It has been ten years but Hagman still remembers Per Johansson’s somewhat odd motivation that she did not get the chance to play her first championship.
Hagman took the pick hard but continued to continue with his circus arts on the right wing.
– It is probably part of my style of play, Hagman states when Sweden now enters the intermediate round of the World Cup in Spain.
Today she is 30 years old and has become better at taking responsibility for the entire plan.
– I can sometimes be a workhorse too, but the circus horse is still there. It felt like a strange statement but has become more of a fun thing that we joke about, usually with the ones I played with then, it is as I said ten years ago.
Hagman has shown that the circus horse is still there with his growls from the edge, smart shots, cunning penalties and fast runs.
She was selected in the All star team in the Olympics in Rio 2016 and in the World Cup in Germany. In the European Championships at home in 2018, she broke the goal record for Swedish national team handball when she scored 17 goals against Russia.
She has started the World Cup in Spain in the best way and against Puerto Rico she broke a new record, 19 goals, when Sweden won 48-10.
After three matches played, Hagman tops the shooting league in the World Cup with 29 goals, of which five on penalties, before Montenegro’s Jovanka Radicevic who scored 26 goals, twelve on penalties.
– Of course it’s great fun but nothing I can focus on. We have many matches left, we will see where it goes.
She is asked if she has gone goalless from the pitch in the national team at some point and becomes almost goalless.
– Oh, I probably have. Someday, I think.
After Tuesday night’s draw against the world champions the Netherlands, the intermediate round awaits where the national team captain Tomas Axnér’s blue and yellow team will face Kazakhstan, Norway and Romania.
If everything goes according to expert tips, Norway will be one of the two teams that take a place in the quarter-final game, the other place is between Sweden and the Netherlands.
In the end, it can be about which of the teams has the best goal difference, which puts pressure on the Swedish team before Thursday night’s match against Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan has lost big against Norway, 18-46, and Romania, 17-38. For Sweden, it is not just about taking home the victory, it is also important to win with as many goals as possible.
– It is difficult to have a goal for how many goals we should score. We have to take one match at a time and try to win all three, says Hagman hopefully.
She will be loaded both as an edge and penalty shooter.
– It is of course that I do an analysis of how they act, but then you have shots that are in the spinal cord.
Hagman promises to work backwards, but when she gets the chance to counter, she will never hesitate.
– It’s something you read, you try to see if it’s time to go and it works, you just have to knit.