Span came on as a sub in the 74th minute today as Djurgården won 3-2 against IFK Göteborg. The result catapulted the team from 13th to 8th place in the very tight league table. The momentum of the game when Cobi came on didn't really play to his strengths as IFK Göteborg were pushing for an equalizer and Djurgården fell back to defend. There's still alot to be learned for Span in that particular area of the game. In attack he was unlucky to not be put through on goal in a counterattack where the midfielder made the wrong choice in passing to the other wing instead. As a Djurgården supporter this result was a big relief which created some distance to the relegation zone. Hopefully Span will see some more playing time in the next match where Djurgården will be expected to control the game and attack more. There isn't much of Span to be seen in the highlights, but here they are anyway:
Span came on in the 63rd minute in todays 1-1 draw against Syrianska. Unfortunaly he was unsuccessful in almost every single one of his actions today in this game as the Djurgården attack couldn't score the winning goal after Syrianska had gotten two men sent off.
Span played the second half today as Djurgården drew 1-1 for the 8th time in the last ten games. It's nice to be unbeaten in those ten games but to have eight of them end in the same 1-1 result is pretty ridiculous! We are also kind of standing still in the league table because of this. Djurgården have actually lost one game less then leaders Elfsborg, but still remain in the bottom half of the table. Code: Elfsborg 15 10 1 4 24-14 31 Malmö FF 15 8 4 3 27-18 28 Helsingborg 15 6 7 2 18-14 25 Åtvidaberg 15 7 3 5 32-23 24 AIK 15 6 6 3 18-16 24 IFK Norrköping 15 7 3 5 23-28 24 BK Häcken 15 7 2 6 32-20 23 Mjällby AIF 15 4 8 3 18-18 20 Kalmar FF 15 5 4 6 18-19 19 Djurgården 15 3 9 3 20-20 18 IFK Göteborg 15 3 8 4 20-20 17 GIF Sundsvall 15 4 5 6 18-19 17 Syrianska 15 5 2 8 15-23 17 ------------------------------------------------------- Gefle 15 2 7 6 9-22 13 ------------------------------------------------------- GAIS 15 1 7 7 11-18 10 Örebro 15 2 4 9 14-25 10 I thought Span did well in this game, but some fans disagree with me saying that he was a downgrade compared to our first half winger who went off injured. Span had two good chances which can be seen in the highlights video below between 2:15 and 2:50.
Here's how SvenskaFans have rated Spans performances so far, to give a second opinion besides my own: Game 11, rating: 2/5 Came on with 25 minutes left and what he showed was promising. Cut into the opponents penalty area dribbling past three defenders before the ball went out for a corner. Should start the next game. Game 12, rating: 4/5 Wow! "Cobi" as he's called played from the start for the first time and you have to wonder why he sometimes haven't even been part of the squad previously. He's quick, big, strong, agile and creative. Huge potential to turn into something good. Scores a very difficult goal where he displays great agility as he whips the ball in with a header on a slow cross. Great performance. As a thank you he was subbed off straight after the goal. Strange. Game 13, rating: 3/5 Comes on and replaces Rajalakso on the wing for about ten minutes then ends the game as a forward when Keene was done for the day. Does relatively well. Game 14, rating: 1/5 Had huge problems with the turf and it showed. Completely lacked his touch and could never control the ball. Game 15, rating: 2/5 Interesting substitute appearance and he had two or three really good chances. It shows sometimes that he lacks tactical knowledge but it also shows that he has great potential. Note: these Djurgården ratings are usually given pretty low and a "2" should be interpreted as at least being alright and not a poor performance.
No Cobi in mondays league game where Djurgården played 1-1 for the 8th time in 16 games this season. He did however play in yesterdays U21 game where he scored the winning 3-2 goal which can be seen in the video above. Very similar situation to the chance he had at 2:40 into the highlights video against IFK Norrköping a couple of posts above. The difference being that he scored this time.
He's been making the bench but these past few games he has not gotten on the field including today's game. Let's hope he gets some pt soon.
Yeah, like you say he's been on the bench but not the first choice to bring on. The team have been doing well and have won the last four games moving them up to fifth place in the table so there haven't been much need for attacking changes in general. And when they have brought in someone it has been the guy who has looked great in the U21 team while, according to reports, Span hasn't really stood out there lately. So I guess the first objective would be to outshine that guy in the U21 games to move up in the pecking order on the bench.
According to reports he had a good first half today with the U21 team and then a bad second half. And apparently he at times looked too disinterested during the game.
Span has started seeing some small minutes of playing time at the end of games again, four minutes in the derby against AIK last week and eight minutes today against Häcken. Unfortunaly the team has done poorly and already been behind 0-3 in both game when he's come on so he hasn't really had the chance to have much impact. Still though, I thought I should post about him starting to get at least some minutes in.
Incredibly the team has now followed their 16 game unbeaten streak with four straight losses while playing terrible! But enough about my personal frustrations I'm here to report that Span was in the starting eleven for todays game. He started out a little bit hesitant but improved as the game went on and became pretty active. He had one good chance where he was wide open and almost reached a cross with his diving header but just missed. Then unfortunaly he had to come off injured in the 51st minute. He tried to steal the ball from an opponent but instead planted his foot awkwardly on the slippery wet grass. Hopefully it's nothing major.
Even though that's not entirely good news, it is much better than what I feared, having read your previous post! Thanks for all the updates!
Djurgården played the final game of the season yesterday but unfortunaly Span didn't make it back from injury in time to play anymore games this season. The team finished in 9th place out of 16 teams which I think is a pretty fair reflection of where the teams is at currently but also a little disappointing since I had hoped for something like 6th-7th place. To summarize Span played a total of 9 games this year, scoring one goal. I think that overall he performed at about the level that could be expected in his first year, a bit unfortunate that he injured himself just as he was making his way back into the team after a period of not getting picked. Hopefully he can take some steps next year and break into the starting eleven more often. Finally a bit off topic: There's a chance that Span might be joined by another college player in Djurgården this winter since our head scout has revealed that our scouts are following a few players in the ACC and Big East divisions of college soccer this fall.
When does the league start? Have they started their pre-season? I'm hoping for a big season for Span and hope he makes an impact maybe a full time starter for the squad.
The preseason started a couple of weeks ago and the league kicks off on March 31st. However, since the Swedish Cup has been restructured this year to include a group stage there is also three "real" competitive games played in March before the league starts. There has been one preseason game so far where Span played the second half but there aren't alot of reports since it was kind of a closed off game. Kasper Hämäläinen who played winger during the second half of last season is about to leave for Lech Poznan and veteran dane Peter Nymann looks set to play only right back and not right midfield this year. This opens up the chance for Span and others to break into the starting eleven alot more since it doesn't look like Djurgården will bring in any new players in their positions (maybe a young african forward/winger on loan from Manchester City). Many of the fans feel that the wingers are now the weakest part of the team and want to see new players signed but the manager has told to the media that he has faith in the young players that he has available for the positions even though none of them had much impact last season. The other players competing with Span for the winger positions are Nahir Oyal, Martin Broberg and Sebastian Rajalakso. A bit risky for the manager to put his neck on the line in such a way but personally I hope it's because he's seen things during training that has yet to manifest itself in the games. So hopefully the fans will be wrong on this one
One of the few occasions of a East European club outside of Russia and Ukraine outbidding the Swedes?
I'm not sure if there were much bidding going on, Hämäläinen has unfortunaly stagnated alot for us and Lech Poznan might very well be the only club interested. We also sold them Kebba Ceesay last year who was in a similar situation. Other then those there have been very few to transfer to eastern european countries outside of Russia and Ukraine. I think one or two went to Romania a few years back when the league there looked strong for a short period of time, but I don't really remember specifically who that was.