WORLD CUP USA ‘94: SEMIFINALS : Sweden, Bulgaria Will Tackle the Past : Rose Bowl: In six World Cup meetings, including a first-round game, Brazil has never lost to Swedes.
If it were possible to shove aside history, or to ignore its lurking existence, Sweden’s World Cup team would do so. But it is all there, always: Brazil and its beautiful game; Brazil, with Pele, the greatest player ever; Brazil, three-time winner of the World Cup; Brazil, whose style is often mimicked but never copied; Brazil, the permanent holder of the first World Cup trophy, the Jules Rimet Cup.
If Brazil’s international dominance of the sport were something to be viewed from afar, it might not be so threatening. But tiny Sweden already knows much about the soccer colossus, both historically and firsthand. Today’s World Cup semifinal game at the Rose Bowl is not an introduction, but a continuation of their World Cup relationship.
The inevitability of playing Brazil in the World Cup grows as the tournament wears on--Brazil is a team that sticks around. But for Sweden, today’s game amounts to double jeopardy, the teams having played to a meaningless 1-1 tie at the end of the first round.
So for Sweden, Brazil looms. But then, Brazil always looms. Even as his team was preparing to play Romania last Sunday in what would be one of the closest games yet in the World Cup, Swedish Coach Tommy Svensson used the chance to play Brazil in the next round as motivation in his pregame speech.
“I said before the game, ‘What we are playing about today is to play Brazil on Wednesday, semifinal in the World Cup, Rose Bowl, Pasadena, Los Angeles,’ ” Svensson said. “And that is a great thing for Sweden.”
The chance to play soccer’s icon might be viewed as a moment to be seized. How better for athletes to measure themselves than against their betters? Yet, some teams shrink from the task, fearing unfavorable comparisons.
Sweden has taken the former stance. The team relishes the chance to play Brazil again. Their first meeting, two weeks ago, carried no psychic weight. It merely ushered the teams forward to the second round without changing anything.
“It was just a friendly,” said Brazilian Coach Carlos Albert Parreira. “This is going to be a totally different game, because nothing less than the World Cup final is at stake. There is an advantage--we know this team. It’s better to play a team that you know than a team you have never played in competition.”
Thoughts fly back to the World Cup championship game of 1958, in Stockholm. Brazil vs. Sweden. For the first time, Sweden was fielding a team of professional soccer players, and the nation shucked its usual benign indifference to things emotional and fell in, wildly, behind the home team.
Decades of restraint might have caused the Swedes to go overboard. They allowed cheerleaders to take the field before the semifinal against Germany.
In the final against Brazil, Sweden scored in the first four minutes and the world expected the South Americans to collapse in despair. Sweden even scored another goal, but Brazil scored five and “the world” got another lesson in judging soccer games by geographic stereotype.
In the 1938 World Cup in France, Sweden was dubbed “the team of steel” and Brazil was, as usual, considered a team capable of winning the whole thing, if it felt like it. Sweden roared through the second round. During an 8-0 rout of Cuba, French journalist Emmanuel Gambardella stopped writing at 5-0.
“Up to five goals is journalism,” he said. “After that, it becomes statistics.”
Brazil advanced with unusual efficiency, too, but then both teams lost in the semifinals. In the third-place game, Brazil won, 4-2.
Today, Sweden is aware of the statistics. No one needs reminding that in the six times the teams have met in the World Cup, Brazil has never lost.
Brazil knows, too. It is familiar with the situation, familiar with the pressure and the almost surreal expectations of its fans. It knows not to take any opponent lightly, because each opponent would like nothing more than to beat mighty Brazil.
“The Swedish team is the best possible,” Parreira said. “I followed them since the European (Championships) competition, two years back. I think they are very consistent, very competitive technically. Good players. And they never give up, always try to come from behind. It is not by chance they are in the semifinal against Brazil.”
