Sweden national football team

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Sweden

Nickname(s)

Blågult ("The Blueyellow")

Association

Svenska Fotbollförbundet

Confederation

UEFA (Europe)

Head coach

Lars Lagerbäck, 2000-

Captain

Fredrik Ljungberg

Most caps

Thomas Ravelli (143)

Top scorer

Sven Rydell (49)

Home stadium

Råsunda Stadium

FIFA code

SWE

FIFA ranking

Highest FIFA ranking

2 (November 1994)

Lowest FIFA ranking

31 (August 1998)

Elo ranking

Highest Elo ranking

2 (June 1950)

Lowest Elo ranking

49 (Sept 1980)





Home colours





Away colours

First international

Sweden 11 - 3 Norway

(Gothenburg, Sweden; 12 July, 1908)

Biggest win

Sweden 12 - 0 Latvia

(Stockholm, Sweden; 29 May, 1927)

Sweden 12 - 0 South Korea

(London, England; August 5 1948)

Biggest defeat

England Amateur 12 - 1 Sweden

(London, England; 20 October, 1908)

World Cup

Appearances

11 (First in 1934)

Best result

Runners-up, 1958

European Championship

Appearances

4 (First in 1992)

Best result

Semi-finals, 1992

Men's Football
Olympic medal record
Gold	1948 London	Team
Bronze	1924 Paris	Team
Bronze	1952 Helsinki	Team

The Sweden national football team is the national football team of Sweden and is controlled by the Swedish Football Association.

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 (Brazil's first World Cup championship). 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 quarterfinal, 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.

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 in the beginning with a goal from 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 missed shot by Håkan Mild of Sweden, but Thomas Ravelli, Swedish goalkeeper, made 2 saves that allowed Sweden to win, made him a Swedish hero. Sweden went through to face Brazil in the semi-finals. Sweden who had manged to score in the group stage against Brazil couldn't do it a second time and lost 0-1 after a goal from Romário. 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 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

This article documents a current sports-related event.
Information may change as the event progresses.

Sweden was drawn into Group F with Denmark, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Spain, Latvia, and Liechtenstein. In the first qualification game, Sweden squared off against Latvia in Riga on September 2, 2006, walking away with a 1-0 victory. Next Sweden welcomed visitors Liechtenstein to Gothenburg on September 6, 2006. Sweden managed to secure a 3-1 victory thanks to two late goals via Marcus Allbäck. A hard match against Spain awaited at Råsunda, Solna on October 7. Despite La Furia Roja being favourites, Sweden recorded a 2-0 victory with goals from Elmander and Allbäck^[1] On October 11 2006, Sweden played against Iceland in Reykjavík winning 2-1. On March 28th, 2007 Sweden recorded its first loss of the qualifying round at the hands of Northern Ireland. Despite Elmander's 26th minute goal, and subsequent lead, Blågult ultimately fell 2-1. On June 2, 2007, Sweden played against Denmark in Parken, Copenhagen. With the score at 3-3 and a penalty awarded to Sweden in the 89th minute, the game was abandoned after a Danish supporter stormed the field and attacked the referee after a red card was given to Christian Poulsen. Sweden was later officially awarded a 3-0 win by UEFA. On June 6th, Sweden defeated Iceland by 5-0. Goals were scored by Allbäck, Rosenberg, Mellberg, and Svensson. On September 8th Sweden faced Denmark once again and ended in a draw 0-0. On October 13th, Sweden traveled to play Liechtenstein. They left Vaduz with a 3-0 victory, thanks to goals from Ljungberg, Wilhelmsson, and Svensson. Four days later Northern Ireland came to Råsunda and played a 1-1 draw. Olof Mellberg scored 1-0 after only 15 minutes of the game but in the second half Lafferty equalized the result. The Swedish head coach Lars Lagerbäck admitted that it was his worst competitive game since he was established as head coach in Sweden. Sweden lost against Spain 3-0 in Madrid. They then won against Latvia 2-1. In The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship they will face Greece, Spain, and Russia.

Supporters

The Swedish fan club is called Camp Sweden, which was founded in 2004. 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.

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^[2]	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 2007

Current Squad

The following players named for Euro 2008 Qualifying against Spain and Latvia on November 2007. Caps and goals as of 22 November 2007, included against Latvia.

Pos.	Player	DoB/Age	Caps	Goals	Club
GK	Rami Shaaban	30 June 1975	13	0	Fredrikstad FK
GK	Andreas Isaksson	3 October 1981	52	0	Manchester City FC
DF	Olof Mellberg	3 September 1977	79	4	Aston Villa FC
DF	Erik Edman	11 November 1978	55	1	Stade Rennais FC
DF	Mikael Nilsson	24 June 1978	43	3	Panathinaikos FC
DF	Petter Hansson	14 December 1976	30	1	Stade Rennais FC
DF	Daniel Majstorović	5 April 1977	12	1	FC Basel
DF	Mikael Dorsin	6 October 1981	10	0	CFR Cluj
DF	Matias Concha	31 March 1980	8	0	VfL Bochum
DF	Andreas Granqvist	16 April 1985	2	0	Wigan Athletic FC
MF	Anders Svensson	17 July 1976	84	15	IF Elfsborg
MF	Fredrik Ljungberg (c)	16 April 1977	70	14	West Ham United FC
MF	Daniel Andersson	28 August 1977	58	0	Malmö FF
MF	Kim Källström	24 August 1982	52	8	Olympique Lyonnais
MF	Christian Wilhelmsson	8 December 1979	48	4	Bolton Wanderers FC
MF	Andreas Johansson	5 July 1978	15	0	Aalborg BK
MF	Kennedy Bakircioglü	2 November 1980	11	0	AFC Ajax
MF	Sebastian Larsson	6 June 1985	0	0	Birmingham City FC
FW	Marcus Allbäck	5 July 1973	70	30	FC Copenhagen
FW	Zlatan Ibrahimović	3 October 1981	49	18	FC Internazionale Milano
FW	Markus Rosenberg	27 September 1982	19	6	SV Werder Bremen
FW	Rade Prica	30 June 1980	12	2	Aalborg BK

Recent callups

The following players have also been called up to the Sweden squad during year 2007.

Pos.	Player	DoB/Age	Caps	Goals	Club
GK	John Alvbåge	8 August 1982	3	0	Viborg FF
GK	Johan Wiland	24 January 1981	2	0	IF Elfsborg
DF	Max von Schlebrügge	1 February 1977	8	0	RSC Anderlecht
DF	Per Nilsson	14 September 1982	5	0	TSG 1899 Hoffenheim
DF	Daniel Mobaeck	22 May 1980	3	0	IF Elfsborg
DF	Markus Jonsson	9 March 1981	3	0	AIK
DF	Oscar Wendt	24 October 1985	3	0	FC Copenhagen
DF	Niklas Sandberg	3 September 1978	2	0	CFR Cluj
DF	Fredrik Stenman	2 June 1983	2	0	FC Groningen
MF	Niclas Alexandersson	29 December 1971	103	7	IFK Göteborg
MF	Tobias Linderoth (vc)	21 april 1979	73	1	Galatasaray SK
MF	Stefan Ishizaki	15 May 1981	10	0	IF Elfsborg
MF	Jeffrey Aubynn	12 May 1977	7	0	Aalesunds FK
MF	Martin Ericsson	4 September 1980	7	0	Brøndby IF
MF	Dusan Djuric	16 September 1984	4	0	Halmstads BK
MF	Samuel Holmén	20 June 1984	4	0	Brøndby IF
MF	Pontus Wernbloom	25 June 1986	1	0	IFK Göteborg
FW	Johan Elmander	27 May 1981	31	11	Toulouse FC
FW	Daniel Nannskog	22 May 1974	3	1	Stabæk IF
FW	Olof Guterstam	4 January 1983	2	0	IF Brommapojkarna
MF	Ola Toivonen	3 July 1986	2	0	Malmö FF

Coaching staff

Head Coach	Lars Lagerbäck
Assistant Coach	Roland Andersson

Noted players

See also: List of Sweden international footballers

Sweden managers

See also: List of Sweden national football team managers

1908 Ludvig Kornerup
1909–11 Wilhelm Friberg
1912 John Ohlson
1912–13 Ruben 'Massa' Gelbord
1914–15 Hugo Levin
1916 Frey Svenson
1917–20 Anton Johanson
1921–36 John 'Bill' Pettersson

1937 Carl 'Ceve' Linde
1938–42 Gustaf 'Gurra' Carlson
1942 Selection Committee
1943–56 Rudolf 'Putte' Kock
1957–61 Eric Person
1962–65 Lennart Nyman
1966–70 Orvar Bergmark
1971–79 Georg 'Åby' Ericson

1980–85 Lars 'Laban' Arnesson
1986–90 Olle Nordin
1990 Nils Andersson
1991–97 Tommy Svensson
1998–99 Tommy Söderberg
2000–04 T. Söderberg & L. Lagerbäck
2004– Lars Lagerbäck

External links

Footnotes

^ http://www.uefa.com/competitions/euro/FixturesResults/Round=2241/match=83714/index.html
^ There was no official World Cup final match or bronze match in 1950. The tournament winner was decided by a final round-robin group contested by four teams (Uruguay, Brazil, Sweden, and Spain). Sweden's 3-1 victory over Spain ensured that they finished third.

Football in Sweden

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