Alexander Bernhardsson is on site in Dallas and training with Sweden as the squad finishes final preparations for its World Cup opener against Tunisia, scheduled for Monday at 04:00 in Monterrey, Mexico.
The forward, making his first major championship appearance for Sweden after leaving IF Elfsborg in January 2024 to join Holstein Kiel, has been part of the group at the team’s base in Dallas where coaching staff have tightened tactical details and match routines ahead of the trip to Mexico.
Graham Potter named the Sweden squad on 12 May, and the group has since sharpened match fitness with warm-up games against Norway and Greece in early June. Supporters are already converging on North America and many more will be watching at home in Sweden, a fact Bernhardsson said the squad feels as it prepares for the opening whistle.
Bernhardsson’s presence carries weight beyond a squad number. His season at Holstein Kiel was disrupted by a winter foot fracture and, after a too-quick return, a subsequent muscle injury that sidelined him again. Still, he finished the campaign on a high note, registering two assists in the final three rounds, and was in the stands at Borås Arena after the season to watch his former club.
Those interruptions make this tournament appearance significant: it is his first major championship for Sweden and comes after a club spell that included Holstein Kiel’s promotion to the Bundesliga following his first spring with the team. Bernhardsson has spoken about the pride of wearing the national shirt and the extra charge he feels with familiar faces from Elfsborg around him in the squad.
Inside the camp, the shared Elfsborg connections — players he said he played with for about a year, the presence of Linus Kandolin who was at Elfsborg during Bernhardsson’s years there, and recent club ties to figures such as Björn Hamberg and Anthony Elanga — are presented as a stabiliser as the team prepares to face Tunisia.
Coaching staff and players have run targeted sessions in Dallas aimed at converting possession into clear scoring chances and rehearsing set-piece routines; those details, Bernhardsson said, are what the team has been "nöta på" during the daytime trainings. The practical picture for Swedish supporters is straightforward: the match kicks off at 04:00 CET in Monterrey and the squad will travel to Mexico having completed its last stateside training blocks.
The immediate question for the starting lineup revolves around selection and minutes. Bernhardsson’s recovery curve and limited minutes late in the season complicate a simple call-up into a starting XI built on match rhythm. Coaches have not declared roles for the opener, and the balance between giving Bernhardsson a meaningful chance and protecting him after two separate injuries is the selection dilemma facing Potter’s staff.
What to watch when the game begins is therefore not just how Sweden performs as a unit but how Bernhardsson is used: whether he is introduced off the bench to exploit tiring defenders, or handed a starting role that tests the fitness he rebuilt in the closing rounds at club level. That choice will tell observers more about Sweden’s risk calculus than any pre-tournament comment.
For now, Bernhardsson remains with the squad in Dallas, training, recovering and preparing mentally for the trip to Monterrey. The most consequential fact before kickoff is simple and immediate — whether the coaching staff will trust him with significant minutes in Sweden’s first match; that decision will shape both his tournament and the team’s early trajectory.
