#he supports chealsea whats he laughing about?

[crimsonicarus]

I was having a very nice football enjoyment caring only about my silly little clubs, i was celebrating a victory against Luton, Harold fuckin Kane, and whatever the fuck Griezmann decided to do but these mfs:

Do I care about their clubs? Not at all but damn, now tumblr shows me their faces like i did, i have seen more times Dominik's face than martin's and bukayo's this week alone.

I'm unwell, I'm going to the seaside for my health.

[erika---k]

Another part of the podcast translated. This is minute 8-22. Others are working on the rest, which will be posted soon.

The part I posted previously, where they mostly talk about Pernille and their relationship, can be found here:

https://erika---k.tumblr.com/post/188818220810/244-magdalena-eriksson-lundh

L: As we are meeting here at Chealsea’s training grounds is it quite soon that you are going to meet with the national team again. How was the time during the recent months, after a fantastic summer and the world cup bronze?

M: Yes, it feels like we walk around on pink clouds right now. The mood in the squad, how we are treated by the media and by the fans and everything. It feels like it is and incredibly good time for women’s football right now and especially women’s football in Sweden after our success in the summer.

L: It’s written a lot, that this is some kind of revolution and so on. Have you specifically felt that as a player? 

M: Yes, for me just a specific example was that right after the world cup I was in Stockholm and for the first time ever got recognised of quite a lot of people. For me that was really revolutionary, that has never happened before. And that was a quite obvious sign of how big it actually was in the summer and we have become more known to the public in Sweden. That so many followed us and so many supported us, feels incredibly cool.

L: What did they say, who came to you? [who recognised you]

M: (pretend screaming) “Aren’t you the left back?! The left back in the world cup!”  “Yes…” (Laughs) Oh, shit… That has never happened! That was quite cool actually. 

L: If you talk… It happens… Mostly sponsors… Have you felt something there? Do you get more attention?

M: That's difficult to say, but I feel, just in general, that you get more respected and accepted for what you are doing. People understand that this is something we do as a professional… professional people. We are not just doing it for fun. People don’t look down anymore. But it feels like we get the respect that we wished we would have gotten during our whole career, basically. 

L: It was said before that it would be this breakthrough. Did you understand that during the world cup? “We are taking a big step here!”

M: No… certainly, you are in a bubble, and I personally keep away from reading much media during the world cup, just because I wanted to be focused. But I had a personal experience with a picture that got pretty well known, when me and my girlfriend kissed each other and I could see that from the number of followers on social media. Just a specific example, that was extreme. So there you could see that the world cup is followed by the whole world now, basically. And everybody’s eyes are on you, but of course you try not to think about it during the world cup to not, well… kind of… shit your pants… to put it that way...

L: There is going to be a training match against the USA, which we will get back to. And then the Footballs gala with all the tributes. How do you balance to still be on the pink clouds but at the same time also… I mean there is going to be the Olympics, there is going to be a Euro cup.

M: Well, I believe, we are good as a squad and Peter is good as a coach… It was among the first things he said to us when we met on Gotland, that…

L: When you met again before the Euro qualifiers?

M: Yes, exactly, before the Euro qualifiers, to start a new journey. What happened was very good, but will not be able to live on that but it is about to continue to develop and to develop our playing. So that’s the mentality we have. But I still think that there is nothing wrong with riding a little on that wave and actually have a little more confidence because that’s something that I think that we as Swedish players can become better with. 

L: How long did you chew on the semifinal and the loss against the Netherlands?

M: That was very, very hard. We were so damn close. And I felt I was... I had lost so many semi finals in that year, that was kind of just the last one. That wasn’t what you wanted, but at the same time...Then and there it was just about: Now we want a medal! Have we taken ourselves this far, so why should lay down and die in the match for third place. It’s now, afterwards that I believe the semi final burns even more if you think back about how close you actually were.

L: How can it burn even more afterwards?

M: It’s difficult… I believe that you are… or I am such a person: “Ok, now we lost the semi final, next match! The next match is a bronze match, we are going to win this!” But then… You blocked out all those disappointments because we had two days to prepare ourselves for a new match. But then, when you get home and again and again experience pictures, talk about the matches again, you understand how damn close we were. See Nilla hit the post... All those things… that triggers kind of very painful memories.

L: If you take the bronce, when you beat England… I mean you play in England and met players… It seemed like they didn’t care.

M: No, they… they were in that seat in the world cup before in Canada and it felt in a way that they were so disappointed after the USA that they couldn’t reload, while I was very content with our reaction and our way to begin that match. I believe we played our best football we ever did the first 30 minutes against England. So I was very impressed with how we could reload and… yeah, we showed it means enormously much for us. We… I believe we were four players with a cramp at the end of the match. We fought because we wanted so much to win this medal and take it home to Sweden.

L: A part of the world cup was also that there will be another tournament already next summer. The Olympics in Tokyo. How do you see that from your side?

M: Well, that was also something that was an unbelievably happy thing during the world cup when we beat Germany and we knew, now we are going to the Olympics as well, those are the tournaments that you are looking forward to and now all the time on my mind I have kind of a Euro qualification game, the season in Chelsea but I also have the Olympics to prepare for, that makes you want to do the extra work outside of your training schedule every week, you want to take care of your body even better so this is a dream and I know how much fun it is to play in the Olympics so this is incredibly cool.

L: You took part already in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro took the silver medal. You played a lot in the beginning then as a substitute towards the end. What are your memories from that?

M: Yeah, that was my first big tournament, so I felt that I… Maybe, as I said earlier, I hadn’t realised yet that it’s better to not read the media, because that affects me, how big everything is, when everybody's eyes are on you and how it works. So I felt during the world cup I handled that much, much better. 

L: Take us back to 2016. What was difficult about reading the newspapers?

M: I had a match against Brasilien. We, the whole team, we had a difficult match, that we lost with 5:1. But I felt that I have always been a person who takes a lot of responsibility. And I caused a penalty, I was replaced at half time, we lost with 5:1. It didn’t look bright. So all such things… Plus that you read in the newspaper afterwards that you got bad assessment... And that are such things… I really felt, ok, shit, this is a lot for me. I was pretty… anyway 23 year… 22 years old during that tournament, so I was pretty young. And that was a lot to handle. But at the same time I’m incredibly happy that I was allowed to experience that. Because so I know for the future how I should handle situations like that.

L: Was there no real preparation for that this could happen? Was there no one who warned you that ...?

M: Yes, absolutely…

L: But you didn’t listen?

M: No, that is the thing. You have heard many smart thoughts, many… We talked about it, but anyway you do it. I don’t believe you can understand how it feels to end up in a situation like that, I believe that all professional football players during their career at some point, experienced that feeling. I believe it’s about how you handle it instead of avoiding that feeling.

L: What can you evolve in your game to… You can say that a Euro cup is hardest with many teams from Europe. There were many teams who went very far [in the world cup] from Europe. In the Olympics there are only three teams from Europe and then the USA. It feels like a good chance that you will get far, but what can you evolve?

M: Yeah, it is realistic there are only 12 teams that take part and three of these teams are going to get a medal so just from that you get the hope that we have the chance for a medal but I believe it's about not being content with what happened at the world cup but to look at the world cup and see what we actually can improve, as you say… For example I can think we were very good in our defense, as usual, we are very good at adapting but when we met Holland that actually let us have the ball, it’s there we can get problems, when we met an opponent that let us have the ball and then lies and waits for us to make mistakes, a little bit the strategy that we have. It’s about continuing to develop our game with the ball. How we get chances for a goal with the defenders gathered in front of us.

L: Is that something you talk about with Peter Gerhardsson?

M: Absolute, that had been a continuous…

L: And how are you going to do it?

M: It has been a continuous topic since he took over two years ago. So I still feel that we have become better at it and we work on it in every training basically we talk about a lot of tactical factors and technical factors you can also see the types of players he chooses to have on the team are very creative and ball-safe players. It’s not something that happens over night, but it is something that we have become better with and it’s something that we are going to continue to work on.

L: Do you have the material [the right players] to handle such a game?

M: I think… I think that if you look at the squad we put together and the players that are on it they are fantastic football players and we have it in us. It’s just about… what spoke about before… to dare to believe in that as well. To have the confidence in our playing and to dare to play the ball.

L: Now you meet the USA. In an away game. Difficult opponent. Reigning world champion. 

What do you get out of playing against this kind of quality?

M: Oh, that's incredibly much. I want to go back to the Germany-game on Friends. I think we have never learned as much from a match as from this one. In that game… I think that that match actually was a big reason for that we won the world cup bronze. It was really difficult, in the match itself. We got a 2:1 and, well... We weren’t satisfied. And then we sat down and analysed and talked about what went wrong. And I feel after that game we learned so much. It’s the same way we need to handle the match against the USA now. We get the chance to match with the world champion and see how the match turns out and see what we can learn from that to hopefully improve until the Olympics.

L: For those who don’t remember the Germany-game in the beginning of April. A trainings match (???) in Friends Arena but just… Is it maybe a little a deficiency that the qualifiers are often very easy? Even though you had Denmark that’s not so easy but they set themselves up for failure by going on a strike. But is it that you have to get up to meet in training matches against these best teams?

M: Yes, certainly. These training matches are incredibly valuable for us. An Algarve cup, where we also get unbelievably good opposition, we are meeting the best countries in the world. But at the same time… What we want to become better with is also to outplay a low defense and we are meeting that quite often now in the euro qualifiers. So there is a lot to take from those matches as well. So I try to see it the way that the mix of qualifiers and international matches, I believe, that’s the absolute best.

L: You travel to Ohio to play, how does that influence you? There is going to be some time shift and not so many days.

M: No, that is also going to be a little challenge. We actually have a sleep expert who works as a consultant at Chelsea who put up a schedule for me and Jonna Andersson, my colleague, about how we should handle jet lag best. So that’s something that I will have to share with my National team mates as well.

L: Parallel to this you started the euro qualifiers very strongly and you are going to continue next year as well. How attractive is a Euro cup in England, where you play, with all the hype it has become around football here?

M: That is incredibly attractive! I believe that feels completely magical. It’s so right in the timing how women’s football is developing in England right now. And that there is going to be a Euro cups final in two years right in England. It is going to be an incredibly cool experience and I believe that it is going to be an enormously big attention both around the arenas but also just in the media, like we saw now in the world cup.

L: If we start with the Olympics in Tokyo. What is a likely goal for you? And don’t [tell me] something boring like “We take one match after the other”!

M: No, no, I’m a person that is pretty straight forward, so I dare to say… Like I said before: Three teams get a medal of 12, so we already have a 25 % chance to win... or to get a medal  before we even start. So… Medal! Absolutely! We should dare to back on that.