Updated 10.09 | Published 10.06
A rivalry meeting disguised as a sunny training session, the question is how much Graham Potter can get out of this.
And Norway?
Sorry we didn’t take better care of you, little brother. We have so much to teach you.
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Anyone who wanted to frame Swedish football’s last decades has been able to use the meetings at Ullevål as chapter headings.
In 2015, we were here with Erik Hamrén and saw a sixteen-year-old Martin Ödegaard set the sky on fire, just by existing. He had signed for Real Madrid, I wrote that Norway was in the process of becoming better at football than Swedenbecause they had their youth ventures, their resources and their golden generation coming forward. Then came Erling Braut Haaland, and in 2019 an injury-riddled Janne Andersson-Sweden was here to lose to Norway for the second time in a week. Haaland scored two, Sweden didn’t have a single full centre-back, and Andersson’s time as national team captain swung into his sullen riot.
Tonight is the time again.
It is 2026, two weeks until a World Cup play-off in which the entire world will be involved.
Curaçao will play the World Cup, Cape Verde and Uzbekistan will play the World Cup. Jordan has got a place, Haiti too. DR Congo and Qatar have received a ticket.
My God, even Norway has qualified.
NO questions are too stupid
Since they haven’t played a single EC or WC in Erling Braut Haaland’s lifetime, some solid advice from a grown-up big brother who has played some WC quarters and EC quarters and stuff since then might be in order.
Let’s also make it clear that if you have any questions, Norway, just get in touch. NO questions are too stupid!
But just so you know:
1) You’re going to face Senegal in the World Cup, right? Silly bunch. It can be tempting to try to solve it with a mass roulette trick and stuff, but ignore it. Shoot the ball into the goal instead. Not in the post. In goal.
2) Ståle Solbakken: If Ödegaard and Sander Berge were to clash with each other in training just before the premiere: say nothing happened. If the TV cameras catch the fight? Doesn’t matter. NOTHING happened.
3) Don’t think that having world-class strikers in the starting eleven is a guarantee of success. On the contrary. In general, it is better to have an overage centre-back with questionable hairline and good attack on penalties.
4) Should the World Cup start with 0-0 against Iraq after a terrible opening match, there is only one right option, Ståle: Say that you played a good matchthat you should have won, that you actually won the corner statistics very clearly.
5) Avoid shooting hard shots in the goalkeeper’s head a few days before the WC premiere.
6) It is not forbidden to heel the ball just under the crossbar on offensive corners, if need be.
8) All goals are good goals. Also Petter Hansson goal.
9) Are you going to face France? Their goalkeepers tend to be weak on hard, high shots. From 55 meters.
10) IF you were to take what we would call a sensational bronze (and you would call disappointment), and NRK broadcasts directly from the celebration at Rådhusplassen and a woman were to claim that she is Haaland’s mother… Ask a couple of control questions. Just in case.
11) Celebrate your defining goals. But with reason.
So. Be so good.
Sweden’s issues of a different kind
Norway is a medal contender, of course, although I also think modern football could threaten their dreams. How many matches has Haaland played in the last year? Ödegaard? How will their bodies and minds cope with another month of summer stress?
The Swedish questions are of a different kind. Graham Potter will spend this evening nurturing the system once more, rehearsing the game ideas from the playoff, without the main pieces in place. Viktor Gyökeres has tears to dry, Alexander Isak has injuries to heal, Victor Nilsson Lindelöf may need to rest a bit.
If I could wish for something, it would be a reasonably intense match against Norway away from home, an injury-free rehearsal in nice clothes. Perhaps one could wish for a central midfield that solves all balance issues, whose reflexes work. A right wing that makes the phantom pain after Emil Holm give way? And then hope that Alexander Isak comes back and makes the issues of offensive balance a little more complicated in time for the World Cup?
A good result would be nice, but it is not a necessity.
12) It is in championship results that really count.
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