I am happy for you personally and for the sake of the club coefficient as well. Luckily my inbred IFK buddies ain´t tuning in here so I can safely say congrats mate! Just don´t get too good now though hehe. IFK is a f-ing joke compared to AIK at the moment. Kudos to your team. But I´m not surprised considering the kind of squad you guys are building at the moment. Also I pay a special respect to your Classic Stadion, The Råsunda! It is sad to seing it being dismantled soon. Hopefully the AIK crowd and especially the heart and soul, The Norra Stå will give Råsunda a wonderful last greeting against Napoli. A few tears will definately be shed...... By the way. I was just watching Afca_Mokum´s pics and vids from the AIK vs. Malmö game and was thinking.....why the hell would anybody want to ban such a fantastic display of supportership with those beautiful flairs and so forth....!!!!????? The police authorities are now also punnishing AIK brutally financially as I´ve read as well. The authorities are trying all kinds of trickery now to try to destroy the essence of the swedish club supportership. They want football to be strictly entertainment. They want it to be like going to the cinema or something. We must fight back hard against this destructiveness. Greetings from the other side of the country.....
Don't suprise me at all that the p$v fans were silent That's usually the case.. I mean come on.. 400 away fans in Sweden?? if this was the case in an away match in Dnjepr oke but Sweden and especially Stockholm is a walk in the park to travel to.. there fans shouldn't be taken serious and actually at Ajax we don't take them serious.. Tifo sucks, vocal support sucks, only singing when they're winning idea.. The match in Stockholm against Napoli will be a big clash both on and of the pitch I believe.. Everything depends on Hamsik and especially Cavani at Napoli.. If one of those guys is not playing AIK will have a chance.. As long as you have big vocal support from the stands and a motivated and fit squad on the pitch.. Good luck!
I also read something about big fines for AIK.. Unbeleivable.. indeed you guys should fight back hard..
AIK actually might have an easier time against Napoli at home than Dnipropetrovsk away. The Gnaget needs probably 2 wins to get through? And yes, Cavani is in deadly form. Hopefully for AIK he´ll suddenly fall into a deep depressive state and start playing aweful. Nomatter what AIK have a very good squad even by Euro-league standards at the moment. Guys like Bangura, Borges, Turina and so forth would be able to play in big leagues no doubt. I think AIK will win against Napoli, but where the Dnipro game is a more tricky one actually. But above all as you also pointed out Afca_Mokum, AIK do have some unbelievable ( I have to confess) hardcore supportership at Norra Stå who will help out the team as well. I watched yesterdays game and it struck me how vocally loud the Black Army is! Both the Kakkerlakken and Mighty Ajax would both have considerably better away support than PSV. Especially Ajax off course. Eindhoven is a regional club and having a more laid back kind of supportership than the two above mentioned clubs. On their plusside they have obviously a certain company helping them out financially every year. Their dirty money is paying the arrogant Toivonen´s high wage. That alone is disgusting. Feyenoord I obviously don´t like at all due to me favouring Ajax.
Hi UFFDA! It doesn´t seem like a lot is written about this meeting in big city media. A lot focus there on the big city teams in Malmö, AIK and Gothenburg. My guess would be that this is a fairly evenly balanced game. Halmstad came 3rd in the2:nd division. It is a club with a fine history. It would probably be a welcomed team by most fans in Southern Sweden because they´d get a shorter trip to the HBK-game. But Sundsvall for me is a very likable club too and they do represent the Northern part of the country too and for that reason also a club more than welcomed by fans generally. I would rather had seen Gefle or Syrianska on the Qualifying spot instead of Giffarna. Mostly because theve been trying to play more offensive and attractive football as well. Halmstad needs to develope their club now financially. They need to build a new arena too, sooner or later or they will more permanantly be cemented in lower divisions. Nearby clubs such as Öster, Helsingborg or Kalmar have a head start in this regard. The competition in that region is tough now. Sundsvall have what it takes to be a steady 1st league team I think. But they need to keep the current squad. Also they must better lure in the best talents from the Northern landscapes. They should specialise in that more. Could be a great advantage for them. Looking at the Northern clubs they are fairly alone this far up in the divisions. Umeå got relegated from the 2:nd division I think!? Östersund was promoted though to Superettan. Interesting developement there. Gefle doesn´t feel like part of the Northern landscapes. It is placed in the extreme south of Norrland. And so Sundsvall have a huge territory in which to snatch those talents. The first game in Halmstad right? Well Giffarna have still that Allsvenskan tempo going. Halmstad are slight underdogs through the two games. But be careful. Halmstad are not miles behind. Tricky, but Giffarna to win past two games I think. But I always tend to give out bad predictions.
Hej! You certainly make good points. I, too, would rather see Gefle or Syrianska battling it out for the right to stay in the Allsvenskan. But, what's done is done, and that's not what the fotboll gods have decided. I've always said that I like the attacking style of fotboll that Sundsvall plays (and as you all know, I witnessed it first hand). If we have exciting, offensive based clubs, playing in this league, the better it is for everyone. I'm sure we can all agree on that! Our friend from the northern part of Stockholm has been enjoying his club's recent performance, and I think at this point they have set the bar for Swedish clubs. I admit that DIF has some catching up to do. However, competitive clubs in the league will only help this! No offense to any Halmstad fans, but I think Sundsvall will provide good competition, and deserves to stay up. I, for one, will be rooting for them.
Today AIK have invited their supporters to Friends Arena to try out the new terraces. Me and some mates are meeting up and we'll go there to have a look at the new "norra stå", and then go for some afternoon pints. Will be interesting to see it from inside, since I've only been cruising around the arena on the outside by car. We'll gather up outside the "old" norra stå first. It felt appropriate. As for the GIF-HBK qualification I don't really have a preference. Either is fine I guess, but I agree with Götet that I'd rather see Gefle or SFC leave the top league.
Allsvenskan Qualification/relegation game 1 Halmstad–Gif Sundsvall 3–0 (0–0) 1–0 Rickard Magyar (59), 2–0 Kristinn Steindorsson (62), 3–0 Marcus Antonsson (72). yellow cards, Gif Sundsvall: Roger Risholt, Ari Freyr Skulason. referee: Jonas Eriksson, Sigtuna. attendance: 5 839. Halmstad (4–4–2): Karl Johan–Johnsson – Ryan Miller, Johnny Lundberg, Rickard Magyar, Christian Järdler – Johan Blomberg, Antonio Rojas (Viktor Ljung 90), Kristoffer Fagercrantz, Kristinn Steindorsson – Mikael Boman, Gudjon Baldvinsson (Marcus Antonsson 35, Kristoffer Thydell 84). Gif Sundsvall (4–5–1): Oscar Berglund – Fredric Jonsson, Marcus Danielsson, Jon Gudni Fjoluson (Stefan Ålander 49), Robert Lundström – Simon Helg (Johan Eklund 71), Kevin Walker, Ari Freyr Skulason, Roger Risholt, Robin Sellin (Daniel Sliper 70) – Fredrik Holster Wow, once again for me slight surprise looking at the final result here. I didn´t see that one coming. Sure Halmstad had the potency to upset with smaller win margine at home, but 3-0?!! How do we assess this one? Well, a long travel southwards for the Giffarna. This in combination with the psychological effect of being dissapointed not being able to avoid the Qualification spot alltogether. Halmstad on the other hand much more excited given the chance of reaching Allsvenskan again. Sundsvall not either as good on natural grass as they are on their artificial turf. Halmstad have a few players too with Allsvenskan experiance. Now Sundsvall indeed have an uphill struggle looming. Turning a 3-0 defecit from the first game will be tough. If for example HBK would score one goal in game 2, Sundsvall would need to return 4 goals past the HBK-keeper Johnsson. Unexpected scenario this for me. Swedish football in a nut shell.....
Well, I think this perhaps just show that there are too many teams in Allsvenskan and so the bottom teams are no better than the average Superettan teams... and then of course the Halmstad players have just finished a good season, doing well in Superettan, so their team-spirit is high, while Sundsvall have just finished poorly in Allsvenskan, so their team-spirit is undoubtedly low, which makes all the difference.... There has been an debate in Denmark for several years about if the Danish Superliga should be cut from 12 to only 10 teams, or if we should expand the league to 14 or 16 teams.... most seem to agree that 16 teams would be too much, because there would be too many poor games that will ruin the general level of play, while 10 teams is too small and will hurt the youth development, because most of the clubs then would be too scared of relegation to use too many younger players, because you need experienced players in a relegation battle, so if there are only 10 teams, you are never far from the bottom... 14 teams would probably be just right, but it makes it only 26 rounds a season, which all agree is too little.... So instead of cutting or expanding the 12 team Superliga, they decided to make the 1. Division stronger, by cutting it from 16 to 12 teams, renaming it to the Betsafe league and throwing more TV-money at it, so that the 1. Division now has become better and more professional.... the point being, that it is now no big disaster for the smaller Superliga teams to suffer relegation, because the Betsafe league has become a better and more professional environment to prepare your team for the Superliga. I'm not sure if it matters much if it is Halmstad or Sundsvall playing Allsvenskan next season, because I think they are probably both going to drag down the general level, though Sundsvall may play some more attacking minded football... the two teams would probably be better off in a stronger looking Superettan with fewer teams in it, just as Allsvenskan would raise the level, if it was cut to 14 or 12 teams. .
Yeah, losing by a goal is one thing, but this must have caught them off guard. Sundsvall may be adept at playing on artificial turf and at home, but this 3-0 deficit looks a bit too difficult to reel in!? I´m not surprised by HBK winning, but with such a margiine.....
Interesting. Very interesting. Your analysis is dead spot on Ceres. If we start of with this particular meeting, it perfectly reflects what you point at and also gives further fuel to this debate wether we should have more or less number of teams in Allsvenskan. Sundsvall is definately throughout the season a clearcut example of a bottom dweller in the swedish top flight. So in light of that I´m nor surprised that the number 3 in the 2:nd division are able to rattle them. Sundsvall furthermore plays a somewhat naive offensive kind of football whcih they are now punnished for. The early sickness symptoms we saw already against IFK Göteborg where they lead by 3-0 and then just went sleeping. IFK got back to 3-3 and after this Sundsvall have in game after game continued this naivity giving away points. Now they find themselves in a difficult negative Qualification against a Halmstad-side with several players having Allsvenskan experiance under their belt. So perhaps no big surprise seing a loss. But what´s a bit more worrysome is the way the scenario of the game look, let alone the evident goal margine for that matter. Here we had a Sundsvall team yet again trying to outplay their opponents by dominating ballposession and going forward with the entire team. The interesting thing was then that Halmstad had no problems with the tempo and then they also played on the counter and punnished the naive Sundsvall players. After the leading goal they simply understood that Sundsvall aren´t anything special. And so now we can once again conclude what you rightly pointed out....the fact that these bottom dwellers in Allsvenskan aren´t any better than the top teams in Superettan. Especially not when team-moral also is taken into consideration.... This brings us to what you´ve just correctly have stated. And that is that there are several teams in Allsvenskan that basically aren´t in any shape or form helping out in raising the qualitative level of the league. Clubs that spring to my mind are Syrianska, Gefle above all. Some of these clubs try to play a bit more positive. Some other a bit more defensive. But generally these types of clubs fundamentally aren´t developing at the moment. They more or less are just able to escape a couple of seasons by the fact that there are a couple of spots that saves their existance. There therefor ain´t any incentive for these to develope as clubs and doesn´t further put pressure on the so called bigger clubs to improve either. Now I still believe that the swedish league is in a transitional phase eventhough the number of spots in the two highest leagues are too many. Several of the leading clubs in Allsvenskan are starting to take command. Generally these are the most professionally run clubs and also the wealthiest obviously. They are also the ones that dare to change the current pattern and rise from mediocracy. I´m foremost thinking of clubs such as AIK Stockholm, Malmö, Elfsborg, Helsingborg and such. Clubs with potential besides these I see are Djurgården, IFK Göteborg, Hammarby, IFK Norrköping. In the backwaters we have developing clubs such as Öster (new arena), Kalmar (new arena) and perhaps even tiny Häcken (because of their ownership in a youth tournament and a new arena that will be built). Örebro is a club that soon will retrieve a place in the highest league as soon as their organisational work is improved...... The new arena-standards that is taken into effect from 2014 will further also put pressure on clubs in both Superettan and Allsvenskan to produce better arena-quality..... I agree fully with your assessement. Denmark have a longer experiance of professionalism in club football. Norway too. Sweden will get there eventually. I think all 3 nations have roughly the same potential as far as club football is concerned. But for swedish football it will take further years of developement before we´re anyway near their full potential. I think a few leading clubs also are starting to understand the importance of play in Europe more and more. We´re starting to see some improvement there too. Still too early though to conclude if swedish clubs can keep this level in Europe. They might fall down the rabbit hole again.... I should also add one further noticable factor that might be of a somewhat minor nature in the context of what we´re discussing here. And that is the fact that Sweden have another teamsport that is still huge here, namely icehockey. It might not be a direct competitior to football in Sweden due to being a wintersport. But it sure takes some of that edge of off football as some companies will promote instead. Some youth talents will start playing hockey. And some people will start taking interest and thus will the start attending icehockey games instead. We have huge number of traditional hocketowns. Some of those towns are rather big towns. Medium large towns mostly. Linköping, Uppsala, Karlstad, Umeå, Gävle (Gefle), Västerås, Jönköping and so forth. We´re talking of several thousands of people.....
The reason why I think it is better for more of these smaller teams to play in a smaller but stronger Superettan is, that generally speaking teams do not develop at all when they keep moving up and down between top-flight and 1. Division... first of all, it is not a good experience for younger talents to fight against relegation through a whole season. They never get a winner mentality by losing this many games, so you cant really develop your younger talents this way... They rather need some positive experience, winning some more games in a smaller but better Superettan... Fighting against relegation is mainly a job for older experienced players, but these players are usually not good enough to play for a club in the top-half of the table... and in this case, it would also be a better experience for these older players to help the younger talents to become better players in the Superettan, and these smaller clubs wont be missed in Allsvenskan anyways, because they just drag down the level. .
You keep connecting the dots Ceres. And I couldn´t agree more. I do think this is a rather complex issue. Maybe the aim would have to be to try to find a perfect fine balance that both helps out promoting and developing talents and at the same time brings a competetive edge to the league. Somehow the swedish league looks somewhat out of proportion the more I think about it and the more I learn from what you bring forward to the table Ceres!
So as I wrote earlier, me and the boys went to the new "Friends Arena" to inspect it this saturday. I know I have expressed some skepticism around it before, but I must admit that I have changed my mind after seeing it in real life. Friends Arena is a wonderful football stadium, period. While I do love Råsunda Fotbollstadion, I must admit that Friends is a much better planned and built arena. It's big, yes, but when they closed off the upper terraces I must say that I didn't really notice them. It actually felt like a very intimate arena, and I predict that with the right crowd on the terraces there will be some real magic going on in there. The layout of the whole place is so much more modern and better planned than on older arenas. I have never been to such an awesome piece of architecture, to be honest. Oh, and the "Norra stå" is once again a real "ståplats" (stand). No chairs! The terrace itself is concrete sheeted with metal so I can imagine the noise of a jumping Black Army will be quite deafening. It has great potential. I hope you all get the chance to see a game on Friends during next season. I predict you will be quite breathtaken. I will for always miss Råsunda. It was the place where I as a young teenager first fell in love with the beautiful game, and my precious club, but that era is over and it is something I will have to accept. The new era of Solna football will take place on Friends Arena. Let's just hope it will stay true to it's roots, and let's keep the spirit alive: CONTRE LE FOOTBALL MODERNE!
Beautiful post AIK_Stockholm! Let´s hope everything works out fine with the new arena! So nice to see that your impressions of it was so positive! I´m thinking of visiting both new Stockholm arenas. The Stockholm football will get a great boost now I´m sure.....
The Swedish Cup Group Stage being played from the 2 of March 2013, looks as follows: Grupp 1: IF Elfsborg, Ljungskile SK, IK Sirius FK, Gais Grupp 2: BK Häcken, Falkenbergs FF, Örebro SK, IFK Värnamo Grupp 3: Malmö FF, Östers IF, IK Frej Täby, Gif Sundsvall Grupp 4: AIK, Halmstads BK, Örgryte IS, Syrianska Grupp 5: IFK Norrköping FK, Landskrona BoIS, Mjällby AIF, Ängelholms FF Grupp 6: Helsingborgs IF, Assyriska FF, Gefle IF FF, Varbergs BoIS FC Grupp 7: IFK Göteborg, IK Brage, Nyköpings BIS, Kalmar FF Grupp 8: Åtvidabergs FF, Jönköpings Södra IF, Djurgården, Umeå FC
Last game ever at Råsunda! Huge game! Looking forward to your report! We´re greatful for having a real Norra Stå lad in here at Bigsoccer! Hälsningar från en Glenn!
Play Off game 2, Allsvenskan Sundsvall-Halmstad 4–3 (2–1)/ Halmstad promoted to Allsvenskan on aggregate score, 6-4. 1–0 Simon Helg (29), 1–1 Kristinn Steindorsson (33 peanalty), 2–1 Fredrik Holster (42), 2–2 Gudjon Baldvinsson (68), 3–2 own goal(76), 3–3 Mikael Boman (78), 4–3 Simon Helg (81). referee: Martin Hansson, Holmsjö. Gif Sundsvall (4–5–1): Oscar Berglund – Robert Lundström, Marcus Danielsson, Stefan Ålander, Robin Sellin – Simon Helg, Kevin Walker, Fredrik Holster (Pa Amat Dibba 65), Ari Freyr Skulason, Emil Forsberg – Johan Eklund. Halmstad (4–4–2): Karl–Johan Johnsson – Ryan Miller, Johnny Lundberg, Rickard Magyar, Christian Järdler – Johan Blomberg, Antonio Rojas (Kristoffer Thydell 86), Kristoffer Fagercrantz, Kristinn Steindorsson – Mikael Boman (Marcus Antonsson 90), Gudjon Baldvinsson (Michael Svensson 81). Halmstad promoted to Allsvenskan on aggregate score, 6-4. Halmstad defeats Sundsvall on aggregate score by 6-4 on total. And so we welcome back Halmstad to the Allsvenskan. The West Coast club just needed one season to manage their return to the top flight in swedish football. Sundsvall will have to regroup being relegated to the 2nd tier.
The Stockholm Police just announced that they will be charging AIK more than 1.000.000 SEK (around €115.000) for the game vs. Napoli on Thursday, sending the club into chock. For a swedish team that already spends enormous amounts of money on security this is a critical blow to the economy. So far, the police have charged us around 6.000.000 SEK this season, now adding another million to it. Next year, the police will up the bill even more, landing in on around nine million SEK. When asked why the bill for the game is so high, the police refuses to give account for what the amount is based on. This seriously hampers our possibility to buy new players, as well as paying the salaries for our existing ones, in the long (and short) run affecting our competitive edge in Allsvenskan as well as in the european tournaments. It should be mentioned that the police will use their resources stationed in Solna to also monitor the concert with Swedish House Mafia. However, the company arranges that event will not be billed - AIK will pay for all policemen in Solna during the evening. Nice one. It should also be mentioned that the F.A. were not billed for the police during the Sweden-England game last week, even though the F.A. own several companies that generates revenue. This is of course a complete outrage and unworthy a society where the basic governmental functions should be funded by taxes. To the police: one day the backlash will hit you, you f###ing c#nts. If there's a war you want - you got it. You have been on us for years now, harassing our supporters. Now you're going after our club? Who the f##k do you think you are? Who do you think WE are? One day, in a dark alley you will face the true nature of the mighty AIK. You've taken a far too big bite and you will regret it. A.C.A.B A.M.F
Two swedish clubs played in the Europa League yesterday. Helsingborg looked considerably drenged off of energy. Prior to this game they met a tiny swedish team in the swedish Cup. Maybe not the best preperation meeting such weak resistance?! The intense swedish season is over and the players look tired basically. AIK continued their pattern of rattling opponents in their group. This time Napoli escaped with considerable luck. At least looking at the fact that Cavani, albeit a world-class player fooled his marker and a peanalty in stoppage time for the visitors. Looking at the match as a whole, once again AIK should feel proud of themselves. With slightly better luck they could have won definately. As was the cas against Dnipro at home earlier. I saw the game on a bad stream. But I can only concur with what Napoli´s Cavani said after the game: I came here and I got goosbumps by the atmosphere created by the AIK-fans. World-class from them. A memory of a lifetime"........ Rest in Peace RÅSUNDA! The match result was of secundary importance for the Stockholmer´s. It was the most beatiful funeral you could ever imagine! Still to come.....hopefully is the entire game here at Bigsoccer. Youtube might just try to block it out though. See what I can do. In the meantime I hope Afca_Mokum and AIK_Stockholm can give us some more input from this game. Videos, pictures (Afca_Mokum), and a chronicle from AIK_Stockholm, a genuine North Stands Supporter. I guess we´re spoilt over here at Bigsoccer LOL?!!!