Sweden

Sweden: "We are not under pressure“

Karolina Berg — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:08:41 +0000

The Swedish team have high hopes for the semi-final – even as they have to face the reigning European, World and Olympics champion France. “We hope for a great support from the stands – and the pressure is on France, not us,” says head coach Staffan Olsson.

Semifinals finalized: Sweden vs. France, Denmark vs. Spain

Karolina Berg — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 21:38:53 +0000

The last two matches of both Main Round groups had to decide the constellation in the semi-finals: And as Denmark beat Sweden they ranked first in group II and meet Spain in the semi-final on Friday on 28 January (20:30) in Kristianstad. France won the group I by their seventh victory against Iceland and will play against host Sweden (18:00) in Malmö on Friday. Spain and France are equal in points, but France have the better goal difference and rank ahead the Iberians. Denmark is the only team with eight victories in eight matches and lead the final ranking with 10:0 points ahead of Sweden (6:4). Aside Serbia beat Argentina and play for the places 9/10 against Norway. The Gauchos will meet Germany in the 11/12 placement match.

Semi-finals:
Sweden – France (Friday, 28.01, 18.00 in Malmö)
Denmark – Spain (Friday, 28.01, 20.30 in Kristianstad)

Sweden fly on the wings of success

Karolina Berg — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 19:01:35 +0000

As the teams of Main Round group I had a rest day on Monday WCh host Sweden made a huge step to the semi-finals by their impressive 29:25 victory over Croatia. If Denmark take at least on point against Argentina later this evening both Northern Europeans teams are already qualified for the semi finals before their direct duel on Tuesday.

Group II:

Sweden – Croatia 29:25 (14:12)

Sweden: "We keep the feet on the ground"

Karolina Berg — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 10:56:04 +0000

They already reached their final destination, and they still have all chances to reach their final objective, too: Sweden, the host of the World Championship, have their fate in their own hands before the crucial matches of the Main Round in Malmö.

The team of the coaching duo Staffan Olsson/Ola Lindgren started well in the second stage of the competition by beating Serbia. But Olsson knows that the tough opponents will follow: “We are very happy with our opening victory, and we are satisfied with our performance. But the semi-final is still far away.” Sweden will meet Croatia today and Denmark on Tuesday – and especially the match against the runners-up of 2009 will be pre-decisively for the rest of the tournament. “We keep our feet on the ground,” Olsson said, “as Croatia is one of the big contenders for the medals. We have to prove our performance again and again.”

Spain, Sweden, Croatia and Germany start with victories

Karolina Berg — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 19:32:27 +0000

The Main Round started with a surprise: Germany beat Iceland, it was the first defeat for the Northern Europeans in Sweden. Aside Spain (against Norway) and Croatia (against Argentina) took clear victories. Sweden can hope for the semis after beating Serbia.

Group I:

Spain – Norway 33:27 (15:12)

Nordic triple: Iceland, Denmark and Sweden win their groups

Karolina Berg — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 21:12:23 +0000

The final decisions in the groups B, C and D had been taken: Denmark (by beating Croatia), Sweden (by winning against Poland) and Iceland (by beating Norway) are the winners of the groups B, C and D. Iceland and Denmark start the Main Round with the optimum of 4:0 points, as Sweden arose like Phoenix from ashes.

Group B:

Iceland – Norway 29:22 (12:12)

Argentina beat host Sweden – seven teams already qualified for the Main Round

Karolina Berg — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 22:22:58 +0000

Seven nations already qualified for the Main Round after 42 of 60 matches of the Preliminary Round: After France (group A),, Croatia (C), Norway (B) and Poland (D) now Iceland, Hungary (both B) and Sweden (D) took the tickets to Malmö/Lund and Jonköping. Despite celebrating the Main Round qualification, the WCh host was shocked by losing against Argentina, Iceland took their fourth victory against Austria – thanks to this result also Hungary was qualified for the last 12 round.

Group B:
Austria –Iceland 23:26 (16:11)

France and Croatia in the Main Round

Karolina Berg — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:35:29 +0000

Like Croatia in Group C before, France have already qualified for the Main Round in Group A after their clear (and third) victory over Bahrain. Host Sweden (against Korea), Iceland (against Japan) and Denmark (against Serbia) made huge steps to the Main Round after their each third victory, as they each only need one more point now. Norway have beaten Austria, as Egypt took their first points in the Northern African duel against Tunisia.

Group A:

Tunisia – Egypt 23:27 (10:11)

Sweden like a blizzard, Austria overrun by Japan

Karolina Berg — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 22:18:17 +0000

As the groups A and C had a match free day on Saturday groups B and D were playing – and Japan was the big surprise as they beat Austria. Poland had enormous problems to beat Argentina and host Sweden overran Slovakia like Iceland did against Brazil.

Group B: Japan – Austria 33:30 (18:11)

Statements after the Bronze final

Karolina Berg — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 16:51:10 +0000

Valero Rivera, Spanish coach: „It was a match of two equal teams. Our attack decided the game, but I have to say that the match was imprinted by strong goalkeeper performances, too. I am absolutely satisfied with our result, as we worked hard for two years to go so far, not only during this tournament.”

Staffan Olsson, Swedish coach: „It was a tough and hard match for our team, but in the end I am proud of what we did during the game. My players fought until the very end and tried hard to win. In the end the Spaniards were the lucky team. My contract as national coach is valid until the summer and currently I don’t know if I will extend it. I will wait some weeks to decide.

Robert Arrhenius, Swedish player: We fought hard, even as it was not our match today. We are currently disappointed with the fourth place, but when we finally have realized what we achieved here we will be satisfied. Thanks to the audience for their great support in this match.

Bronze medal for Spain

Karolina Berg — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 15:37:23 +0000

Spain won the medal after a highly tensioned match, decided with the final whistle. It was the first medal at World Championships for the Spaniards since their title ion 2005.

Bronze final: Sweden – Spain 23:24 (11:11)
The Iberians danced on the field, as the World Championship host was highly disappointed after this Bronze final thriller. The game was absolutely close from the first to the last minute, especially thanks to great goalkeeping performances on both sides by Arpad Sterbik (Spain) and Johan Sjöstrand (Sweden). It took 28 minutes before Sweden was in lead with two goals for the first time (10:8). But this lead didn’t last long, as the Spaniards equalized within 30 seconds right before the halftime whistle.

Statements after the first semi-final

Karolina Berg — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:34:05 +0000

Ola Lindgren, Swedish coach: We had hoped to reach the final, but we didn’t reach our normal level, played with too less speed, and didn’t score enough easy goals. France deserved to win.

Johan Sjöstrand, Swedish goalkeeper: I didn’t have a good day and couldn’t help my team that much.

Mattias Gustafsson, Swedish player: We were not strong enough to bring France to the ground.

Claude Onesta, French coach: It is a great satisfaction to have won this difficult game against the host of the World Championship. We played well after a weak start. The audience was great and I also have to thank the Swedish team for a great match. If we meet Denmark in the final, it would be the first time ever that we would have to play against two home teams.

Unstoppable Frenchmen in the final

Karolina Berg — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 18:43:20 +0000

They were shaken in the final stage of the game, but in the end France stood tall and took a deserved 29:26 victory against host Sweden in the first semi-final. For France it is the fourth straight final in a major tournament since 2008 – Olympics 2008, WCh 2009, EURO 2010 – and they won all those three finals before. If they take the trophy on Sunday they are the first team to defend a WCh title since 1974, when Romania took the trophy like in 1970. Sweden was a strong opponent in the semi of Malmö, but they lacked individual class against the experienced French team and will play for the Bronze medal on Sunday. The Swedish and French opponent will be decided in the second semi in Kristianstad.

Semi-final 1: France – Sweden 29:26 (15:12)

Tickets left for Sweden-France semi-final

Ola Richardsson — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:58:02 +0000

Here's happy news for all Swedish and French fans: There are tickets in all prize categories left for the semi-final in Malmö between Sweden and France. The match starts at 18.00.

The tickets for the Final are sold out, so this will be the last chance to see Sweden in a home championship for many years from now.

Click here for tickets.

On the same ticket you also get the match about 5-6 place between Croatia-Iceland at 20.30.

Sweden Juniors beat GB Olympics team

Karolina Berg — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:31:12 +0000

On their way to the Olympics 2012 in London the British Men’s Handball team played a testing match in Malmö against the Swedish U21 juniors right before the final matches of the Main Round Group II. The host team won 34:25 (17:11), but for the British team every match is an important experience to develop. The Swedish juniors took the lead after the 4:4, but until the 9:8 the match was equal. Thanks to a 8:3 series they pre-decided the game at the break (17:11) – and dominated the second half thanks to their stronger defense (including goalkeeping) and the bigger skills in attack. Top scorers were Thomas Vasaris (five goals for Sweden U21) and Steven Larsson (eight goals for Great Britain).

Photos by Axel Heimken