Sweden won against Poland 5-1.
Now the SVT expert Jonas Andersson wants to change the whole structure of the WC.
– It says absolutely nothing, he says.
Sweden got a real value meter already in the first group stage match of this year’s WC. The USA was on the other side of the ice, but after a good effort, Sweden was the clear winner. On Sunday, everyone expected that it would not be as exciting at all, with Poland as the opponent. And there was never a real pulse in the match either.
Want to change the WC setup
Sweden won as expected, 5-1, and has now acquired a super position in the WC. But now critical voices are being raised about the structure of the tournament, and that something actually needs to be done. SVT’s hockey expert Jonas Andersson now believes that several matches in the group stage are unnecessary, and that it would have been better for the stronger nations to meet each other several times instead of the current arrangement.
He believes that has changed since Russia and Belarus were banned from the tournament, as a result of the invasion of Ukraine.
– Sweden finally wins 5-1 against Poland and what does that say? Absolutely nothing, and that’s the problem. Sweden could have won 10-0 and I would have said the same thing. It’s just to note. There are too many teams in this World Cup tournament. Now that Russia is not involved, when Belarus is not involved. Then the quality is not there right through, he says in SVT.
“Getting pulled out”
Jonas Andersson believes that there will be too many matches without excitement.
– If you are now going to continue with 16 teams, with these two countries that are not included… Then I believe that you have to make sure that the better ranked teams meet more times, and the lower ranked teams also meet more times. As it is now, there will be too many matches like this.
Jonas Andersson gets the nod from Tre Kronor goalkeeper Filip Gustavsson.
– There will be quite a few group stage matches. Maybe you should make four groups and have five teams in each group instead of having the group stage a little faster and then directly to the playoffs, he says, and continues:
– Instead of playing seven group stage matches. It will be a bit long and drawn out, it feels like.
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