Sentence:  Beforehand, Swedish [national ice hockey team] coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson had ruminated about <WSD>tanking</WSD> against Slovakia to avoid powerful Canada or the Czechs in the quarters [i.e., quarterfinals of the 2006 Winter Olympic tournament], telling Swedish television, "One is cholera, the other the plague." 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To deliberately lose a sports match with the intent of gaining a perceived future competitive advantage.