Showing posts with label Josefine Öqvist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Josefine Öqvist. Show all posts

Saturday, September 1, 2012

As expected, it's au revoir! Pia till Sverige: U.S. Women's National Soccer Team coach Pia Sundhage leaving U.S. after five years to return home and coach Sweden, which will host next year's UEFA Women's EURO in July


It's the lead story in the sports section of Aftonbladet
http://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/fotboll/landslagsfotboll/damlandslaget/article15345115.ab

In perhaps the worst-kept sports secret of 2012, after months -and some even say years!- of deliberate and sometimes desperate efforts by everyone involved in Swedish football from head federation authorities at SvFF to average fans to persuade U.S. Women's National Team head coach Pia Sundhage to return to Sweden to head Sveriges damlandslag i fotboll, she has finally said yes.

The Swedish sports media have been pushing for this personnel move for what seems like forever, and during the recent Olympics in London, where Sundhage guided the U.S. squad to their second Gold Medal in her five years, newspapers, blogs and websites throughout the country were constantly writing and positing on what a positive difference Sundhage could make to what is already an extremely talented Swedish squad.

Here is one of the "do everything humanly possible" to get Pia columns I came across over the past few months, with slight variations depending upon who was saying it or writing it:
Simon Bank: Gör allt som är mänskligt möjligt för att anställa Pia till EM
http://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/kronikorer/bank/article15240473.ab

Unfortunately for coach Thomas Dennerby, Sweden was missing some of its best players from last year's strong third-place Women's World Cup squad in Germany
http://youtu.be/MpPO8xSaIUM

That included HBB favorite Josefine Öqvistwho was pregnant, and actually gave birth two weeks before the Olympics began, as I mentioned in my July 25th post last month, to her daughter, Stella.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/swedish-heartache-we-regret-to-inform.html


It's an understatement to say that Josefine was desperately missed on the offensive side of the field at the Olympics!

Josefine is such a spark plug for the team and has such a sixth sense for the ball that it seems positively uncanny at times.
She leverages her body position in relation to the ball about as well as any female player around, and her knack for putting herself in the right position for a steal or to cleanly receive a ricochet pass that leads to a breakaway, well, sometimes it makes her almost seem like a cartoon character that's moving twice as fast as anyone else on the field.

Not that many of you readers out there in the blogosphere or even here in South Florida will get my reference as clearly as I'd like, but in all sorts of ways, when Josefine's on the field, her savvy, mannerisms and moxie greatly remind me of Miami Norland High School's Cindy Clippinger back in the late 1970's, whom I saw play several times in big games.

For a whole host of reasons not worth getting into here, besides my having very strong feelings for a certain very talented, lanky and attractive German-speaking goalie named Karen at HML
(Hialeah Miami Lakes), who was one of the stars of her team back then when they were winning the Girl's soccer title in the GMAC -the Greater Miami Athletic Conference, the athletic league for Dade County public high schools- I saw quite a lot of Clippinger and never went away unimpressed

Though she attended Norland, one of North Miami Beach's arch-rivals in soccer, Boys and Girls, along with North Miami, the two high schools closest to NMB, she was THE best female soccer player in South Florida that I ever saw -by a mileAnd I saw a lot of them. 
(One of my two sisters played at NMB, too, after I left for college at IU.)
Cindy Clippinger was just plain fun to watch!

And if you like irony, and me comparing a wonderful Swedish player now to a wonderful player from more than thirty years ago, you'll like this -Norland High School's sports nickname was -wait for it -the Vikings!


All screenshots of Swedish star midfielder Josefine Öqvist by South Beach Hoosier, July 6, 2011. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.





These screenshot I took of Swedish star striker Josefine Öqvist and Team Sweden on July 6, 2011, came during a game at the Women's World Cup in Germany against the U.S.A., which Sweden won 2-1. http://youtu.be/gCsRos4Zp2A


After eight years as head coach, Dennerby resigned a week ago, effective mid-September, having helped Sweden move up -and remain at- the top ranks of Women's football. He deserves a lot of thanks and credit for making them such a respected team.! 
http://www.uefa.com/womenseuro/news/newsid=1849242.html
http://www.tv4.se/sport/klipp/caroline-seger-valkomnar-en-forandring-2212604

Last I heard, Josefine says that she WILL be playing again, I just don't know when.
I think we should hold off for a few months and see how she feels after New Year's Day, since there's no point in her setting silly and meaningless deadlines just to keep fans happy, since she could well change her mind.

The Swedish Women's Under-19 squad won the Euro championship for the first time this year,
http://www.uefa.com/womensunder19/season=2012/matches/round=2000218/match=2010243/postmatch/report/index.html#diaz+secures+title+sweden
and is loaded with talent that'll seek to make the big move up to the big National Team in the coming months, since as I've stated a few times here on the blog this year already, next July, Sweden will be hosting the 2013 UEFA Womens Euro, and it's sure to be a very well-attended and exciting three weeks of football.


Sweden will be host the 2013 UEFA Womens Euro from July 10-28th, with the title match in Solna, just north of Stockholm. http://fogis.se/damem2013/
http://www.uefa.com/womenseuro/index.html

Here's a short video about the team, the town and the supporters who Josefine plays for, Tyresö FF.


Tyreso TV video: Tyresö FF mer än bara fotboll! (More than just football!!!)
Uploaded Feb. 10, 2011. http://youtu.be/4CpJGnX_-bA

Tomorrow, Sunday, second-place Tyresö FF plays at home against league-leading  Linköping FC for the lead of the 12-team Damallsvenskan, the highest league of Women's football in Sweden, a league that Sundhage was the leading scorer in during the mid-1980's.


FIFA TV video: Sundhage: 'The moment of my football life'. Uploaded August 13, 2012.
http://youtu.be/v4ZmpM2Fu8o -----


Los Angeles Times
Pia Sundhage steps down as U.S. women's soccer coach
By Kevin Baxter
September 1, 2012, 11:15 a.m.
Three weeks after guiding the U.S. women's soccer team to an Olympic title, Pia Sundhage is stepping down as coach to return to her native Sweden.
"It was an honor to be able to coach these players for five years and I learned a tremendous amount from all of them," Sundhage said in a statement released by U.S. Soccer on Saturday.
Read the rest of the story at:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-pia-sundhage-resigns-20120901,0,3286133.story


-----
Svenska Fotbollförbundet -SvFF (Swedish Football Association) homepage: http://svenskfotboll.se/landslag/herrar/

SvFF's WebbTV/videos homepage: http://svenskfotboll.se/webb-tv/

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Swedish heartache! We regret to inform you that talented and moxie-filled Swedish midfielder Josefine Öqvist -always "trending" at this blog- won't be at London 2012 Olympics due to pregnancy. And Sanna Kallur is out because of injuries -again; #London2012


SVT video: Gravid Öqvist missar OS. Pregnant Öqvist will miss Olympic Games. January 13, 2012. She's also missing the Damallsvenskan season in Sweden

Not so happy news for blågult! 

Sweden's Women football team, third at last year's World Cup, faces South Africa today in Coventry minus dependable #14, Josefine Öqvist, whose 29th birthday was Monday.
Öqvist will be rooting for her teammates while watching the match on TV back in Sweden with her boyfriend, hockey player Stefan Lassen, and her two-week old daughter, Stella.

Josefine is a delight to watch in a game because she's such a spark plug for the team and has such a sixth sense for the ball that seems positively uncanny at times.
Her knack for putting herself in the right position for a steal or to get a ricochet pass that leads to a breakaway, well, sometimes makes her almost like a cartoon character that's moving twice as fast as anyone else.

All screenshots of Swedish star midfielder Josefine Öqvist by South Beach Hoosier, July 6, 2011. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.




The team looks very good, but  I really have no sense of how they'll perform offensively without Josefine, though today's match against South Africa shouldn't even be close.
http://svenskfotboll.se/arkiv/landslag/2012/07/antligen-dags-for-avspark/

Håller alla tummar för att de tar medalj

Volume is turned down as this is a video that starts automatically.

Captain Lotta Schelin is ready to go...; 
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/olympics/2012/writers/grant_wahl/07/17/london-olympic-womens-soccer-preview/index.html

Team GB's Women's team hosts New Zealand in the opening match at 10:30 a.m. on MSNBC.

So you're asking yourself, what moxie-filled daughter of Vasa should we root for if Josefine is finito?

Until three weeks ago I would've said Long Island-born, Swedish-raised hurdler Susanna Kallur, aka Sanna, who has had her share of high highs, a world record, and many lows because of injuries, but who was very focused this year to let her enormous talent be seen by the whole world -again.


That is, until she announced at the end of June that she wouldn't be able to compete in the OS because of yet another injury.

Before...
SVT video: Sanna Kallur, "I love to train" Sanna in Chula Vista, California back in May of this year, when things were looking much brighter.

Click the TV in the far right box to go to full screen.

After...
SVT video: Kallur: Blir inget OS. I'll miss Olympic Games. June 29, 2012. 
So very disappointing for Sanna and her many fans.
Volume is turned down as this is a video that starts automatically.

SVT's Olympic webpage full of facts, photos and figures is at http://www.svt.se/os/



Sweden will be host the 2013 UEFA Womens Euro from July 10-28th, with the title match in Solna, just north of Stockholm. http://fogis.se/damem2013/

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Trending at Hallandale Beach Blog: Swedish star forward Josefine Öqvist and the Swedish National Soccer Team



Aftonbladet Web TV's Sports Channel had this humorous video of a German TV channel showing Josefine Öqvist exchanging shirts with a fan in the stands after the game.
http://www.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/sport/article13271214.ab
All screenshots below of Swedish star striker Josefine Öqvist by South Beach Hoosier, July 6, 2011.




Above, Josefine on Wednesday just seconds before the start of the U.S. game and likely 'visualizing' the ball in the goal. She had no goals on Wednesday but had several excellent chances thanks to her skill and great speed to beat defenders to the ball, esp. on long passes.
Maybe she'll do it today against Australia in the third Quarterfinal game of the 2011 Womens World Cup.

Would you believe that as recently as about April, the Locatel health/drugstore here in Hallandale Beach, on Hallandale Beach Blvd. near Panera Bread, STILL wanted the full retail price on the dozens of official 2010 Mens World Cup soccer balls that they had, at about $120-plus each!
Seriously, who pays that price so long after the tourney ended?

Reminded me of the Publix here in town charging full retail price for some of the Colts and Bears Super Bowl t-shirts more than a year after that game was played down here.
Yes, you can't sell them at that price because after the game is history, you can buy it elsewhere for $5, so why would you think customers would STILL pay $20-25?


TV4 video: Following Sweden's 2-1 victory on Wednesday over the U.S. National Team at the Womens World Cup match in Wolfsburg, TV4's
Anna Brolin evaluates Swedish group play in the World Cup directly from Hannover Germany and speaks with, yes, Swedish star forward Josefine Öqvist.


Sportsbladet has a 15-image photo gallery of Josefine the other day:
http://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/fotboll/landslagsfotboll/damvm2011/article13300631.ab


"Oslagbara Sverige" -Unbeaten Sweden- says the Sports page of Sveriges TV (SVT) website, July 6, 2011 screenshot by South Beach Hoosier.
Link
Meanwhile, in other news of the coming musical apocalypse, Ireland's 2011 Eurovision entry, Jedward, the subject of a previous post here, played on TV4'sSommarkrysset” and nearly caused a riot among the crowd, with several girls fainting -like it was Obama 2008.
Below, the Brothers Grime singing their official Eurovision entry, "Lipstick."



Jedward%20-%20Lipstick

Insert your own punchline here!


2011 Swedish Womens National Soccer Team
homepage, with roster, photos and stats: http://svenskfotboll.se/landslag/damer/vm-truppen-2011/
Team photo: http://svenskfotboll.se/landslag/damer/

The Tv4 homepage for the show is at http://www.tv4.se/sommarkrysset