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Thanks for the memories

June 26th, 2006 | By: Jon | 11 Comments »

In the cold light of day I’ve had a good think about our performances and players at the World Cup: here are my closing Top 10 thoughts about Sweden’s World Cup adventure and the future.

1. Lars Lagerbäck is not the man to manage Sweden from now on. Three victories in four major tournaments is not good enough. The final nail in the coffin was choosing to defend a 2-0 deficit.

2. Anders Svensson’s time in the national team is over. Ditto Teddy Lucic.

3. Henrik Larsson looks like a lower division striker now. Time to bow out. Thanks for the memories !

4. Andreas Isaksson looks like a world class ‘keeper if he doesn’t get injured.

5. Rami Shaban is too good to play in the Norwegian first division.

6. Where is the next generation of world class Swedish defenders going to come from?

7. Fredrik Ljungberg dives too often, argues with the referee too much but is the only current player in the squad capable of rising to the challenge of a major tournament. Sweden’s Mr Consistent in Germany.

8. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has lost his way. In Italy and in Sweden.

9. Olof Mellberg might need to look for a new day job: Aston Villa may want to sell him while he still commands a decent fee. Poor.

10. Chippen is a creative and attacking winger. But he lost his way in Germany. Ineffective at times, but a ray of hope for the future.

If you’re a keen follower of Swedish football, we cover the major Stockholm clubs as well as whatever is happening in Sweden over at Schlockholm.

See you in South Africa in 2010 !

Tags: England, group b, Sweden, Zlatan

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Comments

By sean | June 26th, 2006 at 10:17 pm

Jon thanks for all of your thoughts and insights - it’s been fun to read.

I agree with most of your comments but I’ll take Freddie’s diving (he pales in comparison to others even entire sides - see Port vs Netherlands) and Mellberg’s leadership (up to the Germany game the defense was excellent) for another run. i also wouldn’t pin too much on Svensson - he didn’t get a real shot and I would have liked to see him play a bit with Kim - maybe next time.

I can’t ever knock Larsson and even if he made the PK I wonder if it would have made any difference - Sweden seemed utterly lost offensively and Lagerback ensured that by removing Kim after Lucic’s unfair red. Germany was not very impressive but Sweden even less so. Ultimately they were done in by one great player - Klose - both goals were made by his simple brilliance — something Larsson did for Barcelona in the
Champions League final but sadly could not find a few weeks later on the biggest stage - the World Cup.

Sweden was also done in by Zlatan’s awful performance - whether injured or not he seemed to play every game without passion or pride and that’s something that will be remembered . with Zlatan’s ineffectiveness Sweden was never able to create a consistent formidable attack and that will ultimately get you packing in the World Cup.

What Sweden is capable of now is a real question but one I’m still painfully drawn to find out. Ahh Swedish football . . .

Posted from United States

By ErikJStrand | June 27th, 2006 at 3:26 am

Jon…

Thank you for all of your insightful comments and articles. I am quite sad right now, but am a diehard fan. Although I was not born in Sweden, my Grandparents are from there and I finally got go there last summer, and my family there is obviously disappointed.

I remember Henke Larsson scoring in 3rd place game of ‘94, so I am proud to have been able to root for him all of these years.

I think that Kim, Chippen, perhaps Zlatan (who I was quite unimpressed with), Erik Edman and Freddie should carry the team for a while. I think the Swedes should be stellar in Euro 08, and I believe will be a force in 2010. I think we should especially give credit to Erik, Olaf, and Alexandersson who were very solid, and although Germany struck too quickly, I think that was more the midfield than anyone else. Also thanks to Marcus Allback, who provided a spark and had a part in 2 of their goals, and should have started against Germany and would have come in sooner if not for that ridiculous ejection.

Thank you again, Joh.

Heja Sverige!

Posted from United States

By ErikJStrand | June 27th, 2006 at 3:27 am

Quite sorry…Jon, not joh

Posted from United States

By Lisa | June 27th, 2006 at 7:36 am

Wow thanks for that comment, it’s been very interesting to read.
I absolutely agree with Erik, especially what he says about Kim, Chippen, …
I’ll root for them at Euro 08, I’ll be in the stadium, I’m telling you.

I’m quite interested in how that qualifying match against Liechtenstein in Göteborg in September turns out (I’m also going there.)

I’m so sad about them leaving the world cup, but I still got hope for Euro and the next world cup.
I think Sweden just had some very bad luck with their placement, having to play against Germany and all…

Posted from Germany

By frank | June 27th, 2006 at 9:45 am

Perhabs it wasn´t the best world cup for sweden but it wasn´t as bad as mentioned in the post above.

If sweden scored a ( deserved) additional goal against england you would be still nt he tournament.

In terms of the match against germany. Such things can happen it is football. A unbelivable motivated host nation came out and archived two very early goals and th egam was over.
Comming back after such first ten minutes is simply not possible.

Sweden is a small but great football nation and england still waits for the first victory in 40 years.

teams need a lot of liúck to play a successfull WC and luck was not on your site against germany.
Ok and we played really good at this day

Heja Sverige

Posted from Germany

By HL | August 3rd, 2006 at 5:52 am

frank

That’s not to say of course that England has a potential future, with many of her main players still likely to factor in down the road. Particularily at Euro 08.

Posted from Canada

By Claire | August 18th, 2006 at 4:14 pm

Well, I am a fan of Anders Svensson and Sweden. I agree with you, Jonm that he has lost his touch. He played really well during WC’02, but is going against his age now and the football he’s playing seem to be the “safe” type. He doesn’t seem to run after balls and score many goals now, but look carefully at his passes, most of them have got precision. Adding to that, he has had many caps to his name including 20plus goals. So i was thinking maybe he should get a chance to play in Euro’08 and that will finally decide his future. However, i’m not sure about seeing him at WC’10. That would really be “not for him:” by then.

As for Larsson, he’s generally a prolific scorer, looking at his past performance for both country and club. He’s over his heels for these kinds of competitions already. And yes i agree to one of the other comments, even if he had scored the PK against Germany, no difference would have been made. I thought Germany played really well.

Ibrahimovic is good but just didn’t shine. See him shine in Euro’08 and WC’10. That’s all from me.

Cheers,
Claire

By Philip | November 2nd, 2006 at 6:26 am

Guess you’re wrong now huh… But all for the best of Sweden, let Anders Svensson play for Gods sake!

Posted from Sweden