Grading the Game: Sweden v. Trinidad & Tobago **SPOILERS**

[May261999]

**SPOILERS**





















Grading The Game: Sweden v. Trinidad & Tobago

Goalkeeping: B+
Surprise starter Rami Shaaban didn't have much work, truthfully, but he answered the call when needed. The story of this match is Shaka Hislop (see Man Of The Match).

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Flow: A-
Pulsating stuff. Sweden will only really have themselves to blame for not getting all 3 points, and that was the only blip on the whole match. All other elements were there: the crowd, a quiet ref, a fast pace of play, and a sense of urgency for the favored team as the game went deeper and deeper.

Goals: -NA-

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Fans: A+
Great atmosphere throughout the match, especially towards the end when the Swedish fans were exhorting their players to get the winning goal and the T&T fans were cheering every tackle, clearance, block, and dribble that took the ball away from danger. You'd have thought T&T had just won it all at the end.

Refereeing: B
Can't really complain. The red card was justified, and he let the game flow, setting the stage for one of the liveliest goalless draws you will ever see.

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Man Of The Match: By a country mile, Shaka Hislop (TTO). For heaven's sake, the guy wasn't even expecting to play at all today, let alone be entrusted with the duty of keeping two of Europe's best strikers at bay and with one less defender than he'd have liked for most of the second half.

[es7eban]

Sweden will be at the round of 16 anyway.
Paraguay and Trinidad & Tobago are not good teams and today the swedish players couldnt score because the goalkeeper was so inspired that stopped all what Ibrahimovic and Larsson kicked.
Sweden showed good power at the offensive but they really need to be better at the definition moment. Trinidad will be a easy team for England and all of us will forget them.
Paraguay will lose to Sweden and that will be the end of their story at Germany 2006.
After watching both games, my opinion is that England will be 1st and Sweden will follow them

[DanneS]

After watching both games, my opinion is that England will be 1st and Sweden will follow them
I hope you're right.

And I hope the swedes take the memory of this frustrating game, where they couldn't put the ball in the net although they had dozens of opportunities, as a fuel in order to save their football pride in their crucial upcoming game against Paraguay.

And I hope both England and Paraguay win their games against T&T, purely out of selfish reasons.
I have respect for the fighting skills of the T&T players. But the other teams are warned now.

[english_barry]

I hope you're right.

And I hope the swedes take the memory of this frustrating game, where they couldn't put the ball in the net although they had dozens of opportunities, as a fuel in order to save their football pride in their crucial upcoming game against Paraguay.

And I hope both England and Paraguay win their games against T&T, purely out of selfish reasons.
I have respect for the fighting skills of the T&T players. But the other teams are warned now.

Sweden fans shouldn't take this result too badly. Sweden played amazing football throughout the match. I did not expect Sweden to come out blazing and force the issue like they did. From the way the match started with Sweden attacking well and T&T catching our asses to settle in and cope, I thought we were going to get thrashed. To be honest, with the chances Sweden had you should have won easily. We were quite lucky today and man of the match Shaka was truly inspired as was the rest of the team. We played with a lot of passion and desire and showed the world we have ability. That's all I could have asked for in our first World Cup appearance and to see us do it in the first game against a good team like Sweden was incredible. Of course grabbing the point at the end was the icing on the cake.

I read the entire in-game chat and it was cool to see the positive comments and the respect and praise we received. It was nice to read people saying that we played in the true spirit of the game and that they admired our approach to the match and even when we went down to 10 men we kept attacking. We fought hard the entire match and I was glad to see that when we were on the ball we were composed and we passed the ball around nicely. Beenhakker has definitely done what no coach before could have, which is to get the team to play to a plan.

As for what will happen in the rest of the group matches...If Sweden play with the same mentality against Paraguay and England I don't see why they shouldn't be able to advance from this group. If they do against England that will be an amazing match. In my opinion England is more suited to an open attacking game but Sven likes his defensive bullshit.

England vs T&T. A lot will depend on how England approach this match and I think any result is possible. All the way from a hiding to an unlikely upset. If we play how we played against Sweden we will give England a match. I have to admit that our defending isn't the best at times and we are vulnerable on set-pieces. We cannot give up plenty free-kicks in dangerous positions and corners as well.

T&T vs Paraguay. I have no idea what will happen in this match. I would like to think that we have a chance at getting points if we play well, not to sound like I am underestimating Paraguay because they are a good team.

[DanneS]

We played with a lot of passion and desire and showed the world we have ability.
You really did.
And you put your country on the map here in Europe. Everybody is asking about Trinidad & Tobago and wants to know more about your country. Be prepared for a tourist invasion soon. The way your team fought and the way your fans cheered for your team have turned your country famous in many parts of the world.

And I love the Soca myself. T&T would be a team to cheer for if it wasn't in our group.

If we both beat England it will be fun. :D