Germany will be tough (Xbox research)

Tomorrow Sweden will play a quarter final in the World Cup against the country hosting the tournament, Germany. Quite a match if you are Swedish and love football.

In order to prepare I have played the game on my Xbox. Sweden had the following team: Isaksson – Alexandersson, Mellberg, Lucic, Edman – Wilhelmsson, Linderoth, Källström, Ljungberg – Allbäck, Larsson. In half-time Zlatan replaced Allbäck.

To tell you the truth, Sweden lost the first game 1-0. Podolski scored after a messy corner already after six minutes and thereafter the game was very tough and even. Zlatan made a great difference when he came on though, but he missed a great chance in the dying minutes of the game.

However, in order to improve the validity of this “research” I replayed the game. Podolski scored again in the first half, but Zlatan scored a wonderful goal after a cut-through pass from Wilhelmsson in the beginning of the second half. (I think we need to play a lot like that, quick passes into open zones behind their defence).

Early on in the second half of extra time, Sweden got a corner. The ball ended up somewhere in the German box, and I pushed all the buttons at the same time. Out of all players in the Swedish team, Alexandersson (of IFK Göteborg) scored, and the game ended 2-1 to Sweden.

OK, this is just me kidding around, dealing with the fact that I am already very excited about the game tomorrow. But maybe there might a grain of truth in second scenario. After all, my previous research suggested that Sweden would get 5 points in the first round and finish second…

Let the second round of the beautiful game begin [and happy midsummer to y'all].