SVT video: Gravid Öqvist missar OS. Pregnant Öqvist will miss Olympic Games. January 13, 2012. She's also missing the Damallsvenskan season in Sweden
Not so happy news for blågult!
Sweden's Women football team, third at last year's World Cup, faces South Africa today in Coventry minus dependable #14, Josefine Öqvist, whose 29th birthday was Monday.
Öqvist will be rooting for her teammates while watching the match on TV back in Sweden with her boyfriend, hockey player Stefan Lassen, and her two-week old daughter, Stella.
Josefine is a delight to watch in a game because she's such a spark plug for the team and has such a sixth sense for the ball that seems positively uncanny at times.
Her knack for putting herself in the right position for a steal or to get a ricochet pass that leads to a breakaway, well, sometimes makes her almost like a cartoon character that's moving twice as fast as anyone else.
All screenshots of Swedish star midfielder Josefine Öqvist by South Beach Hoosier, July 6, 2011. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.
The team looks very good, but I really have no sense of how they'll perform offensively without Josefine, though today's match against South Africa shouldn't even be close.
http://svenskfotboll.se/arkiv/landslag/2012/07/antligen-dags-for-avspark/
Josefine is a delight to watch in a game because she's such a spark plug for the team and has such a sixth sense for the ball that seems positively uncanny at times.
Her knack for putting herself in the right position for a steal or to get a ricochet pass that leads to a breakaway, well, sometimes makes her almost like a cartoon character that's moving twice as fast as anyone else.
The team looks very good, but I really have no sense of how they'll perform offensively without Josefine, though today's match against South Africa shouldn't even be close.
http://svenskfotboll.se/arkiv/landslag/2012/07/antligen-dags-for-avspark/
Håller alla tummar för att de tar medalj
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Captain Lotta Schelin is ready to go...;
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/olympics/2012/writers/grant_wahl/07/17/london-olympic-womens-soccer-preview/index.html
Captain Lotta Schelin is ready to go...;
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/olympics/2012/writers/grant_wahl/07/17/london-olympic-womens-soccer-preview/index.html
Team GB's Women's team hosts New Zealand in the opening match at 10:30 a.m. on MSNBC.
So you're asking yourself, what moxie-filled daughter of Vasa should we root for if Josefine is finito?
Until three weeks ago I would've said Long Island-born, Swedish-raised hurdler Susanna Kallur, aka Sanna, who has had her share of high highs, a world record, and many lows because of injuries, but who was very focused this year to let her enormous talent be seen by the whole world -again.
That is, until she announced at the end of June that she wouldn't be able to compete in the OS because of yet another injury.
Before...
SVT video: Sanna Kallur, "I love to train" Sanna in Chula Vista, California back in May of this year, when things were looking much brighter.
Click the TV in the far right box to go to full screen.
After...
SVT video: Kallur: Blir inget OS. I'll miss Olympic Games. June 29, 2012.
So very disappointing for Sanna and her many fans.
Volume is turned down as this is a video that starts automatically.
Volume is turned down as this is a video that starts automatically.
SVT's Olympic webpage full of facts, photos and figures is at http://www.svt.se/os/
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/
