Sweden v Paraguay

Most of this game was another 90 minutes of Sweden being mystifyingly unable to put the ball in the back of the net. And this was after some brilliant looking stuff, especially from Zlatan Ibrahimovic. In this game, Ibrahimovic went off at halftime, which I really hope wasn't for a serious injury. I'm not much of a Sweden fan, but Ibrahimovic is a hell of a guy to watch. He was part of what looked like another cycle of superstar Ajax players like the ones in the mid-90s who won a European Cup then all fucked off to Italy and Spain, but the new generation all fucked off to Italy and Germany without winning anything. Lots of former Ajax players

But anyways, in the 89th minute, they finally got something to go in, and man was it ever a beautiful snowflake. Johan Elmander fired long cross to Marcus Allback on the far post. Allback, along with Ibrahimovic, had been coming incredibly close but getting nothing for 2 games, but he played a nice header back and to the far post, while the keeper scrambled back across his goal. Allback had Henrik Larsson on the far post with two defenders in front of him, but Allback sent the header farther back to a trailing Freddie Ljungberg, who went far post with a header, and scored Sweden's first goal of the tournament. Ljungberg has been a fixture and fan favorite for Arsenal because of his workrate, his ability to find those open spaces between defenders, and because he used to have this red mohawk.

Sweden 1-0 Paraguay
'89 Ljungberg

Hopefully this unclogs the goal-scoring spigot for Sweden, because a lot of people are looking forward to the England-Sweden game, and England has had enough crappy play rewarded by a fortunate defensive error so they can win without outplaying the opposition for one tournament. England is through to the second round, but can win the group with a win or draw. Sweden needs a win to take the group, a draw to clinch making the second round. Should Sweden lose, and Trinidad beats Paraguay, it's down to goal differential and goals scored, where in that event Sweden's current lead would become tenuous.

At stake in the second round is facing Germany at home in the second round, but it's Group of Death or Portugal in the quarters either way, so the only real difference beyond that point is whether you meet whichever European team is peaking in the semis or Brazil. So basically, avoiding Deutschland, depending on how they handle Ecuador.

Group B
Ingerland 6pts 3-0
Sweden 4pts 1-0
Trinidad 1pt 0-2
Paraguay 0pts 0-2 (eliminated)