2,270 - not a bad attendance, huh? Rosengård dropping some points against Mallbacken is a common Swedish tradition, in either of Mallbacken's last two Damallsvenskan appearances they got one result against the Malmö powerhouse (1-1 in 2013 & 1-0 in 2006). Bad news is that both times it didn't help them avoid relegation. That's why I wouldn't overestimate the impact of today's score on league standings. But, of course, it's always pleasant to see unpredictable scores like this one. Three FCR vs LFC games in three months - things are getting interesting
Therese Sjögran not wasting anytime continuing her career at FC Rosengård. In to the role as director of football straight away after her football career ended just over a week ago. Now also in temporarily as head coach as head coach Marcus Tilly is taking sick leave. And yesterday.... Göteborg 1-3 Eskilstuna United Eskilstuna United looking very impressive these days, quite dramatically stepped up their game since last year. Would be fun if they could challenge for the title. Dunno what Göteborg are doing though, another step down for them. Manon Melis' head already moved back to the Netherlands?
Oops they did it again! Linköping 2-1 Rosengård First goal for Natasa Andonova in Rosengård. Amazing equalizer by Claudia Neto with just a few minutes to go. Stoppage time goal by Mariann Gajhede. Great result for Damallsvenskan because now we have a real battle for the title 1. Rosengård 22 points 2. Linköping 22 points 3. Eskilstuna United 21 points 13 rounds to go
I take it back. I don't know why she officially gets the goal, should be Emma Berglund. If the ball actually crossed the line we'll never know... The goals:
Yeah! At first, the sole purpose of me supporting LFC today was the desire to see a close title race. However, after FCR was gifted a goal, I became the most loyal LFC supporter for the remaining 45 minutes (I kinda understand the confusion with the name of the scorer since neither shot actually came close to crossing the goal line, I finally decided to give it to Berglund since she was the closest but seems like Andonova is still on the official scoresheet). The best thing is that nobody can deny that a better team won today. They hit the woodwork three times (!), Minde had two good scoring opportunities in the first half, they dominated the play after going a goal down. True, FCR could have closed the game through Marta (forget the missed PK in the World Cup final, today she had the biggest miss of her career), coming back from 0-2 would have been an almost unrealistic challenge but tonight Malmö simply didn't deserve to win. Last time I saw FCR so clueless was in the CL quarter-final in Wolfsburg. Moving on to other league issues, there is a great likelihood that Göteborg will be ranked 8th after 11 games played. I wonder when they will finally realize that something is not exactly right.
According to the local paper she is one of a handful possible coaches they are looking into. http://www.sydsvenskan.se/sport/fotboll/fcr/tysk-exlandslags-spelare-kan-bli-ny-tranare/
Can I say "I'd like to see her credentials!" without any double entendre? Micol, weren't you the one who mentioned that her coach in Djurgården thought she was a lazy so-and-so who shied away from training? Ms Role Model indeed.
No. No, you can't. Even if the preceding "Har, har!" was only uttered in your mind; even if you actually do wonder about her value as a coach; but most especially, not if you include both italics and a bang! when you say it.
Things are getting interesting. I'm liking how unpredictable the league's suddenly become. Round 10 Kristianstads DFF 3-1 Vittsjö GIK Mallbackens IF Sunne 0-0 Umeå IK FF Piteå IF 2-0 Linköpings FC FC Rosengård 2-2 Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC Eskilstuna United DFF 3-1 Hammarby IF DFF KIF Örebro DFF 1-0 AIK With the top 2 teams loosing points Eskilstuna United are new league leaders. Piteå with another great win and climbing up the table at the speed of light. Eskilstuna 24 points Rosengård 23 Linköping 22 Piteå 18 Kristianstad 16 Göteborg 15 Vittsjö 14 Örebro 13 Umeå 8 Hammarby 8 Mallbacken 5 AIK 1 KIF Örebro out of the danger zone but they are looking pretty lame still. Too bad they qualified for the Champions League or maybe they'll get their stuff together soon. Looking forward to round 12 with Eskilstuna vs. Rosengård and Linköping vs. Piteå
For those who follow and for those who don't ... A special summary of what has happened in the Swedish league this season (next edition, hopefully, in October). Enjoy!
This shouldn't happen, and it definitely shouldn't happen twice June Pedersen scoring twice after shockingly bad defensive/keeper play from Göteborg. Piteå 4-0 Göteborg And Rosengård loosing points again. Rosengård 2-2 Vittsjö Great Vittsjö goals + the most discussed penalty of the week: http://www.tv4play.se/program/fotbo...&utm_source=permalink&utm_campaign=tv4play.se
Fun! I don't claim to get the point behind many of the musical choices, though the song for Rosengård is obvious in retrospect (I hasten to add, a good and fitting song -- I don't mean to be snippy), and K/Göteborg has indeed played with heart on many occasions, drat them. They even had to start a midfielder in goal in this last game against Hammarby, all goalkeepers either being sick, injured, or at a wedding. (They lost, as they rather deserved to without a goalkeeper.)
I just like this photo where it looks like Zecira Musovic grabs the head of Therese Ivarsson instead of the ball That game between Rosengård and Kristianstad ended 0-0 and the title race is still wide open. Might be tricky to defend the title for Rosengård without Mittag, Sjögran and Bachmann but they're still in the lead. Off to the difficult away-game in Piteå next. Olivia Schough and Gaelle Enganamouit on fire when Eskilstuna beat Örebro 3-1 in fron of another good crowd in Eskilstuna, just over 3000 people. Linköping have won all their home games and could have been in the lead by now if they hadn't been so poor in the away games this year. Better in this round: Vittsjö 0-3 Linköping 1. Rosengård 34 points 2. Eskilstuna United 34 points 3. Linköping 31 points 4. Piteå 28 points 5. Göteborg 24 points 7 rounds to go
Enganamouit is still burning. Poor AIK don't have a chance after her two goals plus a third near-contender right there, just 30 minutes into the match. I'd say that the likelihood of Eskilstuna not topping the league after this match is miniscule.
Some nice goals in round 18 AIK 0-5 Linköping Poor AIK defense but the 5th goal is still very nice. Hammarby 0-2 Eskilstuna The goal from topscorer Gaelle Enganamouit is also a beauty. Göteborg 0-0 Rosengård Rosengård loosing points again and it's not even surprising anymore. With only 4 games left Eskilstuna United is getting very close to the first and VERY surprising title. Most "experts" thought they'd end up in 4th-6th place before the season started. I don't think they themselves thought they'd have a chance to win the league either. The other BIG surprise is that Piteå still has a fair chance to get a Champions League spot. 1. Eskilstuna United 43 points 2. FC Rosengård 39 points 3. Linköpings FC 37 points 4. Piteå IF 35 points 5. Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC 29 points At the bottom AIK is as good as relegated. The other relagation spot is a battle between countryside (Mallbacken) and capital (Hammarby). Mallbacken one point ahead and the two teams will meet in Mallbacken in round 21. Kvarnsvedens IK from Borlänge secured promotion to Damallsvenskan yesterday.
Thx! Well, my logic of thinking was pretty simple, I focused predominantly on the lyrics and that's how it went: AIK - the best thing they can do is to dry all tears and move on to the next season. In Elitettan, of course. Mallbacken - a direct reference to their beautifully located home arena, to a lesser extent to their style which can be quite swaggy while they're having a good day. Hammarby - Katrin Schmidt is their shining German star. Umeå - halfway through the season they announced they were having huge financial problems. Vittsjö - their squad is visibly stronger every next season, so maybe, maybe, maybe they can finally hope for more than being league's #8 or #9. Kristianstad - win, lose, lose, win, win, lose, lose a.k.a. a typical Kristianstad season. Örebro - Lisa Dahlkvist's comeback was a turning point in their 2015 campaign (little I knew that her departure might become another turning point shortly) Göteborg - Fanny Lund (who played really well against UIK & FCR recently) and her defenders were responsible for too many costly mistakes. Piteå - they started slowly (2 points in 4 first games) but then began to climb up the table and ended up close to the top. Btw. it's my fav team to watch (I consider myself a neutral observer) Linköping - a direct reference to Pernille Harder's last name. Eskilstuna - Elena Sadiku is a survivor and had the best comeback ever (hat-trick in her very first game after the long break). Rosengård - they are (were?) the heroes of our times, hands down. Funny fact: different songs were prepared for FCR & ESK but thanks to Jane Ross and her late equalizer FCR were back on top and I had to quickly modify them The wedding part made me laugh much more than it probably should Also, it's pretty safe to say that Djurgården will be the second team promoted to Damallsvenskan. I know, we're talking Elitettan and this league has become completely unpredictable lately but I don't see any other team challenging DIF. So, no AIK vs Djurgården derby for one more year. We'll see who's going to face Hammarby in their division.
Sigh, Sirius. Wasn't it Kvarnsveden that prevented Sirius from promotion a couple years ago? When I hear the name, my Bälinge-sense goes off. (It's like Spidey-sense, only instead of danger, it warns me of impending but unavoidable awfulness.)
3 rounds to go!! We don't have a European top notch team anymore but we do have a super battle for the title. Eskilstuna United 43 points FC Rosengård 42 points Linköpings FC 40 points Piteå IF 38 points Top matches still to come: Round 21: Linköping vs Eskilstuna Round 22: Rosengård vs Linköping
Grrr for things being so busy at the moment! Some of the games last weekend were entertaining (others were painful as so often happens when AIK is involved), and this race to the end is exciting if for no other reasons that the oddball teams involved. Anyway, Damallsvenskan is fun just now, perhaps more fun than the lack of posting hereabouts indicates. (feeling defensive about my priorities)
Big game of Round 21 Linköpings FC 0-0 Eskilstuna United Highlights from a very entertaining game with good goalkeepers and not so good goalscorers. It was also the last home game for former NT player Charlotte Rohlin after some 29 years in the same club. With just one game to go we have this situation and Rosengård has secured a spot in Champions League. 1. Rosengård 48p +39 2. Eskilstuna 47p +24 3. Linköping 44p +31 4. Piteå 44p +20 Round 22 Rosengård - Linköping (Linköping has won 4 out of the last 5 games between the two) Eskilstuna - Göteborg (Not an easy game even if Göteborg are looking a bit dysfunctional) Hammarby - Piteå (Hammarby fighting to stay in Damallsvenskan) Also a tight battle at the bottom where Mallbacken is above the relegation line thanks to goal difference 10. Mallbacken 17p -17 11. Hammarby 17p -18 Mallbacken play away against injury struck Umeå who had two field a number of teenagers this weekend. Hammarby play at home against Piteå who can still grab a Champoions League spot.
A real barn-burner indeed , especially considering the final score! Though I'd also like to say that the Mallbacken v Hammarby game was also a really fun one, what with lead changes and plenty of goals and so forth. Individual players may not have been as good as in the marquee match above, but a good match nonetheless.
Well, maybe it wasn't as dramatic as expected but definitely not a bad final of what clearly was the most exciting Damallsvenskan season ever (or at least in a few years). Lots of surprises, tenth title for Malmö, two teams predicted to finish mid-table or lower winning silver and bronze and Mimmi Larsson saving Mallbacken in 78th minute of the final game. Here you can find the archived version of today's live coverage if anyone wants to check at what time of the day Hammarby actually was out of the relegation zone (start reading from the bottom for more suspense)
FC Rosengård slaughtered Linköping in the last game to get the gold. 5-0 A very good Rosengård, very poor Linköping, and good crowd (4255) Some more gold celebrations Surprise team Eskilstuna United will play in the Champions League next year. They've had by far the best crowds this season and ended it it all with a new club record today: 6312