Pia Sundhage: 10 curiosities about the national team’s technique – 07/20/2023 – Sport

Sweden’s Pia Sundhage, 63, is the first foreign person to coach a Brazilian soccer team in almost 100 years.

To try to win the women’s World Cup for the first time, Brazil debut this Monday (24), against Panama, under his command.

Meet Brazil’s opponents at the Women’s World Cup

Pia has been training the team since 2019. As a coach, she was two-time Olympic champion (2008 and 2012) with the United States and silver with Sweden at Rio-2016.

Discover, below, some curious facts about the coach of the Brazilian women’s national team.

Waitress mom and driver dad

Born in the village of Marbäck, Sweden, Pia grew up in a working-class family. Her mother was a waitress and her father a bus driver.

Admiration for Bob Dylan and Marta

In the first contact she had with the US women’s national team, in 2007, Pia entered the locker room, looked at the athletes and began to sing the lyrics of “The Times They Are A-Changin”, by Bob Dylan.

In April 2019, months before taking over the Brazilian national team, he came to Rio de Janeiro and, during his performance at the “Somos Futebol” event, organized by the CBF, he sang Dylan once more. And he lamented that he had never worked with Marta, the six times best athlete in the world. “She’s special,” he said at the time.

themed dog

Involved with the sport since she was 6, she turned football almost into an obsession, to the point of naming a dog Pelé-Cruyff-Beckenbauer.

Pele’s Disguise

When Pia started her career, girls just didn’t play ball. In order to be able to participate in some way, she arranged with a coach who would play on the boys’ team with the nickname “Pelle”. The disguise lasted three years, and then she was discovered.

Only at the age of 11 was she finally able to play as a girl, and on a women’s team.

‘Women were not designed for football’

A left knee injury almost cut short her dream of being a player. From the doctor, Pia heard that women were not designed to play football. Her mother, Karin, thanked the doctor for his wasted time and went to find another clinic. Surgery was inevitable and took the Swede out of the fields for almost two years.

The wait was rewarded with a trajectory that would last 20 seasons as an athlete. The scar on his left knee is still there, a mark from other times.

Official numbers as a player

According to the Swedish federation, Pia scored 71 goals in 146 games for club and national team.

Hiring by Rogério Caboclo

Since arriving at the selection, Pia has had to navigate the allegations of sexual harassment against Rogério Caboclo, the president of the CBF who hired her. He was removed from the command of the confederation because of this, which brought relief to the coach, who said he was uncomfortable with the situation.

Conflict with Hope Solo

In 2016, when leading the Swedish women’s national team at the Rio Olympics, Pia publicly argued with the then US goalkeeper, Hope Solo, who called the opposing team a “coward” for having opted for a very defensive tactical scheme.

“OK, we are ‘cowards’, but we won. Hope knows very well what a winning team is. They have already won a lot. This time we passed”, said the Swede.

US presidents snubbed

The coach declined the invitation of two US presidents, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, to visit the White House.

“I’m really happy on the field, with a pair of boots,” he said in an interview with the Swedish newspaper Norrköppings Tidningar. “Showing up and meeting important people doesn’t particularly fascinate me.”

openly gay

The coach assumed her homosexuality in 2010. She stated, at the time, that she had never been a victim of homophobia acting as a coach in the USA.