Today, national team captain Ulf Lundberg presented the team that gets the chance to go to Beijing and defend Sweden's colors in the Olympics.
The squad did not contain any surprises, but SVT's expert Maria Rooth still thinks it is difficult to prepare for the tournament.
- It is a team that is quite difficult to judge as they have faced lower ranked nations for two years.
Now they will face both Japan and the Czech Republic, which is just above them in the world rankings, and I absolutely believe that they can compete against them, says Rooth.
"Must really perform"
Above all, she lists two keys to success.
- The most important thing is that they bring the right attitude into the tournament and I think this group has, we saw if nothing else in the Olympic qualifiers, that the right attitude can win many matches, says Rooth and continues:
- The goalkeeper will be the most important player, regardless of who gets the chance between the posts.
I think that Sara Grahn, who has a lot of experience and is still hungry, will have to carry the heaviest load and she really has to perform her absolute best for Sweden to have a chance to advance to the quarterfinals.
The width is impressive
When it comes to outdoor players, it is above all the width that impresses.
- I think it is a fairly well-composed team and then I really want to emphasize that it is a team.
I do not see a very sharp squad, they have no world stars, but they do have very many who can step forward and deliver what they showed during the Olympic qualifiers, says SVT's expert before she chooses to highlight some names we will keep an extra eye on.
- Maja Nylén-Persson is the closest thing to a star player we have.
Emma Nordin is another who will be very important and Josefine Bouveng is a player who is on the way up, they also have to perform at the top for Sweden to give him a reasonable chance to get to the quarterfinals.