Sundhage has players singing her praises

Pia Sundhage came into the first meeting with her new team, pulled out her guitar and began playing the Bob Dylan classic, "The Times They Are A-Changin'."

With that, Sundhage let the Americans know she'd be a coach unlike any other they'd ever had.

Sundhage has built players up with constructive criticism rather than breaking them down by yelling and screaming. She has modified the style of play that had brought the U.S. success for so many years so the Americans can stay at the top of the game as the rest of the world improves.

And most importantly, she found a way to heal the bitterness and hard feelings that threatened to destroy the Americans following their ugly exit from the 2007 World Cup.

"She was everything we needed," said goalkeeper Hope Solo, whose criticism of then-coach Greg Ryan was the flashpoint for the World Cup turmoil. "At that point in time, it almost didn't matter who came in because we needed somebody to lead us and we needed somebody to believe in. Our team was broken, we were down and out, there were a lot of fires to be put out, and she happened to be perfect person."

With a spot in the World Cup quarterfinals already secured, the U.S. women wrap up group play today against Sundhage's native Sweden at Wolfsburg, Germany.

Since the tournament began, the Americans seem to have regained the mojo that made them the world's most dominant team.

"This feels different than any other world championship that I've been in. The swagger factor, the confidence factor," Abby Wambach said. "I'm not going to sit here and say in our future we don't have 10 minutes of time where we struggle. But I think that there's this belief in each other."

In yesterday's games:

* At Moenchengladbach, Inka Grings scored twice to lead Germany to a 4-2 win over France, earning the top spot in Group A. France also advanced to the quarterfinals, where Germany will play Japan on Saturday and France will face England.

* At Augsburg, England won Group B with a 2-0 win over Japan on goals by Ellen White and Rachel Yankey.

* At Sinsheim, goals by Hannah Wilkinson and Rebecca Smith earned New Zealand a 2-2 draw with Mexico, which had first-half goals by Stephany Mayor and Maribel Dominguez.

* At Dresden, Perpetua Nkwocha gave Nigeria a 1-0 win over Canada in a Group A match between two teams already eliminated.