Seeing red

LdB FC Malmö v. Tyresö FF, Damallsvenskan Round 18
10 september 2011, Malmö IP

Summary: Goals, backtalk, resentment. Extremely well-played football for 75 minutes, and the most entertaining game of the season. 3 - 5 (1 - 3)
Screen shots, complete with snarky commentary

Looking back to May, I see that I called the first game in this series, when Tyresö hosted LdB, the "Best game of the season so far." How did this game stack up to that one? Well, it had plenty of great play (at least until the home side was suddenly playing 8 against 11, at which point things understandable cooled off a little, but I'm getting ahead of myself). It had lots of goals—four per half!—scored in a variety of ways (a penalty, an own goal, headers from play and a corner kick, one roofie from excellent individual effort...). And although I do not watch sports to see athletes let their emotions get the better of them (if I did, Swedish women's football would hardly be my sport of choice), I'll admit that I find a game like this one, marked by red cards and controversy, to be memorable. Historic, in fact, according to SverigesRadio's expert commentator, who says she has never seen anything like this before in a Damallsvenskan game.

The game starts off quickly, with both teams running well and looking smooth and dangerous. The first goal comes quickly, in the 8th minute, with Tyresö's Kirsten van der Ven's long loopy high cross finding Madelaine Edlund standing just on the six-yard box; she heads the ball in with no apparent effort. 0-1. LdB's equalizer is only 5 minutes behind that, with LdB's Manon Melis sending a precise pass on the ground all the way across Tyresö's penalty area to find an open Caroline Seger; her equally low shot crosses back to the far side of the goal. 1-1 and the next five minutes or so have enough quiet moments that the TV cameras go to the stands, and pick out a particular fan, who, if she's trying to not stick out, really ought to not wear a bright pink hat and mirrored sunglasses. The camera lingers, until at some point she actually seems to be embarrassed, at which point the camera cuts away.

The on-field action quickly becomes more compelling. A not-well-cleared corner kick gives LdB a good chance on goal, but in the 25th Edlund and teammate Josefina Öqvist get a long pass forward and rush into LdB's box, harassing and jostling and LdB's Malin Levenstad falls down backwards near the ball, then rolls over onto it, then appears to realize that she's touching the ball inappropriately and puts her arms up. She is almost certainly doing this mostly to protect herself from Öqvist, who is showing no compunction about kicking a ball that happens to be near someone's head. Nevertheless, she clearly touches the ball in the penalty box, probably twice. She gets a yellow card, and Tyresö gets a penalty kick, which van der Ven converts and makes the score 1-2.

Up until this point, everyone has kept their cool and no one really has much cause for complaint. But only a minute later, LdB's emotions start to peep through. Tyresö's Elaine harasses LdB's Nilla Fischer from behind at midfleld and knocks her down (not easy to do) and maybe fouled her, but she gets the ball and sends a nice pass forward to Edlund streaking up the left side; Edlund then sends a perfect ball all the way across LdB's box to Öqvist, who crosses up the goalkeeper and scores, on a play that is almost an exact replay of LdB's Melis-to-Seger goal. Now it's 1-3. As the ball rolls slowly away from the back of the net, LdB defender Emma Wilhelmsson gives in to frustration and boots the ball upfield.

In the 33rd Fischer ditches two Tyresö defenders by slipping between them, and making them run into each other. She takes a fantastic bending shot, which goalkeeper Carola Söberg makes an equally fantastic save against, showing textbook form, diving right while reaching over with her left arm to paw the ball safely out of bounds. More frustration from LdB in the 42nd, when Katrine Veje gets knocked by and loses the ball to Öqvist; she is sprawled on the ground but swipes an arm out at Öqvist's ankle in a fit of pique.

But it's the second half when the real opera begins. About nine minutes into the period Melis is called over to the ref for reasons that are unclear, although it happens while the ball is not in play, and the TV commentators hypothesize that she's been overheard bad-mouthing someone. LdB captain Levenstad (already on a yellow, remember) comes over to Melis and the ref, and the three of them have a brief chat. The result is a yellow to Melis. No one seems particularly upset about it at this point. (Foreshadowing.)

A minute later LdB defender Lina Nilsson and Fischer mis-communicate about which of them will get to a ball, and they both run away from it; Tyresö pounces on it and a beautiful long accurate pass is sent forward to Edlund, speeding up the middle for all she's worth. She has beaten her defenders; she will have a one-on-one situation with LdB keeper Thora Björg Helgadottir. Helgadottir charges out, and misses the ball, but gets a piece of Edlund who goes absolutely flying. Helgadottir gets a straight red card and there's not really too much to say about it; no one protests. Recently acquired back-up keeper Pamela Tajonar Alonso comes on, and LdB's forward Veje has to come off, to make way for a goalkeeper—oh the shame! She is furious about the situation, brushing angrily past her coach and teammates, kicking at objects by the bench, swatting aside warm-up clothes, and she throws herself down at the end of the bench away from anyone else and looks like she's having a right good sulk.

On the field, however, LdB have not given up, not in the least. Two minutes and now playing one player down, LdB puts together a lovely series of passes, and the ball ends up at the feet of Sara Björk Gunnarsdottir, who scores a beautiful goal to the nearside, the ball passing in the small space between the keeper and the post and flying up to hit the upper net. Oj vad snyggt! yells the commentator. 2-3 now, and three minutes later Therese Sjögran takes a free kick just outside Tyresö's penalty area that Tyresö's keeper punches, then it's headed by an LdB player, then it bounces off of Elaine's head and into the net for an own goal. Oops!, now it's 3-3. The LdB players celebrate as if one of them had done it.

And it's only a minute later that Tyresö score again, from a corner kick. It looks at first like an own goal from an LdB player, and I start to sneer at LdB ("Haha, that's what you get for celebrating an own goal!"), but the reply clearly shows that it came off Katrin Schmidt's foot; she's just running so fast at the goal that it's hard to see what happened. 3-4 and I am beside myself, this game is so much fun.

---

So before I describe what happens next, pause for a moment, Gentle Reader, to consider fully the mental states of the various people on the field. This game has been as closely played as matches get; the goals have come pell-mell on top of each other; the emotions of the players are now see-sawing wildly. It is in just such situations as these that referees perhaps ought to be a little tolerant, and treat players with a smidgen of indulgence. But this particular refereeing crew has already shown itself to be card-happy and sensitive to chatter. Each team has players who are known to be chatty. Trouble, in retrospect, seems imminent and unavoidable.

---

On LdB's possession from the restart, Fischer sends Melis running ahead with a very nice through pass. Melis, as the replay will show, is onside, but she is not the 'onside-by-many-meters-how-could-you-not-see-that-you-stupid-line-judge' kind of onside. The line judge calls offside. Boos from the fans rain down from the stands. Melis ambles back, shaking her head. The boos increase. The referee has been talking to the line judge, and she comes back on and heads toward Melis, carrying a yellow card, and then shows the red. Captain Levenstad comes rushing up. Melis makes a gesture that for the referee... well, I don't know for sure of course, but I'll go out on a limb and suggest it means 'you need eyeglasses.' The replay shows her wagging her finger at the line judge, and then making this gesture to him. Apparently he took it personally, and ratted her out to the ref. What Melis did was wrong, and she knew she had a yellow; the line judge on the other hand ought to have been the adult in the situation and either let it go, or had words with Melis afterward.

Three minutes later, LdB's Levenstad steps in front of an onrushing Schmidt, braces herself, puts her shoulder down, and gives Schmidt a knock to the gut that an American football player would be happy with; the ball is nowhere near either of them of them. Levenstad gets a(nother) yellow. Teammate Lina Nilsson comes rushing up to protest, and she immediately gets a yellow. It seems as play might start back up; apparently Levenstad's yellow for the handball in the first half has been forgotten. The side line judge and fourth official consult. The referee has the briefest flash of looking sheepish, I think. The boos and catcalls from the audience increase. But there's no question; Levenstad must come out. She takes advantage of it by sending a last barrage of abuse at the ref. That's the third LdB player to be shown a red card.

It's now 8 players against 11, and it shows. For the last 20 minutes of the game, Tyresö are given so much time and space that they look almost uncertain about how they should proceed. Substitute goalkeeper Alonso makes a nice save. The crawl on the bottom of the screen informs us that the betting odds for LdB to win the match have now gone up to 30-to-1. Melis comes up to the stands to join her teammates. The three of them chat—one can only guess what about—but frantic hand gestures are being made. Eventually Tyresö's numbers pay off, and Schmidt scores again in added time, making the final 3-5. I've put a clip of the goals below, and included the last full minute of play, just for the historical interest of what it looks like, when one team has only eight players.

So a quite entertaining match. With this victory, Tyresö has put itself firmly in second place, while LdB remains in first, but only three points ahead. And did you forget about our Celebrity in the audience? I for one certainly did, and, I suspect, so did almost everyone else.

---

The non-offside, and Melis' crime, complete with replay showing the gesture to the line judge:

The last minute of play (see how empty the field looks with three players missing), and recap of all the goals:

Tuesdays with Damallsvenskan 6

Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC v Linköping FC, Damallsvenskan Round 15
30 augusti 2011, Valhalla IP, Göteborg
Weather: There's a strange yellow light in the sky, I think they call it the sun
Result: 2-0
Screenshots

Have I ever mentioned that Swedes really like bananas? As a people, they seem to be convinced that if one is about to exercise, or if one has just exercised, or if one is even thinking about exercise, then one must eat a banana. People keep them in their gym bags, and desk drawers, just in case. I have never seen so many people eat bananas. Those trying to market work-out recovery products must struggle to overcome the banana (see for instance this advertisement in which a cute baby monkey begs the heartless Swedes "Please don't eat my bananas."). Personally, I quite like bananas: they are tasty, nutritious, easy to digest, and come in their own biodegradable packaging which may someday help clean-up for hazardous waste. The only problem is, bananas are a silly fruit. No one can be taken seriously while they are eating a banana. Therefore it gives me a tiny grin when, in the 10th minute of play, the camera cuts to KG's bench, and there is Sara Lindén at the end of the bench, contentedly munching a banana, while her teammates grin as they pass around a big white sack full of them.

The game is quite even in the first half, with both teams having some close chances. Göteborg's Johanna Almgren's alert play and fancy footwork shows that she is in top form. She is playing in the right midfield, behind Olivia Schough at forward. In the 30th minute, Linköping defender Jessica Samuelsson aggressively defends against Schough, knocking her down, and I am reminded of a previous meeting between these two teams, right before the World Cup, in which I hypothesized that Samuelsson's good defending against Almgren playing at right forward may have taken Almgren out of contention for the World Cup squad. Perhaps Almgren has been moved back in order to avoid Samuelsson. The camera cuts to coach Torbjörn Nilsson, who is up in the stands looking attentive (see above).

If so, it's a strategy that seems to be working. Early in the second half, she sends a fantastic long ball through to Schough that Schough can't quite play back to anyone; in the 54th, Schough then sends Almgren to the end line, and Almgren sets the ball up to Jenny Hallensteson who takes a hard shot that just goes over the bar. She puffs her cheeks out. The camera cuts back to the KG bench just in time to catch Lindén taking her shirt off, while all the (male) coaches studiously look elsewhere, and she comes in for Schough a couple minutes later. Good thing she ate that banana earlier.

In the 66th Almgren appears to run over someone to get to the ball, and she passes it across he field to Lindén, who is taken down and earns a free kick. While Lindén is lying on the ground, speedy Linnea Liljegärd runs past, hollering; someone takes the free kick very quickly; Linköping (and the camera crew) are taken by surprise as Liljegärd and shoots just wide.

KGFC has certainly had the better play so far in this half, but the quick kick seems to have galvanized them further and they suddenly they take over the match. A couple minutes later Almgren and Liljegärd rush into the penalty area and the ball bounces funny and it's clear to everyone that someone has hit it with her arm; Liljegärd raises her own arm and protests to the ref that there was a hand ball. Yes, there certainly was, but it was Almgren who did it, as the replay clearly shows. KG continue to press and the ball is almost entirely down at Linköping's end. Defender Marlene Sjöberg, who's had a very solid game both in defense and running forward, is tackled hard at midfield and has to come off, favoring her bleeding knee. Only one minute later Almgren wins a duel with defender Samuelsson, crossing her up completely on the right side end line; she sends a ball to about two meters in front of the goal where Liljegärd knocks it in. 1-0 and KG are very relieved; they clearly deserve to be winning this game, and it is vital that they do so.

A moment of comedy in the 80th. Linköping keeper Sofia Lundgren has the ball and is going to punt it, and the camera cuts away. "Ojojoj!" the annoucer suddenly says, and the camera cuts back, and we see a Linköping player, Nora Holstad Berge, rolling around on the ground, well away from the ball. What happened? Did an opposing player push her? Well... no. Lundgren, perhaps a little anxious to get rid of the ball, took the punt before her player was far enough away, and the ball hit her right on the back of the head, hard enough to knock her down. Note to Lundgren: this is not the way to make friends with your own players. KG graciously returns the ball when the referee gives it to them.

Five minutes after this, the game is effectively over when KG score again, starting again sith some nice work from Almgren on the right, when her through ball sends Lisa Ek sprinting to the end line; Ek's pass back to Lindén is deflected off a defender's heel but Lindén recovers quickly and takes a shot to the far post the Lundgren dives at but to no avail. 2-0 and Ek looks as happy as Lindén.

With that, KG secures an important victory as the season heads into its final third. KG is now tied for third with Tyresö, both of whom are only one point behind Umeå, while LdB Malmö leads the pack with three points more than that. I can't say that I miss the days when one team (usually Umeå) would have the season more or less already wrapped up by this point; it's going to be an exciting end to the season...

Regnarök

Kopparbergs/Göteborg v LdB FC Malmö, Damallsvenskan Round 13
14 augusti 2011, Valhalla IP, Göteborg
Weather: so very bad that half of second half was not broadcast
Result: 1-0 and the second half of the season will be very exciting
Screenshots

Click for larger image, in which you can sorta see the rain

The title of this post is supposed to be funny. This game was a battle between two top teams in the league, played in a stadium named Valhalla, and it rained a lot during the game. Swedish for "rain" is "regn" and the verb form is "regnar." If it was raining during Ragnarök, Norse mythology's battle to end all battles, wouldn't it look something like this? And wouldn't that make it... heh heh... regnarök? (Get it? Get it? Funny, eh? Eh? Well, if you speak Swedish and don't think so, you are then welcome try to justify the whole 'talk is sheep' campaign to me.)

Anyway, moving on. I had several reasons to cheer for K/G in this game— for one thing, a win would help keep the second half of the season interesting, as point leaders LdB and Umeå IK were threatening to pull away from the pack. For another thing, the team currently has several of my favorite players, and after the World Cup earlier this summer, they added another, Norwegian Ingvild Stensland, whose precise passes and long-range rockets have inspired me now and then to become almost lyrical. She had been playing in France for Olympique Lyonnaise, and has played for K/G before, so it's a bit of a homecoming for her.

Things looked good early for K/G on offense. Lisa Dahlkvist sends Sara Lindén a nice ball over the top of the middle that LdB keeper Thora Björg Helgadottir has to run out to kick away from her; striker Linnea Liljégärd has a shot when is Helgadottir is off her line but it goes well high; Lindén takes the ball away from defender Lina Nilsson and has another shot, a hard one that Helgadottir must save and it goes out for a corner. Best of all, in the 10th minute LdB star forward Manon Melis is called for offside when she clearly was not; if the refs are going to be like that, it can only help keep speedster Melis in check. But the announcers are miffed. "Not offisde," they grump while watching the replay, "There is nothing to discuss."

K/G/s defense is also looking good. In the 12th LdB's Frida Nordin outwits a defender or two, makes a nice run to the endline, and sends a potentially dangerous pass back but K/G's veteran defender Jane Törnqvist anticipates well and blocks the pass out. A few minutes later Linda Sembrant stands up to Melis and stops her, not an easy thing to do. But there are a few heart-in-mouth moments, such as when Nordin sends in a cross that LdB midfielder Nilla Fischer heads toward goal from close range. The ball hits Törnqvist in the stomach and bounces toward goal, and keeper Kristen Hammarström must dive to save it. In the 20th LdB had a corner kick, and the ball is simply played on the ground out to the top of the box, to be met by Melis, who only has to take one touch to get around the onrushing defender and send a ball in that is either a shot, or a softball for someone standing in the box to deflect in. Goalkeeper Hammarström has to save it out for another corner kick. I bounce on my couch and shriek. Fy fan! What has K/G's scouting staff been up to? I myself have seen that play by LdB, oh, gosh, only a dozen or so times this year...

Let's interrupt the Very Serious Football to talk about shoes. In the 24th minute Liljegärd fancy-footworks the ball very close to the sideline and it is called out. She is enraged and you can hear her yell at the ref from wherever the nearest microphone is. She makes an arm gesture that might have been rude and the referee comes over to tell her to cool it. I think she was right— I think the ball was not wholly over the line— but you can hardly blame the anyone whose eyes were too busy looking at Liljegärd's shoes to see things correctly. Later, we see that Dahlkvist is also wearing very, very bright shoes (pictured here). I suppose if one's uniform is black, perhaps one feels it necessary to brighten one's kit up a bit with fancier foots.

K/G's defense then hits a rough patch. Defender Marlene Sjöberg, in order to prevent a corner kick, makes a hard pass to her keeper Hammarström right in front of the goal, and Hammarström is briefly in a foot race against Nordin and Melis; not an ideal situation. In the 32nd Melis wastes a 3-against-2 opportunity. In the 34th, Törnqvist misclears a ball that goes right to Melis who gives it to Sara Björk Gunnarsdottir, and Hammarström must make a funny off-balance punch and gets knocked down hard for her trouble. LdB's Nilsson gets a yellow for grabbing Lisa "Rambo" Ek's shirt; as with Melis' non-offside, ingenting att snacka om. About this time, I grump to myself that I haven't seen much of Stensland lately; it's almost as if she heard me, because she immediately takes the ball and spearheads an attack that forces several LdB players to mob their own goal area. It's also just about this time when the rain starts.

Did I call it merely rain? More like a Noachian deluge. Oddly, people in Göteborg tweeting during the game claimed that the rain was either minimal or non-existent where they were. It's hard to show rain at these picture resolutions, but here's a still from before the transmission cut out the first time. "Usch, vad det regnar nu!" says the announcer. Apparently the cable's equipment got flooded at some point, because if you tuned in to TV4Sport during the second half of this game, there's a better-than-even chance that all you saw was this (the picture above, telling you that you're not seeing what you want to be seeing).

The picture came back for a couple minutes at a time now and then, and I learned a useful phrase that kept scrolling across the top of the screen: "På grund av dåligt väder är det problem med överföringen av bilder från Damallsvenskan" (which means just what you think it means). Apparently K/G were awarded a penalty kick in the 65th minute, in which Sembrant's kick was saved by Helgadottir, then Dahlkvist scored in the first minute of extra time after a set-up by Johanna Almgren. Must have been exciting. Too bad I didn't see it. Harrumph.

---

Edit: Now I've seen the goal, and the penalty kick, and some fantastic saves by LdB's Helgadottir, as missing footage is now online at fotbollskanalen. Thanks @Dandal!

---

The screenshots, and here's the halftime interview with Stensland.

Tuesdays with Damallsvenskan 5

LdB FC Malmö v. Umeå IK, Damallsvenskan Round 12
9 augusti 2011, Malmö IP
Weather: Sunshine and then another dramatic purple sunset
Result: 1-1, just like last week

Set the Wayback Machine for ten years ago; it feels like old times, seeing the teams from Umeå and Malmö at the top of the charts. At the start of Round 11, only a week ago, when Umeå hosted LdB, the two teams were placed second and first. That game was a tie at 1-1, so at the start Round 12, with LdB hosting Umeå, the teams were placed first and second. This game also was a tie at 1-1. The less things change, the more they stay the same.

Another thing that did not change was Umeå goalkeeper Caroline Jönsson's trucker-style camouflage ball cap. Now I have nothing against goalkeepers wearing hats, after all, it's just practical, but I confess when I saw it on her head last week, I laughed, thinking that the sun must have come out unexpectedly and so she must have had to borrow a hat from Umeå Idrottsklubben's competitive moose hunting team or something. Because surely she would not choose to wear that hat; it clashes horribly with her red jersey. But this week... the hat was back.

Fortunately, there were plenty of other nice things to watch in this game. As is often the case Manon Melis was a constant threat. She takes a nice run at the goal already in the 15th minute, perhaps accidently handling the ball a little bit, then taking a shot from close range at a bad angle that nearly sends one of the end line ball girls into orbit. Her goal ten minutes or so later was a thing of beauty, taken from just inside the box, crossing just in front of keeper Jönsson, and striking the far net just inside the post. 1-0 to the home team and one might observe that it was some sloppy defending from Umeå that gave her that chance, as she was allowed to receive the ball un-harassed, and even to then run at the goal a few steps to gather momentum and take her time to aim and shoot.

Umeå's goal in the 39th was also a thing a beauty, and nearly a clinic of passing and patience and finishing. The goal-scoring play started all the way back in Umeå's goal box; three passes later, Ramona Bachmann had the ball at midfield and managed through individual skill to take the ball all the way to Umeå's endline, and pass back to Maria Nordbrandt, whose one-touch on the ground into the box was right on target to Hanna Pettersson, standing unmarked less than a meter in front of the goal. LdB defenders raised their hands to call for offside, but clearly she was not. 1-1.

The second half was perhaps played at not quite so high an energy level, although still offered plenty of chances. Melis, standing well-guarded at the top of Umeå's box, provided a fantastic assist to on onrushing Frida Nordin, whose finish went just wide of the post, to LdB's bench's despair. In the 79th minute, Bachmann jogs to get a ball going off the sideline, and takes the chance to eat up the clock a little by juggling it and then passing it to the player taking the throw with her heel; probably it is a coincidence, but the camera cuts to Melis, looking annoyed (see video below). When the game ends, everyone look slightly annoyed; each team knows that they have only given hope to the rest of the field. Still, it was certainly a fair result, and closeness of the current standings ensures that the rest of the season will be interesting. Even if it feels like old times to see these two teams up top, it is nice to see them so even with each other, and also nice to see they no one is blowing out the league by beating everyone else soundly.

Ramona Bachmann shows off her stuff:

The wurst comes first

North Korea v Sweden, Group C, Women's World Cup
2 juli 2011, Augsburg, Germany
Weather: better in Sweden (and you can't say that very often)
Result: 0-1, and beer, fries, and a free currywurst

Berlin's Tegel airport is a lot smaller than I thought it would be, which is good, because it meant that we could hurry out to the currywurst joint right where the buses pick you up to get into town. The place is a old converted train car, with room for a flat-screen TV on the wall; we hustle all our luggage inside and plop down right in front it. An employee is easily convinced to change the channel to the North Korea versus Sweden game, already in progress but only by 20 minutes or so. The score is 0-0 and apparently nothing has happened yet. I am relieved to see it: of all Sweden's group games, I was the most apprehensive about this one. North Korea is always something of a cipher, except that they can be counted on to play very physically, and the team opposing them usually emerges more or less battered, and often burdened with yellow cards.

Other patrons, who had been ignoring the TV, now look up at it, with interest ranging from slight to mild. That there is even this much interest is surprising; after all, this is a glorified hot dog stand at airport bus depot, not a pub, so who in their right minds would want to hang around for any longer than it takes to have a snack? No one except us. Clearly we are not in our right minds. Beer arrives, fries arrive. After a pause, an employee comes out with two currywursts. She looks around—there are only three tables with patrons. She heads towards us. "No, no, not ours, we didn't order that." But no one else ordered them either, apparently. The employee comes back. "Do you want them?" she asks. "Umm... sure, I'll take one," I say. Having a currywurst again had been on my List of Things to Do in Germany. I'm hungry and non too warm, and the currywurst is hot and very tasty. All football games should be celebrated with something like this.

The circumstances under which I was watching this game were not such that I could, or frankly cared to, keep careful track of events. I remember that Sweden seemed to miss some sitters again, although there was nothing so egregious as Jessica Landström's miss against Colombia in the opener. Caroline Seger got a yellow card—"Uh-oh, didn't she get one against Colombia, and doesn't that mean she can't play against the US?" we wonder (and we were right about that). Lisa Dahlkvist was the goal-scorer again, on a nice assist from the end line by Therese Sjögran. I also remember that Sweden once again endured a seemingly-never-ending series of corner kicks at the end of the match, and that only some goal-line heroics from Sara Thunebro prevented North Korea from tying it up. Typical Swedish national team shenanigans, in other words, but one does get used to it. We clinked our beers together in satisfaction when the final whistle blew, and saddled up to head into Berlin's spitting rain to find somewhere more suitable from which to watch the US take on Colombia.

The US won that game easily, 3-0. These were fantastic results: it meant that both Sweden and the US had two wins, and would therefore progress from group play. We therefore felt that the group's marquee match on Wednesday, Sweden versus the US, should be somewhat relaxed, and might even be fun to watch, instead of the usual last-game-of-round-play nail-biter that Sweden games usually turn into. Everyone (including me) was expecting Sweden to lose that game, of course...

The spell is broken

Colombia v Sweden, Group C, Women's World Cup
28 juni 2011, Leverkusen, Germany
Weather: like a sauna, say the Swedes who are there
Result: 0-1 and I need to go sit quietly for a while and catch my breath

Sweden never wins its first games in tournaments.* There's even a word for this: "premiärspöket." And I don't know very much about the team from Colombia. I've been sweating this day for a couple months now. I was so worked up about this game that in an unusual burst of energy and organization, I had everything ready to go by kick-off time: recording started, warm food on plate, cold drink in hand. The long pre-game show includes interviews with Victoria Sandell Svensson and Hanna Ljungberg, heroes of the World Cup in 2003, when Sweden won the silver medal. That team was welcomed home with a parade, and an outdoor ceremony in Stockholm which was attended by thousands. What kind of homecoming reception will this team get? I wonder nervously.

In the tunnel, Team Colombia sings. Team Sweden looks more serious. The commentators talk about cultural differences. In the crowd, however, those differences are less apparent, and fans of both teams are waving flags and jumping and yelling. Someone has a sheet that has a Colombia flag and a Swiss flag, and I wonder why. Someone else has a Sweden flag that says THUNIS in the yellow band across the middle. Thunis herself (Sara Thunebro) is the most stoic in line; her teammates bounce a little from foot to foot, or trade small talk with the ball girls, but Thunis is completely immobile, gazing straight ahead without blinking, in the zone.

At the start, Sweden looks good. They are getting the ball deep, and Lotta Schelin already has a chance early, getting free on the left and taking a shot around her defender, and Colombia's keeper completely misses it, but it's so slow that another defender can clear it off the line. Five minutes later she has a chance again; this time, the keeper gets just enough of it to slow it down and someone is able to clear it off the line again. "Wooo-hooo!" shrieks one TV commentator, as if he were at a rodeo. It's still looking good, though, and in the 13th Sweden has worked Colombia's defense out of shape... Schelin takes the ball to the end line and passes back to Jessica Landström, who is standing at the goal box. The net is open. Landström skies it. I shriek. So do the Swedish radio broadcasters. Landström holds her face in her hands, and looks heavenwards. Her teammates clutch their own heads in disbelief. I'll give them this: for the most part, they appear to shake it off quickly, and trot into position for the goal kick.

But Landström seems rattled. Four minutes later she charges at a Colombia player, clearly wanting the ball, and does not stop her momentum after the pass. Landström is quite a bit bigger, and the Colombian player Gaitan is completely flattened. And I write down in my notes that I need to learn the Swedish for 'steamrollered.' In the 36th Schelin gets a great pass but traps it poorly, and for the rest of the half it feels like Sweden is rushing. There were some positive things, but overall, it was not a good half for a team that can take itself out mentally.

The second half starts like the first, with Sweden looking good. Youngster Sofia Jakobsson is subbed in for Linda Forsberg in the 55th. In the 57th Landström flubs another shot. She is shown in slow-mo screaming an obscenity, and looking completely anguished. She needs to come out of this game now, I think to myself, just as the TV commentators suggest the same thing. The TV replays the build-up, and so we nearly miss what happens next...

Schelin has the ball, and drives it to the end line, and passes back and Landström runs to goal box again... and this time her touch does not fail her. She puts it in like a pass: safe, and on the ground. 0-1 to Sweden. Landström barely celebrates at all, but runs straight over to Schelin and gives her a fierce hug and I can only imagine is saying "Tacktacktacktacktack..." to Schelin. (In post-game interviews, she credits the goal entirely to Schelin, which is only fair.) The whole team joins the hug, and there's less jubilant leaping than usual, but instead they hang together for a few moments with an almost desperate sense of relief. This goal was enormously important, obviously for the team and its tournament ambitions, but also for Landström's teammates, who were certainly doubting her at this point (maybe especially Schelin), and for Landström herself for the same reason. Never mind that it was a simple redirect from 5 meters away, never mind the several previous missed chances; sometimes a small accomplishment is enough to get by on.

Does it sound like I'm projecting my own feelings onto my observations in the previous paragraph? Sure I am. That's why we watch sports in the first place, right?

Now all Sweden has to do is hang on for another 30 minutes. They manage it. A post-game shot shows Coach Dennerby collapsed onto a bench in the dugout, looking like he's been through the wringer. Several players are interviewed, including Landström, who has the decency to make an apologetic grimace at the camera after saying that she hopes they 'continue to play well.' A wag on Twitter, referring to this interview, asks whether one can continue something that has not started. Ha! They don't have to be good, I think, they just have to be slightly better and luckier than whoever they're playing.

Next up, North Korea, whose style of play will be quite different, and then in a week, the United States, who are favored to win the group and one of the favorites to win the whole thing. There will be no close game descriptions or cheesy screen shots from those games from me... because I'm goin' to Germany. To quote the commentator, wooo-hooooo! Catch y'all on the flip side of group play.

---

* Another Twitter-chum of mine says that this was the first time that any Swedish football team has won its World Cup opener since 1958. 1958! Okay, so that's not quite 'never' but it is a long damn time.

If Sweden ties but no one sees it...

... did it really happen?

Sweden v. Japan, friendly
23 juni 2011, Bochum, Germany
Result: 1-1 (1-0) and some indignant reporters


Three days before the start of the tournament, and five days before their own first game, Sweden played a warm-up match against Japan. My understanding is that it was known the the game would be 'closed', and the Swedish journalists were of course not too happy about that to start with, and perhaps they thought 'closed' applied only to fans, or that 'closed' only meant 'not for broadcast.' So the Swedish media showed up anyway.

Or at least they tried to. At the last moment the pitch was changed to one reportedly much further away. When they got there, the gates were locked and they could not get in. Then they were told that they could only be around (or only film?) for the last fifteen minutes.

I highly recommend watching the video from fotbollskanalen. They have fun footage at the stadium of locked gates and high fences, and they play spy-movie music, and are clearly having fun with it. At the same time, the reporter does look a little miffed, and you don't need to understand Swedish for that to come through. She interviews a German journalist who is happy to agree with her that a closed game this close to a tournament is unheard of; she interview a journalist from Japan who says the the team is getting nervous. But my favorite moment of the clip is when the reporter is getting shagged away from the end zone by a Japanese official; "Is it dangerous to stand here? But we always stand here," she says. "Five meters away," says the Japanese official.

Sweden's starters were Hedvig Lindahl in goal; Annica Svensson, Sara Larsson, Charlotte Rohlin, and Sara Thunebro in defense; Linda Forsberg, Lisa Dahlkvist, Caroline Seger, and Therese Sjögran in midfield; Jessica Landström and Josefine Öqvist up front. In the 33rd Forsberg was slightly hurt and replaced by Marie Hammarström; at the half, Sofia Lundgren replaced Lindahl in goal, and Nilla Fischer replaced Öqvist (though I doubt up top). In the 64th coach Dennerby "aired the bench" and replaced Svensson with Lina Nilsson and Seger with Sofia Jakobsson; sometime thereafter, Landström and Larsson were replaced with Madelaine Edlund and Linda Sembrandt. Later, Dahlkvist was replaced by Antonia Göransson. This means that every player saw some game time, except for the third keeper Kristin Hammarström, and Lotta Schelin, who stayed at the hotel on grounds of stomach pains. (As of this writing, both Forsberg and Schelin are reported to be back in full training.)

Game analysis? Japan is said to have played very well, with short passes. Sweden's play has been summed up as "slow play, sloppy passes, good attacks." You can see little bits of the game, from the ground level, in the video. Japan's goal, which came first, is reported to have come from a corner kick, so I think that it's the one you can see in the clip, and all I will say about that is that it was not pretty and it looked like a classic thing to happen to Sweden. The equalizer was scored by Sjögran, on a 'kanonskott' from 30 meters out, but unfortunately was not captured on video.

So is this a severe warning for Sweden, or just a slight stumble in a game that the Swedes at least were not taking too seriously? Would it have been better to win and gain self-confidence, or is it better to tie and be reminded that the next three games will not be easy? At the moment I do think the latter is true; I would rather that they have a slightly crappy last game and go into the tournament a little wary. But then I remember the last time they had a slightly crappy last practice game before a big tournament, and that didn't turn out so well...

---

So... this is it. This is the big one. The day of reckoning is nearly at hand. Sweden kicks off against Colombia in 2 days and 17 hours, in a group that includes North Korea and USA. I'm a nervous wreck. Fortunately it's also Midsommar, which means that no one will think it odd if I feel the need to fortify myself with a drop or two of akavit.

---

Sources
fotbolskanalen (TV4): The video report from which these stills were clipped.
Swedish Radio: Chaos before Sweden's rehearsel and Sjögran fixes the 1-1 in the rehearsel
damfotboll.com: Plans and/or fields [is this a pun?] muddled before the Japan match