WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The moment Abby Wambach stepped off the bench to enter the United States’s game against Sweden on Friday night – the first time in more than a decade that she hadn’t started for the national team in a Women’s World Cup match — the American fans here rejoiced in unison.
The belated entry of Wambach, 35, the trusty all-time scoring leader in women’s soccer, would surely produce something to break open the tie game, they reasoned, and deliver a United States victory. Of course she would. After tinkering with the starting lineup from their opening game, Coach Jill Ellis had devised this backup plan and, to the fans who now rose to their feet to greet Wambach’s first few steps onto the turf, it was foolproof.