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.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment