Sweden happy to be underrated

So Jon Bodkin, writing in the UK Guardian, reckons Sweden are an aging squad with many players past their best. It smacks a bit of protesting too much, to me. You can understand why the English are trying to label Sweden as goal shy: clearly they hope to build their own confidence after such a dismal outing against Belarus on Thursday.

Swedish players, admittedly, haven’t exactly set the footballing world alight in recent seasons but individuals aren’t what the Swedish team is about. Individualism is frowned upon in Sweden. From an early age on Swedes are encouraged to play as a team whether it’s in school, ice-hockey or football.

When it comest to football the national teams’s strength has always been working as a compact, highly physical working unit. As a team Sweden are hard to break down. Yes, they have dragged their feet in front of goal in the recent run of friendlies but they haven’t conceded many goals either. Sweden are very hard to break down because they defend as a team, across the park.

Despite Bodkin’s doom and gloom, there are also some advantages to being underrated. Everyone will expect England to beat Sweden. Expectation creates pressure and Sweden will revel in trying to upset the odds.

In many ways the matches against Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago will be tougher —particularly against T&T because Sweden will be expected to take the game to these teams and Sweden are, let’s face it, not the best going forward. Hopefully the physical side of the Swedish game will be enough to carry the team through. The size and quality of Zlatan will worry them and Henke Larsson has enough talent to sink either of these squads. But Sweden’s defence may struggle against pace, particularly down the right-hand side.

Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet was confident Sweden would qualify for the knock-out-stage when the groups were decided. With the tournament just two weeks away, though, there is some concern that the squad is not as strong as it could be. Now is the time for creative players like Anderlecht’s Christian Wilhelmsson and Rennes’ Kim Källstrom to come good on the international stage. Wilhelmsson, who is extremely popular in Sweden, was poor against Finland although admittedly he was played on the left instead of his preferred right. Källstrom was much better.

There’s no cause for panic yet. A good start in the tournament will see Sweden’s confidence rise. A win in the opening match against Paraguay will change everything and come the England match there may be more pressure on them to win than us.