It's been a solid week now since "The Norway Incident" in the quarterfinals of the Euros, and I am getting tired of sulking about it. This thread is therefore started in the interest of Achieving Catharsis and then Moving On. (Although I hope for some serious discussion, I am keeping this thread down here so that anyone who feels like sharing tangential observations like "And to think I was this close to spending money and time to go all the way to Finland and all I would have seen would have been Team Sweden press a hanky to its mouth and faint like an overheated debutant when confronted with a those Norwegian ruffians... still, how guilty do I feel for deciding to hold out for the sure-fire Sweden-Germany semifinal?" may feel free to do so.) At this moment in time, Team Sweden lies unconscious upon the slab in front of us. What happened, and how can it be fixed? Ladies and gentlemen, sharpen your scalpels and let's start cuttin'.
For starters, a collection of opinions collected from other threads, rendered anonymous: I do see the temptation to blame everything on the youth, and I suppose there's no denying that the kids freaked out. But did the oldsters show any particular leadership skills? Which one? And how much is Dennerby's coaching to blame? True, but if football is your profession, then you had better be prepared to accept everything that goes with it. How have the reports in the papers been, by the way, and was media pressure a factor? Dennerby seems to have thought so, in this report at UEFA. ----------- To take the last point first, I think blaming the media is baloney. If they feel more pressure from the media than from themselves to perform well, that's a problem. I suppose Dennerby put Fischer in as an attempt to fill up the middle of the field and stop this "drillo-fotboll" nonsense (which looks to me no different than an old-fashioned fast-break strategy...). I suppose I understand this, but I do not understand putting in Liljegärd so much in previous games if he had no intention of doing so when it counted. Fors turned out to be a relative bright spot, but then why hadn't she been subbed in in previous games? For some reason I am reluctant to blame Dennerby too much, at least not more than the players. Although one does wonder what kind of talk he gave them at the half. I note that the both teams in the final had both had come-from-behind victories earlier in the tournament...
"Närke and Östergötland" Are those REAL places or some made up countries from the Chronicles of Narnia?
Östergötland is real. It's the county that Linköping is in. The other place could be in Narnia, though.
Here, in Camp Team Sweden, it's always Winter and never Christmas. The Queen of the country is, however, said by some to be Hot. Meanwhile, Coach Dennerby makes a renewed call for a new format for the domestic league to toughen up Swedish players, and 10 of 12 Damallsvenskan coaches agree. Suggestions include having more games, having fewer teams in the top league, making a playoff series amongst the top 6 teams so that the mo' better teams are forced to play better teams mo', etc... nothing too new, I guess. Meanwhile, a guest columnist at the Hammarby home page also blames Team Sweden's failure (in part) on the media; one of the slightly amusing aspects of the piece is that the author is deeply involved in an anti-bullying foundation. Was Team Sweden bullied by the media, or just by Norway? (that, by the way, was an entirely facetious question)
Of course she is, darling. She was born in Germany, is why! How about sending us a link to your footie blog? Anything on the Euro on it? I still can't believe it Sweden got sent home by Norway to the tune of 1:3. Sorry to have heard that both Svensson & Ljungberg are retiring, they were both wonderful players.
I don't think she's blaming the media for Sweden's performance in any way; rather she's critical of the tabloid style of reporting that's accompanied the tournament. It reads to me like she's similarly scathing of People in Charge who seem to take no responsibility for preparing players for the media spotlight. Although she's probably being deliberately obscure for the sake of diplomacy, it doesn't take a genius to work out some of the specifics behind her general comments.
Liljegärd was on a hot streak in the league, Lisa Dalqvist was the shit, while Fischer was just shit due to the injury and too little playing time. Why not go with the players that were doing well at the time rather than just going with the same old underperforming lot? OF course, the oldies were to blame as well. Let's not forget that the ´03:ers choked against both Brazil and Germany but got lucky against Brazil. There are some non-winners in there that need to be weeded out. Sjögran? Sandell-Svensson? (Nooo! She has won things in her career, she can get her shit together, but can she bully team mates to get _their_ shit together? )
Funny you should say that. Djurgården had a bit of a problem during the "Hingst era", if you can call it that. Hingst took over the captaincy whenever Svensson was missing and there was a marked difference in her approach. (Jocasta's little fantasy of Hingst with the whip wasn't too far off at all.) Occasionally when both Hingst and Svensson were on the field, Hingst would be bellowing "cover the left- FASTER!" while you'd hear Svensson in the background calling vaguely encouraging words . The Swedish team goes in a goal or two down at half-time and they come out looking even limper; Germany goes in a goal or two down and come out looking like their arses are on fire. Wishy washy Dennerby might want to make sure the next captain is somewhat adept with a flogger.
For those of you speaking German, there's an interesting article about Sweden (and its performance at the Euro): Sweden: strong year, disappointing Euro: http://www.womensoccer.de/2009/09/14/schweden-starkes-jahr-enttaeuschende-em/#more-3040
Well I have no one to blame but myself for that one; I walked right into it with both feet. Touché. This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper
Ouch. Brutal. I didn't see any of the Sweden games (counting on meeting them at some point during the tourny) but that sounds awfull. Btw, what's with the "Sandall" Svensson ... is that her partner's name or what?
As IF I'd be sitting on a photo of Svensson's wife . Though you could google her twin sister Cecilia, former Älvsjö player and winner of the Diamand Ball in 1999.
The only thing I recall reading/hearing was that Svensson & partner either had or adopted a baby. Either way, congrats!
Thanks for clarification. Do they give them no training at all? Seger said that she had had some after the... Olympics 08? WWC07? Anyway, in one of those Aftonbladet interviews in which the interviewer complimented her on not saying anything. Her reply was "I've had media training (in my head she adds 'piss off')." So then I thought maybe Club Linköping had made a point of sitting their players down for a nice parental sort of talk about those media creatures who seem nice but really just want something from you... but clearly not everyone from Linköping was at that meeting. That's why I can't entirely blame the young 'uns. The oldies showed no particular leadership skills that I could see. Classic good cop/bad cop. Except that Sweden forgot to bring the bad cop. Because... ...who can possibly be the bad cop? There's a picture in the trash of Landström shrieking at someone, and while I do appreciate a muscular larynx, I don't really see her in that role—she seems to be more of a "lost in the Game Zone" sort. As far as Mistress Hingst of Djurgården* goes, I'll just point out that if the story was posted before the season even started, and, oh yeah, turned out to be true, then it wasn't a fantasy, was it? It was a Mystic Vision. Think I'll change my handle to pythia. *"Mistress Stallion of Animal Farm"? Have I translated everything properly? Oh dear.
What's Heddy's status? And can you provide pics? I thought she had a special someone named maybe Camilla in her life? C'mon Hed. You're being too mysterious.