VILA REAL de SAN ANTONIO, Portugal (March 12, 2007) – The U.S. Women’s National Team needed a win in its final Group B game to make the championship of the 2007 Algarve Cup and two goals from forward Abby Wambach and another from midfielder Carli Lloyd proved just enough to lift the U.S. to a 3-2 victory vs. Sweden.

The USA now advances to its fifth consecutive Algarve Cup title game, one of the premier women’s international tournaments in the world, which this year serves as a preview to the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup in China.

The USA will face Denmark for the title on Wednesday, March 14, at Vila Real de San Antonio. Kickoff is set for 4:30 p.m. local time / 12:30 p.m. ET and fans can follow the action live on ussoccer.com’s MatchTracker. Denmark won Group A despite a 3-0 loss to Germany in its final group match earlier on Monday.

A draw would have gotten Sweden into the final so the USA came out attacking in its usual a 4-3-3 formation with Wambach, Kristine Lilly and Lindsay Tarpley up top. The trio, backed by attacking midfielders Lloyd and Lori Chalupny immediately put pressure on the Swedes, out-shooting the world’s fourth-ranked team, 11-1, in the first half and 15-4 for the match.

Swedish goalkeeper Carolina Jonsson grabbed or cleared anything that came close to her goal early on, but the USA kept the pressure up and broke through with two goals in the final six minutes of the half.

The first came in the 39th minute as Lloyd worked hard to poke a ball to Lilly out on the left flank. The U.S. captain ran the ball down and touched it back to Stephanie Lopez, who then put Lilly through down the left side. Lilly just got to the ball before it crossed the end line, sliding to place a perfect pass across the top of the six-yard box. Tarpley got a flick on it with her head, sending it to the far post where Wambach finished smartly with the inside of her right knee from five yards out.

The second goal came just a minute before halftime after the USA took a quick free kick on the left side. The ball got to Lopez making an overlapping run and this time she crossed from the end line, cutting the ball right into the path of the hard-charging Lloyd, who crushed her first-time left-footed shot into the left corner from eight yards out, giving Jonsson no chance.

It was the third goal of the tournament for Lloyd, who has tallied in all three Algarve Cup games thus far, after scoring just once in her first 24 caps for the full Women’s National Team.

Down 2-0, Sweden head coach Thomas Dennerby started making substitutions five minutes into the second half, sending on top scorer Victoria Svensson and young star Josefine Oqvist while throwing numbers forward. The Swedes picked up their pressure and earned a corner kick in the 71st minute that led to a strange goal. Therese Sjogran sent in a well struck cross and Oqvist got a head on it just outside the six yard box, bouncing it hard off the ground and then up into the right corner. U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo leaped to get a hand on the ball, but couldn’t turn it over the bar.

The possibility of Sweden getting one more goal in the last 19 minutes to earn a berth in the final was quickly erased by the Americans, who scored just one minute later to make it 3-1. The goal originated off a short corner kick as Lopez played Lilly and she smacked a cross into the middle. Leslie Osborne was flattened by a Swedish defender who came over her back, freezing the players in the box for an instant as they thought a penalty kick might have been called. Instead, the referee let the play continue and the ball fell to Shannon Boxx in the right side of the penalty area. She quickly lofted a cross back to Wambach, who was stationed inside the six yard box, and the U.S. forward headed home while three Swedish defenders and Jonsson watched helplessly. The two goals upped Wambach’s total to 68 in just 87 international appearances.

The U.S. team was always in control of the match even as Sweden pushed for another goal. They got it off another quirky play as Svensson, Osborne and Heather Mitts all tumbled to the ground on a Swedish service into the U.S. penalty area. The referee whistled the dubious penalty kick, gave Mitts a yellow card, and Svensson hammered it into the left corner with seven minutes left to play. Solo was also cautioned before the penalty kick when she did not retreat to her line quickly enough for the referee’s liking.

While those seven minutes, plus four of stoppage time, were tension filled, the Americans coolly whittled away the time until the final whistle. The back line of Mitts, Rampone, Cat Whitehill and Lopez, fronted by defensive midfielder Osborne, and then later Boxx after she replaced Chalupny in the 63rd minute, kept the Sweden attack in check for most of the match. The Swedes’ only two shots on frame produced goals, including the penalty kick.

Lopez, the USA’s left back, was involved in all three goals and got her third career assist on Lloyd’s score.

Before tonight, the most recent match between the USA and Sweden took place last July in Blaine, Minn., and also finished with a 3-2 scoreline in the USA’s favor.

In the other Group A match, France defeated Norway, 1-0, and will play Sweden for third place, the third year in a row those two countries will meet in the consolation game. Finland, which defeated China, 2-0, in the other Group B match, will play Norway for fifth place. Italy, which won Group C, will play Germany for seventh place. Iceland will play China for ninth place while Ireland and Portugal meet again, this time with eleventh place on the line.

USA: 18-Hope Solo; 2-Heather Mitts, 4-Cat Whitehill, 3-Christie Rampone, 14-Stephanie Lopez; 12-Leslie Osborne, 17-Lori Chalupny (7-Shannon Boxx, 63), 11-Carli Lloyd; 5-Lindsay Tarpley (9-Heather O'Reilly, 77, 6-Natasha Kai, 86), 20-Abby Wambach, 13-Kristine Lilly (C).

Subs Not Used: 1-Briana Scurry, 8-Tina Ellertson, 10-Aly Wagner, 16-Angela Hucles, 19-Marci Jobson, 22-India Trotter.

Head Coach: Greg Ryan.

SWE: 1-Caroline Jonsson; 3-Stina Segerstrom, 4-Hanna Marklund (C), 7-Marlene Sjoberg (19-Anna Paulson, 60), 6-Sara Thunebro; 15-Therese Sjogran (9-Therese Lundin, 78), 16-Salinna Olsson (8-Frida Ostberg, 51), 17-Frida Nordin (14-Josefine Oqvist, 51), 18-Nilla Fischer; 10-Maria Aronsson (11-Victoria Svensson, 51), 13-Lotta Schelin (2-Sara Johansson, 73).

Subs Not Used: 5-Caroline Seger, 12-Sofia Lundgren, 20-Charlotte Rohlin.

Head Coach: Thomas Dennerby.

Referee: Etsuko Fukano (JPN)

Asst. Referees: Hongjuan Liu (CHN), Hongjue Fu (CHN)