Reaction from England and Sweden to Zlatan's 4-goal Master Class vs. England at Friends Arena. Zlatan Ibrahimovic's play and goals against England have him hailed around the world

HDPremierleague YouTube Channel video: Zlatan Ibrahimovic's Bicycle Goal in Sweden's 4-2 win over England at Friends Arena, Stockholm on November 14, 2012.
http://youtu.be/az4mFb18DUE

Reaction from England and Sweden to Zlatan's 4-goal Master Class vs. England at Friends Arena on Wednesday. Zlatan Ibrahimovic's play and goals against England have him hailed around the world 



TV4 Sweden video: Engelska Sky hyllar Zlatan: "Snyggaste målet jag har sett"; British SkyTV celebrates Zlatan: Best-looking goal I've ever seen; highlights of England at Sweden from SkySports November 15, 2012.

http://www.tv4play.se/program/fotbollsklipp?video_id=2240470&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=permalink&utm_campaign=tv4play.se

                   
                   
                   
                   
                

The Guardian's sports editor Ian Prior speaks to the worldwide reaction to 35-yard overhead kick. November 15, 2012.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/video/2012/nov/15/zlatan-ibrahimovic-strike-video

The Guardian

Steven Gerrard: Zlatan Ibrahimovic goal was best I've ever seen

• England captain hails Swede's 'special' performance

• Fourth goal was 'better than Rooney's against City'

By Dominic Fifield at Friends Arena, Stockholm

Wednesday 14 November 2012

Steven Gerrard's achievement in becoming the sixth player to gain a century of England caps ended overshadowed with the midfielder conceding Zlatan Ibrahimovic's stunning fourth goal was the best he had ever seen.

Read the rest of the article at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/nov/15/steven-gerrard-zlatan-ibrahimovic-best

TV4 football expert Olof Lundh: (Paraphrased) - It's not even a script that Hollywood would think of creating for Sweden's first game in their new national stadium.
http://www.tv4play.se/program/sporten?video_id=2240422&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=permalink&utm_campaign=tv4play.se 

England vs. Sweden today: Steven Gerrard set to get 100th Cap today in Stockholm with 3 rookies starting for Three Lions as England meets Sweden tonight in Friends Arena's inaugural international match in Solna -home of next July's Final of UEFA's Women's Euro 2013

England FA YouTube Channel video: Twelve  years after playing in his first match as a member of the English National Team, Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard reflects on tonight's international friendly at Sweden in what will be his 100th match as part of the Three Lions and the first international match to be played at Sweden's new home for the Men and Womens National Team. Uploaded November 14, 2012. http://youtu.be/ZxXp58DlS2s

With temps in the 40's Farenheit, the stadium roof will be closed -match will be aired on TV4 in Sweden.
More match info at: http://svenskfotboll.se/ and http://friendsarena.se/Evenemang/Invigningsmatch-Sverige-England/

I found out last week that the annual national telecast of the St. Lucia concert will be there on December 15th. Sweet! 

http://www.tv4play.se/program/sporten?video_id=2240039&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=permalink&utm_campaign=tv4play.se&starttime=22
TV4Sport senaste sportnyheterna: Allbäck inför Sverige England: "Ska bli häftigt"
 Allbäck: England-Sweden will be awesome. 


SvenskFotboll YouTube Channel video: Nya Nationalarenan - Friends Arena - från första spadtag till färdig arena New National Arena - Friends Arena - from the groundbreaking ceremony to the final arena. Uploaded November 14, 2012.
http://youtu.be/C1DKagq8X60



SvenskFotboll YouTube Channel video: Marcus Allbäck reveals the starting line-up for  Sweden in their match tonight against England. Uloaded November 14, 2012. http://youtu.be/zJoPjWwjbpA




 SvenskFotboll YouTube Channel video: SvFF:s första presskonferens på Friends Arena 7/11 2012 - svenskfotboll http://youtu.be/bHE48I1hUHU


http://www.england.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=299824

http://svenskfotboll.se/arkiv/landslag/2012/11/truppen-mot-england/

http://www.youtube.com/user/england/

http://www.youtube.com/user/svenskfotboll/


http://www.uefa.com/womenseuro/index.html

http://www.uefa.com/womenseuro/news/newsid=1887601.html

As expected, it's au revoir! Pia till Sverige: U.S. Women's National Soccer Team coach Pia Sundhage leaving U.S. after five years to return home and coach Sweden, which will host next year's UEFA Women's EURO in July

It's the lead story in the sports section of Aftonbladet
http://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/fotboll/landslagsfotboll/damlandslaget/article15345115.ab

In perhaps the worst-kept sports secret of 2012, after months -and some even say years!- of deliberate and sometimes desperate efforts by everyone involved in Swedish football from head federation authorities at SvFF to average fans to persuade U.S. Women's National Team head coach Pia Sundhage to return to Sweden to head Sveriges damlandslag i fotboll, she has finally said yes.

The Swedish sports media have been pushing for this personnel move for what seems like forever, and during the recent Olympics in London, where Sundhage guided the U.S. squad to their second Gold Medal in her five years, newspapers, blogs and websites throughout the country were constantly writing and positing on what a positive difference Sundhage could make to what is already an extremely talented Swedish squad.

Here is one of the "do everything humanly possible" to get Pia columns I came across over the past few months, with slight variations depending upon who was saying it or writing it:
Simon Bank: Gör allt som är mänskligt möjligt för att anställa Pia till EM
http://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/kronikorer/bank/article15240473.ab

Unfortunately for coach Thomas Dennerby, Sweden was missing some of its best players from last year's strong third-place Women's World Cup squad in Germany
http://youtu.be/MpPO8xSaIUM

That included HBB favorite Josefine Öqvist, who was pregnant, and actually gave birth two weeks before the Olympics began, as I mentioned in my July 25th post last month, to her daughter, Stella.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/swedish-heartache-we-regret-to-inform.html


It's an understatement to say that Josefine was desperately missed on the offensive side of the field at the Olympics!

Josefine is such a spark plug for the team and has such a sixth sense for the ball that it seems positively uncanny at times.
She leverages her body position in relation to the ball about as well as any female player around, and her knack for putting herself in the right position for a steal or to cleanly receive a ricochet pass that leads to a breakaway, well, sometimes it makes her almost seem like a cartoon character that's moving twice as fast as anyone else on the field.

Not that many of you readers out there in the blogosphere or even here in South Florida will get my reference as clearly as I'd like, but in all sorts of ways, when Josefine's on the field, her savvy, mannerisms and moxie greatly remind me of Miami Norland High School's Cindy Clippinger back in the late 1970's, whom I saw play several times in big games.

For a whole host of reasons not worth getting into here, besides my having very strong feelings for a certain very talented, lanky and attractive German-speaking goalie named Karen at HML
(Hialeah Miami Lakes), who was one of the stars of her team back then when they were winning the Girl's soccer title in the GMAC -the Greater Miami Athletic Conference, the athletic league for Dade County public high schools- I saw quite a lot of Clippinger and never went away unimpressed

Though she attended Norland, one of North Miami Beach's arch-rivals in soccer, Boys and Girls, along with North Miami, the two high schools closest to NMB, she was THE best female soccer player in South Florida that I ever saw -by a mile. And I saw a lot of them. 
(One of my two sisters played at NMB, too, after I left for college at IU.)
Cindy Clippinger was just plain fun to watch!

And if you like irony, and me comparing a wonderful Swedish player now to a wonderful player from more than thirty years ago, you'll like this -Norland High School's sports nickname was -wait for it -the Vikings!

All screenshots of Swedish star midfielder Josefine Öqvist by South Beach Hoosier, July 6, 2011. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

These screenshot I took of Swedish star striker Josefine Öqvist and Team Sweden on July 6, 2011, came during a game at the Women's World Cup in Germany against the U.S.A., which Sweden won 2-1. http://youtu.be/gCsRos4Zp2A

After eight years as head coach, Dennerby resigned a week ago, effective mid-September, having helped Sweden move up -and remain at- the top ranks of Women's football. He deserves a lot of thanks and credit for making them such a respected team.! 
http://www.uefa.com/womenseuro/news/newsid=1849242.html
http://www.tv4.se/sport/klipp/caroline-seger-valkomnar-en-forandring-2212604

Last I heard, Josefine says that she WILL be playing again, I just don't know when.
I think we should hold off for a few months and see how she feels after New Year's Day, since there's no point in her setting silly and meaningless deadlines just to keep fans happy, since she could well change her mind.

The Swedish Women's Under-19 squad won the Euro championship for the first time this year,
http://www.uefa.com/womensunder19/season=2012/matches/round=2000218/match=2010243/postmatch/report/index.html#diaz+secures+title+sweden
and is loaded with talent that'll seek to make the big move up to the big National Team in the coming months, since as I've stated a few times here on the blog this year already, next July, Sweden will be hosting the 2013 UEFA Womens Euro, and it's sure to be a very well-attended and exciting three weeks of football.


Sweden will be host the 2013 UEFA Womens Euro from July 10-28th, with the title match in Solna, just north of Stockholm. http://fogis.se/damem2013/
http://www.uefa.com/womenseuro/index.html

Here's a short video about the team, the town and the supporters who Josefine plays for, Tyresö FF.


Tyreso TV video: Tyresö FF mer än bara fotboll! (More than just football!!!)
Uploaded Feb. 10, 2011. http://youtu.be/4CpJGnX_-bA

Tomorrow, Sunday, second-place Tyresö FF plays at home against league-leading  Linköping FC for the lead of the 12-team Damallsvenskan, the highest league of Women's football in Sweden, a league that Sundhage was the leading scorer in during the mid-1980's.


FIFA TV video: Sundhage: 'The moment of my football life'. Uploaded August 13, 2012.
http://youtu.be/v4ZmpM2Fu8o -----


Los Angeles Times
Pia Sundhage steps down as U.S. women's soccer coach
By Kevin Baxter
September 1, 2012, 11:15 a.m.

Three weeks after guiding the U.S. women's soccer team to an Olympic title, Pia Sundhage is stepping down as coach to return to her native Sweden.

"It was an honor to be able to coach these players for five years and I learned a tremendous amount from all of them," Sundhage said in a statement released by U.S. Soccer on Saturday.

Read the rest of the story at:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-pia-sundhage-resigns-20120901,0,3286133.story


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Svenska Fotbollförbundet -SvFF (Swedish Football Association) homepage: http://svenskfotboll.se/landslag/herrar/

SvFF's WebbTV/videos homepage: http://svenskfotboll.se/webb-tv/

Instant Classic video! Romania's National Ice Hockey Team manager lets loose after tough loss to Poland; IIHF World Championship 2012 Finland/Sweden starts next week

Warning -lots of expletives are flying in this video!

But it is still destined to become a CLASSIC!

Romania National Ice Hockey Team manager lets loose with tough love after tough loss to Poland; Tränarens utbrott efter storförlusten Polen - Rumänien. This was following a Group B qualifying game at Krynica, Poland. April 2012.

http://www.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/sport/ishockey/article14728686.ab

I first saw this video on Wednesday on the video page of Aftonbladet, Sweden's most-read newspaper, and I played it five more times in quick succession... for obvious reasons.

The IIHF World Championship, a 16-team tourney, will be played in Stockholm and Helsinki starting next Thursday May the 4th thru the 20th, with the final in Stockholm at Ericsson Globe a.k.a. Globen.

With the Stanley Cup playoffs continuing and talented teams like the defending champion Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings and Vancouver Canucks being eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs, some very talented foreign players, and Swedish players in particular, will now be available to play in the tourney from the very beginning.
For the Swedes on those teams, the prospect of returning to play for the Swedish National Team, Tre Kronor, and playing at home, and for for the title at home is very appealing.

Aftonbladet's sports columnist Mats Wennerholm wrote about the subject of these returning NHL stars Tuesday, terming it a "Dream Team": Drömläge, Tre Kronor: Sju NHL-spelare klara – och fler stjärnor på gång  http://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/kronikorer/wennerholm/article14725006.ab

My early title game prediction is Sweden vs. Slovakia.
But so very much has changed in the past year for both of these elite teams, something they could have never imagined.

8brano7 video: IIHF World Championship 2012 Finland/Sweden. February 14, 2012. 

Here's the very well-produced unofficial Slovakian video about the Ice hockey Championship, though obviously it helps if you know who the players are, and some of the dazzling plays are beyond description. It also includes a very touching tribute to former Slovak captain Pavol Demitra, who perished in the September 7th Russian airline crash into the Volga River that claimed the entire Lokomotiv Yaroslav KHL team, including Tre Kronor star goalie Stefan Liv. http://youtu.be/lSsY2P5tFZI

SVT video: Minnesstund för Liv i Jönköping.

Thousands flock to Jönköping to say their final farewell to their friend, teammate, neighbor, favorite son and hero, Stefan Liv.

Publicerad 10 september 2011 - 14:00; Uppdaterad 11 september 2011 - 10:08

http://svt.se/2.19691/1.2530099/tusentals_tog_farval_av_stefan_liv

* 2013 Update: This news video, which was VERY, VERY  SAD, has been removed from SVT's website and is no longer available.

My September 7, 2011 blog post on that tragic crash, with videos, was titled,
Swedish National Team goalie Stefan Liv among 43 dead in plane crash into Volga River, obliterating KHL team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl as new season starts
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/swedish-national-team-goalie-stefan-liv.html

Above, the Finnish first-class stamp that came out last month that features the official mascot of the Championship, HockeyBird. If you didn't already know, Angry Birds was created in Finland by Rovio Mobile.

Here's the English language version of the official information webpage, which also has one in Swedish and Finnish: IIHF World Championship 2012 Finland/Sweden

http://www.iihf.com/home-of-hockey/championships/world-championships/finlandsweden-2012/english.html

Aftonbladet's awesome hockey page: http://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/hockey/

Here's the official tourney merchandise page full of lots of intersting goodies: http://62.20.67.28/wm2012/Servlet

Here's the Swedish Facebook page that has lots of photos of the arena and the preparation:

http://www.facebook.com/iihfvm

Branislav Kysucký's You Tube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/8brano7
http://www.branno.tk/  

England's current & past stars are asked, "Why can't we beat Sweden?" (Varför kan vi inte slå Sverige?) England-Sweden preview of Nov. 15th Friendly

The FA video: England's current and past stars respond to the question, "Why can't we beat Sweden?" November 7, 2011.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE5k2J0om3Y&feature=colike

England's current and past stars are asked, "Why can't we beat Sweden?" (Varför kan vi inte slå Sverige?). English National Team vs. Sweden preview for the Tuesday night Friendly at Wembley on November 15th, 8 p.m. GMT; at 9 p.m. on TV4 Sport, Sweden. Sweden plays Denmark in Copenhagen this Friday night.

SvFF WebbTV video: Erik Hamrén inför Danmark och England.

SvFF's Andreas Vanberg talks with Sweden manager Erik Hamrén about the upcoming matches against Denmark and England, November 3, 2011.

http://professional.player.qbrick.com/player.aspx?mid=5C80C063

She's NOT likely to be be in Denmark or England rooting Team Sverige on, but we can always hope, can't we?

Above, a screenshot I took of Swedish star striker Josefine Öqvist on July 6, 2011.

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The FA YouTube Channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/england

http://www.thefa.com/

http://thefa.com/England

Svenska Fotbollförbundet -SvFF (Swedish Football Association) homepage: http://svenskfotboll.se/landslag/herrar/

SvFF's WebbTV/videos homepage: http://svenskfotboll.se/webb-tv/

http://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/fotboll/

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/index.html

http://www1.skysports.com/football/

Swedish National Team goalie Stefan Liv among 43 dead in plane crash into Volga River, obliterating KHL team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl as new season starts

RT video: KHL Catastrophe: Three-time champions plane crash into Volga River on takeoff after old Yakovlev-42 plane hits airport beacon. Tragedy shocks Russia to its core. http://youtu.be/lg3oFLeSJsI

TV4.se News video: Olympic Gold Medal-winning goalie Stefan Liv of Tre Kronor is among 43 perishing in Russian plane crash into Volga River after his team, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, prepared for the KHL season-opener against Minsk. Only two passengers survived. September 7, 2011.

http://www.hockeykanalen.se/1.2270433/2011/09/07/tv_liv_har_omkommit_i_kraschen

Tv4.se News video: Jönköping mourns Stefan Liv's life and career. September 7, 2011.

http://www.tv4play.se/sport/hockeyklipp?title=liv_hedras_i_jonkoping&videoid=2004257&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=permalink&utm_campaign=tv4play.se

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Stay tuned to RT, Russia Today at http://rt.com/ and Sweden's TV4's Hockey Channel, http://www.hockeykanalen.se/ for the latest news.

RUSSIA TODAY

RT is the first Russian 24/7 English-language news channel which brings the Russian view on global news.RT live video stream and broadcasts available in high resolution.

Watch LIVE 24/7 at http://rt.com/on-air/

Trending at Hallandale Beach Blog: Swedish star forward Josefine Öqvist and the Swedish National Soccer Team

Aftonbladet Web TV's Sports Channel had this humorous video of a German TV channel showing Josefine Öqvist exchanging shirts with a fan in the stands after the game.

http://www.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/sport/article13271214.ab

All screenshots below of Swedish star striker Josefine Öqvist by South Beach Hoosier, July 6, 2011.

Above, Josefine on Wednesday just seconds before the start of the U.S. game and likely 'visualizing' the ball in the goal. She had no goals on Wednesday but had several excellent chances thanks to her skill and great speed to beat defenders to the ball, esp. on long passes.

Maybe she'll do it today against Australia in the third Quarterfinal game of the 2011 Womens World Cup.

Would you believe that as recently as about April, the Locatel health/drugstore here in Hallandale Beach, on Hallandale Beach Blvd. near Panera Bread, STILL wanted the full retail price on the dozens of official 2010 Mens World Cup soccer balls that they had, at about $120-plus each!

Seriously, who pays that price so long after the tourney ended?

Reminded me of the Publix here in town charging full retail price for some of the Colts and Bears Super Bowl t-shirts more than a year after that game was played down here.

Yes, you can't sell them at that price because after the game is history, you can buy it elsewhere for $5, so why would you think customers would STILL pay $20-25?

TV4 video: Following Sweden's 2-1 victory on Wednesday over the U.S. National Team at the Womens World Cup match in Wolfsburg, TV4's Anna Brolin evaluates Swedish group play in the World Cup directly from Hannover Germany and speaks with, yes, Swedish star forward Josefine Öqvist.

http://www.tv4play.se/nyheter_och_debatt/nyhetsmorgon?title=sverige_tog_historisk_seger_mot_usa&videoid=1761836&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=permalink&utm_campaign=tv4play.se

Sportsbladet has a 15-image photo gallery of Josefine the other day:

http://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/fotboll/landslagsfotboll/damvm2011/article13300631.ab

"Oslagbara Sverige" -Unbeaten Sweden- says the Sports page of Sveriges TV (SVT) website, July 6, 2011 screenshot by South Beach Hoosier.

Meanwhile, in other news of the coming musical apocalypse, Ireland's 2011 Eurovision entry, Jedward, the subject of a previous post here, played on TV4's ”Sommarkrysset” and nearly caused a riot among the crowd, with several girls fainting -like it was Obama 2008.

Below, the Brothers Grime singing their official Eurovision entry, "Lipstick."

http://www.tv4.se/1.2201794/2011/07/09/ett_energiskt_framtradande

Insert your own punchline here!

2011 Swedish Womens National Soccer Team homepage, with roster, photos and stats: http://svenskfotboll.se/landslag/damer/vm-truppen-2011/
Team photo: http://svenskfotboll.se/landslag/damer/

The Tv4 homepage for the show is at http://www.tv4.se/sommarkrysset

http://www.aftonbladet.se/

Swedish ice hockey player Danijela Rundqvist: Moved to Canada to play professionally and not only has to adapt to level of play, but family demands

Head's up: while the voice-over is in Swedish, the profanity is in English!
SVT video: Hockeyproffset som betalar för att spela - February 17, 2011

Twenty-six year old former AIK and Swedish Olympic ice hockey player Danijela Rundqvist has moved to Canada to play professionally for the Burlington Barracudas of Ontario in the Canadian Womens Hockey League in order to improve her abilities before moving back to Sweden after the season.

Rundqvist currently lives in town with a Canadian family and also works with children on the ice rink, but while the goal of sharpening her game is happening, she has to balance her busy schedule and career with being a mother in a foreign country, far from the help and comfort of family and friends.

"The price of success is hard work" - Maxim in Toronto Maple Leafs locker room

Another fascinating SVT video of Danijela working-out with a trainer, part of which is included in the video at top, is at:
http://svtplay.se/v/2329925/ishockey/se_rundqvist_stenharda_traning

In Sweden, mamas don't let their babies grow-up to be cowboys, instead, they want them to be members of Tre kronor or Damkronorna, and begin covering them in the Blue & Gold from birth, as evidenced by this replica jersey -for babies.
Official Swedish Ice Hockey Association online store:
http://62.20.67.29/trekronor/

Their homepage is http://www.swehockey.se/

Danijela's photo is now featured on the Damkronorna homepage:
http://www.swehockey.se/Landslag/Dam/

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Danijela's blog is at: http://danijelarundqvist.blogspot.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danijela_Rundqvist
http://www.cwhl.ca/
http://www.aik.se/aikindex.html?/startsida.html

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My last blog post on Svenska Ishockey was exactly a year ago, February 21st, 2010, the day of the big Sweden vs. Finland game in Vancouver at the Winter Olympics.
That proved to not quite be the close game I'd hoped for: Sweden's skillful Tre kronor vs. Finland's Susi in Olympic hockey Sunday - Heja Sverige! Heja Sverige!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/swedens-skillful-tre-kronor-vs-finlands.html

For many of you newer readers to the blog, that post of mine was also -happily- your very first introduction to the awesome talent that is singer Jill Johnson, in this case, singing Jolene.
You're welcome!


Jill Johnson - Jolene, as seen on TV4's BingoLotto, 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-Dl83hLZG4