Glenn Solberg will not like this.
But you can’t close your eyes anymore.
Now Sweden is the favorite to win the World Cup.
Denmark skipped the match 7-6, Matthias Giddel disappeared early in the second half with a finger injury, Mikel Hansen did not play when it was supposed to be decided and Nicklas Landen was not involved at all.
Besides, it was a training match.
But I say as SVT expert “Nolan” Grahn at the end of the second half when asked to assess whether or not there was an attacking foul on Eric Johansson:
“Die!”
For Sweden, the first goalkeeper (Andreas Balica) had missed the whole match, and when it was decided, our star did not play either (Jim Gottfriedson).
Training match or not: It was clear from the Danes that this was a match they really wanted to win, just go back and check Nikolaj Jacobsen’s dash against the judges in the final stages if nothing else.
No reason to brag anymore
With today’s victory over Denmark, there is no longer any reason to brag: Sweden are now the favorites for the gold in the World Cup.
Glenn Solberg He won’t like this because as recently as the beginning of the week when I spoke to him he didn’t want to compete for any favorites at all but put him on Denmark and preferred to keep France and Spain on top as well as they’ve been on top for 10-15 years now.
But Sweden are the European title holders, playing at home, and have advanced after Boquist-Gate (which must have affected the smooth game against Denmark in April) and appear to have resumed where they left off at UEFA in January.
Solberg has constantly turned the clock in these two games against Germany and Denmark, at the edges of Ekberg & Co getting a half per player and the nine-meter players and the streak getting a quarter in each run – this is hardly noticeable.
From day one Solberg has been captain of the federation, then we have to go back to the spring of 2020 when he took over in the middle of the pandemic, and he claimed that Sweden had a lot of good handball players.
I thought of the clever, caressed compliment from the Norwegian who became the new captain of the Swedish national team.
But of course he knew what he was talking about and despite the fact that only 7 of the 18 players from Euro 2020 are left, the national team shows a breadth that we haven’t seen in 20 years.
A player like Linus Pearson, who has always played for the national team and plays in this year’s Champions League surprise Nantes, hasn’t had a single minute on the field in these two matches. Not so Karl Wallenius, who was impressed as a newcomer to Kiel herself this fall.
Genrep before the WC Final?
Then, of course, Sweden is a favorite for gold together With Denmark (the Danes say they have their best team ever), France and Spain are the biggest contenders.
Swedish (national) teams like to attack from below. We know that and it could have also been done so far under Solberg.
But it’s just about taking the next step mentally, liking the situation, embracing being the favourite and letting the house become an asset rather than a burden.
Before the premiere of the Handball League, I wrote that Swedish (men’s) handball was much hotter than it had been for a long time.
If audience numbers are falling in the Handball League, today we get proof of how popular the national team is anyway: Scandinavia was almost sold out in a training match against Denmark with three months before the tournament.
The World Cup will be a great party and you will see the Scandinavian derby today as a representative of the type of World Cup Final at Tele 2 Arena in Stockholm on January 29th.