I watch Kosovare Asllani being interviewed, she says she feels calm and just has a feeling in her body that this time, we’re going to beat them. And dammit, she seems so sure that this time — THIS TIME — will be different. I want to believe. (Howdy back atcha blissett, kolabear!)
The radio service reports the songs that each player on Team Sweden considers their personal pepper. Some form of Avicii makes the list five times. The TV service reports that Almuth Schult reports that roommate-at-Wolfsburg Nilla Fischer has an exceptional personality. Which you can take a couple different ways, I suppose.
Yes, you’re back! I was going to tag you and request your presence after successfully coaxing @Bonnie Lass back to the boards but I’m old now and I forgot. :/ Välkommen tillable.
Well, if y'all have got her ear, someone please ask Bonnie to pop down and say hi! And hi back to you too, Romario'sgurl.
Pre-game coverage has shown The Infamous Golden Goal many, many times now, a few of those in slow motion, and plenty of close-ups of devastated Swedish players, including Hanna Marklund. The commentator interviewing Hanna Marklund: "But Hanna, is it the same German machine as before?" Hanna Marklund: [hesitates just a fraction of a second] "No, actually, no it's not." [which is unarguably literally true, there are no players in common between that 2003 German team and this one] The other one: "Oh how lovely." They both laugh.
Team Sweden looked very coordinated for the singing of the national anthem, with arms linked around each others backs. Va' härligt, att få sjunga din nationalsång utan ironi eller politik. Heja Sverige!
Sembrant takes a shot from her own side of the field, possibly because she wants a water break, hypothesizes the announcer. And they are having their paus nu. The new "varannen vatten": Score a goal, drink some water; score a goal, drink some water...
Holy crap. Despite last-minute sub Hurtig's last-minute attempt to insert drama, by making her one touch be the scariest slow back-pass that her teammate was not expecting. REALLY thought that was going to go badly there. I'm gonna go and calmly hyperventilate.
I'll add that Swedish players being interviewed post-match also seem somewhat stunned and not sure what they should say. They're happy, of course, very much so, but Seger was uncharacteristically mumbly, Jakobsson was uncharacteristically loud, and I hope that they do not fall prey to unfamiliar emotions and get too full of themselves before Wednesday. (I've fallen prey to them, mind, but all I have to do is sit here with my mouth hanging open in shock.)
I do not really have a feel for that, honestly. Before this match, I had been thinking that Netherlands would surely beat Sweden anyway so it was just as well. But I, like a lot of other people, will be doing some frantic Googling about that question in the next few days! (The Swedish press will probably dig it all up before I manage it.) The commentators after the match were daring to look a little hopeful while pointing out that this incarnation of Team Netherlands, like tonight's Team Germany, also has slow backs, and so maybe Jakobsson and Blackstenius will be able work their magics again. I was sorry to see Japan lose in such a fashion -- they came so close -- but personally I had been expecting Netherlands to crush them. So, either they had a bad night, or Japan outdid themselves. What do you think? (I ask as a way of helping us evaluate Sweden's chances.)
Japan had a lot of shortcomings at this WWC, but, after watching the match vs Netherlands, I can swear the Dutch have theirs also. Unleashing some fast counter-attacks aimed at their slow CBs could be indeed the correct strategy. But all of their defense is shaky, actually, except GK Van Veneendaal, who, although not blunder-proof, can make outstanding saves at times. So, as long as a team carefully controls their main sources of danger on the sides (Martens and Van de Sanden, the ones who can most likely trigger Miedema), I guess Netherlands are actually beatable. Much more beatable than USA and England, for sure.
This reminds me so much of my infancy! In Italy, unlike what had happened for other series, the title song hadn't been changed with one in Italian, so we had "Hey, Pippi Langstrumpf", although of course I didn't understand a word of it and I anyway was stubbornly singing it with completely made-up words that were vaguely reminiscent of the original ones!
Finally. Skadeglädje, Swedish for Schadenfreude https://m.faz.net/aktuell/sport/fra...le-bei-frauen-wm-gegen-schweden-16260198.html
Mmm, so you have this kind of word too? I'll end concluding that the Italian is the only language without a specific word for a similar concept... Maybe we are too "good" here in Italy to have such devious feelings?
Directly and litterally translated from German, we had if for a long time. The american also toke it from German but more resent and never translated it.
Totally out of left-field, here's something from Twitter which somehow just belongs on the Rivalry Forum Was gonna say some rumors I would make up out of nowhere if I ran a trashy NWSL rumors site but I realized I know exactly what rumors I would make up in order to maximize clicks and I'm not giving away that knowledge free— Tyler Nguyen (@tdn_) July 2, 2019