How much does a dream cost?
The sun rises over Manhattan, and from here on the New Jersey side, world-famous landmarks rise one after another.
One World Trade Center, height 541 meters. Empire State Building. This Danish pyramid of the future in Hell’s Kitchen. The Statue of Liberty is a little further from the entrance.
The fact that Sweden will soon be playing the World Cup playoffs here seems a little surreal, and the fact that football brought us here seems a little mind-boggling.
We’ve just been shipwrecked in Pristina, now we’re sailing down the Hudson River.
But that’s where it all ends, that’s where it all ends…?
Reasonable. Likely.
But this is not mathematics, not probability theory, this is not measuring the value of a unit. This is a football match, a single football match.
Not a season, not a whole championship, not even a group stage – not a single football match.
If possible…? Incredible, bordering on unreasonable, but not even close to impossible.
In trying to present this game as a game that doesn’t even have to be played, I saw completely inappropriate comparisons with the true miracles of football: Leicester City winning the Premier League and the Greeks winning the EU trophy.
None of this has any relevance here.
Photo: PONTUS ORREShow more
Leicester: 1 time in 5000
Leicester beat reality in 38 long games, Greece went against the odds again 6 times. When the so-called market determined the odds, the estimate was that Leicester would win the league 1 time in 5,000 and Sweden would beat France 1 time in 10.
This is the difference.
And in a single football match you always have a chance.
The single biggest reason why this sport still fascinates and fascinates like nothing else, that it has still survived all the attacks and abuses, is because of its built-in, inherent unpredictability.
That there are so many variables and so little profit is what makes football what it was and remains what it was, by far the biggest and most interesting sport in the world.
Real Madrid have lost to Osasuna, Getafe and Mallorca this season. PSG lost to Rennes and neighboring Paris. Manchester City lost to Brighton and Bodø/Glimt.
And the national team…? Clearly less coherent and more vulnerable than the best club teams. There are no strong teams in this type of tournament.
How much does a dream cost?
Ask Paraguay, ask Cape Verde. They have a lot to say about both price and value. But dreams are not free, at least not the ones you can believe in.
Yesterday we saw a Paraguayan team that may not have been able to stitch together many passing triangles, but was brimming with La Garra Guarani, the local warrior spirit.
We have no equivalent in Sweden, but our football tradition is filled with a strong and determined refusal to give in to bad odds.
Somewhere deep inside, I think it remains in us.
Gustav Lagerbelke alone will not be able to stop Kylian Mbappe, just accept it. But eleven Swedes, on the other hand, can slow down eleven French.
The airline of our dreams
This is written in a very general way – without emphasis on positional movements between inside and outside defense – but it is both intentional and inevitable. Nothing can make me believe that our chance in this game lies in the small tactical details.
By the evening we will not have time to coordinate and synchronize everything; there are still many months before training. And we can’t turn Gabriel Gudmundsson into Paolo Maldini.
Somehow we have yet to find ways to compensate for our shortcomings, and the only thing I can boil it down to is dedication and self-sacrifice, a wildly burning desperation to close roads, cover territories and defend our goal.
Minute by minute, step by step, break by break. If we just stay in the game for the first hour, everything will open up.
At least give us a few drops of disappointment and a little French doubt, let’s see where it takes us.
France is certainly stronger than Germany, but Isak and Dieukeres are better than Enciso and Almiron.
And everything that the 199-centimeter Paraguayan can do in a penalty shootout can be repeated by the 197-centimeter lion Lidingo.
Here he is, the bearer of our dreams.
Jakob Widell Zetterström has saved 4 of the 9 penalties he has faced in Derby this season (44 percent), which is an extremely good small result. If we can somehow get this match to such a decisive moment as the pendulum’s favorite swing, then I suddenly like our chances.
How much does a dream cost? In fact, it may be quite a lot, but as long as I have to go through a game day with that much gold in my balance, I’m willing to pay the price of knockout and disappointment.
Football is football, a sport that has retained its magic because anything can happen on any given day.
Today is June 30, 2026. Either we go to bed with a resigned shrug, or we land in a distant galaxy after one of the greatest sports Sweden has ever seen.
It’s probably only Tuesday. But maybe, maybe this day will end with you finding me with a blue and yellow Bengal on top of the Statue of Liberty.
If so, I expect to meet each of you there.
ILLUSTRATION: AIShow more