Not Everything Is Rosey In The Garden Of Sweden

Not everything is Swedeness and light

14/06/2012
Every single member of the Swedish team is adept at switching from their native tongue into English at the drop of the hat, but they certainly don’t seem to be speaking the same language as each other at present.
Rumours of in-fighting, a squad dressing down from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the allegation that Erik Hamren called his side ‘cowards’ after defeat to Ukraine in their opening game of the tournament suggests Sweden will catch the earliest possible flight back to Stockholm.

At present, they can do nothing right. On Tuesday morning, the day after the loss to Ukraine, the non-starters trained in front of the TV cameras. As a forfeit during a light-hearted session reserve goalkeeper Johan Wiland was made to drop his shorts and bend over as his fellow squad members fired shots at his bare backside.All amusing enough, perhaps, but not to the anti-bullying campaigners in Sweden who responded angrily when the footage was broadcast.

It is a strange state of affairs, one that Sweden is unused to.

The harmony in their dressing room is normally one of their greatest strengths, as Jonas Olsson and Anders Svensson pointed out last night when theyattended a public trainingsession where they did their best to deny rumours of rifts in the camp.

But what had been the perfect preparation is seemingly unravelling after one poor result. The Swedes have their first-choice training base, Dynamo Kiev’s camp on the outskirts of the city, and a fine hotel deep in the forest.

Ibrahimovic said before the opening game that it was the best set-up he had ever enjoyed at national team level. But two lapses in concentration allowed Andriy Shevchenko a fairytale start to his valedictory tournament in Kiev and scuppered Sweden. They knew how important victory against Ukraine was with the two big guns of Group D, England and France, to come.

The rumours started circulating that night. Ibrahimovic had allegedly seen his team-mates laughing and joking with their partners after the match and was not amused. He had already argued on the pitch with Markus Rosenburg at half-time and was visibly seething at the final whistle. The thought that he had taken team-mates to task did not seem a big stretch. For Svensson though, nothing could be further from the truth.

“It’s bull****,” he spat out when asked about the situation by reporters at the public training camp.

Olsson was equally forthright: “I have no idea where that came from — it’s just speculation,’ he said. “To me that’s one of our biggest qualities — we are a very nice group and are very happy together.

“Looking back to qualification we were in trouble after losing to Hungary but we stood up together and managed to qualify. What helped was the great atmosphere in the group and it is very unique to be in a player’s group where the atmosphere is so good.”

So what has gone wrong? To start with, the knee injury suffered by Celtic centre-back Daniel Majstorovic was catastrophic. He and Olof Mellberg — a partnership with a combined age of 69 — were key at the back, the rock on which the remainder of the team thrived. Whether it is Olsson or Andreas Granqvist, who was selected against Ukraine, the team is weaker.

Then Johan Elmander damaged his ankle in the final league game of Galatasaray’s season, and was only fit enough to make the bench for the first game. That in turn disrupted the team, with Ibrahimovic playing slightly further forward than normal.

That, of course, brings us to Ibra-Cadabra, the man whose personality and swagger bestrides this team. Zlatan is Sweden, to many, and he reflects their best and worst qualities. A swaggering, cocksure man who is never short of an opinion, his sheer, unadulterated talent ensures that he is undroppable. He, in return, gives his all for the cause, but by being so integral, demanding the ball from inferior team-mates, he unwittingly saps energy from the whole group.

His alleged outburst after the Ukraine game, if true, was hardly surprising. He is a man who does not take prisoners nor care who he offends; a clue, perhaps, as to why he has had five clubs in the last eight years.

But he could have a point here. Being in a group with France and England, no matter what their respective issues, ensured expectation was not that high. Yet a lack of professionalism is unacceptable, no matter what the circumstances. Either way, the issue with wives and girlfriends is reminiscent of England at the 2006 World Cup — an easily avoidable distraction.

That, in a nutshell, sums up their contribution so far. Hamren is a polite, intelligent man — he said ‘scared’ after the first match, by the way, but it was mistranslated into English — who is being written off after one game in the competition. For Olsson that is impossible to accept as he prepares to come up against his former manager at West Brom, Roy Hodgson, now in charge of England.

“We are in a position where we cant lose any more games of course. Hopefully we can win both,” he said.

“As for Roy, he is a great coach. I enjoyed my time under him. He is experienced, is good at inspiring players and is a very nice man as well.

“We could see from the first game against France that they possess threats from set-pieces, and with the counter-attack and pace up front.”

The game against England will end with them having either taken a step back or plummeted to their doom.

‘You’re out’ translates into any language.


http://euro2012.irishexaminer.com/analysis/not-everything-is-swedeness-and-light-197370.html