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Photo: SIMON HASTEGÅRD / BILDBYRÅN
For just over ninety minutes, Sweden did everything it could ask for, everything agreed, everything based on clarity and organization and work.
But for five seconds an opponent did something intuitive and unexpected, and where does a Janne Andersson team really go on days when wear and structure just isn’t enough?
Time to ask Dejan that question.
It cannot be claimed that this was an international match, that it was one soccer experience among others.
For the first time in almost ten months, the true Swedish men’s team finally played the match again. And for the first time in the 112-year history of our national team, right? – Our most representative team played in front of almost empty stands.
In important matches, it happens quite often that football itself, so to speak, fades into the light and sound of a crowded arena. Somehow the other way around, the framing took over tonight as well, as it was impossible not to let the match be colored by the sentiment surrounding it.
A blanket of melancholy hung over the national arena during kick-off, and we were asked to remove it before it was possible to take a picture of the match.
The contours, on the other hand, were clear and distinct.
Facing the world champions, Sweden, of course, prioritized keeping the team firm and compact, and with quiet bleachers, it really became clear how much work is needed to tackle it.
Scanian Roaring Low Chest
Every little directive and every little correction was heard on the sidelines. Every additional meter of running it took to close a gap became apparent.
There are no open gambling routes for France! There is no room for Mbappé and Griezmann to catch balls!
“Right, Koffe!” “Stay there!” “Left, Mackan!” “Stay still!”
For us on the spot, the first half hour wasn’t characterized by something someone did with the ball, but rather by the work that the Swedish defensive line did diligently and stubbornly to prevent something from happening. The air was filled by Robin Olsen and Pontus Jansson, who softly issued Scanian commands on a low, roaring frequency.
The effect was good. Sweden bit into the match, held on to it, smothered French space and caused the image of the game to turn more and more in the blue-yellow direction.
It took so much for the Swedish match plan to last, and so little for it to collapse.
Painfully remember
Sweden had to work collectively for just under 40 minutes to claim a half-free position for Marcus Berg, but did not give up more than one almost.
France could yearn for oxygen for the same length of time, safe in the knowledge that sooner or later one of the individualists would likely conjure up something.
When Kylian Mbappé turned on Mikael Lustig he didn’t even come close to getting close, but two seconds later he painfully reminded us that a boy who had just played the Champions League final challenged someone who jumped off the team bench in thirteenth place in the totally Swedish table.
Mbappé was lucky, Lustig was reluctant, Robin Olsen released the wrong angle, and then four seconds of forward brilliance had surpassed forty minutes of grueling punches.
A well-established Swedish soccer language claims that goals change matches, and without an audience it was clear how concrete the psychological change in the match became.
The Swedish decibel level dropped immediately after kickoff. Directives decreased, teasing decreased, and it probably sounds like this when a team is suddenly and brutally deprived of its faith and conviction.
Created zero point
A match plan like this relies on the first goal going in the right direction, and when it didn’t happen, Janne Andersson’s team had a hard time changing. The elf he had exhibited was not created to bring games and seize opportunities.
In other words, only France needed to avoid a shocking total loss, and then almost the entire second half was gone. Sweden created the zero point and absolutely nothing.
Dejan Kulusevski entered, but his contribution cannot be judged on the basis of the minutes and the role assigned to him. If not I should have had more minutes? Well, it is clear that he should have had more minutes as it was very early and painfully clear how lifeless the Swedish game really was in its pointless attacking attempts.
How are we really going to create chances against resistance of this caliber? Inevitably, it’s time to ask that question of the player who has actually made it.
– Believe it now, Janne Andersson urged from the bench with just ten minutes to go, but words didn’t get any more.
Only when Sweden got into a kind of desperate force situation did some half chances rebound for Guidetti, Forsberg and Berg, and against that fact it is absolutely possible to think that we should have started lifting much earlier.
It seems that we have not yet developed another way to pursue opportunities.
It’s one thing to get it right as long as the planning lasts and the opponents follow through. It is much more difficult to find a way forward when Kylian Mbappé has done his thing and reality no longer matches the map.
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