If there was only one Scandinavian team ... how great would it be? Would it be considered as the best team in the world? In our forum we have hundreds of 'dream team' threads. We can choose our all-time XI of each country. Today i made-up my own Scandinavian dream team. I looked at the paper and realized that such a team wouldn't have big difficulties with winning the World Cup. Even if we took into consideration players who are still active, our Scandinavian players would surely be among world's five best teams. Do you agree with that opinion? Do you also think that if Scandinavians combined their forces their team would be on top of the world? Would Scandinavia be able to win EURO 2008 or WC 2010? And how (in your point of view) such a team would look like? This thread has been opened just for fun but seriously i'd love to see a friendly Scandinavia vs Rest of the World one day...
Yea, I think so. And if we included all Nordic countries, we would have top class players on the bench as well.
I don't think we would be world beaters. A strong team, yes, but we would probably not be a contender at every World Cup.
Although there's lots of talent in Scandinavia, even with all countries combined, we wouldn't have the massive quality as the truly big nations do I think. I mean, a nation like Brazil has 3-4 world class players for each position - a Scandinavian team would struggle to fit a starting 11 with pure world class as it is currently
A Scandinavian NT with players active today would not have a squad as good as the best NT's in the world, no way.
A unified Scandinavian team would hardly be the greatest. On paper, Brazil would blow a Scandi dreamteam away.
A Scandinavian team would porbably be as good as Germany. If we arranged the world cup in scandinavia we would have a good chance of winning it or at least get a medal i think.
The norwegian national team is not very good at the moment and the only norwegian players that could be in the starting eleven of a scandinavian team is: John Arne Riise (left back or left mid) Morten Gamst Pedersen (left mid or wing) John Carew(Forward) And maybe Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could play the last few minutes in the world cup final and score the winning goal
If you make an all Scandinavian team, other parts of the world will want to make an "all" team also. An all sub-Sahara African team, all Middle-Eastern team, an all Central American team and so on. They should be able to arrange a tournament where group of nations could send their best players to have them compete against each other.
They would only do well if Morten Olsen is going to be the coach. John Arne Riise would be sure to be a regular starter in left back position, John Carew on the other hand, I dont think would stand much of a chance of getting to play. His only 15 goals in 61 games for Norway is simply not good enough in compare with players like Jon Dahl Tomasson (88 caps, 45 goals), Ibrahimovic (43 caps, 18 goals), Allbäck (64 caps, 27 goals), Elmander (26 caps, 9 goals) and Søren Larsen (9 caps, 6 goals). .
If Carew improved his finishing he'd easily be a shoe-in in any team. If you want a goalgetter and clinical finishing Thorstein Helstad (23/9) is a better alternative upfront. But there's no doubt that Carew adds that X-factor and is an important asset with all his other qualities. Ibrahimovic and Carew would probably be preferred by a Scandi allstar-team coach because of the qualities they bring to the team's attack, with Jon Dahl Thomasson or OGS on the bench as supersubs to come on and add better finishing qualities if they're needed..
John Carew is almost 28-yo and has won 61 caps, so he is no young talent and hardly going to suddenly improve his finishing skills at this point of his career... Besides Jon Dahl Thomasson clearly being the most sharp looking forward at NT level in Scandinavian, he has also proven his worth by being in top 3 on the topscorers list at both the WC and Euro finals, so I really dont rate Carew to be anywhere near the level of Thomasson. .
Why not? Look at Jamie Carragher (ENG), or Erik Hagen (NOR). They didn't establish themselves on the NT before they were near 30. Carew's abilities as a player far succeed Thomasson's, Carew's problem is like I said his finishing in general, and that he isn't the goal getter type that can pop up at the right place at the right time. What a manager looks for in a striker differs, but I cincerely believe that a manager would want Carew's abilities in attack more than Thomasson's, who don't bring much more to the table than popping up and slotting in goals on occation.
It's difficult to decide who should play up front but i think it would be two of these: Thomasson, Carew, Zlatan, Elmander But who should play in the midfield? I think we lack real world class midfielders in scandinavia at the moment, ecpecially central midfield.
The central midfield is up for grabs as I see it. Thankfully this is a purely hypothetical situation and only biast oppinions can say who should play and not
Ther is no way getting around that Jon Dahl Tomasson is scoring more goals a game at NT level than any other forward in Scandinavia. I know that some ppl (especially foreigners) think of Tomasson as a striker who's only talent is to always stand in ther right place and tap in the easy ball, but then it's probably because they dont remember all his spetacular goals and the assists he also makes... Just look at his first goal against sweden at the Euro-04 finals : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXk8Wdz5bk4 ...or this assist for Villarreal only 9 days ago : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0ehCZzr_gU ... Ther is much more to Tomasson than just scoring "easy" goals. .
As I see it, there are only four players who would be certain starters for Team Scandinavia in any case: John Arne Riise at left back, Daniel Agger in central defence, Christian Poulsen in midfield and Zlatan in attack. The rest will have to be cases of negotiation. Freddie Ljungberg would have been a fifth certain starter a year ago, but he seems to be on decline now so his place is under questioning. I would have Tomasson or Elmander to partner Zlatan. Even someone like Marcus Rosenberg has impressed in a big league this spring and would be at least on par with Carew at the moment. Scandinavia do look decent in attack compared with for instance England who have to use someone like Alan Smith up front. I think Norway would have somewhere between 1 and 3 players in the team, Sweden between 4 and 6 and Denmark between 4 and 6.
Well are you guys only considering Norway/Denmark/Sweden or all Nordic nations? Gudjohnsen from Iceland and Hyypia, Litmanen, Eremenko and Kolkka from Finland would all be good players for the squad.
His goal in the 04 Euro was awesome, but how often do you see him score on that type of distances? Now if you look at Carew's abilities you can clearly see a type of player that can do it all on his own. http://youtube.com/watch?v=Rp7AHTZwcN4 http://youtube.com/watch?v=sH1g5pepWVs http://youtube.com/watch?v=dUitKV60T3Q http://youtube.com/watch?v=OPnlwxhJW2U http://youtube.com/watch?v=TUiJTjFqN6o
And how often do Carew perform like this? The same arguments you use against Tomasson can also be used against Carew. Carew is too inconsistent. He plays three games below par for every one good. And he doesn't score enough goals. It's been his downside throughout his career ever since he left Norway. He had a good spell in Turkey, but Tomasson has at least been a consistent goalscorer at club level in Holland in addition to his excellent national team goal stats.
If i was the manager of a scandinavian team I'm not sure i would let Zlatan play, he seldom plays any good for the national team.
Very often now days. Do you not watch the NT? He's become very consistant in his performances on the national team. He was just an inch away from scoring against Malta and was a constant threat.
Joonas Kolkka is borderline first 11 material for Finland these days, he no longer warrants consideration. Litmanen is an interesting case - still just about world class on a good day (read: when he's healthy), but virtually useless on a bad one and so incredibly injury prone that even Malmö FF had to think twice about extending his contract, despite the fact that he was far and away Allsvenskan's best player last season whenever healthy. Sami Hyypiä and Alexei Eremenko Jr on the other hand are good picks. I would also add Teemu Tainio and Mika Väyrynen, who are both quality central midfielders (though Väyrynen suffers from lack of match practice at the moment). And if yesterday's NT match is any indication, 20-year-old Roman Eremenko will soon be an even better candidate for central midfield!