Sweden faces off with Denmark on june 6th (our national day, yay). A crucial match and an absolute must win match for Sweden. Everything has been going Denmark's way thus far. The two biggest competitors (Sweden,Portugal) drawing both games and getting few points from it. If Sweden doesn't win this one then they can forget about claiming 1st spot. I'm not that worried about Denmark, what worries me is Sweden. The goalscoring hasn't been good lately. I do think they should win this one though, 1-0.
Denmark has just dropped the fancy play and is now instead playing like Sweden in the last qualifiers... So it doesnt really look pretty, but they are now more efficient and getting the points needed to win this group.. .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_national_football_team#Current_squad The simple truth is that ther are too many over-the-hill players in the Swedish team, so you have more than good reason to be worried when you got an NT coach who even insist on selecting (and using) a more or less retired Henrik Larsson (who was playing Floorball not long ago) .... The Swedish NT coach really must be desperate... .
I don't think Lagerbäck picks Henrik Larsson out of desperation. I rather think he picks Larsson because of his leadership qualities and experience that Lagerbäck feels some of the younger players like Henok Goitom, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Markus Rosenberg, Marcus Berg, Ola Toivonen and Johan Elmander lacks. He's a better fit in Lagerbäcks footballing philosophy. Doesn't mean I agree with him though. Would be interested to hear who other than Larsson you feel is over-the-hill.
Crucial game for the Swedes, not so much for us, although if Denmark win, then a ticket to the WC is pretty much secure. Either team hasn't been playing as well as they could, although the scoring looks paltry for Sweden, with Ibrahimovic not living up to his superstar status, and both of Sweden's goals in the entire qualifiers (??!!!!?!) coming from the midfield. On the other hand, Denmark will have trouble filling the loss of Martin Laursen in the central defense, and the central midfield has also been hit by injuries to Daniel Jensen and Leon Andreasen. On the plus side, this is the first time in a long while that the selected squad consists of players who are regular starters rather than little-used subs, and the overall form of the players is high. Another big weakness for Denmark is left back, a position which previous was the team's achilles heel, and which Sweden capitulated on in the Euro qualifiers. That time, Wilhelmsson made a meal of Jan Kristiansen, but the latter is no longer on the NT, and the former is playing in the Middle East for some reason (I always thought he had the class to play in La Liga). I'm not too sure about Sebastian Larsson, but I'm not as worried about him as I was about Chippen. The key to this game will probably be the central midfield, though. Sweden has more depth here to fit their 4-4-2 (even though IMO Kallstrom is wasted on the left), and with Elmander, Zlatan and Larsoon all disappointing so far this will be the key to the game. Last time we went to Sweden we were in worse shape than now, so I'm optimistic that we can take a point home.
I have to give Ceres the benefit of a doubt that this is just some friendly banter. After the EC QF draw, Ceres dismissed Larsson as old (this was post CL final which Larsson decided). We've had many discussions about Larsson since. As of today, there is no question that Larsson is of higher quality than any player on the Danish squad.
You must be joking... Larsson has won 11 caps for Sweden in 2008 and 2009 and only managed to score 1 goal... In Allsvenskan he has 3 goals and no assists in 11 games so far this season... We can agree that he used to be a great player, but now you have to be Swedish not to see that he is almost 38 and over the hill... At this point in his career, Larsson would no able to get a job as a regular starter in the Danish league and surely not get picked for the Danish NT if he was Danish... I can tell you that for sure.. .
Even as a Sweden fan, I must agree with Ceres.....Larsson more quality than any Dane? Ridiculous.... I will say, however, that I think Kallstrom and Zlatan are better than any player Denmark has....
As frenil also was writing, then Larsson is no doubt picked for the NT because of his qualities outside the pitch... This would never happen on a Danish NT, mainly because ther has never been any real internal problems in the Danish NT camp in the past. Zlatan is no doubt more highly rated than any of the danish players at the moment,, but I dont think Källström is better than, lets say Kahlenberg, the problem with both Kahlenberg and Källström is that they dont really show their full potential for the NT... In general, the danish NT has more depth than Sweden, simply because we export more players to the top leagues... I think the last count showed that the Superliga was able to export around 3 times as many players to the top leagues of Europe in compare with Allsvenskan... It's not that you dont export plenty of players, but most of them just end up in Denmark, Norway or leagues that are just about the same level as the Danish.. .
I don´t think the danes have better players. The main difference as it seems at the moment though is that they have a better self-confidence, especially after the very good start in the qualifying. Sweden have been the dominating force in Scandinavia when it comes to NTs for many years now. Maybe it is time now for the danes to shine?! It´s almost certain they reach the WC. Sweden or Portugal would hope for a qualifying-chance later... With all this said and done I think that just as the danes in this forum rooted for us in the last four or five main tournaments, we will off coarse root for them! With all due respect to SAS-ligaen I think that the Sweden-side normally should be on the same level as the danish. Two countries with roughly the same population... Go Scandinavia!
Not ridiculous at all. He has enough quality to put Elmander and Berg (who scored 22 goals in 35 games in the Dutch league last season) on the bench. He is more important than Källström is as well. Ceres is just repeating his mantra about how Larsson is too old, it's been the same story for a few years now. Perhaps Ceres sees something that say Alex Ferguson doesn't.
Anyone can have a bad season. It wasn't long ago he turned down a contract from Man utd because of his promise to Helsingborg. The rest of your post is too silly to comment on.
..and I was absolutely right about Larsson and partly right about many of the Swedish players being over the hill. I didnt expect Sweden to qualify for the Euro-08 though, which I admit was my mistake, but at the finals they proved me right and also so far in the WC-10 qualifiers... Fact is that Denmark has scored more goals away against Portugal, than Sweden have managed to score in all their 4 games put together in the WC qualifers.. .
I believe Ferguson also signed Djemba-Djemba who is now playing in the Danish league for Odense, so also Ferguson is able to make mistakes.. So far Larsson has scored 3 goals and has no assists in 12 Swedish league games this season... I rest my case... .
Denmark is struck by several injuries and Sweden have not been that strong looking of lately... But Sweden is much more in need of a win than Denmark. Personally I think this is going to be just as tight and close as usual and it could go either way, but a 0-0 (like in the Euro-08 qualifiers) or 1-1 result would not surprise me at all... No matter the result, I think Portugal is as good as finished in this group... .
Denmark will go through. Sweden and Portugal might be the teams fighting it out for second? It is time for Lagerbäck to leave the NT. Hopefully they get a coach who represent more entertaining football. Heja Danmark och Sverige.
Ironically, the big Swedish problem is in attack, not being able to score goals, but since Portugal suffer from the same problem, then I think Sweden will finish 2nd in this group, so ther is still hope for you ...
1-0 Denmark. Not since Real Madrid under Capello have I seen a team play so poorly and still steal a win. I was surprised just how technically good the Swedish midfield was; they won almost every 50/50 ball and strung together passes with the greatest of ease. But it tells you something about Sweden when they've scored 2 goals in 5 matches. If you can't beat an amputated Danish team at home on your national day, even after being gifted a nonexistant penalty, then you have a serious problem. EDIT: Danish TV are reporting that Henke's brother apparently died suddenly during the game. My condolences to him and his family -- some things are bigger than football.
As I have been saying... In the Euro-08 qualifiers we played some very good games and even looked like the better side away against Spain, playing 10 aganst 11 Spanish players, but we still lost our games... This time Morten Olsen set out to qualify by whatever it takes... and we have played like Sweden did in the Euro-08 qualifiers, not pretty at all, but efficient and with quite some luck (being handed some easy goals)... .
If we lose at home against mediocre teams like Denmark then we have no place in the world cup. If we lose against a team that fields rubbish like Rommedahl, Bendtner, Jörgensen, Kvist etc then what chance do we have against proper teams?
Poor finishing did Sweden in this evening. I feel like they had the run of play but then again, the gift from #2 on the Swedish team (I was watching in Polish, so I apologise for not getting the defender's name) didn't help their cause. They certain deserved at least a draw but I guess when you can't even put away a penalty kick, you might not deserve anything. To make things worse for Sweden, Portugal pulled off an injury time winner against Albania.
Sorry, but take a look at your starting 11... how many players did you field from the top 4 leagues ?... Ibrahimovic (Inter) and Mellberg (Juventus) ?. ... and how many was (an injury struck) Denmark able to field ? ... Sørensen (Stoke), Agger (Liverpool), Jacobsen (Everton), Kjær (Palermo), Poulsen (Juventus), Jørgensen (Fiorentina), Kahlenberg (Wolfsburg) and Bendtner (Arsenal).. I think depth very much had something to do with this result and the fact that Sweden have not been able to score more than 2 goals in the WC qualifiers so far.. Ibrahimovic or no Ibrahimovic... .