Friday's World Cup Viewing Parties in the Riverside County

Photo courtesy of Team USA Women’s Soccer

By City News Service

Viewing parties for Friday’s United States-Sweden game in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup will be held at two locations in the Riverside County.

The opening kickoff of the Group D game from Winnipeg, Manitoba, is set for 5 p.m. The game will be televised in English by Fox Broadcasting and in Spanish by the NBC Universo cable network.

The Riverside County viewing parties will be held at

• Stuft Pizza Bar & Grill Palm Desert
• Dave & Busters Ontario Mills

The viewing parties are organized by various chapters of American Outlaws, a nationwide support group for the U.S. men’s and women’s national soccer teams.

Sweden is the U.S.’ highest-ranked opponent in its three group play games. Sweden is fifth in the rankings compiled by FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, three spots below the U.S.

Sweden is coached by Pia Sundhage, who coached the U.S. from 2008-2012, guiding the team to a 91-6-10 record, including a second-place finish in the 2011 Women’s World Cup and gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

U.S. coach Jill Ellis was an assistant coach under Sundhage at the 2008 Olympics

Sundhage has coached all but two of the players on the 23-player U.S. roster.

Sweden is 5-20-10 against the U.S., but 1-0-1 since Sundhage became its coach.

Sweden’s 23-player roster consists of 16 players who play for Swedish club teams, five who play in France and one each in England and Germany.

All but one of the U.S players play in the National Women’s Soccer League, now in its third season. The one exception is forward Abby Wambach, who played in the league in its first two seasons, but is not playing in it this year to concentrate on preparations for the World Cup.

The U.S. has a 58 percent chance of winning, Sweden a 20 percent chance and there is a 22 percent chance the game will end in a tie, according to FiveThirtyEight.com, the ESPN-owned website that analyzes data related to politics, economics, science, life and sports.

Both teams opened World Cup play Monday in Winnipeg, with the U.S. defeating Australia, 3-1, and Sweden tying Nigeria, 3-3, squandering 2-0 and 3- 2 leads.