When Sweden left the European Championships, Olivia Shaw sat alone in the hotel room.
Now she tells herself about the difficult ending in England.
One minute I felt totally fine and thought, You can handle this, Olivia, but then the feelings came back again.
This week, the Swedish women’s national team meets in Gotland. It’s the first set since the big loss to England in EC this summer.
– It was such a great shock on the last day there, you barely had time to say goodbye to people, she says Olivia Shaw.
For the national team striker, the ending was even more surprising. Shove missed the last three training sessions before the semi-finals and when the start of the eleventh game against England was announced, the explanation came as well.
Emotional roller coaster
The 31-year-old has been sitting in isolation after testing positive for covid-19.
– Those days were awful. I don’t want to try that again. She says it was an emotional rollercoaster, and continues:
One minute I felt totally fine and thought, You can handle this, Olivia, but then the feelings came back again. You obviously don’t want to be locked in a room during a tournament, but the biggest hit was watching the match on TV.
Sweden has been hit hard by the coronavirus. Among the players, Emma Kohlberg, Hannah Glass and Jonah Anderson also tested positive and were quarantined during the tournament.
This trio missed the quarter-finals and Jonah Anderson got her second negative test late in the morning on the same day as the semi-finals. Although it has been in good shape for several days.
– When you know that removing the streak from the test is going to take a long time. Shoof says it was clearly not something you were comfortable with.
Want to see a change in the water cycle
Although a few weeks have passed, the 31-year-old finds it difficult to express the feeling of being locked in during the tournament.
– But it may be more difficult than people think. You look out the window and you see the whole team leaving on the bus to practice, and you just keep sitting there yourself, you say:
– The only time you get a little contact is when someone brings the food, but then it’s still five meters away and it’s only welcoming. Then the door closes again.
Next summer, there will be a World Cup final and until then, Olivia Schauf hopes that FIFA will revise the regulations regarding the Covid-19 virus, which is no longer classified as a public health disease.
– I sincerely hope that the rule for the toilet will be changed. Now that he’s sick fairly well, we can only hope he won’t become the strict rules for the next tournament. It is not sustainable.
Sweden, who have already secured their World Cup promotion, meet Finland away in the World Cup qualifying final on September 6.
– What I look forward to most is to meet everyone. Talk about how they are at home and then we’ll talk about the European Commission. It would be fun to play in the World Cup qualifiers again even if we made it, but it would be fun to face Finland who has something to fight for. Shoof says it’s probably going to be a fun match.