Sweden national football team encyclopedia topics

History

Sweden has traditionally been a strong team in international football, with eleven World Cup appearances and three medals in the Olympics. The Swedish team finished second in the 1958 World Cup, when it was the host team, being beaten by Brazil 5-2 in the final. Sweden has also finished third twice, in 1950 and 1994. In 1938, they finished fourth.

1938 World Cup

The 1938 World Cup was Sweden's second qualification for the world cup. In the first round, the were scheduled to play against Austria, but after the Germans occupied the nation Austria could not continue playing in the tournament. Instead, Sweden went straight to the quarterfinal match against Cuba. They beat Cuba 8-0 with both Tore Keller and Gustav Wetterström scoring hat tricks. In the semi-final match against Hungary, Sweden lost 1-5. Sweden's next match was the 3rd place match against Brazil. In that game the Swedes lost 2-4, and ended in 4th place for the first and only time in Swedish football history.

1948 Summer Olympics

In the first round, Sweden played against Austria. The Austrian team had qualified without their profesional players, which was a suprise since the Austrian league had many professional players who were allowed to play in the tournament. The match was played at White Hart Lane, London where Sweden won 3-0. In the second game, Sweden played against Korea and won 12-0, which today, is one of the two largest margin wins Sweden has ever had. In the semi-final Sweden met their rivals from Denmark, and won 4-2.

The final was played in the classic Wembley Stadium in London. The attendance was around 40,000 people which was high for a football game during that time period. Sweden took on Yugoslavia in the final and won 3-1, with goals by Gunnar Gren (24', 67'), Stjepan Bobek (42') and Gunnar Nordahl (48'). This was Sweden's first championship win in any international football tournament.

1950 World Cup

In the 1950 FIFA World Cup the Swedish football association did not let the professional Swedish football players play. Sweden only played amateur players during the tournament. The Swedes qualified for the tournament as 1 of 6 European national teams. Sweden played in the same group as Italy and Paraguay (India withdrew from the group). In the first game Sweden beat the Italians 3-2 in São Paulo. The second game ended in a draw, against Paraguay (2-2), but Sweden was the group leader in points and advanced to the next round.

Their first game in the group was against the host nation, Brazil. It was played in the Maracanã and the total attendance was more than 138,000, which is the record for the most people that have watched the swedish national team. The game ended 7-1 to Brazil and it is rumored that almost everyone in the Brazilian audience waved the Swedes good bye with their scarfs. The next game was against Uruguay, who Sweden played against for the first time in World Cup history. The game was played in São Paulo. Uruguay won 3-2 and after that game Sweden could not play for the gold.

The last game for Sweden in the tournament was played in São Paulo, against Spain. Sweden won that game 3-1 with goals by Stig Sundqvist (15'), Bror Mellberg (34') and Karl-Erik Palmér (79'). Sweden finished 3rd in the group and took their first World cup medal.

1958 World Cup

In 1956 the Swedish football federation allowed the profesional players to play on the national team again, which gave the swedish population hope for the 1958 FIFA World Cup. Sweden was the host nation of the World Cup in 1958 and were in the same group as Mexico, Hungary and Wales.

The first game was played in the Swedish national stadium, Råsunda Stadium, Solna. The attendance was around 32,000 people. Sweden won the game against Mexico 3-0 and took the lead in Group 3. The next match was against Hungary, who finished 2nd in the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, and were the 1952 Olympic Champions. That game was also played in Råsunda Stadium. Sweden won the match 2-1 with both goals from Kurt Hamrin. During the next match against Wales, Sweden drew a tie 0-0.

The quarterfinal was played in Råsunda Stadium for the 4th time in this tournament. Sweden played against the USSR. Sweden won that game 2-0.

The semi final, the only game for Sweden that was not played in Råsunda Stadium, was played in Ullevi, Gothenburg. The attendance was around 50,000 people who would see one of the best games Sweden played in the tournament. Erich Juskowiak was sent off when West Germany had the lead at the 59th minute. Sweden won that game 3-1.

The final was played in Råsunda Stadium between the host nation Sweden, and the 1950 FIFA World Cup runners-up, Brazil. The total attendance was around 52,000 people. Brazil won the World Cup for the first time after beating the host nation 5-2. Sweden became runners-up, which is the best result for Sweden in any World Cup. After the final match the Brazilian players hailed the host nation by running around the field with a Swedish flag.

After the World Cup success

Sweden was one of the best teams in the World during the 50's. But after the successful 1958 World did Sweden not had any success. In the qualification to 1962 World cup did Sweden won the group, but then it was only points that was counted so they did a last play-off game against Switzerland, played in West Berlin, witch they lost with 1-2. In the qualification group was Sweden the better team, when they scored 10 goals for them and only 3 goals against them. Sweden was close to get to the UEFA European Championship 1964. They started their play-off against norway and won the first game and drawed in the last game. In the second round did Sweden beat Yugoslavia with 3-2, but the first game did they lost. In the quarterfinals shuld Sweden play against the defeting champions, The Sovjet Union. Even in that play-off did Sweden drawed in the first game, but lost the second game. During the 1966 World Cup was Sweden in the UEFA Qualification group 2. They started the qualification with draw against West Germany. And after that game did they beat Cyprus with 3-0. But in the last game against West Germany did Sweden lost and was out from the group, because it was only one team that was qualified. Sweden even entered for the UEFA European Championship in 1968, but they finished in the Qualification group 2. Sweden did only one success in the 60's and that was to qualify for the 1970 World Cup, after winning UEFA Group 5 before Norway and France.

1974 World Cup

Sweden did not qualify for 2 previous World Cups in 1962, 1966 and exited in the group stages in 1970. In the qualification of the 1974 FIFA World cup, Sweden was in the same group as Austria, Hungary, and Malta. Sweden finished 2nd, below Austria, and advanced to the World Cup.

The group Sweden drew into included Uruguay, Netherland, and Bulgaria. The first game against Bulgaria ended in a draw. In the second game against the Netherlands, Sweden drew another tie. The last game of the round was played against Uruguay. That game was the first victory Sweden had in the tournament, when they beat Uruguay 3-0 with goals by Roland Sandberg (74') and Ralf Edström (46', 77'). Sweden became 2nd in the group and advanced to the second group stage.

In the second group stage, Sweden was defeated in the first game against Poland 0-1. The situation after the defeat against Poland was that if Sweden lost against West Germany with a single goal difference and Yugoslavia defeated Poland, Sweden would be second in the group and play for the bronze medal. But since Poland beat Yugoslavia 2-1, Sweden had to win the game against the host nation, West Germany, in order to finish second in the group.

The game against West Germany was played in Düsseldorf with an attendance of 66,500 people.The Swedish striker Ralf Edström gave the Scandinavian the lead with 1-0 after 29 minutes. But in the second half West Germany took control of the game, even after Roland Sandberg's equalizer after 52 minutes. Germany won 4-2. After the tournament, the German players commented that the game against Sweden was their best game in that tournament. The last game for Sweden was played in Düsseldorf against Yugoslavia. Sweden won that game 2-1. They finished the tournament as the 5th place team.

1992 UEFA European Championship

As the host of the UEFA European Championship 1992, Sweden played in their first UEFA tournament. They played in the same group as Denmark, France, and England. Sweden was the only team that defeated the champions of the tournament, Denmark. Sweden finished in the semi-final against Germany, which is the best result for Sweden in the European Championship.

1994 World Cup

Sweden qualified for the World Cup at the top of their qualifying group ahead of Bulgaria. Sweden was placed in Group B with Brazil, Cameroon, and Russia. The first game against Cameroon was going to be yet another 1-2 loss, (after the 1990 World Cup fiasco with losses of 1-2 in all three games), but in the 75th minute Martin Dahlin scored the equalizer from a rebound shot off of Henrik Larsson. In the next game against Russia, Russia scored early with a penalty. But Sweden managed to come back, with a penalty goal from Tomas Brolin and two goals from Martin Dahlin. In the last group stage match against Brazil, they tied 1-1.

In the first knockout stage match, Sweden faced Saudi Arabia and won 3-1 after two goals from Kennet Andersson and one from Martin Dahlin. The quarter-final match against Romania has become a memorable match for Swedish football fans. After Sweden scored late in the second half, Romania managed to equalize in the last minutes of the match, sending it into extra time. Romania's Florin Raducioiu who scored the first goal for Romania, scored his second of the day to take Romania ahead at the 101st minute. But with five minutes left Kennet Andersson scored with a header to make the score even at 2-2. The penalty shoot out began with a miss from Håkan Mild of Sweden, but Thomas Ravelli managed two saves. That gave Sweden the win, making him a Swedish hero. Sweden went through to face Brazil in the semi-finals. They had manged to score in the group stage against Brazil but couldn't do it a second time. After Jonas Thern had been sent off with a red card Romário scored the only goal of the game in the 80th minute.

In the third place match Sweden played against Bulgaria who had lost to Italy in their semi-final match. Sweden scored 4 goals in the first half, but the second half went goal-less. Sweden won the bronze medal, the best placing for the national team in a World Cup play-off since the 1958 silver medal. This led Sweden to the second place of the FIFA World Rankings for one month, in November 1994.

They finished as the top scorers of the tournament, with 15 goals.

2006 World Cup

Sweden competed in Group B at the 2006 World Cup. Their squad for the tournament features players who play club football in eleven different nations. Sweden started the World Cup slowly, recording a scoreless tie against unheralded Trinidad and Tobago, despite playing with a one-man advantage for much of the game. The second game, against Paraguay, threatened to produce the same result until Fredrik Ljungberg scored in the 89th minute to give Sweden a 1-0 victory. Sweden then rallied to tie England, 2-2, to finish group play with five points - enough to finish second in its' group and advance to the second round. There, the team's World Cup run came to an end with a 2-0 defeat to the host team, Germany.

2008 European Championship Qualifying

Sweden finished second in Group F behind , thus qualifying for the finals. The campaign included an abandoned match away to , for which Sweden were awarded a 3-0 win by UEFA.

Supporters

The first time the Swedish supporters showed up was during the 1912 Summer Olympics, where they sang "Heja Sverige Friskt humör, det är det som susen gör" during the football games. The traveling supporters for Sweden's away games showed up for the first time in the 1974 FIFA World Cup in West Germany, and since those years Sweden has always had the supporters in large tournaments. In the 2006 FIFA World Cup Sweden had one of the largest amount of support during a tournament, especially during the group stage match against Paraguay with around 50,000 Swedish supporters in the stadium.

Stadium

The Swedish national stadium is called the Råsunda Fotbollsstadion, but it will be replaced in 2011 by the new national stadium Swedbank Arena. According to FIFA, Råsunda Stadion is a classic stadium, one of only two stadiums in the world, the other one being the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, USA, which hosted both the 1958 FIFA World Cup final and the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup. Råsunda stadium was opened 18 september 1910, and had a capacity of only 2.000, mostly standings. It was Råsunda stadium and valhalla stadium in Gothenburg that was the first football fields with gras for Swedish football. The stadium were expanded during 1937, to a capacity of 40.000 people. The stadium was used for the football tournament in 1912 Summer Olympics hield in Stockholm, and hosted 8 games during the FIFA World cup 1958. In the UEFA European Championship in 1992, the stadium hosted 4 games and in the 1995 FIFA Womens World Cup it hosted only the final game. But Råsunda stadium is still the only stadium in Scandinavia that have hosted 4 big tournaments. Ullevi in Gothenburg is used for some games Sweden plays, as the 100 years celebration game of Swedish football association, against England in 2004. Even other stadiums, as malmö stadion in Malmö, is used for the national team.

Competitive record

World Cup

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1930	Did Not Enter	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1934	Quarter-Finals	8	2	1	0	1	4	4
1938	Fourth place	4	3	1	0	2	11	9
1950	Third place	3	5	2	1	2	11	15
1954	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1958	Runners-up	2	6	4	1	1	12	7
1962	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1966	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1970	Round 1	9	3	1	1	1	2	2
1974	Group Round 2	5	6	2	2	2	7	6
1978	Round 1	13	3	0	1	2	1	3
1982	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1986	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1990	Round 1	21	3	0	0	3	3	6
1994	Third place	3	7	3	3	1	15	8
1998	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2002	Round 2	13	4	1	2	1	5	5
2006	Round 2	14	4	1	2	1	3	4
Total	11/18	-	46	16	13	17	74	69

European Championship

Year	Round	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1960	Did not Enter	-	-	-	-	-	-
1964	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1968	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1972	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1976	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1980	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1984	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1988	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1992	Semi-finals	4	2	1	1	6	5
1996	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2000	Round 1	3	0	1	2	2	4
2004	Quarter-final	4	1	3	0	8	3
2008	Qualified
Total	4/13	11	3	5	3	16	12

*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

**Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won. Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

Olympic Games

1900 - Did not compete
1904 - Did not compete
1908 - Lost the bronze medal match
1912 - First round
1920 - Quarter final
1924 - Bronze
1928 - Did not compete
1936 - First round
1948 - Gold
1952 - Bronze
1956-1984 - Did not compete
1988 - Quarter final
1992 - Quarter final
1996-2008 - Did not qualify

Swedish national team 2008

Current Squad

The following players named for the friendly game against Turkey.

Recent callups

Goalkeepers

Name	Date of birth	Club	Caps (goals)	Most Recent Call up
Johan Wiland	January 24 1981	IF Elfsborg	3 (0)	v. Costa Rica, 13 January, 2008

Defenders

Name	Date of birth	Club	Caps (goals)	Most Recent Call up
Mikael Lustig	December 13, 1986	GIF Sundsvall	1 (0)	v. USA, 19 January, 2008
Mattias Bjärsmyr	January 3, 1986	IFK Göteborg	2 (0)	v. USA, 19 January, 2008
Oskar Rönningberg	April 2, 1986	Helsingborgs IF	2 (0)	v. USA, 19 January, 2008
Suleyman Sleyman	December 28 1979	Hammarby IF	1 (0)	v. Costa Rica, 13 January, 2008

Midfielders

Name	Date of birth	Club	Caps (goals)	Most Recent Call up
Daniel Andersson	August 28, 1977	Malmö FF	60 (0)	v. USA, 19 January, 2008
Niclas Alexandersson	December 29, 1971	IFK Göteborg	105 (7)	v. USA, 19 January, 2008
Pontus Wernbloom	June 25, 1986	IFK Göteborg	2 (0)	v. USA, 19 January, 2008
Andreas Dahl	June 6, 1984	FC Nordsjælland	2 (0)	v. USA, 19 January, 2008
Viktor Elm	November 13 1985	Kalmar FF	1 (0)	v. USA, 19 January, 2008
Andreas Johansson	July 5 1978	Aalborg BK	16 (0)	v. USA, 19 January, 2008
Stefan Ishizaki	May 15 1982	IF Elfsborg	11 (0)	v. Costa Rica, 13 January, 2008
Louay Chanko	November 29 1979	Hammarby IF	1 (0)	v. Costa Rica, 13 January, 2008