WC15: Our home on native land

Is FIFA doubling the attendance numbers for Canada 2015? Is double-counting double headers the done thing? I truly don't know.

 

The little tiny math geek in me kind of likes the uncertainty of the third place team thing. I wish Team Sweden weren't on the short end of the stick this time (not that they don't deserve it), but it is still kind of fun and certainly provides incentive for watching tonight's games.

There was a similar sort of snarl back in the Euro 09, when it Sweden and England played in the final round of group play and the situation with the rest of the teams in the rest of the tournament was such that I was moved to say, with perfect logic and truth, that "England really should just try to draw against Sweden and hope that Russia loses because then Denmark is definitely out of it and we can all just let Germany destroy Italy." As I said then: are we talking about football, or battle tactics from an obscure European expansionist campaign in the 17th century?

Sadly, the easiest way out of the current jam is for me to simply say "Go Brazil!" (Though SR reports that Brazil is resting some starters... doh!)

 

I'll point out that the morpheme breakdown is "slut spel|s chans|er" ... but honestly that probably doesn't help much, does it. The larger truth is that Swedish is, on occasion, hilarious. (As is every other language too, I'm sure.)

 

Some facts before Saturday's Germany v Sweden match courtesy of Fotbollskanalen:

Of the 24 last times that the two have met, Sweden has won only 7 times. Of the 17 losses, many have recently come in important matches in big tournaments: Euro13, a 0-1 loss in the semifinals (a damn fine game though); Olympics08, a 0-2 loss in the quarters. One loss stands out of course: the WWC03 finals.

Here's the complete list going back to 1991 (VM = World Cup, EM = Euros, OS = Olympics). Note that the Algarve isn't indicated because it doesn't count.

29 november 1991, VM, bronsmatch: 4—0.
11 mars 1993, landskamp: 3—1.
22 september 1993, landskamp, 3—2.
7 september 1994, landskamp: 1—3.
26 mars 1995, EM-final: 2—3.
7 juni 1995, VM: 3—2.
9 september 1997, EM-semifinal: 0—1.
19 september 2000, OS: 0—1.
23 juni 2001, EM: 1—3.
7 juli 2001, EM-final: 0—1 efter förlängning.
7 mars 2002, landskamp: 2—1.
12 oktober 2003, VM-final: 1—2 efter förlängning.
26 augusti 2004, OS, bronsmatch: 0—1.
9 mars 2005, landskamp: 1—2.
11 mars 2006, landskamp: 0—3.
10 mars 2008, landskamp: 0—2.
15 augusti 2008, OS, kvartsfinal: 0—2 efter förlängning.
9 mars 2009, landskamp: 3—2.
26 oktober 2011, landskamp: 0—1.
5 mars 2012, landskamp: 0—4.
24 juli 2013, EM-semifinal: 0—1.
29 oktober 2014, landskamp: 1—2.
4 mars 2015, landskamp: 4—2.
11 mars 2015, landskamp: 1—2.
Totalt: 24 möten, 7 segrar, 0 oavgjorda, 17 förluster. Målskillnad: 30—43.

 

Bah.

 

Yes, Schelin for sure. Hadn't heard about Fischer.

And speaking of, I'm starting to think of Jakobsson as an anti-Schelin: plays big in touraments.

Sjögran with an assist in her last game, to an ex-Bälinge-are of course; symbolic of the ultimate futility of things.

TV creatures just said her 214 caps is a European record??

 

Here's another question that's more relevant to the tournament as a whole: Why are they using footage of Öqvist in the little pre- and post-game promo thingie? Frickin' FIFA.

 

Yes, it's called 'getting a new keeper".

That is very generous of you — charitable, even — and I do not mean that sarcastically.