Mats Sunden doesn’t remember which penis he was going to give him.
However, he wants to urge people once and for all to stop seeing Tommy Salo guilty of losing to Belarus at the 2002 Olympics.
He will go down in history as one of our best goalkeepers, says the hockey icon.
20 years after an Olympic exit against former Belarus, now Belarus, March Tommy Salo It’s still bad. He left a cheap puck in the 4-3 loss, which is what he remembers at every new Winter Olympics when he’d rather shut his phone down and back off.
In the autobiography “Salo – My Life Behind the Mask”, the 51-year-old describes what happened after the match, when two players met in Marcus Ragnarson’s hotel room. There, team captain Mats Sunden was said to playfully say “What were you thinking?” To the already devastated Salo, which the goalkeeper sometimes thinks of even today.
When Sportbladet reaches Mats Sundin, he hunts elk at Norrbotten.
– I don’t remember at all saying anything like that, but it doesn’t sound like my words. But I remember Ragnarson and I living together, says Sunden.
“Behind many great victories”
What do you want to say to the people who still associate Tommy Salo with the bug in that match?
– It’s totally wrong. In my eyes, Tommy is one of the best Swedish hockey goalkeepers of the last 30 years. He was our number one goalkeeper and played a crucial role in the 1994 Olympics. He was fantastic when we won WC gold in 98 and repeated it again against Finland in two finals. I have nothing but fond memories of Tommy in the national team. He was behind many major victories.
However, he is remembered by many for his penalty save at Lillehammer in 1994 and a foul in 2002.
Yes, but ask anyone who’s been into hockey and they’ll know that Tommy is one of the best goalkeepers we’ve had in 30 years.
Tommy was also great in the tournament, like when we beat Canada 5-2. It’s one of the best internationals Tre Kronor has played, they had all the stars but we cleaned them up easily. Tommy stood out too when we beat the reigning Olympic champion Czech Republic. But then came Belarus. A game we won 48 times out of 50. But then it became one of the other two games.
‘We are all to blame’
Yet it has become a symbol of getting lost.
– It doesn’t have to be! Nobody there saw it any other way. In team sports we win and lose together and it was never Tommy’s fault. Sucks if anyone thinks so.
Can you as players do more to protect him then?
– Go back and check the media. All we said is that we are all responsible for the loss.
