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Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Tag Archives: IFK Eskilstuna

You Cannot Be

13 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by laurencereade in E

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Tags

1958 World Cup, Alagie Sosseh, cream cakes, Eskilstuna, Eskilstuna City, Filip Rogic, Ian Sirelius, IFK Eskilstuna, Joe Strummer, Kim Hedwall, Lansana Kamara, Nyköping, Paul Simonon, Råsunda, Sierra Leone!, Sirius', Skavsta, Stansted, Swedish Groundhop, Taxinge Slott, The Clash, Värmland

Friday June 2012 ko 19.00

Division One Norra

ESKILSTUNA CITY 1 (Rogic 47)

IF SIRIUS FK 0

Att 630

Entry & programme Hop Ticket

Burger and Can Fanta 50sek

So, back to Sweden for the weekend, but this is no ordinary weekend, this is the 6th Annual Swedish Groundhop, organised by Kim Hedwall, I’ve been on all 6 and in recent years helped Kim a little, mainly as a sounding board.

An issue for this year’s event was our desire to move away from the hop’s base of Stockholm, and base it somewhere in Värmland, Sweden’s beautiful lake district. With no suitable hotel in the most obvious location Örebro, Kim picked out Eskilstuna as there was a Friday night game. It proved to be an inspired choice, but it did leave us with only one choice for the hoppers’ flight into Sweden.

The 6.10am flight from Stansted to Nyköping based Skavsta is not ideal, especially as it would put us at the hotel well prior to 2pm when our rooms would be available. That problem was solved by a stroke of genius by Kim, a visit to the Taxinge Slott. This castle dates from the 13th century and is famous for having Northern Europe’s largest selection of cream cakes on sale! So picture the scene, 24 bleary eyed hoppers enjoying a cream cake or 10 and a refillable coffee outside in the summer sun. It killed an hour, gave the 3 newbies a chance to introduce themselves and in other cases catch up with old friends.

The Comfort Hotel in Eskilstuna, was a bonus too, mainly for its location, with easy access to the town’s bars and restaurants, but with the quirk of a rock and roll theme, the lifts being named after Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon of The Clash! I used the time to catch up with a little sleep before everyone reconvened at 5.45pm for the short drive to Tunavallen.

Its a ground I’ve visited before, for fellow tenants IFK Eskilstuna. Its an interesting place, built in 2002 on the site of the 1958 World Cup venue. There’s identical seated stands either side of pitch, with one end having wooden step terracing, the other simple hard standing. What sets this 7,800 Allsvenskan-compliant stadium apart is the tower blocks on each corner, complete with floodlights, and the balconies do seem to give a great view of a 3G pitch that’s set to be replaced with an even better artificial surface.

We were given a talk on the club by the chairman, before taking our seats for a game that he felt his side would do well to get anything out of, given that Uppsala-based Sirius were yet to lose. He was proud to comment that his side were all from Eskilstuna, apart from Lansana Kamara, who’s from Sierra Leone!

What we gor early on was a demonstration in text-book passing from the visitors, but as the game wore on, it became clear that Sirius were creating nothing that the home defence couldn’t cope with. Particularly impressive was home keeper Nicklas Bergh, who pulled off a number of fine saves. As hoppers we wanted a goal, and that came just after half time, Filip Rogic scoring with the faintest flick of a header direct from a corner. Sirius huffed and puffed but created only one gilt-edged chance, Alagie Sosseh missing an open goal with just seconds remaining.

For students of Swedish hop history, when Sirius’ Ian Sirelius came on as a second half subsitute, he squared a circle for the hop. He appeared on the very first hop, for Råsunda vs Gamla Uppsala, in wonderful 2-2 draw at Skytteholms.

Taxinge Slott
View of the lake from the castle
Hoppers tick off the cream cakes!!!

Memorial to Eskilstuna City’s founder


How did he miss?
Martin “Sandie Shaw” Bamforth

The Burning Mountain

06 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by laurencereade in H

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Tags

Alexis Gonzalez, Brandbergen, Dario Ljobdje, Division 3 Södra Svealand, Gabriel Alias, Handen, Haninge, Henrik Rodriguez, IFK Eskilstuna, richard larsson, Skytteholms, Torvalla IP, Tunavallen

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!




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