World Cup USA ’94 / Semifinals : Fan-tastic Semifinals : Swedish Fans Cry Amid Sea of Happy Brazilians
Five minutes after the game ended, the Brazilians were laughing and cheering and doing the samba in the parking lot outside the 14 Below bar in Santa Monica. And Osa Bjurestam was standing there with tears running down the blue and yellow Swedish flag painted on her right cheek.
“Of course I’m sad,†said Bjurestam, late of Stockholm, currently of Century City, who with a couple of Swedish friends had chosen to watch the Sweden-Brazil World Cup semifinal game in, of all places, a bar packed with Brazilian fans. She tried to say more, but couldn’t.
She didn’t really need to. The tears said it all.
Bjurestam, 28, and her friends represented the sole Swedish contingent in the 14 Below, a tiny island of Swedishness amid a sea of Brazilian yellow and green. They had gone to the bar, which is co-owned by a Brazilian, to watch the game because it’s their usual watering hole, and because they like the passionate way Brazilians watch soccer.
“I respect the Brazilians a lot,†said Bjurestam, an interior design student. “They are like a living legend. And we (the Swedes and Brazilians) all get along very well.â€
Besides, according to Elisabeth Kihlberg, press officer for the Swedish Consulate in Los Angeles, there weren’t really any organized plans among the estimated 25,000 Swedes in the Los Angeles area to do anything special, except go to the game at the Rose Bowl or watch it on TV.
“Swedish people by tradition are more reserved†than some other soccer fans, she said.
So for two hours Bjurestam and her friends stood together in the packed, sweltering 14 Below bar, bombarded by the relentless beat of samba drums.
Every now and then the dozen or so Sweden supporters--among them a German, a Swiss and an Austrian--tried to respond with chants of “Sweden! Sweden! Sweden!†But they were good-naturedly drowned out by the Brazilians.
Swedish hopes were high at the beginning. “I think we have a very good chance,†said Eva Turesson, 31, a Swedish native currently living in Manhattan Beach. “They’ve played pretty well. I’m going to be very disappointed if they lose.â€
But the Swedes lost. When Brazil scored the game’s lone goal in the second half, the bar erupted in shouts of joy--except for the Swedes, who looked sadder than an Ingmar Bergman movie.
When it was over, they tried to put the best face on it. They pointed out that Sweden had gotten farther along in the World Cup than anyone really had expected. They also pointed out that Sweden’s Queen Silvia is half-Brazilian on her mother’s side, so a victory for Brazil was sort of a quasi-victory for Sweden as well.
