Sitting in the sunshine outside the Swedish church in Marylebone, central London, Birger Edström looks fairly relaxed about the prospect of his country’s football team facing England on Saturday.
“When I saw we would be facing England I thought ‘yes!’,” he says with a laugh. “It would be harder to play Colombia. We have a very good chance to beat England once again. Yes! I think so!”
In this piece of little Sweden, preparations are already under way for Saturday’s game, when the church hall will welcome 130 of London’s Swedish community. The walls are decked with enormous Swedish flags; more flutter in beer glasses lined up on the stage where the big screen will go. Beers and coffee have been ordered; cinnamon buns, of course, will be baked on the day.
“Of course we are all excited,” says the church’s rector, Eric Muhl. “But I think the Swedish attitude is ‘wow this is happening’, and even if we lose we will still think we have done well. The England team have done very well, of course, but the Swedish team are not under the same pressure. We are the underdogs.”
That kind of relaxed pragmatism is conspicuous by its absence in the UK, remarks Edström, who admits he is amused by the wave of optimism engulfing his recently-adopted home. “Honestly, I don’t think England have played very well so far,” he says. “They were lucky with the group and they won on penalties against Colombia, and when it is penalties anyone can win. But in this country England are always champions before they start playing. Let’s see afterwards who is the champion.”
The match will be an exciting, but family-friendly affair in the main hall just off the Swedish church, which has stood on the same patch of land for 100 years.
Sweden’s win against Switzerland on Monday attracted an interesting mix of expats, says Anja Holgersson, who works in the cafe. “There were the football lads in yellow and blue, but then we also had a knitting group of older women meeting in a separate room, and they came and joined in, too,” she says. “We had a lot of families and a play area for the children; we had a lot of cinnamon buns and coffee and beers, of course. It was a lovely mix.”
A recent arrival in the UK, she is amused by the “friendly abuse” Swedish expats are getting in their workplaces and friendship groups. “It will be very interesting on Sunday,” she says. “But it’s all good fun. I’ll be sad if it’s all over.
While the reaction of English fans to Tuesday’s victory against Colombia has been compared to a desperate lover who starts planning a wedding after one decent date, Swedes have been more restrained, says Gunnar Ledwon.
He admits to finding the English media’s treatment of the national team faintly baffling. “We don’t have the same media circus. I think when Sven [Göran Eriksson] was the manager there was a lot of talk about the way he was treated, and we thought maybe that is not the Swedish way,” he says. “But now of course we hope the press will build the team up and up - it is good to be the underdog.”
Asked what he thinks of his team’s chances, he is quietly confident. “I think England have better players in every position, but I think we are a better team together,” he says.
The fact that Sweden’s best-known player, Zlatan Ibrahimović, is not at this World Cup has been unexpectedly positive, he adds. “We have no stars and that is a good thing, they play together as a whole group - both those on and off the pitch. So will the result come down to individual quality or team spirit? It will be interesting to see.”
With a last word of warning to over-exuberant England fans, he notes that despite the stardust, Sweden’s defence have proved very difficult to break down. “Just ask the Italians,” he says.
