Hold on Magnolia to that great highway moon…

Three heroes

The above pictures probably brings very good memories to every Swede there is. Too bad we won't get the same memories in the near future again.

The reason for this post is that this weekend is that Sweden played against Denmark in the Euro 2008 qualifications today. A Nordic derby which had been hyped in all kinds of ways due to what happened earlier this year in Denmark when a Danish guy ran in and touched the ref a bit.
As always with the Swedish national football team for me nowadays I feel the same kind of disappointment over the team selection and what goals the head coach Lars Lagerbäck has in the weeks before the matches. And as always when it gets closer to matchstart those are neglected by me and the feelings for actually being Swedish takes over. Until the starting eleven is revealed that is, and the coach hits you in the face again by choosing players who no one else than the coach can see why they play.

And we who can't see why are not proven wrong after the game is played either.

It's defensive, boring and extremely stupid.

Sure, Lagerbäck has taken Sweden to every play-off since the year 2000. But no one will remember what happened in these play offs in 10-20 years time. The most memorable thing, to people outside Sweden, is probably a match that's been dubbed the most boring match ever, Sweden against Turkey in the Euro 2000 in Eindhoven.

I'd rather miss a play-off once in a while as long as you're letting young, promising and creative players get some experience in the qualifications, so that they during the next play-off can make an impression and actually could stand a chance at winning the competition.

That's what happened in the years before 1994 with young players like Martin Dahlin, Henrik Larsson and last but not least Tomas Brolin were given the chance in the national team.

The result was that Sweden won the World Cup bronze in 1994 with central defence consisting of 23 year old Joachim Björklund and Patrik Andersson who was born the same year, 1971, but still 22 years of age as he was born in August.

The most prominent players the bronze-winning team were the two above as well as 24-year old Tomas Brolin, 25-year old Martin Dahlin, 26-year old Kennet Andersson as well as 25-year old Stefan Schwarz. One of the reasons for the bronze was that all those players were either on the top of their careers or in the start of it at that time.

In the selection for the Denmark game that was played today, the youngest player was Dusan Djuric, born in 1984. His place in the team? He was sitting in the stands. Not even on the bench. He's been one of the best players in Allsvenskan this year and definitively better than Anders Svensson, who plays in the same league as couldn't cope with getting benched when he was in Southampton in England. Anders was starting but you couldn't tell because he seemed to hide from the ball, and that as a supposed attacking and creative midfielder.

The next youngest player was almost 25 and is probably Sweden's next best player, after the obvious choice of Zlatan. His place then? The bench. Came in with 20 minutes left and created more than Anders Svensson did in 70.

The most prominent players in Sweden today, according to Lagerbäck, seem to be Niclas Alexandersson, Petter Hansson and Anders Svensson who are all well over 30, in Alexanderssons case he's closer to 40. Just a few months ago he even benched Zlatan for dinosaur age old Allbäck. And that in a time when you need to be in better shape than ever to be able to play on the highest level.

I can only dream about what kind of team Sweden could have had if we would have had a coach who wouldn't have been so fucking afraid of losing so he could try young players as well, and give them invaluable international routine.

Instead we've got a coach who says that one reason for not selecting young players is because they don't have enough international routine.

*hitting my head repeatedly in the desk until it starts to bleed*

Sweden will never get the same kind of heroes like the ones in the picture with Lagerbäck as coach.

Never.