USA vs Sweden: Start time, channel, how to watch and stream women’s World Cup

The U.S. women’s national soccer team will face rival Sweden in the knockout round of the World Cup Sunday morning four wins away from a three-peat.

Thanks to the time difference between the U.S. and Australia, the game will kick off in Philadelphia at 5 a.m. Eastern. (Melbourne, Australia is 14 hours ahead of Philadelphia, so the game will be played locally at 7 p.m.) And if the U.S. manages to move on, their next game would be against Japan at 3:30 a.m. Friday.

But the Americans will have to make it past Sweden, which has outscored its opponents 10-1 and was one of just three teams to win all their games in the group stage of the tournament. (Japan and England were the others.) Sweden dominated the U.S. team 3-0 during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

On the positive side, it’s the sixth straight World Cup in which the U.S. has faced Sweden, with the Americans winning four of the last five, most recently a 2-0 victory in the group stage in France during the 2019 World Cup.

The U.S. is under pressure to perform following its disappointing 0-0 draw against Portugal, which dropped them to second place during the group stage. While the Americans have yet to lose a game and only gave up a single goal through its first three games, the defending World Cup champions haven’t looked like the team that has dominated previous tournaments.

“It is time for this team to put up or shut up, or I guess to go home,” said Fox Sports analyst Alexi Lalas. “We have yet to see that mystery team that makes us all believe that they can not only beat Sweden, but then go on and win a World Cup.”

Here’s everything you need to know to watch Sunday’s U.S.-Sweden World Cup match:

The U.S. women’s team’s match against Sweden in the knockout round of the World Cup is scheduled to begin Sunday morning at 5 a.m. Eastern on Fox.

The game will be played at the appropriately named Melbourne Rectangular Stadium in Melbourne, Australia, known locally as AAMI Park thanks to a sponsorship deal.

JP Dellacamera, the former Philadelphia Union TV voice who is broadcasting his 17th World Cup, will call the game. Alongside him in the booth will be former U.S. star Aly Wagner. Reporting from Melbourne will be Jenny Taft and Tom Rinaldi.

On Telemundo, play-by-play voice Andrés Cantor will join analysts Natalia Astrain and Manuel Sol.

» READ MORE: Full Women’s World Cup TV schedule

United States-Sweden and every other World Cup match is available to stream on the Fox Sports app, though it’s only available to those with a cable subscription.

The game will also stream on any so-called skinny bundle that carries Fox, including fuboTV, YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, and DirecTV Stream. Most offer a free trial.

If you’re looking to stream the game for free and you live in or around Philadelphia, your best option is using a digital antenna, since all the U.S. games will air on broadcast television.

Want to stream the game in Spanish? Telemundo’s live streaming is available on the network’s website if you have a cable subscription. Otherwise it’s available on Peacock, NBC’s streaming platform, though you’ll have to pay for the premium tier to get all the games.

While Philadelphia is not impacted (Fox Corp. owns Fox29), viewers in 42 markets aren’t able to watch the World Cup on Fox on DirecTV or DirecTV Stream due to a carriage dispute with Nexstar, which owns the local stations. It includes some major cities, including Denver, Cleveland, St. Louis, and Charlotte.

» READ MORE: Alex Morgan calls out the USWNT’s lack of ruthlessness — and her own — at the World Cup

Despite finishing second place in the group stage, the U.S. women’s team needs just three more wins to make it to their third straight World Cup final.

If the U.S. manages to move past Sweden, the team will face Japan on Friday at 3:30 a.m. Eastern.

Here’s the full women’s World Cup bracket:

If games during the knockout stage of the World Cup end in a tie after full time, the game will go to 30 minutes of extra time, broken up into two 15-minute periods.

If the game remains tied after the overtime period ends, the outcome will be decided by penalty kicks in a best of five format, with the team scoring the most goals the winner.

If the match is still tied after five penalty kicks, the shoot-out will continue into sudden death until a winner is determined.

Fox’s pregame coverage ahead of U.S.-Portugal is scheduled to begin at 4 a.m. Eastern.

Hosting Fox’s studio coverage will be Rob Stone. He is joined by a cast of analysts headlined by retired U.S. soccer star and Delran native Carli Lloyd, who hasn’t been afraid to criticize her former team during her women’s World Cup broadcast debut.

Other studio analysts include Alexi Lalas, former Philadelphia Independence and Canada goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc, former U.S. star Heather O’Reilly, Kate Gill, Ariane Hingst, and Stu Holden.

Here’s the full U.S. women’s schedule for the 2023 World Cup:

Jonathan Tannenwald, The Inquirer’s soccer reporter, is in New Zealand and Australia covering all the World Cup action. Here are some of his recent stories, and you can follow all our coverage at Inquirer.com/soccer: