If a team do not have at least 13 players available (including at least one goalkeeper), the match will not be played. The match will, if possible (i.e. subject to viable rescheduling options being available), be rescheduled within the next 48 hours by the UEFA administration. If the match cannot be rescheduled, the national association that cannot play the match will be held responsible for the match not taking place and the match will be declared by the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body to be forfeited by the national association, which will be considered to have lost the match 3-0.
Meanwhile, at least Magdelena Eriksson is being sensible, and saying that Team Sweden is in no way favorites to win the tournament, they are in fact not even favorites against Belgium on Friday. "What even is a favorite?"* she wonders. I would propose to her that there is in fact a very simple and non-technical answer to that question, but I appreciate her turn to philosophy, and I don't want to harsh her mellow, so never mind. * I often paraphrase but here I have only put one additional word in her mouth for humorous emphasis, the direct quote is "Vad är en favorit?, säger Eriksson."
From my local newspaper yesterday. I just really like the picture (taken after the penalty against Portugal), and she is playing like a little demon.
Right, Glas and Kullberg (and a shrink) are the currently infected people. Additionally Andersson, Bennison, and Falk are showing symptoms of something. Argh! JanBalk, when you put up those rules about how many people one needs to officially field a team and play a game, I thought to myself, "oh surely won't come to that... " !!!
My advice against Belgium is whenever taking corner or free kicks, try to target whoever Philjens is guarding
No new covid today, so that's nice. I have only seen Belgium play against Italy – I'll take you word for it about Philtjens. Sweden has not played Belgium very much recently; DN gives the following very short summary: "Sverige has only played Belgien four times in total and won all of them, the most recent being in 2009 (4–1 away in a World Cup qualifier). Current players who were in that game include Hedvig Lindahl, Linda Sembrant and Caroline Seger ." Data conflict::SVT reports however that Asllani also played in that game, although she herself says she does not remember it. SVT says the final score was only 2–1 and that a 20-year-old Asllani scored. But one thing everyone can agree on is that no one like to think about what happened in the Olympics last year. "Hope we can do better this time if it comes to that," says Schough, more or less (and she did make her own PK). [singing] We don't talk about OS, no, no, no...
I guess he said that mainly because she's 1,51 m tall, so not particularly well-matched with 1,80-something header-specialists in set-pieces actions, but for the rest she's an expert and dynamic full-back, quite able to compensate for her physical weaknesses.
But Belgium also has some 1,85cm giant, right? Yes, there she is, Justine Vanhaevermaet, explaining that if Belgium is going to surprise Sweden they must play good football. Team Sweden's latest missive in the newspaper details Asllani's plans to win by setting their own feet on fire ("måste ha eld under fötterna"). The article includes photographic proof that she did indeed play in the World Cup qualifier in Gamla Ullevi (so, not an away game then) against Belgium in 2009.
Props also to Nildén, who hasn't played a minute of this tournament so far and has, what, like 3 previous appearances for the national team, and then got the start in the Big Game when The Plague smote Team Sweden. Excellent, story-book stuff.
for a long while thought FIFA might of changed the rules overnight to just one allowed, designated shooter as Angeldahl sure looked like she was taking all of them! Blackstenius should get an haircut, or at least it was the first time in history when an goal was called off-sides due to her ponytail flying overhead past the defender!
Blackstenius herself is wondering whether she should stop celebrating goals at all until after VAR has confirmed one. Sembrant has dedicated her goal against Belgium to her supportive maternal grandmother, who died just about a year ago; this is Sembrant's first championship without her support. Hanna Glas has had a couple negative covid tests and is back, hurrah. And finally, a fun little puff piece on Björn and Angeldahl, who played their first game together when they were both 5 years old for Vaksala IF. Perhaps they will start a detective agency together after their playing carriers are over – "Bear and Angel Valley" – I like it! (Sounds more like they should be doing wildlife control, actually.)
I like when two Swedish names are so simple that even someone completely in the dark about that language, like myself, can traslate them (or better: recognize their translation)!
I do not want to swear to "angel" (which should be "ängel" and I've known an Ängelmark, so...), but if it were an American TV show, it certainly would be. I'm getting nervous. Teams coached by Sarina Wiegman have crushed Tea Sweden's dreams twice; will tonight be the third? Kosovare Asllani meanwhile is vowing to leave every drop of sweat on the field.
Dagens Nyheter is reporting that Team Sweden felt an earthquake last night in their hotel in New Zealand for WWC 2023. "Suddenly the armchair was shaking," reports Olivia Schough, who says she was watching the Germany v. Colombia with Caroline Seger at the time. It couldn't have been too big an earthquake, though, because other players missed it entirely. Sofia Jakobsson, for instance, says that she's disappointed to have not felt it. But fear not – she adds that the team has been told what to do in case there are bigger earthquakes.
Oddly (or not) a smaller newspaper has a longer report on the earthquake with some additional fun details. Hanna Bennison and Ann Sandberg also confirm feeling it, and "there was yelling from certain rooms," says Schough, "probably Kosovare Asllani who we could hear through the walls, she is of course afraid of everything."
Well, Schough has a reputation as the team jokester – perhaps she is trying to wind Asllani up a bit.
One question on everybody's mind now: How has Team Sweden performed against Team USA, historcally? Dagens Nyheter has us covered. -------------------------------- Championships, Sweden–USA WWC 1991: 2–3 Sweden's goal(s): Lena Videkull, Ingrid Hagby Olympics 1996: 1–2 Sweden's goal(s): Videkull WWC 2003: 1–3 Sweden's goal(s): Victoria Sandell (then Svensson) WWC 2007: 0–2 WWC 2011: 2–1 Sweden's goal(s): Lisa Dahlqvist (penalty), Nilla Fischer WWC 2015: 0–0 Olympics 2016, kvartsfinal: 5–4 after penalties [a memorable occasion! read recent news about it here], 1–1 after normal and extra time Sweden's goal(s) (during the match): Stina Blackstenius WWC 2019: 0–2 Olympics 2021: 3–0 Sweden's goal(s): Blackstenius (2), Lina Hurtig ----------------------- Ah, yes, 2011, I remember it now. The Volkswagen ads everywhere, Dahlkvist's heroism and kindness (despite DN, she is a K-kvist, not a Q-qvist), the happy-camper Sweden fans who had bought tickets to the wrong city for the next round on the assumption that Sweden would finish second in that group... Please note that this very same same Blackstenius is still running around; may she be as much of (or more of) a terror to Team USA as she has been historically.
Well, blissett, if some outlets are doing their best to jinx Team Japan, Dagens Nyheter is now doing its best to jinx Team Sweden with this article, which asks in its headline, "Is Sweden's gold curse to be broken in the WC?" (Sweden has of course several silvers and bronzes). If I am misinterpreting the use of the S-passive here ("bryts den svenska guldförbannelsen i VM?") I'd be happy to hear it, but I like the alternative imaginable translations even less (I've made mine as passive as grammatically possible). (On the other hand, the headline doesn't specify which WC... maybe they mean, "in any World Cup, ever" (because what insane headline writer would demand breaking a curse right now??).) The article itself starts with the first and last time Sweden won a tournament, all the way back in the Euros in 1984, and then is a long list of heartache and pain ever since.
DN reports that Musovic lied to Hurtig before she took her shot about what would happen if she made it. It's a fun story, but can it possibly be true? Was there time for positive misdirection, in their brief exchange? That Hurtig had lost count of where they were in the process, I believe – easy to do – but it seems to me more like Musovic merely didn't quite answer the question rather than lie outright. Hurtig, not usually a penalty taker, admits to being very nervous, and Musovic says she didn't want her to worry her purty little head about it too much. There is less doubt that Team Sweden is high on life right now, in the words of philosopher-defender Eriksson, who played the whole 120 minutes and then made her penalty kick. "We have a rule that we celebrate a victory properly," says Musovic. A social media post they made shows them singing and dancing all the way back to their hotel. (I hope it was only the benchers doing that! The rest ought to have been carried back in rickshaws.) Everyone interviewed has been very impressed by Japan and knows that it will take a lot to beat them, but "first I want to take the opportunity to enjoy this win [against the US]", says Blackstenius, who the journalist notes scored against Japan when the two teams met last in the Olympics.
Worth notice is that Eriksson have played every minute of all four matches. Illested also started in all but only played 62 minutes against Argentina, all other have rested at least 3/4 of a match.
Music news! There's an official Team Sweden song for this tournament and it's sung by an Actual Artist, mind you, not the team itself. The video includes several actual players and Miss Li herself shooting and managing to trap the ball on her neck (or here's the live sing-along version if you prefer). It's catchy, imho, and some of the lyrics have already come true.
Thanks, I did not know that! What fun. Meanwhile, I am not the only one in Sweden to think that Japan 2023 looks an awful lot like Japan 2011 – that is, the Japan team that won the WC that year, and directly eliminated Sweden, as has been mentioned – despite having only one player from those days on the current team (Saki Kumagai). An article in Dagens Nyheter ("Japan is back in gold-medal form", more or less) interviews former team members Therese Sjögran and Lotta Schelin, both of whom were on that 2011 squad and remember that they ran a lot when they played Japan, but hardly touched the ball. Also, "[it was like t]hey could find each other in the dark," as Coach Dennerby said then. Sjögran and Schelin also both think that Japan 2023 is better than Japan 2011, with sharper passing and more speed over longer distances.