Swedes unwilling to savor 1st win over Russia in 12 years

Carousing through the aisles long after the final buzzer had sounded, packs of Swedish fans in Toronto were celebrating well within their reason - chanting, and dancing, and finishing whatever was left in their plastic cups.

Their native Sweden defeated Russia for the first time in more than 12 years Sunday in the opening matchup in Group B at the World Cup, ending a streak of 12 straight games without victory with a 2-1 triumph at the Air Canada Centre.

This was no massive upset, of course. Sweden is one of the favorites in the tournament, and have enjoyed as much, or more, success than Russia on the international stage since defeating it last. So while the win was grounds for exuberance, on the other side of the wall separating fans and the players made available to the media, it hardly registered.

"I heard about it after the game," Nicklas Backstrom told theScore. "That's just history. (Something) the media likes to bring up. It's nothing we thought about before or anything. It wasn't in our heads. We were just focused on playing a solid game."

Oliver Ekman-Larsson wasn't whopping it up, either, but did acknowledge that it's a storyline that the Swedes were aware of, before segueing artfully.

"There's been a lot of talk about that, but not in our dressing room. We knew about it - but we knew how we had to play to beat the Russians. And I think we played a really good game over 60 minutes."

After a tentative start and a nervy finish, Sweden has begun paving the way toward competing for something worth celebrating.

A win over either Finland or North America in their final two opening-round games will almost assuredly see the Swedes through into a semifinal.