M or XL

15 Friday Jun 2012

Tags

Christophe Lallet, Daniel Sundgren, Degerfors, Eric Figueroa, Hammarby, Kim Hedwall, Max Forsberg, Monday James, Sinan Ayranci, Stora Valla, Superettan, Sven-Göran Eriksson, Swedish Groundhop, Tord Grip

Saturday 9th June 2012 ko 17.00

Superettan

DEGERFORS IF 1 (Rennie 45)

HAMMARBY IF 3 (Ayranci 31 Forsberg 69 Lallet 90) James sent off 57 (2nd booking)

Att 5,603

Entry, and badge- Hop Ticket

Programme 10 sek

T-Shirt FREE

With Thomas driving, we reached Stora Valla in plenty of time, enough time to watch the Hammarby fans arrive in a plume of green smoke! Degerfors is the club where Tord Grip and Sven-Göran Eriksson started their managerial careers. Their names are inscribed on the “Tree of Achievement” behind one goal but other than that I found no other reference made to these famous sons. I’d made a visit here around a year earlier, where Kim and I ended up being interviewed for the club’s website!

The ground is Kim’s favourite in Sweden, and it’s easy to see why. There’s a wonderful old wooden stand, with terracing on the other three sides. On the far side the wooden steps double the standing capacity on a day when triple the normal attendance arrived. For me what makes the ground special is the nooks and crannies. There are so many places to watch the game!

The club annoyed Kim by not supplying the 24 programmes he’d ordered, but with the club producing a T-Shirt for the first 3,000 through the gate, they handed him a box of 50 for us, in a mixture of medium and extra-large sizes. Trouble was that most of us had already been given ours at the gate. On the basis of “Waste not, want not” I was charged with throwing the box of shirts over a 10 foot fence for Thomas outside to catch and stow aboard the coach. Expect Kim to have a similar shirt on for the foreseeable future!

I talked my way into the press area to grab a team sheet for the lineups, and the party scattered to find a space to watch the game, Kim and I found somewhere to reassure the other that it was all going well. Despite the shirts stating “VärmLAND VS HammarBY” ie a whole AREA versus just a DISTRICT, there was far more to the tie than that. Hammarby see themselves as an Allsvenksan side, and the Södermalm based club have the support to back it up. In 2013 they’ll have the stadium too, as their new ground just the other side of the Globen from the Söderstadion nears completion.

Going into this game, Hammarby were third, in the playoff spot, behind Östers and Landskrona. In contrast Degerfors were also in a playoff spot, of the relegation variety, fourth from bottom. Sadly for the red t-shirt wearers, the game went precisely by the form book. Eric Figueroa picked out Sinan Ayranci who finished with a deft flick. Degerfors responded just before half time, Amadaiya Rennie’s skidding 20 yard just sneaking in off the base of the left post.

When Monday James was dismissed for his second needless heavy challenge, it looked nicely set up for a Degerfors renaissance, but Hammarby went up through the gears and the for all the world it looked like Degerfors had the player missing. Max Forsberg danced past Daniel Sundgren and fired home from the edge of the box, before Christophe Lallet, last year at Degerfors player dribbled through the home defence before lobbing Jonas Bohlin in the home goal. There was even time for Ayranci to miss a tap in, but the Hammarby fans had already begun to party…

: This actually turned out to be the local dancercise class!

: “Get your free t-shirt here!”

: The “Tree of achievement”

: The away end

: If you look carefully you can see two hoppers from the south-west of England

: Ayranci booked for diving

: Someone didn’t enjoy the game!

: Hammarby fans celebrate

: Sitting on the fence, that’s a dangerous course.

Treatment for The Clinic

31 Thursday May 2012

Posted by laurencereade in L

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Tags

Andreas Dahl, Celtic, Christophe Lallet, Fredrik Karlsson, Fredrik Olsson, Hammarby, Henrik Larsson, Johannes Hoff, Landskrona, Linus Olsson, Superettan, Swedish football

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.