on the ball, especially in the first half. We just didn't play well, and we will have to do much better when we face North Korea on Thursday."

Domanski-Lyfors said she may have to consider several different combinations in the midfield as the team's usual star playmaker, Malin Andersson, was under par. The coach said she replaced Andersson with Anna Sjoestroem following the break, but the switch didn't do much to improve the Swedes' play.

"I don't know if we played that much better," Sjoestroem said. "I just know we didn't play well in the first half. That is where we lost the game.

"We must play much faster and be much more aggressively against North Korea. Hopefully, we can still make the quarterfinals, but we know North Korea will be a difficult opponent."

Victoria Svensson, one half Sweden's usually powerful striking due (along with Hanna Ljungberg), said the loss put her side in a must-win situation against the Koreans.

"Now, we must beat North Korea," Svensson said, who netted the Swedes' lone goal against the Americans, said. "They are a good team. We played them last year and they were very good. We must play much better against them than we did against the U.S."

Svensson said, however, that Sweden has been in this dire position before, and knows what it must do to advance,

"We know how to play when we are down," she added. "We did this in the European Championship, so we are not afraid. We just have to win against North Korea."

But the result won't come easily for the Swedes, who will face an aggressive, quick and tactically efficient opponent in North Korea. The two are familiar with each other after Sweden beat the Asian squad last year.

"We have an idea of how they play from last year," Domanski-Lyfors said. "We know we beat them, so that should give us some confidence -- but they are better now than they we were last year."