Sweden’s World Cup training session came with an unexpected demolition-site backdrop.
Graham Potter’s team trained in Frisco, Texas, on Wednesday with rubble, construction equipment and a damaged-looking grandstand behind the pitch at Toyota Stadium.
For a Sweden squad featuring Premier League stars such as Liverpool’s Alexander Isak and Arsenal’s Viktor Gyökeres, it made for a surreal scene before one of the team’s biggest games of the tournament.
“I just thought, ‘What happened?’ As far as I know, there wasn’t a storm,” Sweden midfielder Besfort Zeneli said, via Aftonbladet.
There was no storm.
Toyota Stadium, the home of MLS side FC Dallas, is undergoing a $182 million renovation project, according to The Athletic.
The construction work has continued around World Cup training sessions, but the scene raised eyebrows when Sweden arrived for practice.
Sweden team manager Stefan Pettersson said the squad had been warned about the situation before getting to the facility and that training was not affected.
“They were supposed to demolish something, and it looks like it fell in the wrong direction,” Pettersson told Aftonbladet. “Luckily, no one was hurt. They probably detonated it and then something went wrong.”
Pettersson said the players were surprised when they saw the rubble.
“The players were a bit wide-eyed when they arrived,” he said. “They said, ‘Oh, what the hell happened?’”
FC Dallas later told The Athletic that the work was part of a planned and controlled demolition inside an active construction zone.
A club spokesperson said the demolition happened before Sweden’s session, used a “pull-down demolition method,” and did not involve explosives.
The spokesperson added that Sweden trained as scheduled and completed the session.
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The unusual scene came at a crucial point in Sweden’s tournament.
Sweden opened the World Cup with a 5-1 win over Tunisia before losing 5-1 to the Netherlands.
That left Potter’s side in third place in Group F entering its final group game against Japan in Arlington, where a win would guarantee a spot in the knockout rounds.