Chile v Sweden: Women's World Cup 2019 – live!

13 min: Another long sequence of passes until Magdalena Eriksson decides she’s had enough of this and strikes a ball from the left 25 yards out. It’s actually awkward for Endler, who has to backpedal all the way to her line to catch the high shot.

11 min: Another bit of Chilean possession on the left flank, this time with Rosario Balmaceda. Nothing threatening right now, though.

8 min: Chile counter! Francisca Lara shrugs off a defender on the left flank.

7 min: Chile briefly had seven players within six yards of the end line. It’s the old chicken-or-egg argument — are they packing it back deliberately, or are they simply unable to get the ball.

Now a corner in which roughly 80 players are crowded in the 6-yard box by the near post.

5 min: Javiera Toro is rather apologetic after accidentally whacking Asllani in the calf. A foul gives Endler a chance to clear the lines, but Sweden win it back with ease.

3 min: First shot of the game. A curling cross from finds Sofia Jakobsson a few yards out. She had a defender close by and can’t get a clean shot. Sweden do earn a corner, which is promptly squandered.

2 min: Sweden connecting a few passes rather easily, with a brief interruption in which Chile managed to whack the ball forward.

Kickoff: Sweden quickly chips the ball into the attacking third.

From J.R. in Illinois: “Hey Beau, Sounds like Chile may have an advantage having a nutrition student in the team because I assume to win the World Cup, just like Ryan Giggs said of the Premier League, “It’s a war of nutrition”. Also, you can’t leave us hanging. You now must tell us what you are eating for lunch.”

Some belVita biscuits. Then a diet soda. And because we just celebrated my mother-in-law’s milestone birthday, some cake. I’ve lost more than 30 pounds in the last 15 months, so I’m trying to find them.

From a correspondent who played a bit of high-level football …

We’ll see! She might be busy today. But so far, it’s surely UNC Wilmington’s Sydney Schneider (Jamaica), isn’t it?

From the emails, a word from Abhijato Sensarma: “While one knows in their heart that Sweden should come out on top today, a Chile win will produce shockwaves and make this a much more interesting tournament!”

Perhaps, but aren’t we all hoping the USA and Sweden have six points each when they meet for first place in the group? The winner would likely face … France. OK, maybe first place isn’t so desirable.

Please do share your thoughts by email or Twitter. Just don’t call. I get so many robocalls, especially with local elections coming up, that I generally send everything to voice mail.

Random fact: Chilean forward Rosario Balcameda’s Instagram feed says she is an “estudiante de nutrición.”

Please don’t tell her what I’m eating for lunch.

The Fox Sports pregame commentary can be summed up as follows …

Sweden can’t score.

Chile can’t defend.

So it’s the classic “resistible force against a movable object” matchup.

Sweden: Intro and lineup

Forget the bunker-and-counter of the 2016 Olympic quarterfinal. Sweden can pick teams apart. The Guardian’s profile tells us coach Peter Gerhardsson, who replaced U.S. coach-turned-tormenter Pia Sundhage, has been playing the ball from the back in a dynamic 4-2-3-1 formation.

The anchor is the veteran Caroline Seger, who played a couple of years in Women’s Professional Soccer before that U.S. league shut down and has passed through the glitzy squad at Lyon. Kosovare Asllani is a potent attacker who also played a bit in WPS. Nilla Fischer, a longtime player with German powerhouse Wolfsburg, provides defensive stability.

All three of those players are in The Guardian’s top 100 in the world, as are Bayern Munich forward Fridolina Rolfö and young Montpellier forward Stina Blackstenius.

The starters are:

GK: Lindahl
D (r-l): Glas, Fischer, Sembrant, Eriksson
M: Rubensson, Asllani, Seger (captain)
F: Jakobsson, Blackstenius, Rolfö

Chile: Intro and lineup

The South American runners-up have a defense and goalkeeper who will make things difficult. Christiane Endler, who played college soccer at South Florida, started in goal for Paris St. Germain in the Champions League quarterfinals and was named to The Guardian’s top 100 list for her heroics in getting Chile through the Copa America Femenina.

Two defenders (Rocio Soto, Su Helen Galaz) play in Spain with Zaragoza; two more (Camila Sáez, Carla Guerrero) play with Rayo Vallecano.

The midfield and front line also have a couple of players in the Spanish league. The best-known player to U.S. fans would be Yanara Aedo, formerly of the Washington Spirit. (She also scored the winning goal when the Spirit Reserves won the 2015 W-League championship. No, not the Australian W-League.)

The starters are:

GK: Endler
D (r-l): Galaz, Guerrero, Sáez, Toro
M: Araya, Aedo, Lara
F: Zamora, Urrutia, Balmaceda

So that’s six players based in Spain in the defense and midfield. The forwards are all based in South America.

I turned up for a recent refereeing assignment blasting Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” in my car. I’m not one to judge. Besides when you’re a referee, singing about how the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate is rather apt.

Good day or evening to all.

Let’s state the obvious here — the main interest in this game from a U.S. point of view is that these teams are the next two opponents in group play. But it’s also a classic matchup between a perennial contender and a team that has never been on this sort of stage before.

Sweden has never won the grand prize at the World Cup or Olympics, but the team has been pesky since international play began in earnest in the 1990s. Also, and we hate to bring up a bad memory for U.S. fans, but the Swedes knocked the USA out of the 2016 Olympics.

Chile has never qualified for anything. The most startling stat in The Guardian’s profile: The country has 727 women registered as adult players. That’s it. But they’ve ramped up a good bit in the last decade, with nearly a dozen players signed to European clubs, including most of the players at the back.

Beau will be here shortly, in the meantime here are our guides to today’s protagonists: