Sweden foresees debt duggery when Ireland tries to defy the odds
Sweden v Ireland
Gamela Ullevi, 17.30 – Live RTÉ2
Wide brushstrokes paint Gothenburg and the Swedish lifestyle as utopian. The city is superior to Dublin’s dirty old town and housing crisis, it is as effective as it is astonishingly expensive.
Similar characteristics apply to their phenomenal national football team, Blågult.
Perhaps the remnants of Sonia O’Sullivan’s superhuman feat from 1995, when she took the World Cup gold medal in the 5,000 meters at the stadium right next to this arena, will inspire a comparable moment. To beat Sweden would be a sensational result.
It is possible. Head coach Peter Gerhardsson expressed it best when he said that we are all “human”. This is undoubtedly true, and no one stops and wonders if Adidas’ marketing campaign, which has the Swedish shirt label that gives details on how to beat them, is seen as bare arrogance by the Olympic silver medalists.
All very unreasonable and yet, as Gerhardsson emphasized, the purpose is to erase an outdated notion of the Swedish underdog.
“They are a very good group and they are very good people,” he said of his own players. “It’s pretty easy to be a coach for them because they have the ambition to be the best in every moment and they have respect for each other.
“It does not matter which team we play, not even Georgia [15-nil] in the last match, the preparations for us for that match were exactly the same as the preparations for playing the USA.
“In training, you can see that they do everything to 100 percent. I know that they are competing with each other for places in the squad for the European Championships this summer, but they are humble towards each other, they help each other, they train each other and that is very important to me as a coach. “
All right, but the question was about the new shirt. Is there any chance that pride will come before the fall?
“I think everyone knows these things and if they do not know, buy the shirt and you can see it.”
The local media giggles with delight.
“Every country has well-scouted teams and players,” Gerhardsson explained. “I do not like being an underdog. I do not like the talk of being an underdog.
Underdogs
“You like to be a winner. When you win, you start something and it’s more something you’ve done. If you’re favorites, if you have a good ranking, it does not mean you win the next game. But it’s better looking. “In addition, the chance of winning the match is better if you have a high ranking and you are the better team.”
Not arrogance, just facts, because Sweden has been undefeated for the past two years apart from the disastrous Olympic final against Canada.
“Someone said that it is the Swedish style that we like to be underdogs but we should not talk about people, we are from Sweden, but we are people. These players, I think they like to win, they like to be favorites. They are [favourites] in their clubs and they can also be in the national team. “
Fridolina Rolfö likes to win for Barcelona, and others like to win for Juventus, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain. That is why a draw would sit next to the Irish men’s best qualifying results on foreign soil.
In the name of honesty, it looks beyond Ireland, even with Katie McCabe in fantastic form for Arsenal and Denise O’Sullivan becoming one of Marquis’ midfielders in American football. But there is a formula that is causing a massive uproar that the cohort of Irish players in Birmingham City, led by the senior Louise Quinn, have used as they leave the English Super League through the trapdoor.
“If you can try to stop their best players from doing what they’re good at,” Quinn said, “and it could literally be pulling them to the ground, making sure you shut them down quickly, making sure Caroline Seger can’t turn around. himself and ping the ball to [Stina] Blackstenius, it’s a bit of a win ”.
Getting stuck in Sweden is guaranteed by all McCabe-led teams, but boot and bite will not be enough.
“As long as we have prepared mentally, and physically of course, it will be a match like the previous one,” said Seger about October’s 1-0 victory in Tallaght. “We always want the referee to protect our players and hopefully she will do a good job tomorrow.”
Ireland manager Vera Pauw gave a bullish response to the mere proposal of shoplifting.
“I do not know what they were talking about; there is no opponent in this position who gives so few free kicks away, says Pauw. “We know we play with passion but we always play by the rules.”
Burning headlights
Pauw played down all chances to deny Sweden a clean house in group A and qualification for next year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, with a complicated playoff course for the runner-up. The September matches against Finland at home and Slovakia away are crucial for the Dutch woman’s time as head coach to be considered a success.
Her selection policy ends up in bright light. Sweden will ruthlessly attack the replacement of the injured trio Savannah McCarthy, Diane Caldwell and Megan Campbell on the left midfield or the 3-5-2-1 system will be temporarily abandoned. Rumor has it that Megan Connolly, a midfielder in her industry, has been training defense this week.
Big talks in both directions, but judging by the recent Finnish and Italian goals against Sweden, this is the same area where Ireland can potentially reveal a weakness.
Most importantly, can Pauw place McCabe and O’Sullivan closer to the Swedish goal? Will she ever trust Liverpool striker Leanne Kiernan? Can the obvious call to start Brighton goalkeeper Megan Walsh before Everton reserve Courtney Brosnan finally come true? How will Ireland cope with this fine-tuned, and definitely not arrogant, Swedish Volvo?
As Adidas crazy men would say – nothing is impossible.
Sweden (possible): Lindahl (Atletico Madrid); Glas (Bayern Munich), LLestedt (Paris Saint-Germain), Eriksson (Chelsea), Andersson (Chelsea); Angeldahl (Manchester City), Rolfo (Barcelona), Seger (Rosengard, c); Fast (Juventus), Blackstenius (Arsneal), Schough (Rosengard).
Republic of Ireland (possible): M Walsh (Brighton and Hove Albion); Fahey (Liverpool), Louise Quinn (Birmingham City), Connolly (Brighton and Hove Albion); Ziu (Shelbourne), Littlejohn (Aston Villa), O’Sullivan (North Carolina Courage), McCabe (Arsenal, c); Finn (Birmingham City), Lucy Quinn (Birmingham City); Payne (Florida State Seminoles).
Judge: Iuliana Dementrescu (Romania)