I am not disappointed, fourth place is good for this team. And to be 40 seconds away from a certain medal...can't complain. Lindbom had two clean sheets, could have added one more and would have been the best goalkeeper of the tournament. He had a bad match today but that is normal that one match in the tournament is not good.
If I counted correctly, against the Czech Republic, Canada, Finland, the Czech Republic again and today against the USA, opponents fired 181 shots at him. On average, it's 36 shots per game, that's a very high number and the reason why he might have been tired and didn't react to the bounced puck. It looks ridiculous, but I think he was very tired, catching all the matches.
The offense is definitely disappointing, this group of players has the ability to score 3-4 goals every game. But none of them maintained their form for all the matches. When you have a great goalkeeper, an average defense but a good attack, you can achieve a medal. But two out of three possible things failed for Sweden. Yes, we can cry that Edvinsson, Salomonsson and Hävelid were missing, but that's no use, every team has had someone missing at some point.
I liked ASP and Jansson in support of the attack, they had good moments but also moments when they misjudged the situation, passed the puck directly to the opponent or had a bad positional position. What about Odelius, Sjöholm, Pettersson or Engström? Honestly, very bad. Pettersson didn't look like a third rounder...but more like a seventh rounder, lots of mistakes and the biggest one was with 40 seconds left in the semis.
Hävelid, in turn, returned hope that the under-20 team has a good coaching level and can react to a bad situation with changes in the lineup. Overall I am satisfied, the expectations were not high and the final fourth place is a good result.
Next year in Gothenburg I want a match against the Czechs, that loss still frustrates me.
is in for maybe a lucky point.
