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Photos: Brandon Bleek / Scott Marsh
Adam Johansson now has something extraordinary to tell his grandchildren. Before that, he’ll be able to tell it to the Sounders locker room.
On Wednesday, he played international football against an Argentina side that contained mercurial superstar Leo Messi. Johansson played the last thirty minutes incidentally in a Sweden side that conceded no goals in that period.
The Sounders right back entered the game just on the hour mark when Mikael Lustig scorer of an own goal in the third minute, Argentina’s opener, was removed.
West Brom’s Jonas Olsson equalised very quickly for Sweden in the match played in the Stockholm suburb of Solna.
Manchester City’s Kun Agüero continued his recent run of goalscoring to retake the lead for Argentina and leave the score at 1-2 with just 19 minutes gone.
It was 1-3 to the visitors four minutes later, with Real Madrid’s Gonzalo Higuaín the scorer. It slowed down a little after that.
On the hour mark, Sounders right back Adam Johansson entered the field. Rasmus Elm scored a late consolation for the Swedes in stoppage time.
Some of Johansson’s club colleagues of course played against Messi in the club friendly here in 2010. However, that is not quite the same as being selected for your country to do so.
He’ll have plenty to talk about when he comes home.
In other international news from Europe, Gordon Strachan made a winning start in his first match as Scotland boss with a 1-0 win over Estonia in Aberdeen. Vancouver’s Kenny Miller played the last 23 minutes.
Portugal went down 2-3 at home to Ecuador while at Wembley, England recorded a rare win over Brazil for whom Ronaldinho missed an early penalty. Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard scored for England.
The Netherlands drew 1-1 with Italy and Germany won 1-2 on French soil.
World Champions Spain beat Uruguay 3-1 in Qatar.
6 Comments
Journalism yellow card for misuse of “mercurial” (unless Messi has an attitude problem that I’ve missed).
Otherwise, great stuff.
It can mean effervescent, lively, likely to perform inspiringly after a quiet period, given to sudden bursts of brilliance, and unpredictable. It can also mean made of mercury.
Hate to nitpick, but wasn’t 2009 not 2010 that the Sounders hosted FC Barcelona in a friendly?
Probably right. Thank you.
“Mercurial” in most dictionaries and in common application means prone to outbursts of some sort — of the “mood” kind, not of the “performance” kind. It can indeed mean effervescent, but again if Messi matches that word most of us haven’t seen it. (Check your dictionary cover: does it say “Oxferd” or “Wabster’s”?)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mercurial
1: of, relating to, or born under the planet Mercury
2: having qualities of eloquence, ingenuity, or thievishness attributed to the god Mercury or to the influence of the planet Mercury
3: characterized by rapid and unpredictable changeableness of mood
4: of, relating to, containing, or caused by mercury
Pay particular attention to #2.