Team Sweden

Some stats to review before tomorrow's semifinal courtesy of the TV service.

Summary: The last time the two teams met in a major tournament was the 2017 Euro quarterfinals, when the Netherlands beat Sweden and then went on the win the entire tournament.

The two teams have met 21 times; the record for Sweden is 10 wins, 6 loses, 5 ties. But the last time Sweden beat the Netherlands in a competition was in 2000 to qualify for the Euros, so not sure that record means diddly squat. (Goal scorers in that match? Malin Moström and Tina Nordlund. Oh for a modern-day Malin Moström to help feed these new-fangled speedy forwards.)

That's all just fine, but the report then takes care to point out a disturbing trend: "Alla som har slagit ut Tyskland i ett VM tidigare har också vunnit hela turneringen." If you beat Germany in the World Cup, you have always gone on to win the whole thing. Draw your own superstitious conclusions about that one. (I really wish I hadn't known it.)

 

Well, if nothing else, today's GoogleDoodle of tonight's match is quite good -- I like its cartoon depiction of Sweden at this time of year, complete with pine trees, at least one midsommarkrans, and a be-crowned (with wildflowers) striker. It also captures the the middle-of-the-night light levels -- these long bright clear Swedish evenings are really quite special. (Though we poor foreigners who were taught as children that night is dark can get a little sleep deprived and punchy.)

The Netherlands has bicycles, tulips, and windmills both old-timey and modern. I'll let someone more knowledgable speak to the authenticity of it.

 

Kick-off in ten, and I got a bad feeling about this.

 

At the 105' mark, all I can think is, yup, that was bound to happen. Sigh.

 

... and I was right, dammit!

Lindahl right after the match is pretty broken up, uttering the following direct quotes:
– Just nu Jag har sagt till alla att jag vill sluta med fotboll nu. Jag vill inte spela mer, men imorgon kommer det kännas annorlunda. Det är mycket känslor just nu. Ibland älskar man fotboll, ibland hatar man fotboll. I dag är en sån dag man hatar det, säger en tårögd Hedvig Lindahl.
– Just nu vill jag sluta med fotboll och skita i allt, säger hon.

But she's also already saying that they must win 3rd place, otherwise it's not worth the time she's had to be away from the kids. In the same article, Seger wants to help inspire the team to bronze, expressing her self-examination process in a (to me) weird-looking bit of Svengelska ("Man ska deala med sig själv och sen ska man hitta en kraft till alla andra och sig själv...."). And Fischer and Jakobsson can be fairly paraphrased by "We will do all to win that bronze, and if we don't win 3rd place, we haven't done crap."

 

— At the moment I have told everyone that I will quite football. I don't want to play any more, but tomorrow it will feel different. There are lots of emotions right now, sometimes one loves football, sometime one hates football. Today is a day when I hate it, says a teary-eyed Hedvig Lindahl.

— At the moment I want to stop playing football and say screw it all, she says.

[more or less, although I'm not up to accurately reflecting the subtle differences between a Swedish speaker's use of "skita" [especially as a verb] and my use of "shit"]

The funny bit to me was Seger's use of the English "deal" ("One should deal with one's self and then one should find the strength for all others and themselves... [??]") -- she has taken taken the English verb "deal" and Swedified it to "deala", which strictly speaking should be pronounced more or less day-all-ah (and at first I thought it was just a typo for "dela", to share ot split, which is a quite normal verb but makes little sense in context).

ANYwyay, I have not previously heard a native Swedish speaker use "deal" in this way, and I'm surprised that she didn't come up with a Swedish version of what she meant. (Because I would have thought the idea of "to deal with" a thing is covered by either "att hantera" or "att sköta", which are both pretty common expressions, I think...)

 

Old ****s like me (with a VPN if you're not in Sweden) might enjoy this look back at Team Sweden's 2003 World Cup run. You'll see old familiar faces that you had forgotten about! (In Swedish, but you can turn on subtitles ("undertext" which will be set to "av", turn it to "på") with the speech-bubble thingy.)

Lindahl, Seger, and Fischer are very good, as are the intergenerational Asllani, Jakonsson, and Sembrant, and these speedy new kids bear watching in the next couple years, but to me, anything called "The Golden Generation" will always have to include Westberg, Törnqvist, and Marklund on the back line, Österberg and Moström ranging at large, and Ljungberg and Svensson up top.

(Guess we're all proper Golden Girls these days...)

 

Err.... can I plead the 5th on that one? [winky face]

Going just by the extremely scientific metric of "whose name have I yelled out loud in exasperation the most often during games", in this tournament, Seger would be winning the Chocolate Teapot award [NB: I have stolen that line from another poster]. But yeah, the problem is always "well then who else would you have put there" and I'm not sure.

I have been unexpectedly pleased with Rubensson, though, especially against the Netherlands -- perhaps narrowly avoiding a non-start lit a bit of a fire under her. I mean, I never had anything particularly against her, she's just never impressed me one way of the other before now.

 

"Cringe" would be putting it mildly! What on earth is going through her head sometimes??

Fischer, thank goodness for Fischer.

And Rolfö, I forgot to mention how important Rolfö appears to be. Things were a little sketchy there in the first few minutes after she came off.

Edit: oh right, Neville. Whaaaatever. He might be biased at the moment.

In general I rather like 3rd place games -- they tend to be nice and open and relaxed, no one is willing to kill themselves for it. And they were certainly all slacking off today now and then, though obviously Team Sweden at least was once again completely gassed by the 80th minutes. Jakobsson might not a a 90minute player in these conditions.

 

Randomness:

Olivia Schough and the team (badly) singing ABBA with the prime minister in the locker room after the 3rd place game! The icing on the cake, her compliment afterwards, more or less "Nice, Stevie!"

See Team Sweden dancing through the media zone, bronze medals fresh in their hot little hands. What is the song? Ingen aning.

Post-game interview with Rolfö hopping about -- she is saying the things you expect -- fantastic to have the bronze, we worked hard every match, etc etc. Apparently she got hurt when the English goalkeeper stepped on her foot during Jakobsson's goal.

I'm just glad the tournament ended when it did before anyone saw me nearly in tears after the 50th time I saw that damn Tele2 commercial with the best friends who like to go-cart together, then one of them moves away, and... and... (sniffle)

On the other hand, that Telia commercial baffled me utterly, even after 50 times.