The World Cup qualifi- cation for the next year when the tournament be- gins has been very good for Sweden. With a clear leading in their group they are ready for a gr-eat world cup season next summer where they look forward to meeting famous soccer teams like England, Spain and Italy. But besides those
countries there are also Tommy Söderberg against "Svensation" in the final? thirty other countries Sweden has to fight against to reach the gold. For many people here in Sweden it would be a dream to see Sweden win against England in the final. But as Sven-Göran uses to say: "It’s not over until it’s over". But here in Sweden we hope it will be over with a gold.

Qualification rules for the world cup In Europe there are nine qualification groups which are fighting to get trough. And each winner in every group is directly qualified to the world cup final tournament. Among the nine countries in second place eight will be drawn to the play-off games. The ninth country that get second in their group meets the third in the Asian group-play. If two teams get the same points in the group-play they have to meet each other again. In that case must a game play that would separate the teams on neutral ground. A game like that may go to overtime (golden goal) or penalty-kick.

The World Cup 2002 …will be settled 31:th May to the 30:th of June in Korea/Japan. The games are equally divided between the countries, four groups in Korea and four groups in Japan. The opening game is in Söul and the final in Yokohama. The World Cup final tournament will be drawn in Korean Busan the first December in 2001.

England’s shot to the World cup 2002 Sven-Göran Eriksson is the new coach of Team England. He left Italy and became the people’s favourite at once. He has an annual salary of 1,4 billion pounds and he has the second most important job in the country right after Tony Blair, Prime Minister of England. He is nominated to the best soccer-coach in the world. When he needs to recharge, he often goes home to Torsby in Sweden, where he were born. A good relaxation is a warm bath and a good English book, he says.

England National Team is in the same group as Albanian, Greece, Germany and Finland. All the teams in group 9 have played 8 games so far, and England is leading with 17 points and in the Fifa World Rankings, England is in the 9:th place. Sven is giving young players the opportunity to play, thus giving them more self-confidence. That’s very important, says "Svensation". When he picked Beckham as captain, many people were confused, but Sven said:

Sven said: - Beckham will be captain for many years, at least as long as I be here. England’s future in the World Cup of 2002 is looking very bright because they have very little injuries and a very good coach who is giving them their self-confidence back. In the qualifying group they meet Germany, which they had big troubles to beat. But this time they won with 1-5 in Germany, one of the greatest victories ever! The last match against Greece, ended in a draw. Beckham scored in the 91:st minute with one of his magical free kicks. If they had lost the game, they would have had to play more qualifying games. Thanks to "Iceman" and Beckham the team now are qualified.

© 2001 Freeway
Writers: Sven Björkland (sp03-28@park.se), Henrik Westin (sp03-23@park.se)
HTML by: Emil Wiberg (te03-63@park.se).