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The sixth FIFA Women's World Cup kicks off in Germany in June, with the team from the host nation as the two-time defending champion.The United States women's soccer team won the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and is ranked number-one in the world.But the American team named this week will face a difficult challenge in its quest for the title. When the first World Cup for women was played in China in 1991, the United States was clearly a dominant team.Four years later at the second World Cup in Sweden, the USA came in third, then recaptured the crown at home in 1999 with a stirring final shootout victory over China. But during the past decade, women's football teams around the globe have made huge improvements to where next month's World Cup in Germany is expected to be the most tightly contested ever. U.S. coach Pia Sundhage says that is good for the sport.Sundhage is a former player from Sweden and was hired after the U.S. finished a disappointing third at the 2007 World Cup in China.She says she has brought a different philosophy to the team that helped lead to Olympic gold in 2008. "Coming from the fact that U.S. Soccer was brave enough to hire a coach from Sweden and try to get that gold medal, and the fact that the players embraced that change made the difference," said Sundhage."Now we are working on certain things, and now we are talking about change again.It's a different way.It's a different road to Germany." | 
