Sweden fans react following a score during first half action as the Dallas Beer Guardians, the support club for FC Dallas hosted a friendly soccer match against Sweden’s support club at The Pit, 7255 Meadow Hill Drive in Frisco, on June 23, 2026.
Steve Hamm/The Dallas Morning News
FRISCO — Swedish fans kitted out in yellow jerseys and blue cowboy hats turned a suburban indoor soccer facility into a party Tuesday evening. They stood in the bleachers and cracked open can after can of ice-cold beer as they cheered for their fellow fans.
Players from Sweden’s supporter club won 12-10 in a friendly match against the Dallas Beer Guardians, the supporter club for FC Dallas. The event was organized to help visiting fans to get acquainted with North Texas ahead of the country’s World Cup match against Japan in Arlington on Thursday at 6 p.m.
Among the crowd were Swedish visitors, local soccer fans, Swedish immigrants who live in North Texas and some Japanese fans. After the match, fans headed to a Frisco brewery for more beer, live country music and the beanbag toss game known in the U.S. as cornhole.
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Members of the Sweden support team converse with their coach before the start of their match against the Dallas Beer Guardians, the support club for FC Dallas. The two support teams played a friendly soccer match at The Pit, 7255 Meadow Hill Drive in Frisco, on June 23, 2026.
Steve Hamm/The Dallas Morning News
Many Swedish fans arrived in North Texas from Houston this week after the national team lost to the Netherlands on Saturday. Several World Cup events for Swedish fans are being held in Frisco because the suburb is an official FIFA base camp for the country’s team. The team has been practicing at Toyota Stadium, staying at the Westin Dallas Stonebriar between matches. Players even stopped by Hutchins BBQ in Frisco for a meal.
Fans are hoping to see rising stars on the team, including Arsenal striker Viktor Gyökeres and FC Dallas defender Herman Johansson, help Sweden progress past the group stage. The country last qualified for the World Cup in 2018.
Johnny Persson, a volunteer for Camp Sweden, the nonprofit that helps organize events for Swedish soccer fans, traveled from Västerås, a city in central Sweden with two-thirds the population of Frisco, for his first glimpse of World Cup soccer. He said more than 100 fans signed up to face off against the FC Dallas supporter club. Those who signed up first made the team while the rest put their all into cheering and drinking in the stands.
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Persson hopes to keep the enthusiasm going for game day. At noon on Thursday, Camp Sweden will host a gathering at Choctaw Stadium that Persson expects will draw about 7,000 Swedish fans. Around 3 p.m., a sea of fans wearing blue and yellow will march over to Dallas Stadium to support their team against higher-ranked Japan. Sweden would automatically advance to the next stage of the tournament if the team wins Thursday’s match.
Maxamillion Martinez, background center left, an Under-10 member of the Shape The Game squad in Frisco, races an adult Sweden player to maintain ball control for the Dallas Beer Guardians during first half action. The Guardians, the support club for FC Dallas, played a friendly soccer match against Sweden’s support club at The Pit, 7255 Meadow Hill Drive in Frisco, on June 23, 2026.
Steve Hamm/The Dallas Morning News
Anders Helgesson, 58, has attended matches at two previous World Cups, but this is his first time in Texas. Helgesson, a restaurant owner from Falkenberg, a coastal town with a population less than 30,000, spent the last few days in North Texas partying and tasting Lone Star delicacies such as steak and barbecue.
“Everything is bloody big!” Helgesson said of Texas portion sizes.
At the friendly match he joined fans in chanting “Kanna Pa, Kanna Pa!” which roughly translates to “drink more, drink more” or “keep the beers coming.” He said the friendly game was a good opportunity for fans to practice their chants and get ready for Thursday’s match.
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A pair of Sweden fans sport cowboy hats as they follow the action as the Dallas Beer Guardians, the support club for FC Dallas hosted a friendly soccer match against Sweden’s support club at The Pit, 7255 Meadow Hill Drive in Frisco, on June 23, 2026.
Steve Hamm/The Dallas Morning News
For Plano resident Jennie Vander Voord, 50, the friendly match brought back all sorts of nostalgia. Vander Voord has lived in Texas since she moved here from Sweden at 19 years old to work as an au pair.
Vander Voord said that meeting fans from Sweden helped her get reacquainted with popular soccer chants that had faded from her memory after years of living abroad.
“It’s funny because … we haven’t heard of some of them,” Vander Voord said of the chants. “Now we’re all paying attention and trying to learn before Thursday.”
Back in 1994, the last time the World Cup was held in the United States, she listened to match commentary on the radio while painting the fence in her parents’ backyard in a small town about 200 miles south of Stockholm. That year, Sweden took third place, one of the country’s top performances in the tournament.
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This year, she will attend Thursday’s match against Japan with her husband, an experience she expects to be surreal. The couple spent a little over $2,000 on each ticket.
“Now so many years later, I’m actually going to the game,” Vander Voord said. “My husband and I justified the ticket prices because it’s here in our backyard.”