Sweden holds bitter memories for Argentina
June 9, 2002
NARAHA, Japan (Reuters) - The name Sweden, whose World Cup team Argentina have to beat to make sure they stay in the tournament,
has strong negative connotations in the soccer history of the twice champions.
Argentina's 1-0 defeat by England on Friday has left them needing to pick up three points against the Swedes in Miyagi on Wednesday to
ensure they qualify for the second round.
The only time the two countries have ever met on the international stage was in the 1934 World Cup finals in Italy when Sweden won 3-2 to
eliminate Argentina, finalists in Uruguay four years earlier, after just one match.
Not much had been expected from the Argentine side, selected from the country's Amateur Association that was affiliated to world
governing body FIFA.
No players were selected from the Argentine Football Association that governed a new professional league formed in 1931 including the
big clubs like River Plate, Boca Juniors and San Lorenzo.
For mainly
political reasons, Argentina then turned its back on the World Cup and did not return until the 1958 finals in Sweden.
NTERNATIONAL ISOLATION
This period of more than 20 years of international isolation proved to be a huge mistake. The Argentine players might still have been
among the most skilled in the world but their team was torn apart by the more advanced Europeans.
They went out in the first round after a 3-1 loss to holders West Germany, a 3-1 win over Northern Ireland and a 6-1 roasting by
Czechoslovakia. The squad were pelted with rotten eggs and tomatoes on their return to Buenos Aires.
Argentina had travelled to Sweden believing they could win the tournament after a brilliant Copa America triumph in Lima the year before
that included a 3-0 victory over Brazil, crowned world champions for the first time in 1958 and the only team to achieve the honour outside
their continent.
It did not help that the superb forward trio in the 1957 side, including Enrique Omar Sivori who later became a European Footballer of the
Year, were all transferred to Italian clubs.
In those days of pre-supersonic air travel, Argentines who continued their careers in Europe also played for their adopted countries,
mainly Spain and Italy.
Argentina are at the 2002 World Cup finals with a squad made up almost entirely of European based players.
SWEDISH CATHARSIS
Sweden was a catharsis for Argentine football and plunged the country into the dark days of negative, often violent play of the 1960s as
they lost their way looking for the best means of achieving what they believed was their birthright, international success.
Every "disaster" in Argentine football since has been referred to in the context of Sweden 1958, the most salient case being their 5-0
home defeat by Colombia in a World Cup qualifier in Buenos Aires in 1993.
The anti-football spilled over into the club competitions, notably against British teams Celtic and Manchester United in the World Club Cup
in the 1960s.
Argentina were again knocked out in the first round of the 1962 World Cup, they reached the 1966 quarter-finals but then failed to even
qualify for the 1970 tournament in Mexico.
The tide turned for Argentina in the 1970s when they saw and eventually seized on their chance by staging and winning the World Cup in
1978, 20 years after the Sweden debacle.
If Argentina lose to the Swedes on Wednesday, it will be a huge blow for a team that started the 2002 tournament as favourites and a
country that has reached at least the second round in every World Cup tournament since 1974.
It could well produce headlines that read: "Like Sweden in 1958".