Sweden's Pia Sundhage kindly offers no advice for her old team USA

Don't ask Pia Sundhage if she has given any advice or whether she trades secrets about the United States women's national team with Jill Ellis.

Sundhage is friends with Ellis, the U.S. side's new head coach. They might share a beer during tournaments or FIFA events around the globe. But Sundhage has moved on. She did it by moving home.

"To be honest, I have no clue (about the U.S. team) but I am very respectful for the (person who) has the job,'' Sundhage admitted.

Besides, with the U.S. facing Sundhage's Swedish side on June 12th in the second match of Group D play, there is a lot at stake about laying low on scouting reports and advice. After taking over the U.S. women's national team in 2007, Sundhage reigned over the squad until the fall of 2012, when Sweden came calling for the services of its most decorated female athlete and one of the most popular overall. After all, Sundhage led Sweden to the title at the first European Women's Championship in 1984 and the bronze medal at the inaugural Women's World Cup in 1991.

Last year, the reality of Sundhage's popularity was evident when she was named the boss most Swedes would like to work for in a national poll. "She was No. 1 with about 25 percent of the vote, while the next person had only 12 percent,'' said Swedish national team spokeswoman Rebecca Hedin.

A year before that, a renowned Swedish management guru called on Sweden to install Sundhage as manager of the Swedish men's team.

"Measured in terms of competence and leadership, as well as in terms of achievements, Pia is thus unique among Swedish football coaches. It's very difficult to find someone who has a better profile to lead a national team,'' Tor Krusell wrote in an editorial in one of Sweden's largest newspapers.

"This question may to appear to be one related to gender equality, but it is just as much about ambition and achievement. Swedish men's football team has has a greater chance of success by having Pia Sundhage as its head coach. Of course, it remains to be seen if Pia would choose the men's team ahead of the women's and isn't something that should be taken for granted. But she should at least be asked the question,'' Krusell said.

Additionally, Hedin said that on a list of the most popular people in all of Sweden, Sundhage ranks only below tennis great Bjorn Borg, soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, boxing legend Ingemar Johansson, novelist Astrid Lindgren, Ingrid Bergman, ABBA and Ingmar Bergman.

SWEDEN LOVES SUNDHAGE  

Sundhage's heart is now firmly with her homeland squad, even if the U.S. was an incredible experience that she says taught her so much about coaching and the game.

"When I came over in 2008 and everyone expected the Olympic gold medal, sometimes it's so overwhelming. There are such high expectations,'' Sundhage said. "But for me it was good to get to know the game, get to know the players. For me, I had a fantastic amount of support. I look back for me and am so thankful they wanted me to be successful."

She added: "The very first day, being around those players, I could feel that they wanted something else. They had just got a bronze medal in 2007 (World Cup) and I thought that was great. You played well and got a bronze medal. But that was not meeting their high expectation.''

In some ways, the U.S. side is in a similar situation these days. Despite the two Olympic gold medals won under Sundhage's reign, the U.S. lost the 2011 Women's World Cup in Germany, and has since suffered a second and abrupt coaching change. The criticism against Ellis and U.S. Soccer stems from diehard soccer fans who think the program has fallen behind or relied too heavily on well-paid veterans who hold too much control.

The perception was exacerbated a year ago, when the man hired to replace Sundhage, Tom Sermanni, was fired and Ellis, the former director of player development for U.S. Soccer and former UCLA head coach, was installed. The turmoil of resulted in some shaky U.S. performances, although recently, under Ellis, the U.S. side appears to be taking shape.

"I was a little bit different, a little bit weird,'' Sundhage said about her approach, which includes singing folk songs and delegating tasks to assistant coaches and veteran players.

"What I do know. The States have so many good players but who am I to say? I do know they helped me to be successful. I don't think so much about what happened between when I left and when Tom came in. It was the same team but sometimes different coaching it works or doesn't work. Now you have Jill Ellis,'' Sundhage said.

LEAVING AMERICA

For Sundhage, the move back home to Sweden started in meeting room in Minsk, Belarus back in October 2010. At the time, the popular former Swedish star player en route to leading the Americans to gold in the 2008 Olympics and preparing for the 2011 World Cup and 2012 Olympics.

But when the UEFA executive committee voted to award the 2013 Women's Euro to Sweden, the lure would prove too strong for Sundhage.

"It feels good to be home. I think all Americans can understand the feeling that you want to go home. You want to represent your country. I am so grateful to the United States. I learned so many things being around professional players and to play those finals. I hesitated because I could have stayed ... I think! ... another four years and continue with so many great players and so many more great players coming underneath,'' she said.

Of course, despite her customary show of humility, Sundhage could have stayed with the U.S. side if she had wanted to stay. The U.S. went 91-6-10 during her tenure, as she continued and embellished a fine women's national team coaching lineage that started with Anson Dorrance, Tony DiCicco and April Heinrichs.

But Sundhage, 55, has embraced the opportunity to use the platform she has to be more than a national team coach back home.

"It surprised me in the fact that it was a big welcome and they had high expectations knowing that I had been successful in the United States,'' she said.

"I had three finals (with the U.S.) and coming back and hopefully doing something with this team, with all the experience I got in the States. So, it's around the team that I am focused but also in Sweden, I do a lot of presentations. I talk about women's soccer. Also, I do a lot of media because the answer is not just for the women's team but for soccer in Sweden,'' she said.

She is the right person for the ambassadorship, dating back to 1975, when Sundhage made her first appearance for the Swedish national team as a 15-year-old. She eventually played in 146 caps and scored 71 goals for her country. In 1989, a year after her face appeared on a Swedish postage stamp, Sundhage scored the first goal in a women's match at Wembley Stadium. In 2000, Sundhage finished sixth in the voting for FIFA Women's Player of the Century.

She has earned her place in the world of football, in all of sports, and all of popular society. Last month, she mused out loud for the first time about stepping away from coaching the Swedish women's national team. It did not exactly signal an end of the road for her, but thoughts about how, perhaps, she could accomplish even more.

"I hope that people look at me as some kind of role model for women's soccer in Sweden. That's why I've said 'yes' to a lot of things because it's a payback time for me. This sport gave me so much, just being around, playing with the boys when I was a girl and later with the national team,'' Sundhage said. "So now, my whole journey, I really want people to take part in that, so if I can do something for the game, I am more than happy to do that.''

As long as that giving something back to the game does not involve helping her former team, the U.S. women, prepare for the soccer's biggest show on Earth.