The assistant coach was as gloomy as anyone after the 5-1 victory in the World Cup opener. Afterwards, he treated himself to a cold beer.
"The players must feel the joy of a World Cup victory. It's important to feel what it means," Larsson says.
But not for long. Tuesday was a day off from training and the players could do whatever they wanted. The work week started on Wednesday.
Hopefully the guys can clear their heads, not think so much about football so they can come to training fresh, says Larsson.
"Job to do"
Then the focus is on the future, against the Netherlands in Houston on Midsummer's Day (7:00 p.m.).
Graham Potter has already talked about there being a lot of work to do. We know we have to reach near-maximum performance. We have to work forward humbly.
Sweden and the Netherlands - or Holland as it was called then and many still say - have only met once in a World Cup context.
In Dortmund 1974, Sweden drew 0–0 against Johan Cruyff & Co. The last meetings (1–1 and 0–2) were in the qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup.
They have an incredible amount of quality, individual skill, a national team that always believes very strongly in themselves. It goes without saying that with that individual skill, they are not a team you want to leave too much space to on certain parts of the pitch.
He is convinced that national captain Ronald Koeman has noted the strength of the Swedish attack, that there is respect for Viktor Gyökeres and Alexander Isak.
They probably have an idea of what could happen if we win the ball. We've shown that we can be quite strong in a transition game.
Is Henke calling?
According to Larsson, the Netherlands plays a classic 4–3–3.
We saw slightly different tendencies against Japan, even though we haven't analyzed that match in depth yet.
If Potter and Larsson want to gain more knowledge about how Koeman thinks, they can always contact Henrik Larsson, who worked with Koeman in Barcelona.
A lot of work has been done on all our group opponents. If you go back a week, the focus has been on Tunisia and everything else has been in the background. Now it's time to pick it up, put the details based on our performance against Tunisia and their last match and what we have to do to be successful.
We'll see if we hear from Henke or not, says Sebastian Larsson.
Netherlands–Japan 2–2
The goals: 1–0 Virgil van Dijk (51), 1–1 Keito Nakamura (57), 2–1 Crysencio Summerville (64), 2–2 Daichi Kamada (89).
Sweden–Tunisia 5–1
Goals: 1–0 Yasin Ayari (7), 2–0 Alexander Isak (30), 2–1 Omar Rekik (43), 3–1 Viktor Gyökeres (59), 4–1 Mattias Svanberg (84), 5–1 Ayari (90+6).
Upcoming matches:
June 20: Netherlands–Sweden (Houston, 7 p.m.).
June 21: Tunisia–Japan (Monterrey, 6:00 a.m.)
June 26: Japan–Sweden (Dallas, 1:00 a.m.), Tunisia–Netherlands (Kansas City, 1:00 a.m.)
