Three americans at Färila IF: Andrew Stadler, Nermin Crnkic and James Weber

Stadler and his Sandviken came really close to causing the biggest upset in this round of the swedish cup on monday. They played against Malmö FF who are currently in second place in Allsvenskan and with only 15 minutes left of the game Sandviken had a 3-1 lead and according to reports they were playing the best football of their lives! Unfortunaly however, Malmö managed to come back and equalized just before the game ended (87th minute) and then scored three more in the second half of extra time for a final result of 3-6.

The Malmö supporter who wrote the Svenskafans match report refers to Stadler as "the very skilled standout" in Sandviken and the local paper writes that Stadler showed the way for the team on his wing. Below are highlights from the obviously very eventful game:

 

Stadler and his Sandviken played the final game of the season last weekend. They slipped a little during their last few games and ended up in ninth place in the league, but since they secured the contract for next year early on it was still a good performance from them as a newly promoted team.

A good performance is also something that Stadler had in their last game where he apparantly played defensive midfielder (he usually plays winger or number ten I believe). The local paper gave him the highest rating in their post game review which also pushed him into first place of their accumulated post game ratings for the entire season (by one points margin!). So he was officially named the teams player of the year by the newspaper.

The article also noted that he has two more years left on his contract. Here's what Stadler said when they told him about being the highest rated player:

"Really? That's great. It's been a good season both for the team and for myself. The only thing that I feel could have been better is that I scored too few goals (five). But other then that I'm satisfied. I got to be here from the start of the season and it's been a good feeling throughout, except for this last month.

I think we should be proud of how we have performed. We've played some nice football for most of the year and remained in the race for promotion for a long time. There's alot of reasons why we didn't perform as well towards the end. But we did achieve what we set out to do, to remain in the third tier.

The greatest game of the season was against Malmö FF. It was great, I probably played my best game of the year and Malmö is my favourite team in Sweden, so it was a big thing. I intend to stay for the duration of my contract. But of course you have to see what happens during the winter if another club comes calling. But I really like it in Sandviken and I think that if we continue on this path then next season will be even better."

 

The picture above is from a preseason indoor tournament which Sandviken won and where Sandler became the big hero with a hat trick in the final game. The local paper describes his performance as "brilliant".

A different story from the local newspaper was about another project which Stadler seems to have become involved in. As I wrote earlier in the thread, he was part of a thing last year where they visited schools and taught students about things through sports. This time they are instead helping long time unemployed people with physical training to improve their well being. Picture below of Stadler and two unemployed men.

 

Stadler has been out injured for a while but returned last weekend and scored when Sandviken lost against Valsta Syrianska. He has been keeping up with his ambition to score alot more goals this year, so far he has four goals in seven games. In general it seems like Stadler is being talked about as being the obviously best player on the team this year. He also got the highest rating for the game in the local newspaper where the manager also praised him. The team is struggling pretty bad at the bottom of the table so hopefully Stadler will avoid any further injuries.

 

Yes, Sandviken have now announced their signing of Seth Rudolph on their official website. They also announce two other signings, both coming from the Chicago based team that have been touring europe which I wrote about in this thread. One guy is japanese, but the other one is a Yank Abroad named Adam Kelemet who seems to already have a thread based on his time in Poland.

The club describes Seth Rudolph as a hard working and quick forward with good goalscoring abilities:



And Adam Kelemet as a hard working two way player with alot of heart and good leadership abilities:

 

The second round of the Swedish Cup brought about some american heroics today as Sandviken very surprisingly eliminated Allsvenskan club AIK. They came close to accomplishing the same feat last year when they brought their cup game against Malmö FF to extra time before eventually losing. Unlike last year Sandviken has struggled in the league this season and are currently in the relegation zone. But that didn't stop them from playing 2-2 against AIK during the first 90 minutes, with the first Sandviken goal being scored by american Seth Rudolph. Then in extra time Andrew Stadler followed up his assist on the 2-2 equalizer by scoring the game winning goal with a very classy finish. Fantastic night for Sandviken!

 

Despite the SwedishCup success it really seemed like Sandviken fell apart during the second half of the season this year. With five games remaining they were in last place and looked certain to be relegated but after three wins and one draw in a row they now sit only one point from safe ground with one final game left to play.



Rudolph had a great start when he scored in the first league game and then in the previously described cup win. After that he went six straight games without a goal during the period where the club dropped to last place. The sentiments among fans towards the new signings weren't too positive at that time from what I've seen. In the last three games things changed however as he scored one goal in each of those games and definitely contributed to the club still having a chance. I also remember seeing him rated in the "top 3 of the game" in the local newspaper a few times lately. Kelemet doesn't seem to have made as big of an impact since he has spent most of the more recent games on the bench. Stadler seems to be doing about as well as he did last year.

 

It was a dramatic last round this past weekend with both the deciding games for Sandviken staying 0-0 until the 85th minute. Unfortunaly Sandviken only ended up getting a 1-1 draw while the team they were chasing won 1-0 in the end which means that the club will be relegated back down to the fourth tier next year.

Reading the Sandviken forum after the game alot of people seemed keen on keeping Seth Rudolph at the club and their wishes were granted today as the american forward signed a two year contract! Stadler already is under contract for next year and besides the relegation the club seems confident in that they can make a quick return. They also have an attractive group stage of the swedish cup coming up at the start of next year when they will likely be drawn against two Allsvenskan and one Superettan club.

 

Stadler is apparantly joining fellow american Paul Torres in trialing with Superettan club Landskrona BoIS.

 

Stadler will be making the move up to Superettan this year after Landskrona BoIS announced today that they have signed him on a two year deal. The clubs director of sports comments on the official website:

"We're very happy that Andrew Stadler has signed for us. He has had a very good season with Sandviken and impressed when training with us in November. Andrew is a player that can be used both as a forward and winger. He's good with the ball, mobile and has a large work rate. He had one year left on his contract with Sandviken but the deal was able to happen thanks to positive discussions between the clubs."

Stadler also comments on the official website:

"I'm very happy for the opportunity to play in Superettan with Landskrona BoIS and the chance to develop further as a footballer. I have some good qualities which I hope to be able to show for my new club this upcoming season."

Landskrona manager Jörgen Pettersson also comments on Stadler in the local paper:

"He's a player that I have followed for some time. I first saw him play two years ago. He's fast, technical and has a good understanding of the game. He can also play both forward and winger."

Stadlers agent also comments:

"I'm happy for Andrews sake that the tough negotiations between the clubs suceeded and I want to thank Landskrona for making this economical investment and buying him for a not insignificant amount."

And finally Sandvikens statement on the deal is full of praise for Stadler where they among other things call him a role model both on and of the pitch.

 

Even though he did not make a big impact the club is apparantly still considering bringing Kelemet back this year. They say in the article about the possible Yoni Berhanu signing that Kelemet will be given a try-out contract (for the preseason I assume) and then assess if they want to sign him for the rest of the year.

 

Stadler has arrived in Sweden for the preseason training and in his first interview with the local paper he says that he's happy with the way he has been able to work his way up through the divisions since he initially arrived and played in the sixth tier of swedish football. His ambition in Landskrona is to help bring the club back to Allsvenskan, but he also recognizes that it might be difficult right now since 12 players have left since last season and the club are bringing in lots of new players obviously to replace them. He also notes that it's -30 degrees in the USA while as you can see in the pictures below there isn't any snow in most of Sweden and over zero in temperature which is extremely rare in January!

 

I haven't been able to post any updates or videos lately on players in Sweden since I've been busy doing other stuff. But since I watched both of the Landskrona americans score earlier today in a game against Östersund I thought that I should drop in with a quick update.



First of all I have watched Landskrona play a couple of times earlier this season and the team has looked pretty rough due to large turnover of players in the offseason and some positions having pretty weak starters. Their play seems to be improving a bit lately though and I hope they will stay clear of relegation. Todays game was really one they should have won even though they ended up losing 2-3. Both americans did well and scored one each as you can see in the videos but they also have to take some blame for the result as they both should have scored maybe two goals more each. I'm talking about shooting over a wide open goal from the penalty spot type of misses from both.

Stadler has, from my recollection, mainly been used as a winger or attacking midfielder in his previous teams in Sweden. He has however now been moved up to play as a full out forward due to the clubs first choice striker getting a long term injury and delays with work permits/visas for their Ghanaian forward signing. Having watched him play there for a few games now I have to say that he does look like an attacking midfielder playing forward. Besides that he has really made the best of the situation and has been really succesful in scoring goals (three in six games) and he has showed an extremely impressive workrate. I would almost say that it's Alejandro Bedoya-esque, although at a lower level obviously.

I've also seen Torres play three games. In the first he was the best player on the pitch, in the second he looked really mediocre, and in the third today he again looked very lively although he missed a couple of sitters. I think he has showed flashes of skills, quickness and football intelligence that would be enough to play at a higher level but I guess the main thing for him is to find a way to play at that level consistently because like I said he looked dire in the second game I watched. If I were to use a common point of comparison here I would say that his style reminds me a bit of Michael Nanchoff who played in Superettan last year on loan, although I think Torres is faster.

Overall I think it's pretty clear that both americans will be playing big roles this year for Landskrona as the club tries stabilize themselves a bit.

 

I haven't watched the last few games but it appears that Stadler is continuing to do really well for Landskrona. Today he scored the 92nd minute winning goal in a crucial game for the club which can be seen in the video above. They were down 0-1 with five minutes remaining but turned it around into a 2-1 win which means they now leave last place behind. As usual the table is really close with potentially half the teams being involved in the relegation battle.



Here's another goal that he scored last week which I forgot to post earlier (they unfortunaly lost that one):

 

Stadler seems to really be winning the hearts over in Landskrona. In a recent article on the Landskrona section of swedish football fansite Svenskafans they are already calling for the club to extend his contract even though he's signed until the end of 2015. They also write that he is the kind of player they need to build with to again challenge for the promotion spots to Allsvenskan and various other compliments.

Well deserved I think, since he has really excelled in his goalscoring this season. In his best season previously he scored 7 goals in the third tier, and now a year later he has already scored 8 goals after only half the season in the second tier.

 

Both the Landskrona americans scored today when they beat IFK Värnamo 3-1. The club is now, at least for the moment, out of the relegation zone.