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.

Half a eye on Game D

05 Tuesday Jun 2012

Posted by laurencereade in E

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Alfred Nobel, Balàzs Pénzes, Division 2 Södra Svealand, Enskede, Frederik Andersson, Henrik Andersson, Joakim Fromholdt, Johan Pénzes, Johan Persson, Karlskoga, Mattias Olsson, Modasa Zekria, Nobelstadion, Sven-Göran Eriksson, Tord Grip

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.