Danish Superliga 2011/2012 [R]

Superliga 2011/12, round 33 (of 33) :
FC Nordsjælland v AC Horsens, 3-0 (1-0)
1-0 Mikkel Beckmann (45)
2-0 Andreas Laudrup (81)
3-0 Andreas Bjelland (87)
Attendance: 10,300 (sold out)
Possession : 60% - 40%
Lineups and match stats from Football-Lineups.com

Highlights and celebrations :

First of all, then FCN were the better team playing the better football this season, so they deserve their championship.

... as for the Europa Cup, then it's also better that FCN goes directly to the Champions league group stage, since they have a very low seeding/ranking, so it would be more difficult for them to get there through qualifiers, while FCK are more experienced and are also going to be among the top seeded all the way through the qualifiers... in any case, if FCK cant make it through the qualifiers, then they would not be better at representing Denmark in CL anyway, no matter they have more experience at this level.
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Well, I'm going to wrap up this season a bit later than expected, since interesting things are going to happen regarding the FCK coach just getting fired, and the domino effect this could end up having ... they also finally signed a new coach in Odense, Troels Bech (a rather odd pick, considering his past ), which then also forced Silkeborg to hire a new coach, Keld Bordinggaard.
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Superliga 2011/12, round 33 (of 33) :

Now that we finally have found the two teams that have won promotion to the Superliga, I will be able to wrap up a season that became quite exciting, but also became a bit of a mess, because some of the clubs have been in deep financial trouble, especially FC Midtjylland, AaB and Brøndby... FCM still managed to secure Bronze medals in the very last round, but they are now going to lose several good players in the summer break, so next season will be difficult for them, if they get struck by injuries, since they will have no real depth in their squad.

AaB Aalborg partly managed to ruin a fairly good season by losing 0-5 to SønderjyskE in their last game, so that it was SønderjyskE taking the important 6th place that gives them an extra home game next season + some more TV money. So financially this was the worst possible finish for AaB, since they badly need the money, especially since they were also pinning their hopes on some investors, who now have said no to buying more AaB shares... In other words, AaB is going to be forced to sell at least one of the talented players who have impressed this season. Most likely their topscorer Nicklas Helenius or their young winger Lucas Andersen.

While the big budget teams OB Odense and Brøndby were in deep trouble, both inside and outside the pitch, we also got some big positive surprises, FC Nordsjælland of course, but also a fairly low budget AC Horsens and an AGF Aarhus team that now really seem to be on the rise, after having rebuild their team in the Danish 1. Division... In a season where several clubs in the Superliga and all over Europe struggle with the financial crisis and loss of sponsorships, then it has been refreshing to see that a small low budget team like FCN is able to beat much richer clubs and win the Danish championship, simply by drafting up a master plan and taking time to develop their own talents. It really should bring some light and hope to all clubs that struggle with their financial situation, but want to give their young players better opportunity to play at top-flight level, rather than just trying to buy their way to success.

Of course the loss of around €20 million, by not winning the Championship and not qualifying directly for the CL group stage was too much for FC København, so they had no other option than to fire their manager Carsten V. Jensen, though he is going to keep his job as Director of Football. So now they in reality are looking for a new "Ståle Solbakken" and the obvious choice, if he has to be Danish this time, is the former Solbakken apprentice, AGF Aarhus head coach Peter Sørensen, but he has just signed a new contract with AGF and does not seem all too keen on a move to FCK, if we are to trust what he is saying to newspapers. It is well known, that the job as AGF Aarhus coach, is regarded to be the most difficult coaching job in Denmark (since the past many years AGF has been the "1. FC Köln" of Denmark), so in this way it is also a highly prestigious job, regarded as a kind of "sword in the stone", that will earn the victorious coach much honor and respect... and Sørensen has already shown that he may be the one to finally pull the "sword" from the "stone", so it would not make much sense for him to give up now, and join FCK.

Is was also no surprise that OB Odense was looking for a new coach and this was to be Troels Bech, who is a highly regarded tactician, but also a coach who like the highly attacking minded and entertaining style of play that the Odense management would like to introduce.... Of course this was bad news for Silkeborg, but they quickly managed to hire the former Danish U21 NT coach Keld Bordinggaard as a replacement... and then they also earned a €500k fee by losing Troels Bech, so that they have a little money to use on a reinforcement in the summer break.

At the bottom of the league, Lyngby managed to beat Brøndby in their last match, which I guess imply, that Brøndby easily could get in relegation trouble next season, when they also are forced to make some budget cuts. Several experienced players are leaving the club and they are mainly going to be replaced by their own youth players, not to forget that their key creative winger Krohn-Dehli seem to be on sale, because they desperately need the money.

The two extremely small budget teams, HB Køge and Lyngby, did not surprisingly suffer relegation and are going to be replaced by the more solid looking teams Esbjerg fB and Randers FC, that both highly surprisingly suffered relegation last season, but have made a quick return... Considering that they have more money to spend on wages in compare with the likes of HB Køge and Lyngby, I expect a stronger and even more tight Superliga next season and I suspect that the battle against relegation could become tougher than ever seen before, so there will be no room to slip up for the likes of Brøndby, unlike this season.

As for the 5 Americans, then Chris Rolfe left the Superliga to join MLS, while Clarence Goodson has been pretty awful as captain for a sinking Brøndby team, but Parkhurst and FCN took home the Championship, and unlike Danny Califf (who won the championship with AaB Aalborg in 2008, but then left the club to join FCM ), Parkhurst seem keen on staying at FCN so that he gets the experience of playing Champions League for the club.

As for Conor O'Brien, it is a story that remind quite a bit of Parkhurst, since he was starting out a bit slow in a team that did not do all to well at that point in time, but then later found his place in the coach tactical puzzle, playing a quite different position that he had expected, but with great success... At first O'Brien saw inconsistent minutes playing as an attacking midfielder/winger, but then finally found his right place in the team as a holding midfielder, which twice earned him a place in the Superliga 'Team of the Week'. He now seem to fit the tactical SønderjyskE style of play very well. So I predict he will become an even bigger success for SønderjyskE next season. I'll just re-post this article about his progress, if you missed it : http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/obrien-blazing-his-own-trail-in-denmark/

Brad Rusin has learned his lessons the hard way, having some injury problems and playing for a very small budget HB Køge team that really had no chance of escaping relegation, but it is still a team with plenty of highly talented young players and youth internationals, that was able to play some very nice attacking minded football at times, but just didn't have the more experienced players you also need to survive in the Superliga...

 

Code:

Danish Superliga 2011/12 (round 33 of 33) :
 
   Club              G  W  D  L  Gf-Ga  P
 
1  FC Nordsjælland  33 21  5  7  49-22  68
2  FC København     33 19  9  5  55-26  66
3  FC Midtjylland   33 16  7  9  50-40  58
4  AC Horsens       33 17  6 10  53-39  57
5  AGF Aarhus       33 12 12  9  47-40  48 
6  SønderjyskE      33 11 11 11  48-51  44
7  AaB Aalborg      33 12  8 13  42-48  44
8  Silkeborg IF     33 11 10 12  51-47  43 
9  Brøndby IF       33  9  9 15  35-46  36
10 OB Odense        33  8 10 15  46-50  34
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11 Lyngby BK        33  8  4 21  32-60  28
12 HB Køge          33  4  7 22  32-71  19

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1. FC Nordsjælland Champions League (Group Stage)
2. FC København Champions League (3rd Qualifying Round for Non-Champions)
3. FC Midtjylland Europa League (4th Qualifying Round)
4. AGF Aarhus Europa League (2nd Qualifying Round)
Danish Cup winner: AC Horsens Europa League (3rd Qualifying Round)
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Promoted from the Danish 1. Division (the Betsafe Liga) :
1. Esbjerg fB
2. Randers FC
The Superliga is sponsored by Betsafe, Arbejdernes Landsbank, M1 and Dansk Metal, visit the official website and watch the intro : http://www.superliga.dk/forside/english.html

Goal scorers list, top 18 :
1. Dame N´Doye (Senegal),FCK...................... 18
2. Nicklas Helenius,AaB.................................. 14
3. César Santín (Brazil),FCK........................... 13
4. * Gilberto Macena (Brazil),Horsens............11
5. Christian Holst (Faroes),Silkeborg............. 10
-. > Simon Makienok,HB Køge/Brøndby....... 10
7. Peter Graulund,AGF..................................... 9
-. Emil Larsen,Lyngby...................................... 9
-. Marvin Pourie (Germany),Silkeborg............ 9
-. Quincy Antipas (Zimbabwe),SønderjyskE... 9
11 Eyjolfur Hedinsson (Iceland),SønderjyskE. 8
-. Martin Spelmann,Horsens........................... 8
-. Mikkel Beckmann,FCN ............................... 8
-. Nicolaj Madsen,HB Køge............................. 8
-. Sylvester Igboun (Nigeria),FCM .................. 8
-. Søren Larsen,AGF......................................... 8
-. Søren Christensen,FCN................................ 8
-. * Peter Utaka (Nigeria),OB.......................... 8
* = Moved abroad in the winter break
> = Signed in the winter break
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more:
http://www.superstats.dk/maal-listalle.php?aar=2011/2012
Assists:
http://www.superstats.dk/maal-assist.php?aar=2011/2012
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Average Superliga attendance 2011/12 : 7,106
Average attendance 2010/11 : 7,049
Average attendance 2009/10 : 8,315
Average attendance 2008/09 : 8,815
Average attendance 2007/08 : 8,499
more:
http://www.hvemvandt.dk/tilskuere_ar_for_ar.php
http://www.danskfodbold.com/tilskuerrunder.php?ligaid=2001&seasonid=2012
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Average home attendance 2011/12, top 6 :

FC København : 15,540 (-10.3%)
Brøndby IF : 12,600 (-1.9%)
AGF Aarhus : 11,010 ( promoted )
OB Odense : 7,562 (-12.6%)
FC Midtjylland : 7,422 (+2.9%)
AaB Aalborg : 7,381 (+5.6%)
http://www.danskfodbold.com/tilskuere.php?ligaid=2001&seasonid=2011
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Goal average 2011/12 :
540 goals in 198 games = 2.73
2010/11 average : 2.69
2009/10 average : 2.60
2008/09 average : 2.75
2007/08 average : 2.74
2006/07 average : 2.80
2005/06 average : 2.80
2004/05 average : 2.92
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Thanks ... I'll just add this picture :