Ten-man Trinny hold Sweden to goalless draw
11/6/2006 10:53
World Cup debutants Trinidad and Tobago completed a mission
impossible to hold the raring Sweden 0-0 after being brought down to ten man
from the break at their opening match in Group B in Dortmund on
Saturday.
Boss of the Soca Warriors, Leo Beenhakker, however, refused to
settle for massive underdogs who make upset on luck.
"I could not be more
proud of my players. They deserve this day.My team has show a great quality on
the pitch, and next maybe they could go better, even for a win," commented the
63-year-old, who had coached the Netherlands to play World Cup Finals 16 years
ago.
"You could see in the game today that there are no more small fish in
international football...This is football, not mathematics and two plus two very
seldom equals four, usually it's three or five," he said.
The Caribbean side,
who failed to make real chances in goal, has been cut down to ten as defender
Avery John was sent off for a second bookable offence after his two-footed lunge
caught Christian Wilhemlsson in the Scandinavians' right wing.
Regarded the
true force who led the Trinny avoiding a defeat, the West Ham keeper Shaka
Hislop did not show a hint of nerves with putting on a spectacular performance.
He completely neutralised Sweden's impressive firepower, as Henrik Larsson,
Freddie Ljungberg and Zlatan Ibrahimovich all saw chances denied.
Sweden
coach Lars Lagerback, who had eyed on an opening victory over the mininow
Trinny, admitted that the goalless draw cost them a lot.
"It's a little bit
tough now, " said the 57-year-old. "But there 's still other matches in the
group. We'll give our best to try to win the games left."
With the draw, the
Swedes will have to vie for a win over their next rivals Paraguay to make sure a
top two finish in the close Group B which contains the formidable England.
"I
can't say I'm surprised. We were the much better side but they showed great
skill and defend very well," said the 57-year-old."Their keeper made some great
saves and we just couldn't score."
"Without some faults, maybe we could win
the match, but we didn' t discuss that so much," he added. "Playing a grand
tournament like the World Cup, you never think about that much."
Swedish
midfielder Kim Kallstrom also rue on the opportunities his side had
missed.
"We had three, four, five completely open goals but could just not
score," said Kallstrom, who came on in a double substitution with 12 minutes
remaining.
"It was tough and it will be even tougher for us from now on. We
will work very hard to win our next match," he added.
Sweden had most of the
possession kicking off the match, swarming all over their Caribbean opponents
and wasting no time to launch shooting attempt in front of the goalmouth in five
minutes when both Henrik Larsson and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were denied.
At the
12th minute, Ibrahimovic ran down the right box and gave a nice pass to Larsson,
but the pull-back striker failed to follow up behind, so did the coming up
Fredie Ljungberg.
Just a minute later, Olof Mellberg tries his luck from 30
meters to shoot wide off the target. The Swedes committed a free-kick in 15
mintues after Avery John chopping Christian Wilhelmsson in half, but
Ibrahimovic's overhead kick again wide.
Sweden's front two combined fluently
in the following minutes, creating other more clear chances but none of them was
converted into goal.
Opening the second half in an even fiece way, Sweden got
another try from Ibrahimovic as the Juventus forward got the ball after being
brought down by Dwight Yorke at 52 and headed goalwards before it was gathered
easily by Hislop.
Larsson drove a distant shoot at 87 but the effort swerved
well wide, before Ibrahimovic fired just too hight in 88 minutes and again
spoils a decent display with a cynical foul from behind on Cyd Gray in the dying
minute.
With the absence of their first-choice keeper Andreas Isaksson of
Stade Rennes, who will be out of action for 3 to 5 days after getting concussion
in Wednesday's training accident, Sweden coach Lars Lagerback turned to
substitute goalie Rami Shaaban for this match, but the World Cup debutant met
nearly no real challenges against their mininows rivals.
The Trinny's
highlight came late before the break as Carlos Edwards headed the ball bouncing
wide in 45 minutes, and goalkeeper Hislop further proved himself the key to the
Caribbean's defense, did enought to perform excellent stunners to shots from
Sweden's Allback at 69 and 80.
Xinhua
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