Sweden Finland Preview

June 6th, 2011 | by: aron | Comments Off

Today is the Swedish National Day, which is some sort of recently invented holiday supposed to be similar to an independence day. In all reality it is just another holiday that most people still don’t know how to celebrate: should we be patriotic or is it not good to be too nationalistic? I am not here to provide the answers unfortunately, but happy Swedish National Day anyway!

The real topic of this post though has to do with Finland. What do we know about them football-wise? Of course the first thing that comes to mind is the legendary Jari Litmanen. He is 40 years old but still the best player they have (which makes it all the more unfortunate that he won’t be playing tomorrow). There was Sami Hyppiä who was really a solid rock for a long time, but his best days are behind him and if I have understood everything correctly, then he is also retiring this year (and not playing tomorrow either). In other words the Finland that Sweden is going to take on tomorrow at Råsunda is a team I know very little about.

The thing to do then is look at their last game for any sign about their recent run of form. On Friday they struggled to a 1-0 win over San Marino. Let me repeat that just for kicks: they struggled to beat San Marino. If you don’t watch football at all and are just joining us, any team that struggles to beat San Marino is not in good shape. Does that mean that we should believe that tomorrow will be a walk in the park? Not at all, but it won’t be as bad as everyone is making it out to be. Perhaps the most important thing to remember then for Sweden is not to take Finland lightly: they can still put up a nasty fight and a team with its back against the wall is not an optimal opponent to meet. Given that we managed to trounce Moldova away 4-1, we do have the psychological advantage.

Ibrahimovic took full part in yesterdays practice and he is expected to take part again today. Does this mean that he is going to start tomorrow? I have no idea to be honest, but if he doesn’t we should win anyways. Our other offensive options have proven they can get the job done in his absence. What is Hamren’s game plan going to be? He is going to want to dominate the game and open a quick can of whoop-ass on the Finns before they know what hit them. Once again as was the case against Moldova, if we are up 2-0 at halftime we can let them think they can use the length of the pitch, watch them hike their line up to the halfway point, and then counter them to pieces until the scoreboard looks like a mismatched tennis set. I wouldn’t complain about 6-1. Of course I don’t think that is possible either so I tip a conservative 2-0 as the final score.

If Ibrahimovic doesn’t start then I expect the starting eleven to be almost the same as against Moldova:

Isaksson

Lustig, Majstorovic, Mellberg, Wendt

Svensson, Källström

Larsson, Toivonen, Bajrami

Elmander

Wendt and Lustig were the two worst players on the pitch Friday and we were lucky that it was only Moldova away. Tomorrow though the opponents will be a bit sharper and a bit faster and so these two are going to have to hold down the wings. With all the hype that Wendt has gotten over the years, it is surprising that he seems to always save his worst for the national team. Hopefully in Safari’s absence he can prove he is better than what he has demonstrated up till now. I am also guessing that given the heart problems Hysen had on Friday he will start the game on the bench, though Hamren is known to be a man for a good surprise or two. Personally I would like to see Hysen start, but it just seems too risky given that he might still be sick.

If Ibrahimovic on the other hand is match fit and gets to start out front then expect Bajrami on the bench and Elmander on his wing. The real question is how good is Ibrahimovic going to be without any match tempo? He has been injured for a while now and has not gotten any good playing time. Then again all you need from him are a few seconds of brilliant play and the game is over. 2-0 no matter who starts and if we lose it is nothing short of a disaster! It would be lovely for Bajrami to stop underperforming and demonstrate that he has a future in the national team! Add to all this that even if Ibrahimovic can´t finish the game, we still have Gerndt on the bench waiting to pounce!

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The U21 team beat Serbia today 2-1 and John Guidetti scored the opening goal. Nice to see him putting his money where his mouth is