And Gif Sundsvall is exactly where they should be
It was hardly required that Sweden had started playing because we would already be further. A win against Tunisia, then the number started to flutter around: 96 percent. So great was the chance for advancement. It certainly worsened after the national team managed to zero a goal difference of plus four, but still. The number had taken hold – we were almost certainly ready for continued play.
By all accounts, that should be a source of joy. But I don’t think I’m alone in feeling a kind of dull sadness. Well, we’re on then. Cool. Do you even need to watch the rest of the matches?
Ola Lidbom has received the cool nickname “the phantom” in football circles, but to me he is known as the joy killer. It is his tool Playmaker AI that is behind the Football Channel’s eternal forecasts, where everything is simulated “a million times”. This spring it was Superettan that was exposed. Eyebrows were raised when, for example, Nordic United FC was tipped for an honorable fourth place – debutants in the series, that kind of team generally has to fight to stay up. A long-established club like Gif Sundsvall came last.
Now the Superetta is about half way there. Sundsvall is last and Nordic United is fifth. There are deviations that remind us that a certain measure of unpredictability exists, in, for example, Värnamo’s underperformance. On the whole, however, we already know how it ends, now all that remains is to play out the shit. Let’s skip ahead to November and say congratulations to Norrköping and Varberg.
Mathematical prerequisites have always been possible to work with during championships, it has even been fun. But there’s something about those cold, heavy numbers that sucks the air out of you. The same phenomenon has completely taken over spectacles like Eurovision. The odds market produces a super favorite. After that, only one question remains: Did the favorite win or not? There is nothing more to say. Well, one thing:
I miss the octopus Paul.
Jack Hildén is a writer and temporary deputy culture director at Aftonbladet.
