Team Sweden

Bwaahaha! (that was a bad one)

 

As mentioned, Team Sweden arrived in Canada some time ago and is now ensconced in its new home, the bustling town of Winnipeg. The were greeted at the airport by a few dozens young fans of the local teams, complete with flags and signs. The team was surprised; Team Sweden dutifully signed shirts, flags, signs, and L8 says that it was important for her to get to meet national team players like this when she was that age.

What was your favorite sign, Nilla Fischer?

"That one there that says 'SKÅL'. That was probably GiggleTranslate," she said.

Happily, it turns out that sign was being held by someone of a more advanced age ('yster' = my new Swedish word of the day) ; when asked about it, the sign holder says that she comes from "a Swedish family".

And you want the team to drink? is the next question. "That too, and we will with every victory [the team] takes," is the sign holder's answer.

There's like a whole thesis worth of material right there: Semantic misunderstandings, unrealistic expectations, and new-world nostalgia for 'the old country'.

 

Swedish radio has some things about the team/tournament (in print) that may be amusing or of interest. For starters, there's football expert Johanna Frisk's list of the top 10 stars at the WWC, followed in the same piece by (the more experienced) football expert Anette Börjesson's (unranked) list of 10 players likely to make an impression.

Oddly, oddly, Frisk's top player is one Marta Vieira Da Silva. The two lists agree on these players: Marta, Lotta Schelin, Veronica Boquete, Ramona Bachmann, Abby Wambach.

For their second Americans, Frisk likes USA's Alex Morgan, Böjesson prefers Christian Press. They disagree completely on their French and Germans: Frisk has Lousia Necib as #6 and Celia Sasic as #10, while Börjesson names Eugènie Le Sommer and both Nadine Angerer and Dzenifer Marozsan.

Also from sr.se, "ten things you didn't know about the WWC" (though I, and probably most everyone else reading this, knew some of these things), somewhat but not entirely from a Swedish perspective.

And one more – Press is interviewed, meaning the audio is half in English. She thinks that she learned 'subtlety' and 'nuance' in Europe, and that one difference with playing in a "low-pressure" league like Damallsvenskan, is that one's passes and touches are expected to be perfect, unlike playing for Team USA.

The above story (combined with the 'nostalgia to the old country' bit) reminds me of a friend's anecdote. His father, who worked in the car industry, said the following: the Germans make pretty cars with precision-machined steel parts that fit and work together seamlessly; the American system for making the same two parts is to rough them out of pig iron and then slap a rubber gasket between 'em. The American system, said the friend's father, is superior in every way.

 

And here is SR's (the radio service) list of players and a few words about them.

I couldn't help myself -- I put it through Giggle.

Sadly, GT seems to have figured out to not translate names in bold (except for some reason for poor 'Wrap' Sembrandt), so we can no longer read about 'The Electrical' Rubensson. Johanna 'Fresh', however, does not have her name in bold. (At first glance, I thought that the injury situation was so bad that SR had decided to lead each player description with a health status update.)

There are still fun things to be learned. Did you know, for instance, that Sara Thunebro is bipedal? Or that Nilla Fischer is good head? Or that Sofia Jakobsson has started painting? I guess maybe we could have guessed some of that -- I had just never thought about it -- but I can't say I'm really surprised to hear that Thunebro is bipedal.

 

Feeling good? We can cure that -- here, try this long piece from Sverige's radio about the campaign of Team Sweden's 2003 WC campaign, set in the context of the then-recent murder by knife of foreign minister Anna Lindh. (Even if you don't want to listen to a half-hour documentary in Swedish, if you lick on the link, you'll get to see a picture of then-sports-minister Mona Sahlin rallying the troops, including some old favorites.)

 

Yep, that's why the Model T was called the 'Tinnitus Lizzy'.

Here's SR's guide for tonight's premier against Nigeria including posited starting lineup (absolutely no surprises there). Therese Sjögran is slightly worried about the heat, which is forecast to be 25C and sunny. Swedes simply aren't used to playing in such intolerable conditions. "What is this, 'sunny'? What does that mean?"

More fun is the following: everyone remembers how Team Sweden is Complete Crap at Opening Games, right? SR calls them "worthless" in premier games in major tournaments and reviews the facts: between 1991 and 2008, the team lost or tied every opener in a major tournament except one. In the four tournaments since 2008 they've done better, winning three and tying one (Euro 09, win; WC 11, win; Oly 12, win, Euro 13, tie).

 

Dear TV4 and the brainiacs in charge of VM-soffan,

While I thank you for giving Nazanin Vaseghpanah (ex-Hammarby) gainful employment, I question your format. Do you really think live broadcasting a Twitter feed is a good idea?

 

And the Swedish offense, don't leave them out. When your goalscorers are Fischer, then Sembrant (!) assisted by Nilsson... (but hooray Wrap Sembrant!)

Well, some US fans assure us that Sundhage is a crafty sneaky mastermind. Maybe this is all part of a Cunning Plan.

 

Most entertaining one so far that I've seen. But the injuries! Two of Sweden's three subs were forced, and the third was trying to forestall injury, I think.

 

Turns out that Team Sweden does have an official song this year; here it is. It is not offensively awful, though I can't say I find it compelling or memorable either.



Especially for today, I suggest this much less cheerful song instead, by Swedish artist Seinabo Sey.



The title is "Younger"; the chorus is basically 'get it while you can, because you're not getting any younger'. Sigh. Ain't it the truth. Here's hoping that all of Team Sweden will take heart from the sentiment and at least put on a good show tonight!

 

There's a really good still shot of one of Nigeria's shots up at SR, in a piece about how terrible the defense is. It can't be this goal because the defender is different, but the situation is identical.

 

It's good practice, to have to play well while there's a knife at your throat, says Nilla "ThugLife" Fischer.

Sjögran is playing better than ever, but it could be her last game with the national team. And in one of the accompanying pictures (to left), she looks particularly ancient.

The only thing to do about De Vanna is to knock her down, says Rohlin. (for a second I confused 'knuffa' with 'knulla', and was startled.)

I've got a bad feeling about this, says jocasta.