[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1YhR9WFE4A"]YouTube - Åtvidaberg - Degerfors 2011 Highlights[/ame] Swedens two most classic small town clubs, Åtvidaberg (ranked 18th in all time table) and Degerfors (ranked 15th), played each other today in the swedish second tier. I had the chance to watch since this was Degerfors first televised game of the season (two Superettan games per round are broadcasted on national TV). I thought Edwards had a good performance and the commentators seemed to enjoy the exoticness of an american in Degerfors. He made a really impressive reflex save in the first half but couldn't do much about the goal. Looked really solid overall. Åtvidaberg dominated the second half and put the defence under pressure towards the end but were pretty ineffective. This was an impressive win against a team that played in Allsvenskan last season and had won their first two games. Degerfors now temporarily move up into first place in the league.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZlN98P33Cc"]YouTube - Degerfors - Assyriska 2011 Highlights[/ame] Degerfors played at home today against Assyriska, both teams being undefeated before the game. I only had the chance to watch the last 15 minutes but that actually turned out to be perfect timing since I got to witness four goals in a very dramatic finish as the game went from 0-1 to 2-3. The final goal was especially nice, though Edwards might not feel so right now.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNoOgeUYuwI"]YouTube - Intervju med målvakten Brian Edwards[/ame] New interview with Edwards.
According to match reports Edwards pulled off a great game deciding reflex save at the end of todays game against Jönköping Södra. Degerfors won 1-0 against the previously unbeaten team and now move back up into second place.
Code: SP GC CS Ivo Vazgec Jönköpings Södra IF 84% 4 1 Tommy Naurin GIF Sundsvall 83% 5 2 Oscar Berglund Assyriska FF 79% 5 2 [B]Brian Edwards Degerfors IF 78% 7 2[/B] Nick Noble Ljungskile SK 74% 5 2 Johan Hagman Qviding FIF 73% 7 1 Gerhard Andersson IK Brage 68% 7 2 Stojan Lukic Falkenbergs FF 64% 8 2 Kristoffer Nordfeldt IF Brommapojkarna 63% 7 0 Henrik Gustavsson Åtvidabergs FF 62% 3 3 Christian Caulker Västerås SK FK 62% 13 0 Mirza Selimovic Landskrona BoIS 60% 10 0 Matthew Pyzdrowski Ängelholms FF 53% 9 1 Johannes Hopf Hammarby 45% 6 1 SP = Save Percentage GC = Goals Conceded CS = Clean Sheets Keepers with less then four games played not included in the list. Still really early in the season of course, but so far Edwards has the fourth best save percentage in Superettan.
Another good performance by Edwards today according to reports when he got his third clean sheet of the season. Degerfors won 2-0 against Landskrona BOIS (coached by 2001 european golden boot winner Henrik Larsson) and now move back up into the second promotion spot in the league table.
Bad performance from Degerfors yesterday. Edwards had to concede three goals in the 0-3 loss against Ängelholm. However the papers write that he still had a good performance, which included a penalty save. Before the game he was interviewed in the paper where he said: "I'm starting to get into it. I still haven't performed to the max of my abilities and I hope to keep developing, but it has been a good start. I do alot of research online, watching other keepers on Youtube and learning from them. I also always study our match videos, not just my actions but also the actions of the keeper in the other team. And I also try to catch as many televised Superettan games as possible to try to pick up things, there's always something you can learn. I try to develop and improve in every training session. This is an important time in my career, my goal is to become as good as I possibly can and to take my career as high as possible. A goalkeeper should be at his prime when he's age 28-30."
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAhSETOzGUM"]YouTube - Degerfors - Ljungskile 2011 Highlights‏[/ame] A really bad error from Edwards in todays 2-3 loss against Ljungskile as you can see from the highlights. He commented to the paper afterwards: "I fully accept the blame for todays result. I've let the guys in the team down and I apologized to them in the locker room. I'm very disappointed, I made a huge mistake which cost us at least one point. It was a curved ball but my mistake was taking two steps forward before controlling the ball."
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-jsZUa9YUs"]YouTube - Hammarby - Degerfors 2011 Highlights‏[/ame] I had another chance to watch Edwards on TV today, this time away against Hammarby. The game ended in a 2-1 win for Degerfors and Edwards looked pretty solid again, though he did have some help from his defenders clearing the ball off the goal line twice. He also managed to get the Hammarby fans chanting "the goalkeeper is a whore" towards him for a couple of minutes towards the end because of his extensive timewasting. They were probably unaware of the fact that he most likely couldn't understand a word they were singing In other Edwards news I read an article that said that he is playing with a slight injury that will require surgery. They are now discussing whether to wait until after the season or do it during the short two week midsummer break.
Degerfors moved up into first place of Superettan today after beating Västerås SK 4-1. Edwards played the full game and unnecessarily caused a penalty which Västerås converted. He also got his third yellow card of the season in that same situation and will be suspended in the next game. The start of this season have been very similar to 2010 for Degerfors where they also were in first place of the league around this time but then fell apart during the fall.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrP2vXGweJw"]YouTube - Brian Edwards before the game against Västerås‏[/ame]
iamalfred thanks for keeping such good tabs on the Yanks in Sweden! Seems MLS may have missed out on one(again).
I think he was in the league for more than 2 seasons, so there was plenty of time to evaluate his abilities. We've seen that even now in the Swedish 2nd tier he is still a player with limited skill. Perhaps becoming a full time starter may help him to progress further, but this is not someone who would be likely to start regularly at any club in MLS this season. Hopefully Degerfors get promoted this season and Edward's game will progress nicely, and then perhaps we shall see him starting in the Allsvenskan next season.
There was an article on SvenskaFans today were two Degerfors supporters gave their view on various topics relating to the club. One of those topics were the new players, this is what they thought of Edwards so far: Uneven, intensely gumchewing keeper who really mixes his performances. The way he caused the penalty against VSK leaves alot to be desired and we will see how the reserve keeper will perform with Edwards suspended. On the other hand Brian was a big part of the reason that we beat Åtvidaberg and Hammarby. I think Edwards have played well. Unfortunaly his soapdrenched gloves against Ljungskile and the penalty in the last game drag down the overall grade a bit. But besides those misses I think we have a better goalkeeper then last year. Edwards has quick reflexes, is good in the air and his quick throws are part of Degerfors quick counterattacks. Also, his gumchewing style will probably force parents to buy extra gum for their kids who have him as their idol.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVqk6FbV5TI"]YouTube - Degerfors IF 1 - 0 Brommapojkarna 2011-06-18‏[/ame] Fourth clean sheet of the season for Edwards today. Degerfors keep up their impressive results with a 1-0 win against Brommapojkarna through a second half penalty (shown in the amateur video above). Swedish radio P4 report that Edwards was brilliant throughout the game and pulled off a couple of crucial saves in the second half. With this result Degerfors advance back up into first place of the table again.
Big 0-4 loss for Degerfors yesterday against Falkenberg. The team seems to have performed poorly overall and I guess Edwards was no exception. Reports also claim that he was very agitated and angry throughout the game (maybe understandable considering the result). There has been some slight grumblings on a Degerfors forum about how up and down he is. In one game he's a very impressive top class keeper and in the next he makes really basic mistakes. Degerfors still in second place though so no big harm done.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbn6-KA_zxo"]YouTube - Degerfors - Brage 2011 Highlights‏[/ame] I got the chance to watch Degerfors again on TV today. Their home game against Brage turned into a real revenge for the team after the big loss a few days ago. Degerfors dominated the first half and Brage got a man sent off at the start of the second which caused Degerfors to dominate even more. This must have been one of Edwards easiest games so far as Brage only had two chances, both in the first half. The first was a header which hit the post but Edwards would have probably saved it if it was inside the frame. Edwards then got a little lucky on the second chance when he rushed out against a Brage attacker and almost brought him down for a penalty. However the Brage player chose to stand up and reached the ball behind Edwards but missed the open net from a narrow angle. The game ended in a 5-0 win for Degerfors and if they keep playing like today a promotion seems likely.
It was announced today that Edwards has now had minor surgery to his knee. The club timed the operation to happen during the two week midseason break but Edwards will still miss at least one game before he can return later this month.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtUbZq3zsIk"]Degerfors - Hammarby 2011 Highlights - YouTube[/ame] Well, since I watched Degerfors beat Hammarby on TV earlier today I figured it was time for a long overdue update of this thread. The game was a fairly even affair with not that many real chances created outside of the goals so Edwards wasn't very noticeable. In general though he has continued getting positive criticism for his performances. Also of note is that he now has the second highest save percentage in the league and the most saves made overall. Degerfors did end up winning the game 3-2 in the end after being behind twice. These three points were crucial for keeping the team in the run for the third place playoff spot (since I think the top two teams are perhaps starting too look a little too strong to catch up with). Code: Ängelholms FF 23 13 7 3 40-27 46 Åtvidaberg 23 14 3 6 50-26 45 ------------------------------------------------------- GIF Sundsvall 22 11 6 5 37-20 39 ------------------------------------------------------- [B]Degerfors IF 23 11 3 9 32-30 36[/B] Assyriska 23 10 4 9 30-31 34 Ljungskile SK 23 9 6 8 33-28 33 Falkenberg 22 10 2 10 34-33 32 Öster 22 8 7 7 30-21 31 IFK Värnamo 22 8 7 7 35-38 31 Jönköpings Södra 22 9 3 10 35-36 30 Hammarby 23 8 6 9 27-31 30 Brommapojkarna 22 8 4 10 31-29 28 ------------------------------------------------------- Landskrona BoIS 22 7 6 9 25-31 27 IK Brage 22 6 7 9 24-35 25 ------------------------------------------------------- Västerås SK 22 4 6 12 24-44 18 Qviding 22 1 7 14 13-40 10