The Cyprus Cup Part 2: Sweden vs Ukraine

February 23rd, 2011 | by: aron |

I didn´t get a chance to see this game because I had to work (some of us have to do that kind of thing), but I thought I would give it a quick once over so that we can all move on. It was the second game of the glorious 2011 Cyprus Cup and the final as well.

Our starting line-up was as follows:

Isaksson,

Lustig, Granqvist, Majstorovic, Safari

A. Svensson, Källström

S. Larsson, Elmander, Wilhelmsson

Ibrahimovic (C)

Now, it had been decided prior to the game that Ibrahimovic would only play one half because of his being weariness from heavy use at AC Milan. This meant Markus Rosenberg was going to get his first big chance in three years at a spot on the squad, but he re-injured his knee and had to go back to Santander early. So we had no real striker to replace Ibrahimovic with for the second half. Who came on instead? Viktor Elm did, and while he could be described as having once been a hot prospect and a man for the future, he seems to have caught a serious chill. I don’t foresee Hamren calling him up for the squad again in the near future.

To the game itself: we started off well and controlled the game. Ibrahimovic had a nice assist and Elmander scored a beautiful goal. Then a few mintues later what wasn’t supposed to happen happened. Safari made another serious error in defending, forcing Isaksson to take a penalty. 1-1 and that’s how it stayed till the whole thing went to penalties (because it was a tournament format). I hate going to penalties, and whether its ice hockey or football Sweden doesn’t have a good record with them recently. Sure enough, Ukraine won on penalties and we finished runners-up at the Cyprus Cup.

Our starting line-up was the A-team by the way, and I will go so far as to say that there are only two possibly open positions for the Moldova game: left back and left wing. Safari’s mistake may have given his starting position away to Oscar Wendt and if, a really big IF, Emir Bajrami regains full fitness and starts putting in one impressive performance after another for Twente, he will take Wilhelmsson’s spot back. Granted there is still about a month and a half before that game and a lot can happen, but I don’t see it changing much right now. We are definitely going to play 4-2-3-1 against Moldova; after all it’s a home game and against such opposition you should always win.