Switzerland’s victory over Canada could give Sweden a dream draw in the qualifiers.
Germany in the quarter-finals and Switzerland in the semi-finals.
Historically, it is the path to gold.
Now I won’t anticipate the events, but Switzerland’s victory in the group final over Canada means that they will definitely win the group in Helsinki.
Sweden could be their second worst team, if they win the last two matches against Norway and Latvia.
And I find it hard to see that they are going to lose a few points there, with William Nylander on the team.
It usually feeds on this type of resistance.
Now the Swiss are not ready for any semi-finals.
not yet.
If they win the group, they will still face a difficult quarter-final against what now appears to be the Czech Republic or the United States.
But since they played this way in the World Cup, they improved in every game.
Usually Switzerland in the qualifiers is a good sign three crowns.
dream discount.
Don’t ask me why, but it seems that the Swiss team is very suitable for the Swedish national team.
Until the World Cup disaster last year in Riga, when Sweden missed the qualifiers for the first time ever, they were crushed 7-0 in the group stage against Switzerland.
Two of Sweden’s last three World Cup gold medals came right after the World Cup finals against the Alpine country.
Only in 2013 in the world, when twins Daniel and Henrik Sedan owned a stage and the Swedes won 5-1.
Then in Copenhagen 2018, when the score was 3-2 in the final after extra time and penalties.
He became a celestial stir 2006
Drama decided by Philip Forsberg to determine the decisive penalty kick.
The year before, it was also the gold of the World Cup in Cologne, where the Swedes were forced to go to the quarter-finals and meet, well, guess which one.
Yes, Switzerland of course.
At the time it was 3-1 and William Nylander had put in a great show.
At the 2006 Turin Olympics, there was a lot of fanfare, when Bengt-Ake Gustafsson said he would prefer to face Switzerland in the quarter-finals.
Then Sweden had to face Slovakia in the group stage and only a loss would give that a draw.
The score was 3-0 against the Slovaks, which made it forever classified as a regular match.
But Beng Ak was right.
It was a comfortable 6-2 match against the Swiss in the quarter and an easy trip to the final and Olympic gold.
Or take the World Cup home to the Swiss in Zurich in 1998.
Then it was the semi-final match that decided the two best matches of the time.
The score was 4-1, 7-2 and Mats Sunden and Peter Forsberg managed to salvage some of their strength for the final, victory and gold matches against Finland.
Or take 1992.
After a disastrous team match, Sweden got up and beat Switzerland in the semi-finals on their way to their second consecutive World Cup gold.
So it has been there throughout history.
Switzerland was a dream opponent in qualifying and almost guaranteed success.
No matter how much they liked earlier in the tournaments, there were crisscrossing stops every time they met Tre Kronor.
We just hope it’s like that now, too.
But the chances grew after Switzerland’s surprising 6-3 win against Canada.
A very entertaining and reasonably grumpy match makes Patrick Fisher’s gang the only undefeated team in the entire tournament.
Still my favorite
He also has some real NHL stars in Nico Hischier and Timo Meier.
I was particularly stuck with Hescher’s decision on the 4-3 match, when he bluffed the entire Canadian defense before firing hard at the closest cross.
One of the best goals in the World Cup so far.
But Switzerland mostly lives on the fact that they have most of their national teams at home as most of them have played a lot of tournaments together.
There are few World Cup teams that have as good a performance and collaboration as the Swiss national team.
Canada then?
Yes, they are still my favorite in the World Cup Gold.
Now they are very angry and restless and have lost the mental war.
In addition, goalkeeper Logan Thompson will not be allowed to stand in the next match.
He was instantly weak.
But when Canada is second in the group, a semi-final match against Finland is likely to be expected, unless the Finns lose points to the Czech Republic, which they still have to face.
Then the roof will rise there in the Nokia Arena.
And somehow, it suddenly seems like it’s better to finish second in the Sweden group, than to win it.
Those points you lost against the United States no longer feel their weight.