Halfway round of the season, 13 down, 13 left: Djurgårdens IF 5 (Own Goal 1, Arneng 44, den Ouden 52, Hysén 68, Amoah 71) Örebro SK 1 (Samuelsson 28) Att: 7,701 Kalmar FF 0 IF Elfsborg 1 (Alexandersson 83) Att: 7,032 GIF Sundsvall 1 (Hermansson 55) Trelleborgs FF 0 Att: 8,032 IFK Göteborg 1 (Ijeh 71) Landskrona BoIS 1 (Pettersson 47) Att: 8,972 Helsingborgs IF 3 (Ljung 77, Andersson 79, Mngomeni 81) AIK 0 Att: 12,005 Halmstads BK 2 (Borgstrand 30, Rosenberg 57) Hammarby 1 (Johansson 50) Att: 15,547 (Best crowd at Halmstad for 25 years) So, at the halfway point: 1- Halmstad- 27 p 2- Malmö- 26 p 3- Hammarby- 26 p (Malmö has a better goal differential) 4- Kalmar- 20 p 5- IFK Göteborg- 19 p 6- GIF Sundsvall- 18 p 7- Djurgården- 16 p 8- IF Elfsborg- 16 p (Djurgården has a better goal differential) 9- Helsingborg- 14 p 10- Örgryte- 13 p 11- AIK- 13 p ---------------------------------- 12- Örebro- 13 p (Worst goal difference of the three) ---------------------------------- 13- Landskrona- 12 p 14- Trelleborg- 9 p Trelleborg have lost 7 matches in a row (8 if you include a Swedish Cup loss to IFK Göteborg) Since the Superettan is also at the halfway point, here's the "if the season ended today" rundown: Relegated from Allsvenskan: Trelleborg, Landskrona Promoted from Superettan: BK Häcken, Gefle IF Play-off: GAIS vs. Örebro Relegated from Superettan: Bodens BK, Falkenbergs FF, Friska Viljor FC Midway stat leaders: Goals- Dedé Anderson, Kalmar- 8 Assists- Markus Rosenberg, Halmstad- 7 Goalkeepers Save Percentage: Daniel Andersson, Helsingborg- 93 % Save Percentage, minimum 10 appearances: Mattias Asper, Malmö- 89 % Shutouts- Asper, 8 Saves- John Alvbåge, Örebro- 65 Most Yellow Cards- Johan Laursen, Trelleborg 6 Most Red Cards- 15 players, tied with 1 Best Average Attendence- Malmö FF, 18,875 Now, just for fun, here are some predictions from the beginning of the season: Champions: Malmö (Coaches and Players), Hammarby (Media) Relegated: Trelleborg and Sundsvall (Coaches, Players, and Media) As far as the players are concerned, Halmstad and Kalmar each recieved less than 5% of the "who will win the league" vote. Kalmar were actually the players 3rd choice (with 17% of the vote) to be relegated. Landskrona were 4th in the relegation poll (4%) and only earned 1% of the champions vote. Trelleborg and Sundsvall recieved no votes for champion. So, a couple of surprises at the top, but no real shocks at the bottom. Kalmar and Sundsvall doing a lot better than anyone expected. The 2nd half of the season starts on Saturday with Djurgården visiting Kalmar.
It's not over for Djurgårdens!!! Four points from a Royal Leauge berth and from what it seems, they look to be back on form.
Djurgarden will be back and stronger now, today they play Kaunas a team from Lituania in the second round of the champions league, if nothing unexpected happens, we can look forward to meet one of the big ones in the next round, but who knows... Oh by the way my old home town Osters IF (relegated from the swedish prem last season), are currently in the qualifiying rounds because of fairplay awards, they won their first game at home and are playing tomorrow in wales for the return game. Osters IF are actually only 3 points from the playoff spot in "Superettan" so I would not count them out to actually bounce straight back up.
I'm not sure if they are back on form yet... I'm going to wait and see what they do against Kalmar before I consider Djurgården seriously in the race.
Fair arguement, sometimes you just have a feeling thou, and that one says Djurgarden will be ending the season on a high, they wont be winning the league for sure, but they might end up in the top 3.
I lived in Mönsterås, which is about an hour or so outside of Kalmar. I spent a lot of time in Kalmar, as it was the closest "big" city to where I was. I went to a game or two at Fredriksskans as well, but this was back before Division 1 North and South merged into the Superettan. As for Djurgården, my thing is more that Kalmar has already spanked them once, 3-0 at Råsunda at the beginning of May, and they are going to provide the best opposition since the coaching change, much better than Örebro or Kaunas. Remember too that before the coaching change, DIF lost to Hammarby 3-0 and Malmö 2-0. If they go and beat Kalmar at Fredriksskans then they're in the race. Until then, I look at the Örebro score as more a good result for a new coach against a poor team.
kwik1980, I just want to say how much I appreciate your regular updates. I like following the Swedish leagues, but I invariably fall behind in the summer, and your summaries are very helpful. Again - many, many thanks.
No problem. It's nice to keep up with them. It's not a league we're ever going to see much of in the States, and it does provide a nice change of pace from other leagues.
Oh Mönsterås, well I was born and lived in Västervik får many years so Mönsterås is a well known place for me. When I lived in sweden the latest I used to live in Växjö (Östers IF, Kalmars strongest rivals), and in Öster there biggest striker for many years was actually born in Mönsterås, Hans Eklund... Back to allsvenskan, I have not seen much of allsvenskan this year, I must admit, Djurgården only drew at home against Kaunas so you might be right. Kalmar have the former striker from Hammarby, the brazilian guy Dede Anderson don't they? So which team to you reckon you will see taking the title then and do you think any of the swedish teams can take the royal league title?
I think Halmstad is going to take the title. They've been consistently at the top this season, so I think it's theirs to lose. As for the Royal League, I haven't looked enough at the Danish or Norwiegan leagues enough to really say yet.
Don't count out Malmo FF for the title especially with Asper in goal doing his best Iker Casaillas impression, although Malmo's defence is probably better then Real Madrid's P.S does anyone know where i can get a Malmo FF jersey?
If you try contact this person He might be able to help you, he is the contact person for his company, which are in charge of the Malmo FF webshop. mats.sjobrink@sportsprofile.se
After that Champions' League draw, I think I may have to withdrawal my "Go Djurgårdens" statement! Though, my other Scandinavian teams didn't do that well either! Rosenborg BK - Sheriff Tiraspol 2-1 HJK - Maccabi Tel-Aviv 0-0 Two very disappointing games. Rosenborg's play was shaky and HJK should have at least put on into the old onion bag.
I would even go as far as to say that this weeks player market events very well could have decided the outcome of the league; Halmstad's main star, midfielder Mikael Nilsson, went to Southampton (and they might replace him with a canadian from english D2, or not at all) while Malmö FF signed midfielder Daniel Andersson (6 years in Serie A, something like 40 NT matches) in a fairly impressive flexing of financial muscle (well, impressive for swedish circumstances at least).
So which teams do you think will fight for promotion to the swedish premier? Although i support Osters IF to join the top ranks again, I would like to see GAIS up there again, the only team with proper brittish supporting spirit in sweden I think Hacken will win it, but I dont regard Gefle to be able to hold on to the fine form they have been in during the first half of the season. Instead I reckon Assyriska, Norrkoping will fight for the promotion spot, with GAIS, Gefle and Osters in line to fight for the playoff spot.
Mellon, I saw that you helped someone track down a way to obtain a Malmo jersey. I was wondering if you or anyone else on this board knew how I could get a Hacken jersey.
The only place I know about is Hacken's supporter website, where they have a webshop: www.getingarna.net There are probably other places, but since Hacken is not one of the big teams around the block, I reckon this is the best alternative.
Thanks a lot, man. I don't speak Swedish, but my last name starts with Hacken, so they're my favorite clubb team. Ehhh, probably not what you football diehards would want to hear.
Not any problems, we all have different reasons for supporting teams, nice to meet a supporter of Hacken from outside the country thou You should be able to contact them in english thou.