The season starts tomorrow! You can tell, because it's cold outside, and damp in most places. At least the sun is shining occasionally. To get us in the mood, let's review some footage from March's Supercup, pitting last year's #1 (FC Rosengård) versus last year's #2 (Linköpings FC). Please do at least skip ahead to the 1 minute mark to see some Marta magic.
The two teams that won promotion last year, Mallbackens and Hammarby, meet tomorrow to start the season and they do it in style, by playing in Stockholm's largest arena, the one that the 2013 Euro final was played in, except then for some reason it was in Solna. Huh. Perhaps Hammarby (the southsiders) didn't want to have to play in a suburb identified with the much-disdained (Solnabo? Solnare? northsiders, in any event) AIK. Supposedly all the games will be available for watching, somehow. Updates here, on how this is working, are welcome. Here's the schedule for tv4sport at least.
All Damallsvenskan games will be on TV4 Play Premium (http://www.tv4play.se/premium) . Games are not geo-blocked but it costs 99 SEK/month, first month free. For those interested in Elitettan, the league below Damallsvenskan, there will be a game live online for free saturday at 2pm somewhere on this site: nlt.se The game is between newcomers and probably bottom dwellers Lidköpings FK and league favourites Djurgården.
Do you guys know if it's possible to re-watch the games on TV4 Play? I wanted to watch both Rosengard and Goteborg tomorrow (they are playing their games roughly at the same time) but can't figure out where they put the archived games. Assuming they actually archive and leave them up at least for several days, that is.
Flax is quite right, I'm afraid - it's live or nothing. The other day I forgot to program a PVR recording of the Sweden v. Denmark TV broadcast; despite having TV4 Play Premium, I couldn't get access to the match after the fact. So for two matches at the same time, you're looking at two screens simultaneously.
Nope, I can't see anywhere that games are archived either. I admit to being impressed, though; TV4's streaming has improved since I last tried relying on it. I watched the first half of the league premier yesterday and had a buffering-delay only twice. The camera work's not fancy, but the commentary was okay, even enthusiastic at times. And no half-time commercials, which is a small thing but a nice small thing. The first half was really fun, and much better than I had been afraid that game between the two newcomers would be. [mild griping] I do wish they had settled on playing this game in the big arena a couple weeks earlier – I would have tried to arrange my plans so that I could go.[/] TV4 also this longer interview with Therese Sjögran that can be seen in Sweden at least, and they play a highlights-of-her-carrier video that ought to have been shown at last year's Fotbollsgalan. There's some footage of the Denmark game at about 11 minutes in. And here's the Sjögran-highlights video by itself, only 2 minutes long, visible everywhere for a couple weeks yet, and a little less demanding on the hörsförståelse front.
After watching all six games last weekend I finally decided to open a little blog/site about Damallsvenskan. Nothing special there, just a game-by-game database & my picks for Team and Player of the Week. In case anyone's interested, here is the link: https://damallsvenskan2015.wordpress.com/ PS: yes, I'm really planning to watch all 132 league games
Very nice, silver_eagle! Some thoughts on the 1st round: Eskilstuna United – Linköpings FC 1-0 KIF Örebro – FC Rosengård 1-4 AIK – Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC 0-2 Piteå IF – Vittsjö GIK 0-1 Kristianstads DFF – Umeå IK 1-0 Hammarby IF – Mallbackens IF 3-1 Most happy to see a lot of young Swedish players having a promising start to the season. Many clubs are giving their talents more playing time this year rather than importing foreigners it seems. Many see Linköping as the only competetion for Rosengård in the title race but they showed straight away that they aren't as they still can't score... Eskilstuna United are on the other hand looking very solid. No other surprising results. Rosengård were challanged for 45 minutes by KIF Örebro thanks to a sensational game by 17 y.o. midfielder Michelle de Jongh. Then their defense kind of fell apart... Umeå were lucky not to be slaughtered with a very youthful team. They are FAR from the golden days. 3 NT players left before the season and another 4 have injury problems and couldn't start. Good start for Hammarby by beating the other newcomer Mallbacken, while Göteborg takes early command in the fight for 2nd place.
Because I feel somewhat defensive about that which is kinda my team-ish, I want to say that Hammarby's 5-0 drubbing by Rosengård was not nearly as bad a game as it seems from the score. I understand fully that this is the cry of every disappointed fan every time something like this happens. I'm still sticking by the statement!
Rosengård's gubbing of Örebro the other day wasn't as impressive as it seemed from the score either. But it gives them an arse-kicking goal difference so far.
They really did deserve a better result, I thought Hammarby was the better team for a good hour. Such impressive team work. Then they just ran out of gas after that 2nd goal. And you can't afford to miss penalties against Rosengård...
Well, I wouldn't say Hammarby was dominant but anyhow it definitely was a much closer match than anyone could have predicted. As unbelievably it sounds, Gunnarsdottir's first minute attempt was Rosengård's only shot on goal before the break. It says a lot about how solid Hammarby looked in that period of the match. Unfortunately, it seems that even though most teams learned how to neutralize Rosengård, they are still unable to do so for the whole 90 minutes of play. Örebro also looked more than decent but once they ran out of steam, FCR was ready to do their usual demolition job. The only thing I would be worrying about if i was a Malmö fan would be staying fairly injury-free throughout the season. Their squad lacks depth, so when 4-5 starters get injured, things might become tricky. I feel kinda bad for AIK though. They didn't play badly in either of their games, but are yet to score a goal and earn their first point. If they don't beat Mallbacken next week, it's going to be a tough campaign for the Stockholm side (AIK staying close to the relegation zone is hardly a surprise but my point is that they are actually playing much better than expected, especially considering their injury problems).
Damallsvenskan tonight: Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC 0-0 Piteå IF I'm really liking Piteå this year. If only they had a real striker they'd be fighting it out at the top of the table. Such a solid and hard working team. Injury struck Göteborg wanna fight for the title this year, but they sure won't if they're gonna be playing like this at home. 0 creativity.
I was looking forward to this 'all games will be televised' thing, not only for the games themselves, but for the chance to finally get to see some of the more obscure venues. For instance, a long time ago in these parts, someone gently mocked Mallbacken for having no particular claim to fame other than a fairy-tale home field in the middle of the woods. Imagine my disappointment when their game hosting Eskilstuna United yesterday (0-2 to the visitors) was apparently being played in the endless hectares of a giant marshmallow farm. (Happily, eventually the announcer said that their actual home field should be ready to play on by early May. My local team isn't playing on its grass home field yet either.) I had forgotten that Eskilstuna has both Thunebro and Annica Svensson. It was kind of fun to contrast the play in that game with that of the Champions League game later in the evening. Not quite the same level... Eskilstuna might have held either Wolfsburg or PSG to a more-or-less respectable loss, but Mallbacken probably would have gotten severely pasted.
After 3 rounds: Rosengård already close to the title. Pretty lame starts for the challengers Linköping, Göteborg and Örebro. AIK in trouble at the bottom. Rosengård have not scored a single goal in any of the 1st halves where they've actually been in a bit of trouble. An impressive 13 in the 2nd halves though when their opponents have run out of gas. 9 points Eskilstuna United look like the only possible title threat, no goals conceded so far (but they had a good start last year too). 9 points Good start for Kristianstad with no money 6 Points Like in the Champions League Linköping play good football but can't score. One goal in 3 rounds. 4 Points Göteborg can score and defend, but only sometimes... 4 points OK starts for Vittsjö and new-comers Hammarby on 4 points Umeå and Mallbacken play like the bottom half teams they most likely will be. 3 points Good play but poor goalscoring from Piteå. Even worse start for surprise runner-up of last year Örebro and key-signings Folkesson and Dahlkvist on the injury list. 2 points AIK, no goals, plenty of injuries, already 2 key relegation fight matches lost, 0 points
Looks like Rosengård decided to change their game plan but anyhow kudos to Piteå for a fightback attempt even though the champions puled back a little after being 5-0 up ten minutes into the second half. Rosengård's offensive potential is really huge, so the average of 4.5 goal scored per game is hardly a surprise. However, unlike some experts/commentators suggest, the league is still far from being over and even though it would surely take a miracle to take the trophy away from Malmö, plenty of soccer is still to be played. Off-pitch notice: FCR supporters are getting better and better with every next game. I loved their chants.
Discussion is already going on in the French league topic but Mittag's move to Paris is also interesting from the Swedish perspective. Rosengård's squad is not very deep and now it seems they are going to lose two key offensive players (Sjögran and Mittag) after the World Cup with 15 league matches still to be played. Regardless of who's going to join Rosengård in summer, replacing these two won't be an easy task (especially finding a Mittag-like poacher seems to be a challenge). Anyhow, I'm anticipating an active transfer window from FCR. As for other news, Ivorian midfielder Ida Guehai scored twice for Kristianstad (two well-placed shots) in her Damallsvenskan debut. KDFF defeated winless AIK by 5-0 in a match where AIK defenders show us how not to play if you want to keep your place in the league for another season. There is also some drama regarding Nigerian players based in Sweden who may not be included in the Nigeria World Cup squad.
Finally, a Mallbackens IF home game played at their traditional home field! And... yep, as advertised, the trees do come pretty much right up to the field. (See this happy announcement that the field is playable, from May 7.) Which is pretty and all, but slide tackling onto an errant pine cone would give a new dimension to 'field burn'. Ouch!
Mittag's last game for Rosengård was tonight, and it was a pasting of Kristianstad by some large number to 0. Happily, we did get to see some good old fashioned Mittag, with clear shots blown well wide, and flagrant flopping in the box. She finally scored a goal with not much left in regular time; she seemed rather desperate to do so, since practically everyone else had by that time (even Sjögran). I mis-spelled 'Mittag' as 'Mittage' at some point up there; I kind of like 'Mittage' as a name for video of her, as in, "TV4 captured some classic Mittage in that game." Or perhaps as a word to describe other players emulating her? "Oh stand up, Marozan, enough with the Mittage already."
After the 7th and last round before the WWC break, AIK takes their first point and is now cleared from having to share the title as Damallsvenskans worst team ever with Strömsbo and Jitex (full season 0 points) and seems heade for Bälinges 3rd worst spot (3 point in full season=22 games) with their 1 point/7 games
Yes, thanks so much for that! *twitch* I now imagine a sort of Python-Bergman mashup: a horse-drawn cart, led by a referee, piled high with bodies in black-and-yellow kit, is going through the small centrum of some typical small-town Sweden place; a sinister figure clad in black sits on a bench in front of the Hemköp (well, it would be a somewhat more sinister figure were it not unselfconsciously eating an ice cream cone); still, is it an avatar of Death, or just a teenager?, and what's the difference? The horse is led past a small water feature; the referee calling "Bring out your Bälinge..."
I just came from a dinner where the toastmaster kept ringing a bell and shouting "Bring out your... you know!" Spooky. I told him it was a bit of a buzz killer, but he just laughed.
Mallbacken (in 11th place) became the first team to steal points from Rosengård this season by playing 1-1 tonight. Well defended by Mallbacken and Rosengård is already missing Anja Mittag. A cool 2270 people made it to the game at Strandvallen in the middle of nowhere. Here's the pitch on Google Maps: https://www.google.se/maps/place/Ma...2!3m1!1s0x4642d93539d07955:0xab4ebf5e6355b88c Natasa Andonova played her first game for Rosengård and replaces Therese Sjögran who ended her career in the cup semi final a few days ago. In the next round of the league a top battle between Rosengård and Linköping in Linköping. If Linköping can win like they did last year they will have the same number of points after the game. The teams will also meet in the cup final next month.