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Home|Football News|World Cup 2006|Teams|World Cup Teams|Sweden 2006
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Sweden - World Cup 2006 Team Profile
How will the Firm hold up? Curtis Ogawa reports.
BackgroundSweden is always a fun side to watch and this World Cup Finals should be no different. In addition to a solid midfield anchored by Freddie Ljungberg, Sweden has the Firm. This World Cup will witness the last pairing of the Firm: a.k.a., Henrik Larsson and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. These two forwards spell trouble for any defense. Even as Larsson bids farewell to Barcelona to return home to Sweden for a swan song of a season to his brilliant career, he still has the legs and pace to score, particularly from close range in the box. His partner, Juventus forward Ibrahimovic, is a temperamental and dangerous player. Moreover, Sweden got a relatively good draw: England, Paraguay, and Trinidad & Tobago. Short of a big surprise, first-timers Trinidad & Tobago should not pose much of a threat to the Swedes. Paraguay, ranked 49th in the world, is no pushover and always difficult to score on. Still, punters worldwide will be wary of betting against Sweden. And then there is England, the putative favorites of Group B. Sweden faces England last of the three first round matches, and, more importantly, has not lost to England since May 1968.
Thus, Coach Lars Lagerback is cautiously optimistic: "The draw was reasonably good; in fact, better than four years ago." In Japan, Sweden won in a group over England, Argentina, and Nigeria. The match in Kobe against Nigeria was one of the matches of the tournament, an end-to-end pulsating display of football at its best. An area of concern for Sweden, though, is the defence, where skipper Olof Mellberg has had an injury-plagued and forgettable season at Aston Villa. His likely central defensive partner is the veteran Teddy Lucic, who is back in the domestic game after spells in England and Germany with Leeds United and Bayer Leverkusen. Neither are blessed with great pace and could find themselves exposed by quicker opponents. Erik Edman and Mikael Nilsson as full-backs both have had recent injury problems. 
Road to GermanyThough Sweden allowed Croatia to take first place in their qualifying group (Sweden qualified as one of the two best second-place sides in Europe), Sweden as always displayed its main strength: tactically and physically the equal to almost anyone. In addition, however, in the temperamental and towering Ibrahimovic, the Swedes now have a creative and very dangerous presence up front. Sweden vs. Malta 7 - 0 World Cup Record1934: Quarterfinal Star PlayerWith Larsson at the end of a storied career, Ibrahimovic is the player to watch. If he does not get yellow carded out of a match, he could lead Sweden far. The Juventus man is tough, big, strong, and hard to get off the ball. Moreover, he has the killer instinct in the box. If he is on, Larrson knocks home a few goals, and Ljungberg keeps things tight in midfield, Sweden could well get into the quarterfinals.Fact File Founded: 1904 World Cup Squad Goalkeepers John Alvbage (Viborg, Denmark), Andreas Isaksson
(Rennes, France), Rami Shaaban (Fredrikstad, Norway) Likely Lineup Goalie: Andreas Isaksson
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