Thursday 24th May 2012 ko 19.00

Allsvenskan

I.F. ELFSBORG 2 (Ishizaki 5 Nilsson 80p)

BK HÄCKEN 0 Chatto sent off 90 (2nd booking)

Att 9,744

Entry 225sek

Programme and Lottery 20sek

Badge 40sek

Please don’t try to find Elfsborg on the map, the club is based in Borås about 65 km east of Gothenburg. As a city it gained greatly from the construction of the railway network in Sweden, and today is a thriving university town. I particularly liked the sculpture outside the campus! The electronics firm Ericsson is based in Borås, as is the atomic clock that sets the time for Sweden.

So why is the city most famous club called Borås? The answer is that in 1906, two years after its inception, the founders opted to change the club’s name as they felt there were too many clubs with Borås in their name. With 5 Swedish titles the move doesn’t seem to have hindered their progress!

The Borås Arena is a new edifice, opening in 2005 next door to their former home, Ryavallen, now being converted to athletics use. The new ground has a 17,400 capacity, and a 4G “Fieldturf” pitch. The stadium was originally scheduled to be a tournament site for the 2009 UEFA Under-21 Championship, but a sponsorship conflict with the Max fast food chain’s location at the stadium and official sponsor McDonalds, plus a contractual requirement for official sponsors to have a monopoly over the stadium’s area, and a refusal to close the restaurant led to it losing its status as a site for the tournament.

I liked the place, as I found it both spacious and quirky. The turnstiles for our stand were between its two tiers, and I did enjoy my Max burger, sat underneath the stand. The only difficulty we found was the numbering system used. We found our seats eventually, but the ticket doesn’t make is clear which tier you are on, you just have to know by which section you are in!

The game was a local derby of sorts, BK Häcken are from Gothenburg, but while the away end was vocal, it was by no means full. The Häcken fans were quickly quietened as Stefan Ishizaki’s 22 yard free kick should have been easily thumped clear by Daniel Frölund. He, however kicked at thin air, and the ball sneaked at the back post with keeper Christoffer Källqvist unable to scramble over in time.

It became clear quickly that the Elfsborg trio of Niklas Hult, Ishizaki and former Southampton player Anders Svensson are the reason that Elfsborg reached the European break 8 points clear. They gave the visitors no time on the ball, and despite the visitors having the two top goalscorers in the division in Waris Majeed and Rene Makondele, Häcken were never able to fully exploit their pace and movement. Sometimes it was a poor touch letting them down, but most of the time it was better thinking when out of possession, mainly by Svenson, that swung the play in Elsfborg’s favour.

The lead was doubled with 10 minutes left when Mohammed Ali Khan brought down Hult just inside the box, needlessly as he was posing no danger, and Lasse Nilsson put away the penalty with the minimum of effort. Häcken played out the last few seconds with 10 men after Nigerian Dominic Chatto was dismissed for his second bad challenge. More worryingly for the Swedish National team, Anders Svensson limped away at the finish was an ice pack taped to his hamstring.

To finish, a word about the programme. It’s combined with the half time lottery! What you get is a palm sized cardboard affair that opens out into an 9 page leaflet. It does the job rather well. For the uninitiated though, you could miss it, as its sold more as the lottery than the programme!