Author Archives: laurencereade

The Burning Mountain

06 Wednesday Jun 2012

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Sunday 27th May 2012 ko 14.00

Division 3 Södra Svealand

IFK HANINGE/BRANDBERGEN 3 (Ljobdje 10 87 Gonzalez 58)

IFK ESKILSTUNA 1 (Alias 6)

Att 171 (h/c)

Entry 50sek

No programme

Burger 35sek

Can Coke Zero 10sek

With the car back at the hire company, and Kim and I back in Stockholm, the plan was two games at nearby Skytteholms. Trouble is, I’ve watched games on Skytteholms before, and fine facility though it is, I fancied something new. So, Kim studied the internet and I spent 115sek on a one-day pass on Stockholm’s buses and trains, and away we went.

Torvalla IP is easily found from Handen rail station, in the southern suburbs of Stockholm. This is isn’t blond hair and blue eyed Sweden either, this is an area that’s seen significant Turkish immigration over the years. What that meant in my terms was an excellent barbeque and some interesting names to jot down. This season has seen Haninge absorb local side Brandbergen, which translates as Burning Mountain. That gave the club a place in Division 3 but there seemed to be little other reference to the second name elsewhere.

What the team did have at Torvalla is a choice of pitches. There’s a grass pitch within a running track, but this time the somewhat worn 3G pitch was used. I’d seen Eskilstuna before, a year previously at their Tunavallen home, and they’d looked a decent team. That encounter will always be the time I had a press pass for a free entry game!!

On this occasion Eskilstuna were second best to an extremely solid home side. It didn’t stop the visitors taking the lead, with Henrik Rodriguez crossing from the left and Gabriel Alias heading in from a yard or two out. And that was more or less it from the visitors save for the odd flurry. Put simply Haninge shut them down, and soon found parity as Dario Ljobdje headed powerfully home from Alexis Gonzalez’ corner from the right. Gonzalez scored the second himself, running on to a neat layoff from Stankovic to shoot past Richard Larsson in the visitors’ goal.

Larsson was the best player on show, and may well be one to watch. He’s formerly of Eskilstuna City of Division 1 Södra but opted to drop down to fellow Tunavallen tenants IFK. He’s impressing many so expect a move up soon.

He could do nothing with the winner either, and facsimile of the opener. Again the Gonzalez corner from the left and again the Ljobdje header powered in. So worthy winners, but this was neither a game nor a performance to savour.

Perhaps the real bonus was that Thomas, the coach driver of the Swedish hop came down to see us. He’s no football fan, but enjoys ferrying us around for some reason. Its was lovely to catch up and I put in for a coach with a jacuzzi for this year’s hop!

Half a eye on Game D

05 Tuesday Jun 2012

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Saturday 26th May 2012 ko 14.00

Division 2 Södra Svealand

KB KARLSKOGA FF 1 (Pénzes 50og)

ENSKEDE IK 2 (Olsson 8 Andersson 52)

Att 94 (h/c)

Entry 60 sek

Programme FREE

Lottery 20sek

Team sheets FREE

From Karlstad it was a short, well 70 km drive east to Karlskoga and a Division 2 encounter. It was a real shame to leave Varmland with its lakes and head east, but in all honesty the scenery was no worse in Svealand! The reason for the choice of fixture was that Kim Hedwall is now working with South Stockholm based Enskede. They looked a good outfit on the 2011 Swedish hop and it would be interesting to see how they had progressed.

Karlskoga is best known as the birthplace of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and the owner of several armaments firms, some of which are still in business  (for example Akzo Nobel) today. He used his fortune to posthumously institute the Nobel Prizes of which all but Peace are awarded in Stockholm. Annoyingly the museum was closed!

Still, I suppose the stadium bearing his name is the next best thing, and its huge! Nominally it holds 10,000 but I would have though far more could be accommodated. It is of course far too big for a 4th tier club, and the club played the first few games of the season on a 3G pitch within the complex. As a club Karlskoga’s main claim to fame is that Sven-Göran Eriksson and Tord Grip both played for the club in the early 1970s, the latter as player-coach. Incidentally the KB bit stands for Karlskoga/Bofors, Bofors merging into the club in 1963. The city’s ice hockey team still plays as Bofors.

I had a chat with the manager, who admitted to being nervous at the side’s prospects that afternoon. He had reason too, with Enskede second in the table behind Carlstad United and Karlskoga in mid-table. With Carlstadt at home to Nyköpings BIS Kim and I had half an eye on the scoreboard with the score being relayed in real-time!

The visitors made the perfect start too, albeit with a massive fluke. Mattias Olsson crossed from the right touch-line, and home keeper Joakim Fromholdt looked horrified as the effort sailed over his head and into the top left corner! The lack of a celebration from Olsson spoke volumes.

The rest of the half saw Enskede in full control but creating few chances. The hosts looked to be a decent side, but despite forcing a series of corners didn’t look like troubling the visiting defence.

All that changed in the 50 minute. A free was awarded to Karlskoga 25 yards out on the right. This was whipped in by Johan Persson but it was Enskede’s Balàzs Pénzes who glanced his header in, albeit under extreme pressure from Karlskoga’s Henrik Andersson.

Parity didn’t last long. Enskede’s Modasa Zekria’s excellent deep cross from the right found Fredrik Andersson at the back of the box and his header beat Fromholdt easily. It proved to be the winner, and Enskede were able to maintain possession and stifle the home threat easily to close out the game.

There was nothing else to do but to follow the Carlstad game. That proved to be the real bonus for Enskede with the leaders losing, sending Enskede top. It was a happy Kim that drove the car back to Solna that evening.

Valhalla

05 Tuesday Jun 2012

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Friday 25th May 2012 ko 19.00

Division 6 Östra Varmland

NORDMARKS I.F 3 (Skallare 10 Rojo 43 Allpour 77)

IMMETORPS BK II 1 (Karlsson 75)

Att 30

Entry FREE

No Programme

Coffee (Kaffe) 10sek

Pennant FREE (Gratis)

From Borås we started the long drove back towards Stockholm. There was plenty to do on the way though with a trip to Degerfors to buy the tickets for the imminent Swedish hop game and a trip to Immetorp to meet up with Dennis Gustafsson who’s organising the hop’s visit to his club. That will be superb, but he was rather worried about raising a side for his reserve side’s game that evening at Nordmark. He was worried enough to name himself on the bench, and was just a touch more worried when Kim and I admitted to him that we were going! Continue reading →

Cultural Learnings

05 Tuesday Jun 2012

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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!

Behind the Mic

04 Monday Jun 2012

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Wednesday 23 May 2012 ko 19.00

Allsvenskan

HELSINGBORGS 1F 1 (Nordmark 2)

DJURGÅRDENS IF 1 (Span 75)

Att 9,861

Entry 275 sek

Programme FREE

Badge 30 sek

Helsingborg is as close as you can get to Denmark and still be in Sweden. From the Kärnan tower near the waterfront, the views of the straits, and Danish territory are spectacular, and you can also see the Olympia stadium!

The town has been in both Swedish and Danish control (Kärnan was built by the Danes) but today is a hub for several companies. Both IKEA and Nicorette have bases here. Sofiero Castle, a mansion formerly owned by the Swedish royal family is situated 3 miles out of town, and is well worth a visit. Curiously there’s a “Royal Football Pitch,” there. I looked, but sadly saw no posts…

Olympia is very much the modern stadium, with its curved main stand rather reminding me on the new stand at Wrexham, and the huge two tiered edifice opposite. Behind each goal there’s open terracing which since Helsingborgs have qualified for Europe as Allsvenskan champions, will not be open for European nights.

It was oppressively hot and humid as Kim and I took our seats in the top tier of the stand. With the sun shining in our faces it was hard work watching a dull game. We’d had difficulty getting a programme, they were available only on one turnstile, the idea I think being that everyone else would use the centre page spread in the local newspaper! Watching from the top tier got a lot worse when the man sat to my left, woke up from his drunken stupor just long enough to be sick in his lap! He was swiftly ejected, what he left behind wasn’t… We watched the second half from the back of the lower tier.

We were fortunate to get an early goal Daniel Nordmark’s 25 yard free kick was swung in from the left, noone touched the ball but somehow Tommi Vaiho in the away goal failed to position himself properly and the ball trickled in at the back post.

The rest of the half was a poor scrappy affair, a tense midfield battle littered with errors. DIF were played with the the one attacker, and it was hard to see how they could get level. British midfielder James Keene worked hard to support loan striker Ricardo Santos, but they could make little leeway. The trouble for the neutral though was that HIF were doing precious little either.

The changing point for DIF was the replacing of Santos with Andreas Dahlén near the hour mark. Kaspar Hämäläinen saw his shot tipped over the bar, before Peter Nyman’s cross found Brian Span at the back post and he headed home to level the scores.

That sadly was the end of the meaningful action, but neither side deserved a winner in a game that gave no clue as to the host team’s championship status. A postscipt though was that Djurgårdens were staying at our hotel! We have a good chat to James Keene at breakfast next morning. He’s from the Bristol/Bath area and was a product of the Portsmouth youth set-up.  After loan spells at AFC Bournemouth, Kidderminster, and Bristol Rovers, he was tempted over by Gothenburg based GAIS, before signing a for Elfsborg for the next season. He’s on loan to Djurgårdens for this season.

Its a small world isn’t it!

 

The Real Sweden

31 Thursday May 2012

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Tuesday 22nd May 2012 ko 19.00

Division 3 Södra Götaland

FURULUNDS IK 1 (Varga 90)

ÅKARPS IF 2 (Zejnullahu 29 Oor 52)

Att 208 (h/c)

Entry 50sek

Teamsheet FREE

Pin Badge Comp’

“1910-2010” centenary book Comp’

From Landskrona it was a mere 30 or so km south to Lund, and nearby Furulund. Its a small town of around 4,000 inhabitants, in rural Kävlinge, and is typically pretty as a picture. After watching 3 games as a reasonably high level it was a breath of fresh air to watch a grass-roots game. There’s nothing amazing about Ljungvalla IP, just a railed off pitch, and a small amount of cover in front of the changing rooms. Seating is provided by benches along one touchline. We got there early, around 2 hours before kick off and if there hadn’t been a game to watch, we’d have probably written off Furulunds IK as unremarkable, and so missed out on a gem.

It all happened slowly, firstly assistant manager Jörn Pettersson asked after the two interlopers, including the one who spoke no Swedish! We were then offered coffee and a seat in the clubhouse, and as we enjoyed the hospitality, Chairman Börje Schoug came over to present us with “FIK” pin badges, and soon after Jörn returned with beautiful hard backed histories of the club. He commented to me “You’ll have to learn Swedish”  I was, and am deeply touched, and there’s quite an incentive!

With a welcome like that it goes without saying we wanted Furulunds to win the game, but with one glance at the league table that looked unlikely. Rock bottom with no points and only 3 goals scored, the club admitted that the step up from local to regional football was a step too far for them, but they were determined to stick together and enjoy their first season at this level since 1971. It felt like 4 games into my spell in their country, I was seeing real Swedes watching real Swedish football.

It seemed that the entire village caught the mood too, as they turned up in droves. All ages and genders, and supported THEIR team despite the fact it became quickly clear that the seventh game would go exactly the same way as the previous six. In the first half hour visiting midfielder Eremal Zejnullanhu should have had a hat trick but settled for a shot into the bottom right hand corner from 18 yards that the keeper really should have stopped. The first half saw nothing other than Åkarps pressure but a combination of last ditch defending and incompetance in front of goal kept the score to an unrealistic 1-0.

The second goal on 52 minutes will cause the Furulunds management sleepless nights. A free kick was swung in from the left and there was Pontus Oor to head home unimpeded from all of a yard out. Where was the defence, where was the keeper?

Salvation of sorts for Furulunds came with the introduction of young new signings Robin Sander and Andreas Welander, around the hour mark. They offered more dash and options up front, although Åkarps were still piling on the pressure. Furulunds chances of gaining an unlikely point were aided by the pointless dismissal of Åkarps defender Markus Folkesson for two stupid fouls. FIK attacked and in stoppage time Martin Varga dinked the ball over the Åkarps keeper from a yard out for FIK’s 4th goal of the season.

The ball was quickly retrieved and in the dying seconds Welander saw his shot charged down by the Åkarps keeper, to deny this lovely club a ill-deserved point, in a game I regard as the highlight of this tour.

So folks, if you’re in Southern Sweden, here’s the links you need to pay this little gem of a club a visit.

http://www.furulundsik.se/

http://svenskfotboll.se/cuper-och-serier/information/?scr=table&ftid=35321

Treatment for The Clinic

31 Thursday May 2012

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Monday 21st May 2012 ko 19.20

Superettan

LANDSKRONA B.O.I.S 4 (Raun 9 Karlsson 28 F Olsson 65 85)

HAMMARBY F.F. 1 (Dahl 11)

Att 3,450

Entry 160 sek

Programme FREE

Badge 40 sek

After an overnight stay in Linköping, we drove for 4 hours and 360 km south to Sweden’s south coast to Landskrona. The Danish coast is clearly visible from the seafront here. The town is overshadowed somewhat by nearby Malmö, particularly in the shipyard business and bypassed by the Øresund bridge since 2000, which ended sea passenger traffic to Copenhagen from here. Some help has come with the building of the new railway station, and all trains on the high-speed Gothenburg to Copenhagen service now stop at Landskrona. I have to say I rather liked the town with its wide array of cafes and restaurants and the remains of defences used at various times to keep Danes and Swedes out!

Landskrona idrottsplats stretches the multisport (idrotts) to the limit, there’s no running track, and other than other pitches one with a lovely old terrace, the only other sports in evidence are courtesy of the Ice Hall at one corner. There’s only one covered enclosure, the main stand with its vertical and horizontal curves, and one end features nothing more than a hospitality area. It’s certainly differently different, and there was plenty more of interest too.

Apart from the visitors being Stockholm based Hammarby, and my travelling partner Kim Hedwall being an AIK-Solna fan, the visitors were immmediately dismissed as “The Clinic” a comment on the area’s former use as a leper colony! Add to that the home manager being Celtic legend Henrik Larsson, and it was clear that this was to be no ordinary second tier game.

At so it came to pass as Landskrona took the lead in fortuitous circumstances. Thomas Raun’s 20 yard shot was decent enough but it took a wicked deflection off a Hammarby defender to wrong foot Johannes Hoff in goal completely and nestle in the bottom right corner.

The response was almost immediate, and spectacular, as Andreas Dahl on the right, picked his spot from 25 yards out and his thunderbolt will be a goal I’ll remember for a long time.

It proved to be a flash in the pan as Landskrona quickly regained control of the midfield. Landskrona regained the lead on the 28th minute when Fredrik Olsson’s scuffed shot fell kindly to Fredrik Karlsson at the back post to tap in.

Half time couldn’t come quickly enough for Hammarby but they gained no new ideas during the interval, and Fredrik Olsson started the second half by having his close range shot blocked by Hoff, only for the same thing to happen to his namesake, Linus a minute later. Hammarby’s passing was ponderous, and a catastrophic backpass from Sinan Ayranci allowed Fredrik Olsson to dance round Hoff to tap home.

Hammarby did eventually manage to exert some pressure, and had a goal disallowed, through star player Christophe Lallet, for a marginal offside decision. The hosts simply counter-attacked and got their fourth, Fredrik Olsson’s shot having just enough power in it to trickle over the line, despite Hoff’s partial block.

A highly entertaining game, with one quirk. The programme here is in fact the sports section of the local newspaper! It’s clearly a view amongst some in Swedish football that all you really need is a teamsheet, and that’s a view I don’t necessarily disagree with.

Whatever Happened to Magnus Eriksson?

30 Wednesday May 2012

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Sunday 20th May 2012 ko 15.00

Allsvenskan

ÅTVIDABERGS FF 3 (Prodell 33 Eriksson 38p Zhubi 54)

KALMAR FF 0

Att 4,932

Entry 210 sek

Programme 20sek

Badge 30sek

Pennant 70sek

After an overnight stay in Jönköping we drove around 120 miles north-west to Linköping, passing Lake Vättern, which is as beautiful as it is huge (738 sq mi). From there it was a short distance south to Åtvidaberg, a town founded on medieval copper mining and latterly the production of mechanical calculators! A child’s climbing frame based on one is to be found just off the town square. Continue reading →

The Engine Room (Volvo of course!)

30 Wednesday May 2012

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Saturday 19th May 2012 ko 16.00

Division 1 Södra

SKÖVDE AIK 2 (L Johansson 3 8) L Johansson sent off 74 (2nd Booking)

QVIDING F.I.F. 1 (Mukiibi 90)

Att 381

Entry 60sek +20sek transfer

Programme FREE

With a leisurely start to the day in Stockholm, it was a simple enough task to collect our hire car from close to the soon-to-be closing Råsunda stadium and head around 250 miles south-west to the town of Skövde, in Västra Götaland. Unusually the town is built on a grid system, a reflection on the almost total destruction of the settlement by fire in 1759. St Helena was apparently from here. Nowadays the area is best known for the production of Volvo engines, and two units of the Swedish army. Continue reading →

The 538 to Märsta

29 Tuesday May 2012

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Friday 18th May 2012 ko 8.00pm

Division 4 Mellersta Stockholm

JÄRLA IF FK 3 (D Eriksson 38 Sidiqi 83 87)

ANDREA DORIA IF 0

@Nacka IP

Att 82(h/c)

Entry FREE

No Programme

I’ve been watching Swedish football for around 6 years, since Kim Hedwall started the annual Swedish hops. I’ve been back regularly outside of that event, so when Kim asked whether I wanted to join him on an 11 game, 11 day odyssey , I jumped at the chance. Unusually I flew to Stockholm’s main airport, Arlanda and caught the bus to Märsta from where my prebooked one-day travelcard was valid from. I then travelled to Stockholm Centralen before catching the T-Bana (underground) to Karlaplan to meet Kim. We then caught the ferry from Djurgården to Slussen and then a short bus ride to Nacka, in the southern suburbs. In fact, Hammarby’s soon to be demolished Söderstadion was clearly visable in the distance.

I should explain a few terms. Swedish football is played in the summer, as its far too cold in the winter. The top division is the Allsvenskan, then the Superettan (super-one). From then, its Divisions One Norra and Södra (North and South), before regional football kicks in for Divisons 2, and 3. Divisions 4,5,6 and 7 are local leagues, and Division 8 exists in a few localities, mainly for reserves. Other useful terms are Västra (west), östra (east) and Mellersta (central). Many smaller grounds are titled IP, or idrottsplatts, meaning a multi-sports facility.

Nacka IP is a case in point, with the oh-so-common running track and ice rink looming behind. Nacka of Division 2 Norra Svealand have recently vacated the facility and Järla have taken their chance. It’s got character, with the natural features allowing a wooden step-terrance on both sides. It gives quite a large capacity, and plenty of choice for viewing positions. There was a club-run cafe selling Kaffe (coffee), cakes and Korv med brud (hot dogs). Behind one goal a group of ice skaters trained in the track infill.

Programmes are not ingrained in the culture as they are in the UK. Its not unheard of to get a programme at this level, but when you do find one, it tends to be a teamsheet with a league table. With this being local football, the rule is for rolling substutions. It sounds appalling but in practice works extremely well, with the higher divisions seeing less use of the rule than the lower ones.

Our game, in some out-of Swedish-character hot sun saw the locals take on an ethnically Italian outfit. It proved to be a decent passing game on 3G, no FA hangups on surfaces here. The differences between the two sides proved to be the visiting keeper, who committed errors for the first and last goals, and subsitute Sadiq Sadiqi whose first goal was a glorious 25 yard blast.

So a decent start to our tour, but tomorrow the real fun was to start, with the picking up of a hire car and the start of a 3000km road trip…..