Monty Python's Flying Circus was the television series where chaotic content became fun and groundbreaking humor.
Graham Potter's flying circus is his first year as national team captain where several scenes felt chaotic but the result was fun and promising.
Sweden meets Bosnia-Herzegovina on Saturday evening. On Sunday, it will be a year since Potter's first game with the team.
When he released the current squad, I asked what surprised him most about the job in the first year.
- That it was so much fun, he said.
I wouldn't have been surprised if he answered:
- That I didn't get motion sickness.
It has swung and tipped and crashed. It has been ecstasically qualified for the World Cup, it has been a dream start and a nightmare match there and afterwards it has been patched and mended with a torn squad.
In the midst of it all, Graham Potter has kept his composure, kept his direction. That has been his great achievement as a leader.
The late autumn sun tried to thaw an icy national team
It is just over a year since he assembled the team for a first camp in Marbella. Two World Cup qualifiers with no significance in terms of results awaited. Switzerland away and Slovenia at home.
The Spanish wind caressed the players. The late autumn sun tried to thaw an icy national team.
It had started to go downhill at the end of Janne Andersson's, previously so successful, time as national team captain. Under Jon Dahl Tomasson, the whole sea was stormy in every way. The national team ship was about to go down with man and everything.
When the new captain Graham Potter stepped in, there were shortages in the crew.
Tomasson had said the path to success was for eight players to wear the three stars. Dejan Kulusevski, Viktor Gyökeres and Alexander Isak.
In the twelfth minute Breel Embolo said "Welcome to work Mr Potter"
Both Gyökeres and Kulusevski were missing from Potter's premiership squad. Isak had injury problems and did not start the first game. Victor Nilsson Lindelöf could not play at all.
In the twelfth minute, Breel Embolo said "Welcome to work, Mr. Potter" with 1-0 to Switzerland.
Benjamin Nygren equalised, but the leaking national team was the same sieve as just now. 4–1 to Switzerland. Graham Potter was a coach. No wizard.
A couple of days later, Slovenia led 1–0 until the 87th minute. That a future main character, Gai's Gustav Lundgren, equalized was a small consolation. If Tommy Engstrand had been alive, he could have dusted off his classic to describe the situation for the Swedish national team at the turn of the year:
"I give you no hope".
But in his few days with the team, Potter had begun to build a foundation in which the players believed. When they next met, everything that could be creamed out of faith, hope and Gyökeres was needed.
It was sharp at the end of March. Ukraine first, hopefully Poland after that.
The whole country of Ukraine would need the success much more
I sat in the Estadi Ciutat de València with mixed feelings in the first playoff match.
The soccer country of Sweden would feel good about a World Cup. The whole country of Ukraine would need the success much more.
Viktor Gyökeres was back and when he scored his and Sweden's third goal with just over a quarter of an hour remaining, it was clear which of the yellow and blue teams would advance.
The Poland match could make anyone seasick. 1–0 became 1–1. 2–1 became 2–2. The clock ticked for an anguished overtime.
But Gustav Lundgren had just come in and it was off when he broke down towards the short line and played diagonally inwards, backwards.
It was shot and blocked. It was shot and saved. It was shot and hit a post and on that return Viktor Gyökeres showed what is meant by the expression:
"The ball devil is going in".
The Norwegian superstars had a playhouse with the Swedish slant sailers
The Poles were knocked out in the hybrid grass. The Swedes ran ecstatically towards the WC.
Those feelings cooled considerably when the Norwegian superstars had a playhouse with the Swedish cross-sailers in one of the training matches before the WC.
Once there, it was 5-1 against Tunisia and 1-5 against the Netherlands. Then a maths exercise before and during the game against Japan before we (well, not the goalscorer Anthony Elanga) knew that 1-1 was enough to go through.
In that match, Isak Hien disappeared, not to be back yet. Gustav Lundgren had been injured early in the season and Dejan Kulusevski had not made it back. And Sweden had not made it far enough in development to be able to disrupt France.
The really big sickness and injury chaos, it broke out during the Nations League gathering at the turn of the month September-October. If you had a Swedish passport and a pair of football boots, you could soon have Potter on the phone.
That Sweden took ten out of twelve points was strong. The way it happened was nothing short of impressive.
Graham Potter could cook and lab with the team
Despite the chaos, players showed confidence and constructiveness. Graham Potter could cook and lab with the team. Each player faced unexpected team selection with Lars Winnerbäcks:
"Drop me anywhere. I think I'll find my way home."
Now Dejan Kulusevski has also found his home after his long injury hell and Potter has succeeded in a national team captain's basic task.
You want to see this national team play.
