Damallsvenskan Soapbox

Seeing red

2011-09-12T23:52:00.001+02:00

LdB FC Malmö v. Tyresö FF, Damallsvenskan Round 18
10 september 2011, Malmö IP

Summary: Goals, backtalk, resentment. Extremely well-played football for 75 minutes, and the most entertaining game of the season. 3 - 5 (1 - 3)
Screen shots, complete with snarky commentary

Looking back to May, I see that I called the first game in this series, when Tyresö hosted LdB, the "Best game of the season so far." How did this game stack up to that one? Well, it had plenty of great play (at least until the home side was suddenly playing 8 against 11, at which point things understandable cooled off a little, but I'm getting ahead of myself). It had lots of goals—four per half!—scored in a variety of ways (a penalty, an own goal, headers from play and a corner kick, one roofie from excellent individual effort...). And although I do not watch sports to see athletes let their emotions get the better of them (if I did, Swedish women's football would hardly be my sport of choice), I'll admit that I find a game like this one, marked by red cards and controversy, to be memorable. Historic, in fact, according to SverigesRadio's expert commentator, who says she has never seen anything like this before in a Damallsvenskan game.

The game starts off quickly, with both teams running well and looking smooth and dangerous. The first goal comes quickly, in the 8th minute, with Tyresö's Kirsten van der Ven's long loopy high cross finding Madelaine Edlund standing just on the six-yard box; she heads the ball in with no apparent effort. 0-1. LdB's equalizer is only 5 minutes behind that, with LdB's Manon Melis sending a precise pass on the ground all the way across Tyresö's penalty area to find an open Caroline Seger; her equally low shot crosses back to the far side of the goal. 1-1 and the next five minutes or so have enough quiet moments that the TV cameras go to the stands, and pick out a particular fan, who, if she's trying to not stick out, really ought to not wear a bright pink hat and mirrored sunglasses. The camera lingers, until at some point she actually seems to be embarrassed, at which point the camera cuts away.

The on-field action quickly becomes more compelling. A not-well-cleared corner kick gives LdB a good chance on goal, but in the 25th Edlund and teammate Josefina Öqvist get a long pass forward and rush into LdB's box, harassing and jostling and LdB's Malin Levenstad falls down backwards near the ball, then rolls over onto it, then appears to realize that she's touching the ball inappropriately and puts her arms up. She is almost certainly doing this mostly to protect herself from Öqvist, who is showing no compunction about kicking a ball that happens to be near someone's head. Nevertheless, she clearly touches the ball in the penalty box, probably twice. She gets a yellow card, and Tyresö gets a penalty kick, which van der Ven converts and makes the score 1-2.

Up until this point, everyone has kept their cool and no one really has much cause for complaint. But only a minute later, LdB's emotions start to peep through. Tyresö's Elaine harasses LdB's Nilla Fischer from behind at midfleld and knocks her down (not easy to do) and maybe fouled her, but she gets the ball and sends a nice pass forward to Edlund streaking up the left side; Edlund then sends a perfect ball all the way across LdB's box to Öqvist, who crosses up the goalkeeper and scores, on a play that is almost an exact replay of LdB's Melis-to-Seger goal. Now it's 1-3. As the ball rolls slowly away from the back of the net, LdB defender Emma Wilhelmsson gives in to frustration and boots the ball upfield.

In the 33rd Fischer ditches two Tyresö defenders by slipping between them, and making them run into each other. She takes a fantastic bending shot, which goalkeeper Carola Söberg makes an equally fantastic save against, showing textbook form, diving right while reaching over with her left arm to paw the ball safely out of bounds. More frustration from LdB in the 42nd, when Katrine Veje gets knocked by and loses the ball to Öqvist; she is sprawled on the ground but swipes an arm out at Öqvist's ankle in a fit of pique.

But it's the second half when the real opera begins. About nine minutes into the period Melis is called over to the ref for reasons that are unclear, although it happens while the ball is not in play, and the TV commentators hypothesize that she's been overheard bad-mouthing someone. LdB captain Levenstad (already on a yellow, remember) comes over to Melis and the ref, and the three of them have a brief chat. The result is a yellow to Melis. No one seems particularly upset about it at this point. (Foreshadowing.)

A minute later LdB defender Lina Nilsson and Fischer mis-communicate about which of them will get to a ball, and they both run away from it; Tyresö pounces on it and a beautiful long accurate pass is sent forward to Edlund, speeding up the middle for all she's worth. She has beaten her defenders; she will have a one-on-one situation with LdB keeper Thora Björg Helgadottir. Helgadottir charges out, and misses the ball, but gets a piece of Edlund who goes absolutely flying. Helgadottir gets a straight red card and there's not really too much to say about it; no one protests. Recently acquired back-up keeper Pamela Tajonar Alonso comes on, and LdB's forward Veje has to come off, to make way for a goalkeeper—oh the shame! She is furious about the situation, brushing angrily past her coach and teammates, kicking at objects by the bench, swatting aside warm-up clothes, and she throws herself down at the end of the bench away from anyone else and looks like she's having a right good sulk.

On the field, however, LdB have not given up, not in the least. Two minutes and now playing one player down, LdB puts together a lovely series of passes, and the ball ends up at the feet of Sara Björk Gunnarsdottir, who scores a beautiful goal to the nearside, the ball passing in the small space between the keeper and the post and flying up to hit the upper net. Oj vad snyggt! yells the commentator. 2-3 now, and three minutes later Therese Sjögran takes a free kick just outside Tyresö's penalty area that Tyresö's keeper punches, then it's headed by an LdB player, then it bounces off of Elaine's head and into the net for an own goal. Oops!, now it's 3-3. The LdB players celebrate as if one of them had done it.

And it's only a minute later that Tyresö score again, from a corner kick. It looks at first like an own goal from an LdB player, and I start to sneer at LdB ("Haha, that's what you get for celebrating an own goal!"), but the reply clearly shows that it came off Katrin Schmidt's foot; she's just running so fast at the goal that it's hard to see what happened. 3-4 and I am beside myself, this game is so much fun.

So before I describe what happens next, pause for a moment, Gentle Reader, to consider fully the mental states of the various people on the field. This game has been as closely played as matches get; the goals have come pell-mell on top of each other; the emotions of the players are now see-sawing wildly. It is in just such situations as these that referees perhaps ought to be a little tolerant, and treat players with a smidgen of indulgence. But this particular refereeing crew has already shown itself to be card-happy and sensitive to chatter. Each team has players who are known to be chatty. Trouble, in retrospect, seems imminent and unavoidable.

On LdB's possession from the restart, Fischer sends Melis running ahead with a very nice through pass. Melis, as the replay will show, is onside, but she is not the 'onside-by-many-meters-how-could-you-not-see-that-you-stupid-line-judge' kind of onside. The line judge calls offside. Boos from the fans rain down from the stands. Melis ambles back, shaking her head. The boos increase. The referee has been talking to the line judge, and she comes back on and heads toward Melis, carrying a yellow card, and then shows the red. Captain Levenstad comes rushing up. Melis makes a gesture that for the referee... well, I don't know for sure of course, but I'll go out on a limb and suggest it means 'you need eyeglasses.' The replay shows her wagging her finger at the line judge, and then making this gesture to him. Apparently he took it personally, and ratted her out to the ref. What Melis did was wrong, and she knew she had a yellow; the line judge on the other hand ought to have been the adult in the situation and either let it go, or had words with Melis afterward.

Three minutes later, LdB's Levenstad steps in front of an onrushing Schmidt, braces herself, puts her shoulder down, and gives Schmidt a knock to the gut that an American football player would be happy with; the ball is nowhere near either of them of them. Levenstad gets a(nother) yellow. Teammate Lina Nilsson comes rushing up to protest, and she immediately gets a yellow. It seems as play might start back up; apparently Levenstad's yellow for the handball in the first half has been forgotten. The side line judge and fourth official consult. The referee has the briefest flash of looking sheepish, I think. The boos and catcalls from the audience increase. But there's no question; Levenstad must come out. She takes advantage of it by sending a last barrage of abuse at the ref. That's the third LdB player to be shown a red card.

It's now 8 players against 11, and it shows. For the last 20 minutes of the game, Tyresö are given so much time and space that they look almost uncertain about how they should proceed. Substitute goalkeeper Alonso makes a nice save. The crawl on the bottom of the screen informs us that the betting odds for LdB to win the match have now gone up to 30-to-1. Melis comes up to the stands to join her teammates. The three of them chat—one can only guess what about—but frantic hand gestures are being made. Eventually Tyresö's numbers pay off, and Schmidt scores again in added time, making the final 3-5. I've put a clip of the goals below, and included the last full minute of play, just for the historical interest of what it looks like, when one team has only eight players.

So a quite entertaining match. With this victory, Tyresö has put itself firmly in second place, while LdB remains in first, but only three points ahead. And did you forget about our Celebrity in the audience? I for one certainly did, and, I suspect, so did almost everyone else.

The non-offside, and Melis' crime, complete with replay showing the gesture to the line judge:

The last minute of play (see how empty the field looks with three players missing), and recap of all the goals:

Tuesdays with Damallsvenskan 6

2011-09-01T21:26:00.001+02:00

Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC v Linköping FC, Damallsvenskan Round 15
30 augusti 2011, Valhalla IP, Göteborg
Weather: There's a strange yellow light in the sky, I think they call it the sun
Result: 2-0
Screenshots

Have I ever mentioned that Swedes really like bananas? As a people, they seem to be convinced that if one is about to exercise, or if one has just exercised, or if one is even thinking about exercise, then one must eat a banana. People keep them in their gym bags, and desk drawers, just in case. I have never seen so many people eat bananas. Those trying to market work-out recovery products must struggle to overcome the banana (see for instance this advertisement in which a cute baby monkey begs the heartless Swedes "Please don't eat my bananas."). Personally, I quite like bananas: they are tasty, nutritious, easy to digest, and come in their own biodegradable packaging which may someday help clean-up for hazardous waste. The only problem is, bananas are a silly fruit. No one can be taken seriously while they are eating a banana. Therefore it gives me a tiny grin when, in the 10th minute of play, the camera cuts to KG's bench, and there is Sara Lindén at the end of the bench, contentedly munching a banana, while her teammates grin as they pass around a big white sack full of them.

The game is quite even in the first half, with both teams having some close chances. Göteborg's Johanna Almgren's alert play and fancy footwork shows that she is in top form. She is playing in the right midfield, behind Olivia Schough at forward. In the 30th minute, Linköping defender Jessica Samuelsson aggressively defends against Schough, knocking her down, and I am reminded of a previous meeting between these two teams, right before the World Cup, in which I hypothesized that Samuelsson's good defending against Almgren playing at right forward may have taken Almgren out of contention for the World Cup squad. Perhaps Almgren has been moved back in order to avoid Samuelsson. The camera cuts to coach Torbjörn Nilsson, who is up in the stands looking attentive (see above).

If so, it's a strategy that seems to be working. Early in the second half, she sends a fantastic long ball through to Schough that Schough can't quite play back to anyone; in the 54th, Schough then sends Almgren to the end line, and Almgren sets the ball up to Jenny Hallensteson who takes a hard shot that just goes over the bar. She puffs her cheeks out. The camera cuts back to the KG bench just in time to catch Lindén taking her shirt off, while all the (male) coaches studiously look elsewhere, and she comes in for Schough a couple minutes later. Good thing she ate that banana earlier.

In the 66th Almgren appears to run over someone to get to the ball, and she passes it across he field to Lindén, who is taken down and earns a free kick. While Lindén is lying on the ground, speedy Linnea Liljegärd runs past, hollering; someone takes the free kick very quickly; Linköping (and the camera crew) are taken by surprise as Liljegärd and shoots just wide.

KGFC has certainly had the better play so far in this half, but the quick kick seems to have galvanized them further and they suddenly they take over the match. A couple minutes later Almgren and Liljegärd rush into the penalty area and the ball bounces funny and it's clear to everyone that someone has hit it with her arm; Liljegärd raises her own arm and protests to the ref that there was a hand ball. Yes, there certainly was, but it was Almgren who did it, as the replay clearly shows. KG continue to press and the ball is almost entirely down at Linköping's end. Defender Marlene Sjöberg, who's had a very solid game both in defense and running forward, is tackled hard at midfield and has to come off, favoring her bleeding knee. Only one minute later Almgren wins a duel with defender Samuelsson, crossing her up completely on the right side end line; she sends a ball to about two meters in front of the goal where Liljegärd knocks it in. 1-0 and KG are very relieved; they clearly deserve to be winning this game, and it is vital that they do so.

A moment of comedy in the 80th. Linköping keeper Sofia Lundgren has the ball and is going to punt it, and the camera cuts away. "Ojojoj!" the annoucer suddenly says, and the camera cuts back, and we see a Linköping player, Nora Holstad Berge, rolling around on the ground, well away from the ball. What happened? Did an opposing player push her? Well... no. Lundgren, perhaps a little anxious to get rid of the ball, took the punt before her player was far enough away, and the ball hit her right on the back of the head, hard enough to knock her down. Note to Lundgren: this is not the way to make friends with your own players. KG graciously returns the ball when the referee gives it to them.

Five minutes after this, the game is effectively over when KG score again, starting again sith some nice work from Almgren on the right, when her through ball sends Lisa Ek sprinting to the end line; Ek's pass back to Lindén is deflected off a defender's heel but Lindén recovers quickly and takes a shot to the far post the Lundgren dives at but to no avail. 2-0 and Ek looks as happy as Lindén.

With that, KG secures an important victory as the season heads into its final third. KG is now tied for third with Tyresö, both of whom are only one point behind Umeå, while LdB Malmö leads the pack with three points more than that. I can't say that I miss the days when one team (usually Umeå) would have the season more or less already wrapped up by this point; it's going to be an exciting end to the season...

Regnarök

2011-08-15T17:29:00.008+02:00

Kopparbergs/Göteborg v LdB FC Malmö, Damallsvenskan Round 13
14 augusti 2011, Valhalla IP, Göteborg
Weather: so very bad that half of second half was not broadcast
Result: 1-0 and the second half of the season will be very exciting
Screenshots

Click for larger image, in which you can sorta see the rain

The title of this post is supposed to be funny. This game was a battle between two top teams in the league, played in a stadium named Valhalla, and it rained a lot during the game. Swedish for "rain" is "regn" and the verb form is "regnar." If it was raining during Ragnarök, Norse mythology's battle to end all battles, wouldn't it look something like this? And wouldn't that make it... heh heh... regnarök? (Get it? Get it? Funny, eh? Eh? Well, if you speak Swedish and don't think so, you are then welcome try to justify the whole 'talk is sheep' campaign to me.)

Anyway, moving on. I had several reasons to cheer for K/G in this game— for one thing, a win would help keep the second half of the season interesting, as point leaders LdB and Umeå IK were threatening to pull away from the pack. For another thing, the team currently has several of my favorite players, and after the World Cup earlier this summer, they added another, Norwegian Ingvild Stensland, whose precise passes and long-range rockets have inspired me now and then to become almost lyrical. She had been playing in France for Olympique Lyonnaise, and has played for K/G before, so it's a bit of a homecoming for her.

Things looked good early for K/G on offense. Lisa Dahlkvist sends Sara Lindén a nice ball over the top of the middle that LdB keeper Thora Björg Helgadottir has to run out to kick away from her; striker Linnea Liljégärd has a shot when is Helgadottir is off her line but it goes well high; Lindén takes the ball away from defender Lina Nilsson and has another shot, a hard one that Helgadottir must save and it goes out for a corner. Best of all, in the 10th minute LdB star forward Manon Melis is called for offside when she clearly was not; if the refs are going to be like that, it can only help keep speedster Melis in check. But the announcers are miffed. "Not offisde," they grump while watching the replay, "There is nothing to discuss."

K/G/s defense is also looking good. In the 12th LdB's Frida Nordin outwits a defender or two, makes a nice run to the endline, and sends a potentially dangerous pass back but K/G's veteran defender Jane Törnqvist anticipates well and blocks the pass out. A few minutes later Linda Sembrant stands up to Melis and stops her, not an easy thing to do. But there are a few heart-in-mouth moments, such as when Nordin sends in a cross that LdB midfielder Nilla Fischer heads toward goal from close range. The ball hits Törnqvist in the stomach and bounces toward goal, and keeper Kristen Hammarström must dive to save it. In the 20th LdB had a corner kick, and the ball is simply played on the ground out to the top of the box, to be met by Melis, who only has to take one touch to get around the onrushing defender and send a ball in that is either a shot, or a softball for someone standing in the box to deflect in. Goalkeeper Hammarström has to save it out for another corner kick. I bounce on my couch and shriek. Fy fan! What has K/G's scouting staff been up to? I myself have seen that play by LdB, oh, gosh, only a dozen or so times this year...

Let's interrupt the Very Serious Football to talk about shoes. In the 24th minute Liljegärd fancy-footworks the ball very close to the sideline and it is called out. She is enraged and you can hear her yell at the ref from wherever the nearest microphone is. She makes an arm gesture that might have been rude and the referee comes over to tell her to cool it. I think she was right— I think the ball was not wholly over the line— but you can hardly blame the anyone whose eyes were too busy looking at Liljegärd's shoes to see things correctly. Later, we see that Dahlkvist is also wearing very, very bright shoes (pictured here). I suppose if one's uniform is black, perhaps one feels it necessary to brighten one's kit up a bit with fancier foots.

K/G's defense then hits a rough patch. Defender Marlene Sjöberg, in order to prevent a corner kick, makes a hard pass to her keeper Hammarström right in front of the goal, and Hammarström is briefly in a foot race against Nordin and Melis; not an ideal situation. In the 32nd Melis wastes a 3-against-2 opportunity. In the 34th, Törnqvist misclears a ball that goes right to Melis who gives it to Sara Björk Gunnarsdottir, and Hammarström must make a funny off-balance punch and gets knocked down hard for her trouble. LdB's Nilsson gets a yellow for grabbing Lisa "Rambo" Ek's shirt; as with Melis' non-offside, ingenting att snacka om. About this time, I grump to myself that I haven't seen much of Stensland lately; it's almost as if she heard me, because she immediately takes the ball and spearheads an attack that forces several LdB players to mob their own goal area. It's also just about this time when the rain starts.

Did I call it merely rain? More like a Noachian deluge. Oddly, people in Göteborg tweeting during the game claimed that the rain was either minimal or non-existent where they were. It's hard to show rain at these picture resolutions, but here's a still from before the transmission cut out the first time. "Usch, vad det regnar nu!" says the announcer. Apparently the cable's equipment got flooded at some point, because if you tuned in to TV4Sport during the second half of this game, there's a better-than-even chance that all you saw was this (the picture above, telling you that you're not seeing what you want to be seeing).

The picture came back for a couple minutes at a time now and then, and I learned a useful phrase that kept scrolling across the top of the screen: "På grund av dåligt väder är det problem med överföringen av bilder från Damallsvenskan" (which means just what you think it means). Apparently K/G were awarded a penalty kick in the 65th minute, in which Sembrant's kick was saved by Helgadottir, then Dahlkvist scored in the first minute of extra time after a set-up by Johanna Almgren. Must have been exciting. Too bad I didn't see it. Harrumph.

Edit: Now I've seen the goal, and the penalty kick, and some fantastic saves by LdB's Helgadottir, as missing footage is now online at fotbollskanalen. Thanks @Dandal!

The screenshots, and here's the halftime interview with Stensland.

Tuesdays with Damallsvenskan 5

2011-08-10T11:02:00.021+02:00

LdB FC Malmö v. Umeå IK, Damallsvenskan Round 12
9 augusti 2011, Malmö IP
Weather: Sunshine and then another dramatic purple sunset
Result: 1-1, just like last week

Set the Wayback Machine for ten years ago; it feels like old times, seeing the teams from Umeå and Malmö at the top of the charts. At the start of Round 11, only a week ago, when Umeå hosted LdB, the two teams were placed second and first. That game was a tie at 1-1, so at the start Round 12, with LdB hosting Umeå, the teams were placed first and second. This game also was a tie at 1-1. The less things change, the more they stay the same.

Another thing that did not change was Umeå goalkeeper Caroline Jönsson's trucker-style camouflage ball cap. Now I have nothing against goalkeepers wearing hats, after all, it's just practical, but I confess when I saw it on her head last week, I laughed, thinking that the sun must have come out unexpectedly and so she must have had to borrow a hat from Umeå Idrottsklubben's competitive moose hunting team or something. Because surely she would not choose to wear that hat; it clashes horribly with her red jersey. But this week... the hat was back.

Fortunately, there were plenty of other nice things to watch in this game. As is often the case Manon Melis was a constant threat. She takes a nice run at the goal already in the 15th minute, perhaps accidently handling the ball a little bit, then taking a shot from close range at a bad angle that nearly sends one of the end line ball girls into orbit. Her goal ten minutes or so later was a thing of beauty, taken from just inside the box, crossing just in front of keeper Jönsson, and striking the far net just inside the post. 1-0 to the home team and one might observe that it was some sloppy defending from Umeå that gave her that chance, as she was allowed to receive the ball un-harassed, and even to then run at the goal a few steps to gather momentum and take her time to aim and shoot.

Umeå's goal in the 39th was also a thing a beauty, and nearly a clinic of passing and patience and finishing. The goal-scoring play started all the way back in Umeå's goal box; three passes later, Ramona Bachmann had the ball at midfield and managed through individual skill to take the ball all the way to Umeå's endline, and pass back to Maria Nordbrandt, whose one-touch on the ground into the box was right on target to Hanna Pettersson, standing unmarked less than a meter in front of the goal. LdB defenders raised their hands to call for offside, but clearly she was not. 1-1.

The second half was perhaps played at not quite so high an energy level, although still offered plenty of chances. Melis, standing well-guarded at the top of Umeå's box, provided a fantastic assist to on onrushing Frida Nordin, whose finish went just wide of the post, to LdB's bench's despair. In the 79th minute, Bachmann jogs to get a ball going off the sideline, and takes the chance to eat up the clock a little by juggling it and then passing it to the player taking the throw with her heel; probably it is a coincidence, but the camera cuts to Melis, looking annoyed (see video below). When the game ends, everyone look slightly annoyed; each team knows that they have only given hope to the rest of the field. Still, it was certainly a fair result, and closeness of the current standings ensures that the rest of the season will be interesting. Even if it feels like old times to see these two teams up top, it is nice to see them so even with each other, and also nice to see they no one is blowing out the league by beating everyone else soundly.

Ramona Bachmann shows off her stuff:

The wurst comes first

2011-07-18T23:10:00.030+02:00

North Korea v Sweden, Group C, Women's World Cup
2 juli 2011, Augsburg, Germany
Weather: better in Sweden (and you can't say that very often)
Result: 0-1, and beer, fries, and a free currywurst

Berlin's Tegel airport is a lot smaller than I thought it would be, which is good, because it meant that we could hurry out to the currywurst joint right where the buses pick you up to get into town. The place is a old converted train car, with room for a flat-screen TV on the wall; we hustle all our luggage inside and plop down right in front it. An employee is easily convinced to change the channel to the North Korea versus Sweden game, already in progress but only by 20 minutes or so. The score is 0-0 and apparently nothing has happened yet. I am relieved to see it: of all Sweden's group games, I was the most apprehensive about this one. North Korea is always something of a cipher, except that they can be counted on to play very physically, and the team opposing them usually emerges more or less battered, and often burdened with yellow cards.

Other patrons, who had been ignoring the TV, now look up at it, with interest ranging from slight to mild. That there is even this much interest is surprising; after all, this is a glorified hot dog stand at airport bus depot, not a pub, so who in their right minds would want to hang around for any longer than it takes to have a snack? No one except us. Clearly we are not in our right minds. Beer arrives, fries arrive. After a pause, an employee comes out with two currywursts. She looks around—there are only three tables with patrons. She heads towards us. "No, no, not ours, we didn't order that." But no one else ordered them either, apparently. The employee comes back. "Do you want them?" she asks. "Umm... sure, I'll take one," I say. Having a currywurst again had been on my List of Things to Do in Germany. I'm hungry and non too warm, and the currywurst is hot and very tasty. All football games should be celebrated with something like this.

The circumstances under which I was watching this game were not such that I could, or frankly cared to, keep careful track of events. I remember that Sweden seemed to miss some sitters again, although there was nothing so egregious as Jessica Landström's miss against Colombia in the opener. Caroline Seger got a yellow card—"Uh-oh, didn't she get one against Colombia, and doesn't that mean she can't play against the US?" we wonder (and we were right about that). Lisa Dahlkvist was the goal-scorer again, on a nice assist from the end line by Therese Sjögran. I also remember that Sweden once again endured a seemingly-never-ending series of corner kicks at the end of the match, and that only some goal-line heroics from Sara Thunebro prevented North Korea from tying it up. Typical Swedish national team shenanigans, in other words, but one does get used to it. We clinked our beers together in satisfaction when the final whistle blew, and saddled up to head into Berlin's spitting rain to find somewhere more suitable from which to watch the US take on Colombia.

The US won that game easily, 3-0. These were fantastic results: it meant that both Sweden and the US had two wins, and would therefore progress from group play. We therefore felt that the group's marquee match on Wednesday, Sweden versus the US, should be somewhat relaxed, and might even be fun to watch, instead of the usual last-game-of-round-play nail-biter that Sweden games usually turn into. Everyone (including me) was expecting Sweden to lose that game, of course...

The spell is broken

2011-06-28T18:55:00.038+02:00

Colombia v Sweden, Group C, Women's World Cup
28 juni 2011, Leverkusen, Germany
Weather: like a sauna, say the Swedes who are there
Result: 0-1 and I need to go sit quietly for a while and catch my breath

Sweden never wins its first games in tournaments.* There's even a word for this: "premiärspöket." And I don't know very much about the team from Colombia. I've been sweating this day for a couple months now. I was so worked up about this game that in an unusual burst of energy and organization, I had everything ready to go by kick-off time: recording started, warm food on plate, cold drink in hand. The long pre-game show includes interviews with Victoria Sandell Svensson and Hanna Ljungberg, heroes of the World Cup in 2003, when Sweden won the silver medal. That team was welcomed home with a parade, and an outdoor ceremony in Stockholm which was attended by thousands. What kind of homecoming reception will this team get? I wonder nervously.

In the tunnel, Team Colombia sings. Team Sweden looks more serious. The commentators talk about cultural differences. In the crowd, however, those differences are less apparent, and fans of both teams are waving flags and jumping and yelling. Someone has a sheet that has a Colombia flag and a Swiss flag, and I wonder why. Someone else has a Sweden flag that says THUNIS in the yellow band across the middle. Thunis herself (Sara Thunebro) is the most stoic in line; her teammates bounce a little from foot to foot, or trade small talk with the ball girls, but Thunis is completely immobile, gazing straight ahead without blinking, in the zone.

At the start, Sweden looks good. They are getting the ball deep, and Lotta Schelin already has a chance early, getting free on the left and taking a shot around her defender, and Colombia's keeper completely misses it, but it's so slow that another defender can clear it off the line. Five minutes later she has a chance again; this time, the keeper gets just enough of it to slow it down and someone is able to clear it off the line again. "Wooo-hooo!" shrieks one TV commentator, as if he were at a rodeo. It's still looking good, though, and in the 13th Sweden has worked Colombia's defense out of shape... Schelin takes the ball to the end line and passes back to Jessica Landström, who is standing at the goal box. The net is open. Landström skies it. I shriek. So do the Swedish radio broadcasters. Landström holds her face in her hands, and looks heavenwards. Her teammates clutch their own heads in disbelief. I'll give them this: for the most part, they appear to shake it off quickly, and trot into position for the goal kick.

But Landström seems rattled. Four minutes later she charges at a Colombia player, clearly wanting the ball, and does not stop her momentum after the pass. Landström is quite a bit bigger, and the Colombian player Gaitan is completely flattened. And I write down in my notes that I need to learn the Swedish for 'steamrollered.' In the 36th Schelin gets a great pass but traps it poorly, and for the rest of the half it feels like Sweden is rushing. There were some positive things, but overall, it was not a good half for a team that can take itself out mentally.

The second half starts like the first, with Sweden looking good. Youngster Sofia Jakobsson is subbed in for Linda Forsberg in the 55th. In the 57th Landström flubs another shot. She is shown in slow-mo screaming an obscenity, and looking completely anguished. She needs to come out of this game now, I think to myself, just as the TV commentators suggest the same thing. The TV replays the build-up, and so we nearly miss what happens next...

Schelin has the ball, and drives it to the end line, and passes back and Landström runs to goal box again... and this time her touch does not fail her. She puts it in like a pass: safe, and on the ground. 0-1 to Sweden. Landström barely celebrates at all, but runs straight over to Schelin and gives her a fierce hug and I can only imagine is saying "Tacktacktacktacktack..." to Schelin. (In post-game interviews, she credits the goal entirely to Schelin, which is only fair.) The whole team joins the hug, and there's less jubilant leaping than usual, but instead they hang together for a few moments with an almost desperate sense of relief. This goal was enormously important, obviously for the team and its tournament ambitions, but also for Landström's teammates, who were certainly doubting her at this point (maybe especially Schelin), and for Landström herself for the same reason. Never mind that it was a simple redirect from 5 meters away, never mind the several previous missed chances; sometimes a small accomplishment is enough to get by on.

Does it sound like I'm projecting my own feelings onto my observations in the previous paragraph? Sure I am. That's why we watch sports in the first place, right?

Now all Sweden has to do is hang on for another 30 minutes. They manage it. A post-game shot shows Coach Dennerby collapsed onto a bench in the dugout, looking like he's been through the wringer. Several players are interviewed, including Landström, who has the decency to make an apologetic grimace at the camera after saying that she hopes they 'continue to play well.' A wag on Twitter, referring to this interview, asks whether one can continue something that has not started. Ha! They don't have to be good, I think, they just have to be slightly better and luckier than whoever they're playing.

Next up, North Korea, whose style of play will be quite different, and then in a week, the United States, who are favored to win the group and one of the favorites to win the whole thing. There will be no close game descriptions or cheesy screen shots from those games from me... because I'm goin' to Germany. To quote the commentator, wooo-hooooo! Catch y'all on the flip side of group play.

* Another Twitter-chum of mine says that this was the first time that any Swedish football team has won its World Cup opener since 1958. 1958! Okay, so that's not quite 'never' but it is a long damn time.

If Sweden ties but no one sees it...

2011-06-25T16:12:00.022+02:00

... did it really happen?

Sweden v. Japan, friendly
23 juni 2011, Bochum, Germany
Result: 1-1 (1-0) and some indignant reporters

Three days before the start of the tournament, and five days before their own first game, Sweden played a warm-up match against Japan. My understanding is that it was known the the game would be 'closed', and the Swedish journalists were of course not too happy about that to start with, and perhaps they thought 'closed' applied only to fans, or that 'closed' only meant 'not for broadcast.' So the Swedish media showed up anyway.

Or at least they tried to. At the last moment the pitch was changed to one reportedly much further away. When they got there, the gates were locked and they could not get in. Then they were told that they could only be around (or only film?) for the last fifteen minutes.

I highly recommend watching the video from fotbollskanalen. They have fun footage at the stadium of locked gates and high fences, and they play spy-movie music, and are clearly having fun with it. At the same time, the reporter does look a little miffed, and you don't need to understand Swedish for that to come through. She interviews a German journalist who is happy to agree with her that a closed game this close to a tournament is unheard of; she interview a journalist from Japan who says the the team is getting nervous. But my favorite moment of the clip is when the reporter is getting shagged away from the end zone by a Japanese official; "Is it dangerous to stand here? But we always stand here," she says. "Five meters away," says the Japanese official.

Sweden's starters were Hedvig Lindahl in goal; Annica Svensson, Sara Larsson, Charlotte Rohlin, and Sara Thunebro in defense; Linda Forsberg, Lisa Dahlkvist, Caroline Seger, and Therese Sjögran in midfield; Jessica Landström and Josefine Öqvist up front. In the 33rd Forsberg was slightly hurt and replaced by Marie Hammarström; at the half, Sofia Lundgren replaced Lindahl in goal, and Nilla Fischer replaced Öqvist (though I doubt up top). In the 64th coach Dennerby "aired the bench" and replaced Svensson with Lina Nilsson and Seger with Sofia Jakobsson; sometime thereafter, Landström and Larsson were replaced with Madelaine Edlund and Linda Sembrandt. Later, Dahlkvist was replaced by Antonia Göransson. This means that every player saw some game time, except for the third keeper Kristin Hammarström, and Lotta Schelin, who stayed at the hotel on grounds of stomach pains. (As of this writing, both Forsberg and Schelin are reported to be back in full training.)

Game analysis? Japan is said to have played very well, with short passes. Sweden's play has been summed up as "slow play, sloppy passes, good attacks." You can see little bits of the game, from the ground level, in the video. Japan's goal, which came first, is reported to have come from a corner kick, so I think that it's the one you can see in the clip, and all I will say about that is that it was not pretty and it looked like a classic thing to happen to Sweden. The equalizer was scored by Sjögran, on a 'kanonskott' from 30 meters out, but unfortunately was not captured on video.

So is this a severe warning for Sweden, or just a slight stumble in a game that the Swedes at least were not taking too seriously? Would it have been better to win and gain self-confidence, or is it better to tie and be reminded that the next three games will not be easy? At the moment I do think the latter is true; I would rather that they have a slightly crappy last game and go into the tournament a little wary. But then I remember the last time they had a slightly crappy last practice game before a big tournament, and that didn't turn out so well...

So... this is it. This is the big one. The day of reckoning is nearly at hand. Sweden kicks off against Colombia in 2 days and 17 hours, in a group that includes North Korea and USA. I'm a nervous wreck. Fortunately it's also Midsommar, which means that no one will think it odd if I feel the need to fortify myself with a drop or two of akavit.

Sources
fotbolskanalen (TV4): The video report from which these stills were clipped.
Swedish Radio: Chaos before Sweden's rehearsel and Sjögran fixes the 1-1 in the rehearsel
damfotboll.com: Plans and/or fields [is this a pun?] muddled before the Japan match

One week and counting

2011-06-20T22:08:00.000+02:00

Sweden v. Mexico, Friendly
16 juni 2011, Gamla Ullevi, Göteborg, Sweden
Result: 2-0 (1-0)

The national team has been named, a schlager-y pop song has been chosen as an anthem, and now it's time to put the rubber to the road, as they say. The line-up: Sweden's Tall Two, the forward duo of Lotta "L8" Schelin and Jessica Landström are starting up top; in the midfield is youngster Antonia Göransson, captain Caroline Seger, Lisa Dahlkvist, and Louise Forsberg; the defenders are stalwart Sara Thunebro, hero-from-the-qualifiers Charlotte Rohlin, veteran Sara Larsson, and newbie Annica Svensson; Hedvig Lindahl, who's been Sweden's starting keeper for a number of years now, is in goal.

Overall, Sweden looked fit, active, and alert (game highlights). They took lots of shots, and if hitting the side-netting or top-bar was good enough, the score would have been more like 6-0. Schelin shone, being generally threatening with dribbling skillsand providing the hard work to move the ball forward and then the assist for Dahlkvist's opening goal, and also scoring a very nifty little one-touch goal herself, after a spot-on assist from Seger.

Did anyone disappoint? Not really. Landström did okay, at least, she did not entirely disappear, as she sometimes does, but on the other hand she certainly did not shine like Schelin. Forsberg, a generally reliable all-around player, had a couple chances that she failed to put on goal, one of them coming after some quite hard work by Landström and Therese Sjögran.

Sjögran is jet-lagged and late to training camp because her WPS team would not let her leave early; according to that report, she left Sky Blue's last match ten minutes before full time in order to catch her plane to Sweden. Now that's cutting it close. She came on for Göransson in the 53rd, and looked pretty good, lacking perhaps in the fine timing that her teammates have working on. If I were the paranoid type, I would suspect that someone in the US had a vested interest in holding Sjögran back... and after all, Sweden and the US are in the same group... nah, surely not, that's crazy talk. In the 49th minute, US coach Pia Sundhage is shown sitting in the stands, taking notes. "Who let her in?" I wonder to myself.

Sweden made five more substitutions starting around the 60th minute—local girl and ex-Bälingare Linda Sembrant in for Larsson, the perhaps-slightly-injured Nilla Fischer in for Dahlkvist, Lina Nilsson in for Svensson, Madelaine Edlund in for Landström, and the other debutante Sofia Jakobsson in for Forsberg. All looked just fine. That leaves four who got no playing time: forward Josefine Öqvist, who had light knee surgery earlier in the spring and has only recently returned to full training; twins Marie and Kristin Hammarström, midfielder and goalkeeper respectively, and the other goalkeeper Sofia Lundgren. I personally might have liked to have seen either back-up keeper come in for Lindahl at some point—they're both having fine domestic seasons, and Hammarström at least could use some international experience. But that's not such a large complaint, and overall it seems that the team on an even keel.

Sweden does play one more warm-up, against Japan on Thursday, and then The Big Dance starts just a week from today, with Nigeria playing France and then the official start, hosts Germany opening against Canada. Sweden's first game is next Tuesday, against Colombia. I'm starting to get excited about the tournament. I'm also getting nervous. Sweden looks... not so bad, really. Is that a feeling of hope stirring in my breast? I had better crush it now, before Sweden does it for me.

Bursting bubbles

2011-05-30T20:03:00.044+02:00

Linköpings FC v Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC, Damallsvenskan Round 8
29 maj 2011, Folkungavallen, Linköping

To set the stage a little: Before this game, Linköping has three wins, three ties, and a loss only to this year's power LdB FC. Linköping has been parsimonious with goals this year, having scored 8 while allowing 7. Kopparbergs/Göteborg, last year's second place finisher, was highly touted in the preseason to be in contention for the league title. They started slowly however, tying their opener against Tyresö, then losing to both Kristianstad and Umeå, all without scoring. By the start of this game, they had won four in a row, outscoring opponents 15-0.

Round 8 is the last before the squad for this year's World Cup is announced. Therefore, for players on the verge of being named, this is the last chance they have to impress national team coach Thomas Dennerby, who is shown sitting in the stands. While I was watching this match, I wasn't really sure who exactly was a bubble player (and the results were a little surprising, but I'm getting ahead of myself). However, there are many players on the field today who have been on the national team in the past, and could reasonably look forward to more. For K/Göteborg, there are goalkeeper Kristen Hammarström, forwards Linnea Liljegärd and Sara Lindén, midfielders Johanna Almgren and Lisa Dahlqvist, and defender Linda Sembrant. For Linköping, this list includes goalkeeper Sofia Lundgren, defender Charlotte Rohlin, and forward/midfielders Kosovare Asllani and Louise Fors. (Actually I would not have put Asllani on this list before the game, although one of the TV commentators did. And is it possible that Linköping defender Jessica Samuelsson was also on this list?)

K/Göteborg presses early, and Almgren is looking okay so far, as is Dahlkvist. When Linköping's Linda Sällström dares to make a run at the K/Göteborg goal in the 5th minute, she is taken out (cleanly and legally) by Hammarström and then defender Jane Törnqvist makes a heroic effort to avoid landing on and crushing Sällström's face. When play starts again two of our bubbles impress: Fors and Almgren are both working hard. In the 13th Sällström gets a good pass on the left side of the box, but runs around it a little to shoot with her right foot instead of immediately shooting with her left, a extra second that makes Hammarström's save easy. Lundgren makes a good save. In the 20th LFC's Lisa Klinga persists against K/Göteborg's defense and earns herself a hard-kicked ball to the face in payment; Asllani lays the ball off back to her but her shot is wide. In the 24th, Almgren plays some nice defense. In the 30th she makes a run up the right and is taken down in the box by LFC's defender Jessica Samuelsson; it looks clean but replay shows that Samuelsson's hand is hooking Almgren's upper arm. Nothing really bad, but Almgren is clearly ticked off, and two minutes later she lowers her shoulder into Samuelsson and takes her out. Almgren and the Dahlqvist team up for a nice pass in, and Liljegärd tries to give it a stork-like karate kick, but she doesn't meet it cleanly and it's off target. The camera pans up to Dennerby in the stands, and he frowns.

At halftime, Linköping's Rolin is interviewed. Her place in the World Cup team is as certain as it gets, not only because the defense has lost key players to injuries but also because she got Sweden into the tournament by scoring twice against Denmark. Rohlin can therefore afford to be generous, and she praises her teammate Samuelsson's play against Almgren. They ask her about whether Samuelsson should be on the national team, and Rohlin says that she's very good although points out that Samuelsson's age (19) might be working against her.

When the second half starts, another defender, K/Göteborg's Marlene Sjöberg, shows her offensive capabilities in the 53rd, working hard to get a ball over to Dahlkvist who skies the shot. Sjöberg has been one of my favorites ever since I personally witnessed her valiant effort against the much taller Jessica Landström in the K/Göteborg v. Linköping match a couple years ago; however, at 160cm, she is small for a defender and is not on the list of bubbles. In the 56th K/Göteborg strings together enough quick passes—Dahlkvist-Liljegärd-Lindén—to bend Linköping's defense out of shape, but Lindén's shot is a tad weak and goalkeeper Lundgren makes a good reflex save on it. A few minutes later Linköping gets a good chance after Hammarström commits the sin of letting the ball bounce in the box. In the 62nd K/Göteborg's Catrine Johansson takes a fantastic free kick from distance that many players try to head, but it nearly goes directly into the goal all by itself. Lundgren is alert and swats it out. At this point in the game it definitely feels like, if there is to be a goal, it is going to result from a split-second lapse of concentration on the part of one of the goalkeepers.

K/Göteborg makes some sustitutions, with Jenny Hallstensson replacing Sjöberg, and Olivia Schough replacing Lindén and bringing some fresh speed up front, and then Amanda Edgren replaces Lisa Ek who looks exhausted. Almgren and Sällström are announced as the best players on the day, which is a little odd. In the 88th Hammarström drops a cross, but then in the 89th she runs out of her box and slides to stop a long ball before it becomes dangerous. In the 90th, when Asllani is fed a very nice through ball up the middle, and she speeds past Törnqvist and has a chance to be a hero but Hammarström reads the play perfectly and runs out of her box to tackle the ball away. In the 92nd Almgren pushes Samuelsson down one more time for good measure. There a last gasp of tension, at nearly the 92nd minute mark, when Asllani touches a truly lovely little assist over her own shoulder to Mariann Gajhede Knudsen, but the shot is just wide right. The game ends at nulls. "En helt okej null-null" says a commentator, which is true for viewers like me, who were entertained well enough, but not for many of the players who had wished to impress Dennerby favorably.

Out of Tune: Of all the bubble players not chosen, Almgren appears to be the most disappointed. In her pre-game interview she talked the talk— "I can't think about [a place on the national team] right now" and "There are many good players" and "I hope, and we'll see" but she was chewing gum while talking and the projected humility never quite reached her eyes. I have heard her playing style described as 'floppy' which is fair, but a report on World Cup squad selection at damfotboll describes her play in this game as "tight as a violin string" and I have to agree with that.

Samuelsson certainly stopped Almgren physically, and maybe got under her skin as well; I would almost dare to say that Samuelsson played Almgren out of it right out of a spot on the World Cup squad. She's capped for the under-20 national team, despite being young even for that level, and shows lots of promise. If another defender is badly hurt before the World Cup, perhaps Dennerby might think about giving her a call, despite her youth.

Dennerby probably feels pretty good about his choice for goalkeepers, after this game, though. K/Göteborg's Hammarström and Linköping's Lundgren both had a good game, and probably are rightfully in the top three keepers for Sweden, a list that includes Kristianstad's Hedvig Lindahl who is right now the #1.

Other bubbles: The biggest shock for me, national team-wise, was that Asllani was not chosen. Like many others (and possibly Asllani as well), I had started to think of her as a given in Dennerby's line-up, and perhaps in my mind I had started to link Asllani and Almgren: that is, Almgren wasn't going to make it as long as Asllani was around. Apparently that is not the case.

Otherwise, I am personally a little disappointed that Liljegärd and Lindén didn't make the team, but I don't think of them either expected to, and neither of them seem quite at their best, despite Liljegärd leading the league in scoring (for Swedes) and assists. Fors, after playing well early in this game, also is not at her best this season. All in all I think justice has been done, at least concerning players featured in this match. I guess we'll find out soon enough...

Tuesdays with Damallsvenskan 4

2011-05-26T20:56:00.013+02:00

Tyresö FF v Umeå IK, Damallsvenskan Round 7
24 maj 2011, Tyresövallen, Tyresö

It's happened before, that an evening's Damallsvenskan match has been followed by another program whose title makes the TV advertisement look a little funny. Last time, the ad seemed to question the intelligence of people who watch these games. This time, we are promised "Totally outrageous behavior." Sooo... did we get some?

Just near the end, Ramona Bachmann falls heavily to the ground after a collision with her former teammate Elaine. As often happens she rolls around a bit. Is she really hurt? Let's rephrase the question to "Did whatever happen cause her some pain?" and the answer to that is almost certainly yes. (It could not have been too bad, though, as she started, played a full 90, and, oh yeah, scored a hattrick in the next game five days later against Kristianstad. But back to this game...) So Bachmann is lying on the ground. Elaine hangs around, and offers a hand up, but at some point it becomes clear that, for whatever reason, Bachmann isn't going to walk off by herself. Elaine helps a trainer get Bachmann upright, and starts to help carry her off, but then just puts her arm under Bachmann's knees and carries Bachmann off all by herself. Bachmann puts both arms around Elaine's neck at one point and at least a couple people in my Twitterverse can be heard saying Awwwww. I think Bachmann may have looked a little sheepish at some point during all this.

On the other hand, if you're a Tyresö fan, you may choose to think that the "outrageous behavior" is Tyresö's on-field performance, and their resulting recent record, which is that they have now lost three games in a row. Umeå is of course a very good team; still, Tyresö is in a slump. They were missing Josefin Öqvist and Kirsten van de Ven, who do provide some punch to the offense, but still...

Here's a link to highlights of the match, in moving pictures.

Downtown derby

2011-05-20T12:10:00.008+02:00

Djurgårdens IF DFF v Hammarby IF DFF, Damallsvenskan Round 5
7 maj 2011, Östermalms IP, Stockholm
Weather: Sunny, warm, beautiful
Pictures

Summary: Sunshine, I skip Bieber-fever, flying balls endanger a little girl, Hammarby score a field goal but it doesn't count. 1-0 (1-0)

Normally a derby like this, between two big-city sides with a long-running rivalry in all sports, should attract many more fans than might normally attend. Today, however, there is some stiff competition for the attention of Stockholmare: yes, that's right, it is Bieber-fever. The point of Bieber-fever is to try to get a critical mass of fans to show support (?) and to try to get him to come to Stockholm. The less said about that, the better.

The Djurgården hymn is played over the PA system, the lyrics to which has thoughtfully been provided in the program, including instructions that all supports should know the song and stand up when it is played and sing it loudly with pride. Oddly, no one seems to be doing that. Shortly thereafter the ball girls are introduced, each of them by name, which is something I have never seen done before. They trot out proudly to the center circle, while the two teams walk out more soberly after them. It is rather hard to see them. The field is quite far away, and also quite large, certainly towards the far end of regulation. In the off-season, it is flooded for bandy. Obviously American football is played here too, as the field is striped with lines marking out a much smaller field, and there are goalposts just behind the goals. They are unpadded. I hope therefore that no one ends up rushing into either net, because they could hurt themselves.

The game starts, and almost immediately endangers an audience member. A tiny, tiny pink-clad girl is fooling about at the railing at the base of the stands. She is being closely guarded from falling, but not against balls flying in from the field. already in the third minute a Hammarby defender has to clear a ball and it shoots up into the stand, missing her by about a meter or so. Just one minute later, she is in peril again, this time from behind. A boy in a Djurgården tracksuit sitting just to my left, in the top row of the stands, is fooling around with a ball he's brought to the match. He loses control of it, and it bounces down the steep steps, gathering momentum, and nearly hits the little girl from the other side. He might have preferred it if it had, even though then he would only have had to deal with the irate father of the little girl. As it is, the ball bounces over her head and the railing, still picking up speed, hits the grassy slope beneath the stands... and rolls out on to the pitch. He is mortified.

Fortunately for his pride, Hammarby is managing a little spate of offensive effort, so play is not interrupted because it's going on at the other end of the field. A match guard trots out onto the pitch to retrieve the errant ball, and then tries to stuff it into a trash can. The boy is torn. He wants his ball back, of course— it's autographed— but that will mean that he will have to admit that it is his. His father takes pity on him and goes down to the rail to ask the guard to hand the ball up.

Meanwhile Hammarby are actually doing pretty well for themselves. In the 10th minute Jessy Sharro takes a hard shot that goes over the goal, but does manage to go through the uprights of the American goal. I raise up both arms and yell "three points!" I can't help it. Americans are conditioned to respond in this manner to any non-American-football item going through an American football goal. It doesn't happen very often and so when it does we think it's funny.

In the 11th Djurgården's Mia Jalkerud receives a nice long ball from Alexandra Höglund. Jalkerud takes it down deftly, then takes 2 or 3 touches, ditches her defenders and is now alone against Hammarby goalkeeper Minna Meriluoto. She shoots it to Meriluoto's right, low, and into the corner of the goal. 1-0. Soon thereafter Djurgården have a good effort again, but the shot goes over and Meiluoto is letting it be known that she is not happy with her defenders. Hammarby's highlight on offense comes in the 22nd, when Mami Yamaguchi takes a great shot from distance. It's low, and Djurgården keeper Gudbjörg Gunnarsdottir has to make a long dive to save it. It bounces off the post and then out for a corner kick. The rest of the half is rather evenly played, with both teams having some decentchances.

At halftime, we pay tribute to an 85 year old Djurgården fan, who is given a jersey that is signed by the whole team, and gets the traditional 4 hurrahs from the audience.

Apparently Djurgården's strategy for the second half is physical intimidation, and they do it well. In the 47th, a Djurgården player pushes Yamaguchi down hard, but there's no call and unfortunately she does not enter into my notes again until she is taken off in the 71st. Meriluoto makes a difficult catch, right into the sun, and I applaud. Hammarby's Tempest-Marie Norlin has some good work, to get around the defense, and has a one-on-one with Gunnarsdottir and tries to nutmeg her but Gunnardottir makes the save, kicking her heel inward. Djurgården's Caroline Sjöblom has rather obvious push on a Hammrby player who's about to break away, and I and other Hammarby partisans holler and she gets a yellow card.

Both goalkeepers continue to make decent saves, but somehow the action feels slow and uninspiring. At some point, a Djurgården youth player sitting nearby, out of the blue, observes "Det är ingen som går på" and she's right, it seems that neither team is following up their offensive efforts. Perhaps it is the unaccustomed warmth of the day, perhaps it is the size of the field, but everyone looks tired far before they should. As the game nears its end, each captain (Matilda Agné for Hammarby and Gunnarsdottir for Djurgåren) is named as player of the match, and then there's a burst of effort and emotion. In the 89th, Hammarby's coach suddenly starts hollering like crazy to his team, waving his arms for emphasis. Gunnarsdottir has to handle the ball in the 90th, and is not pleased about it and screams "Ta det lugnt!" at her team, which is funny because her voice and manner are anything but calm.

The game ends, and Hammarby players slump about looking depressed. They have a huddle on the field, and obviously they're getting some sort of pep talk because when they break up, the coach is laughing. But he's the only one. Yamaguchi is limping, and I have to admit that I'm not feeling too positive about the rest of the season.

I was a little dubious about Östermalms IP, mostly because I am a creature of habit and Djurgården's usual home field Kristineberg or Hammarby's homefield Kanalplan now feel like old friends. But I was wrong; Östermalms IP was very nice, and I rather hope to go back again this season. The boy who lost the football fled to the cafe soon after the incident; he came back with a basket of fries that really looked good. Next time I will be sure to make a proper cafe visit.

Tyresö-fari

2011-05-17T11:00:00.013+02:00

Tyresö FF v LdB FC Malmö, Damallsvenskan Round 5
8 maj 2011, Tyresövallen, Tyresö
Weather: Sunny, warm, beautiful

Summary: Sunshine, pretty goals, pretty defending, ugly defending, a near fight, a red card, and the 76th vexes me. Best game of the season so far. 1-2 (1-2)

Tyresövallen is probably the least easily-accessible stadium I've been too. A car is not actually required to get there, but the journey is made much easier when someone offers to drive there. The venue itself I've already covered, so now it's time to talk about the match proper.

The stands are crowded, and finding a seat looks like trouble until one of our little group boldly goes into the seating entrance marked 'VIP'. Seats are in short supply today; eventually the attendance will be announced at 2820, a record for the year so far, and there are many people standing by the rails and sidelines. We manage to squeeze into some molded plastic chairs just as everybody around us stands up to cheer, as Tyresö's Josefin Öqvist has scored in the 5th minute. The enormous electric sign behind the goal lights up and announcing "MÅL!" in huge yellow and red letters, as if we might not have noticed the roar of a couple thousand fans packed together like pickled herrings in a tin. 1-0 to the home team.

The crowd has reason to continue to be noisy; first there's a loud murmur of approval as Tyresö defends an LdB attack in the 9th minute, then angry muttering six minutes later as a whistle blows against the home team, then a series of sharp collective intakes of breath as LdB forward Manon Melis shoots from the right side. The shot is saved but the rebound goes back to an LdB player, who misses, and then Tyresö's defense clears the ball desperately but into the center. In retrospect, the series is a harbinger of things to come.

In the 21st minute Tyresö's Öqvist again shows her speed as she dashes past the LdB defense and beats them to a long ball, which she unfortunately cannot hold onto. But the effort is appreciated and a chant of "Ty-re-sö! (clap clap clap)" starts up among the flag-waving crowd in the stands opposite. Our side of the stands, perhaps generally more sober, nevertheless respond in kind, and add a foot stomp to each clap. A minute after it starts, the chanting stops abruptly, as LdB's Melis runs up the left, speeding past what seems like all of Tyresö's defenders, and shoots across the goal, beating Tyresö's keeper Carola Söberg to the right corner. 1-1 and the crowd is disappointed, but the goal was clearly well-deserved.

There's a gap in my notes between that goal in the 27th and minute 35; the play, which has been at a fine high tempo all along, is losing a bit of focus. LdB's Australian player Heather Garriock lies on the field, injured, and the two teams take the opportunity to rehydrate as she is replaced by Elin Rubensson. Play upon returning is a little more crisp, with some more nice moves by Öqvist, but the next notable thing to happen is that LdB's Nilla Fischer collides with someone not too far from Tyresö's penalty box; there's a little scuffle, and Fischer comes out the winner of a foul, much to the outrage of the fans, who are quite sure that she is the offender not the victim. LdB lines up the free kick carefully. The ball is crossed in almost perfectly, just out of the goalkeeper's easy reach, but just over the scrum of players running on to the ball. Tyresö's keeper comes out and collides with two LdB players who are attempting to head the ball, and the ball goes into the net. Even on replays it's hard to see what really happened here, but Linda Sembrandt is announced as the goalscorer although Fischer seems to have gotten her head to it as well. In either case it's now 1-2. Tyresö looks considerably more deflated after this goal than after the first one against them, and their shoulders droop.

The extra time to be added to the half is announced. A small girl behind us asks her father how much time is left. "Two more minutes in this half," he answers. "How many halves are there?" she asks. Halftime entertainment is a combination skill event and lottery, in which you buy a tennis ball with a unique number, and throw it from the sideline to the center circle. Closest to dead center wins. Thumpy music plays. One of our hejarklack comes back from the refreshment stand bearing a bulle and ostbågar, a couple of snacks that strike me as very Swedish.

The sun has dipped below the roof of the stands, and now, looking at the scoreboard toward the west goal, we're looking directly into the sunlight. The half starts brightly for the home team, as forward Madelaine Edlund earns a chance through good individual work but then blows the shot high and wide. "Oj!" says the crowd. Tyresö is pressing hard, and LdB's Icelandic forward Sara Björk Gunnarsdottir is the first to snap. She clips the feet of Tyresö's Katrin Schmidt as the latter runs past her, and adds a push for good measure. The crowd yells "Oj!" but this time meaning it in outrage rather than disappointment. Yellow card to Björk Gunnarsdottir, and it feels like there might be further chippy behavior in the game.

In the 55th minute LdB's Linda Forsberg intercepts a pass deep in her own territory, and sends a very very long ball forward. Tyresö captain Johanna Frisk seems to have it covered, but then loses her concentration for a split second and makes a terrible one-touch back pass to her keeper Söberg, perhaps not seeing that LdB's Melis is right on her heels. Melis springs forward on the ball and is now in a one-on-one with keeper Söberg at a very favorable angle. Söberg takes it calmly, advancing with a baby step or two, and standing up to Melis, who shoots low and to the far post. Söberg falls on her butt and makes a fantastic save with her left foot. The TV commentators alternately praise Söberg's save, and say that Melis waited too long, but they both agree that it was sloppy play that started this whole thing. ("Frisk! Frisk, Frisk, Frisk," one commentator intones.) But at least she learns: the next time a long ball comes forward to Melis, she doesn't even attempt to play it, but instead gets goalside of it immediately and defends against Melis well, and makes two very good defensive plays against Melis within the next five minutes.

In the 68th, Tyresö's Brazilian talent, Elaine Moura, is running up the right side, and gets bumped twice by Björk Gunnarsdottir, and on the second one she falls down, whipping her legs around, her spikes grazing the back of Björk Gunnarsdottir's jersey. Björk Gunnarsdottir looks down and yells something at her as she gets up; the two face each other like prizefighters. Björk Gunnarsdottir leans her shoulder in, and gives Elaine a dig with her elbow, as Elaine advances, muttering. This is happening practically right in front of us, and the crowd is screaming. Review of the video shows that Björk Gunnarsdottir did in fact have her hand on the scruff of Elaine's neck on the second bump; Elaine for her part probably exaggerated her fall; both were provocative thereafter. Free kick to Tyresö, which less than a minute later has turned into a corner kick to LdB, which Söberg does well to punch away.

There are about 20 minutes left in the game, and Tyresö are looking hurried and tired and they aren't quite clicking together as they were previously. In the 76th minute, Tyresö makes a substitution, Sofie Persson in for Jennifer Egelryd. Things should not be allowed to happen in the 76th minute, when poor foreigners are trying to keep notes, as the word 'seventy-sixth' (sjuttio-sjätte) is difficult to either hear or pronounce correctly if you are a not native speaker. A couple minutes later Nilla Fischer goes out, with a foot injury, and is replaced by Emma Wilhelmsson. In the 81st, LdB's Annika Kukkonen earns her team's second yellow by pushing down Persson, which the stadium announcer incorrectly identifies as the game's first, which the home crowd is grumpy enough to mutter about and a few people shout corrections.

Earlier in the game, the good play of defender Line Røddick Hansen had earned the admiration of our group. "Why isn't she on the national team?" someone asked. "Oh wait. She is on the national team. Just not the right [i.e., Swedish] national team." (She's Danish, as is clearly indicated by the "ø" in her name.) But in the 86th she is asked to leave the field, after she clips Melis's heels from behind, with no plausible excuse of going for the ball. Hansen's behavior is amusing, as she hangs her body in half, perhaps thinking of pretending to be hurt, but then realizing that's ridiculous, so instead she wanders off among her teammates, perhaps trying to hide from referee Palmqvist, who really has no choice but to issue the red. The stadium announcement of the incident is amusingly laconic ("Jaha... den här händelse...") and people chuckle.

The resulting free kick should be dangerous, but Elaine standing near the wall blocks it with her knee. Tyresö tries to equalize, of course, but they are very tired and now, with only 10 players, perhaps a little demoralized as well. In the 90th Öqvist earns a corner kick, and even keeper Söberg comes up the field to try to participate, but the ball is crossed in on the ground and is not threatening. Söberg sprints to her net, as Melis tries to beat her with a very long distance shot. Play slows down. Thirty seconds before the final whistle blows, Björk Gunnarsdottir and Elaine run into each other again and Elaine falls down one more time, but this time Björk Gunnarsdottir offers her her hand and there is no apparent animosity between the two.

The name of the post refers to the fact that I had forgotten to bring my camera, but was fortunate enough to both have someone else with a camera, and someone else willing to take pictures. The camera itself had recently been on safari to the plains of Africa, a long trip during which it took many pictures of wild animals as they dashed across the sun-drenched grass of the savannah. The parallel between that journey and today's match was far too much to resist.

Oh yeah, one last inexplicable: why is there a pile of SNOW next to LdB's bus?? It can't be from the street, because it is clean and pure and has no sand or other crud on it. It was a bit startling to see, especially given the beautiful weather.

City game, suburb game

2011-05-11T09:42:00.038+02:00

Östermalms IP, 7 maj 2011, Djurgården v. Hammarby, Pictures
Tyresövallen, 8 maj 2011, Tyresö v. LdB FC Malmö, Pictures
Damallsvenskan Round 5

If you live in the greater Stockholm area, you may thank me for the warm and sunny weather you experienced last weekend. Spooked by the snow at the Round 4 game in Malmö and freezing temperatures here in Uppland, I had gone down to the city prepared for the worst, with a heavy jacket, long underwear, and hat and gloves. Thankfully, they were not needed.

Accessibility and surroundings
Östermalms IP: A sunken field in a sports complex, close to Stadion, views to park-like open space, and a bus stop just across the street. The feeling is relaxed, unhurried, and calm, despite being in the middle of town.

Tyresövallen: Also part of a larger sports complex, with a much-less convenient bus stop; most people probably drive (as did we), and the drop-off area is narrow. The stadium is well to the south of downtown, but the immediate area feels cramped, and the overall feeling is not serene.

Advantage: Östermalms IP

Seating and field view
Östermalms IP: Bench-like seats in a permanent structure, with plenty or room to spread out. The lowest row of seating is on the entry level, but still perched high above the field, so one only needs to climb steps if one wants. The view of the pitch is therefore good, but quite remote; for immediacy of action, one might as well be watching the match on TV.

Tyresövallen: Horrible molded plastic seats in a semi-permanent structure set too close together, with rows set far too close together. Seated patrons, and those trying to get move past them, become much more intimate with each other than anyone is comfortable with. On the other hand, the pitch feels extremely close—closer even than Kanalplan, which I didn't think was possible—one can read a player's facial expressions, hear their exclamations and disappointments, and see their sweat and joy.
Advantage: Even

Facilities and creature comforts
Östermalms IP: A fantastically advanced menu and well-stocked cafe, complete with sandwiches, ice cream, pancakes, decent coffee, bags of colored marshmallows, burgers, hot dogs, and french fries; indoor and outdoor picnic seating. Bathrooms scrupulously clean and also well-stocked, if slightly confusing; when I came out of my little stall, I was confronted with several nearly identical white doors, and was briefly confused as to which was the Way Out.

Tyresövallen: I didn't make it inside the cafe myself, but one of My Spies reports that they had one sandwich ("Not one kind of sandwich, but just one sandwich," she quipped.) Burger grilling was taking place outside, and after the game the leftovers were distributed gratis. Outdoor seating. Bathroom facilities are small, messy, include no paper of any kind or soap, and the walls are painted in Tyresö's mustard yellow.
Advantage: Östermalms IP

Supporters, bling, celeb spotting, post-game vibe
Östermalms IP: Program includes (at long last!) the words to "The Djurgården Hymn" as well as the opponent's starting line-up, but also badly-pixelated pictures of the players. There is one homemade sign for decoration, and no souvenirs for purchase that I could see. Apparently I brushed past a Celeb in the stands and didn't even notice. People hang out a little after the game, and some players come up to the seats, which allows some feeling of closeness to them, especially important after they have been so remote during the game itself. After about ten minutes, the announcer comes to the PA to say that there are still people in the stands, implying that he wonders why we are hanging about, but taking advantage to remind us for the twentieth time that the next home game will be at Grimstads IP. The supporters are few in number and relatively quiet, although they seem pretty interested, even the young ones, and well-informed about the players.

Tyresövallen: Program is full-sized, nearly glossy, and costs money, so it must be good! (Starting line-ups are provided for free.) It includes a center-fold spread of the team, appropriately-scaled pictures of each player and staff member, and an interview with Josefin Öqvist in which we learn that she has a Jack Russell terrier named Bubba. The back of the near-stands is covered with huge pictures of the players; there is a little hut selling Tyresö t-shirts and scarves. Celeb spotting is good and includes someone from the previous day's match, now magically transformed to Celeb status by virtue of not being on the clock. Today's players are forced to mingle with the crowd after the game, because the stands are in-between the pitch and locker rooms. Twenty-eight hundred fans can make quite a noise, and the people around us seem to be well-informed and very interested in what's going on on the field.
Advantage: Tyresövallen

Weirdness
Östermalms IP: Next to each team's bench, there are small red wooden structures that are clearly recognizable as the bus shelters that one sees out in the countryside. Their purpose here on the sidelines is not at all obvious.
Tyresövallen: Past the northern goal is a small hill, and about 20 kids in swimsuits are running around in a circle and leaping into the air. A rather surreal sight.

Tuesdays with Damallsvenskan 3

2011-05-04T13:39:00.012+02:00

LdB FC Malmö v Linköpings FC, Damallsvenskan Round 4
3 maj 2011

Spring started quite nicely in Sweden this year. April had many days of sunshine, the flowers are up, the people are out and about... then May arrived, and now we are getting our aprilväder, for sure. The official game report at damfotboll actually mentions the weather conditions more than once, while another reliable witness swears that the precipitation turned to snow and it was "too cold to Tweet." Now that's cold. Cultural note: Swedes do not lightly complain about the weather. If a Swede says it's bad, it's bad, trust me.

And it looked bad, and it even sounded bad. You can see the precipitation coming down, and the artificial surface is shiny and slick in the artificial lights. Microphones are close enough to the field that occasionally one can hear the sound when the ball is kicked hard. It's not that satisfying thooomp that a well-struck dry ball makes; rather, it's a rather sickly-sounded sqvish. The commentators occasionally mention hot coffee wistfully.

There are plenty of spies in the audience. The TV cameras pick Tyresö's coach Stefan Fredriksson out of the crowd; he has a hat and scarf, and his jacket zipped up as much as possible, and he looks cold. Next week, his team hosts LdB in a game that will be televised (see below). The coach of Finland's national team, Andrée Jeglertz (ex-coach of Umeå IK), was in attendance, as were also two coaches of the Danish national team. They are wearing their "DBU" emblems and not even attempting to be subtle, as they diligently peruse LdB's pink, pink program. I guess it makes sense for them to be there; Malmö is, after all, practically a bedroom community for Copenhagen...

But how was the game? Well, it felt a little strange, to tell the truth. It was well played by both sides— all goals were well-taken and well-deserved, and there were no egregious errors that I could see. But it felt somehow bloodless, and devoid of emotion. The one yellow card awarded, against Linköping's Petra Larsson, was shown on reply to be a bit of a tug but really nothing bad-tempered. LdB's Nilla Fischer, who can usually be counted on to knock some people around, did cause one or two Linköping players to perhaps sit down harder than they might have otherwise (and indeed, Linköping's goal was the direct result of a free kick from just such a play), but there were no violent leans with intent to displace. Maybe everyone was just too chilled to want to waste energy.

The goals are below. Manon Melis' second goal is a beauty, as she really crunched it near-post. Her first goal, which looks a little odd, was shown on reply to be a nice touch made with just the very tip of her toes.

When I saw that all the broadcast matches would be played on the same day, I was delighted because I could borrow a cheesy title for the coverage of these games (has anybody out there read "Tuesdays with Morrie"?). But the pattern has already broken down: next round's coverage has been switched to another game, one on Sunday rather than Tuesday, making a liar out of me. Instead of Hammarby hosting Linköping on Tuesday, TV4 will show Tyresö hosting LdB on Sunday.

I had been planning to go to that game. But Tyresö's field does not have a nice covered seating area like LdB's arena does, and I'm a sissy when it comes to weather, and that's okay because I'm not Swedish. All bets are off if there's a blizzard.

Tuesdays with Damallsvenskan 2

2011-04-27T21:58:00.014+02:00

Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC v Umeå IK, Damallsvenskan round 3
26 april 2011

This game started off a little slowly, in my opinion – not badly, just not quite brightly, but anyway certainly in KGFC's favor. In the 35th, some nice combination play from KGFC's Lisa Ek and Sara Lindén resulting in a corner kick. Some nice play in the 36th minute, when KGFC's Lisa Dahlqvist wins a ball, then sends it to Ek on the right, who sends a long cross up to Lindén. A defender swipes at her, and she makes a twisty leap over, staying on her feet, and just managing to touch the ball past Umeå's keeper Caroline Jönsson, who dived the wrong way. But the ball was moving very slowly, and Umea's Tuija Hyyrynen came flying in from to clear the ball away just before it touched the goal line; Lindén pounded the ground in frustration. In the 39th, KGFC's defender Stina Segerström went down clutching her foot; she knows that the injury is serious and one of her teammates quickly motions for a stretcher. Later we learned that she had torn her Achilles tendon, which ends her season, at the very least.

In the second half the tempo picked up noticeably, with better play from both sides, but certianly with more pressure from Umeå, and defender Jane Törnqvist is forced to clear a ball from her own penalty area that she sends out to the parking lot. (For some reason, I have a fondness for overkill clearances like this; I think it's just fun to see how high and far a football can really travel when someone really hits it just right.) Meanwhile, Umeå's Ramona Bachmann was now making her presence felt. She is somewhat notorious for falling down easily, and then adding interest to that fall in the form of rolling. It is therefore interesting to see what happens when she actually gets hit hard. KGFC's Lisa Ek smacks into her from the side; Bachmann falls directly with no exaggeration, and gets up rather quickly. Yellow card to Ek.

In the 55th KGFC had some very nice passing work up the right side of the field after an Umeå free kick; two minutes later they had a nice series of passes up the left side. In a play typical of the entire evening, in the 61st, KGFC forward Linnea Liljegärd sent a head shot into the sky from in front of the goal. KGFC is simply failing with their last touch.

It's not until the 85th that someone scored, and the goal was a very nice one. Umeå's young and speedy forward Sofia Jakobsson received a long ball on the left, took about two touches on it to avoid her defender, and perfectly hit a shot that went into the roof of the goal. 0-1 to Umeå. The game turns nearly furious in the last few minutes, as KGFC try to equalize, and defender Törnqvist is sent up front. At some point Liljegärd hurt herself and took up a precious minute on the ground; she eventually got up, rubbing her tailbone and scowling mightily. The expression on her face more or less sums up KGFC's season to date; three games in, and they have not scored a goal.

Random observation: a pre-season article at damfotboll.com lists this year's teams and their international players. Umeå has players from four countries, which is maybe low for them, but their fan club proudly puts up flags for players from each country, flags which can be seen in the screenshot below. This year, just as last, Kopparbergs/Göteborg's players are all Swedish.

Tuesdays with Damallsvenskan 1

2011-04-20T10:27:00.013+02:00

LdB FC Malmö v. Hammarby, Damallsvenskan Round 2
19 april 2011, Malmö IP
Some more pictures

After last week's showing from Hammarby, I was a little afraid that this game might be a rout; happily, it was not, and it was more entertaining than the final scoreline might suggest. It didn't start so well for Hammarby, as LdB earned themselves a corner kick within the first ten seconds of the match. But Hammarby stiffened up in defense, and their goal came from a direct counter-attack. Mami Yamaguchi took a hard shot that LdB's keeper could not hold onto, and the rebound came to forward Lina Larsson, who was standing by for just this sort of chance. Her shot was painfully weak, however, and one of the two LdB players who came streaking back nearly managed to clear it before it crossed the line. 0-1 to Hammarby, and the small cheering section of Skånebajarna start up a chant that I hear at Kanalplan.

Hammarby were clearly encouraged, and played the rest of the half looking competent and confident, while LdB looked a rattled. At nearly the half-hour mark, Hammarby's Leena Puranen got picked up and dumped on the ground by LdB's Lina Nilsson; Puranen then took out her frustration by swiping the feet out from under LdB's Frida Nordin, who fell with a shriek that the microphones picked up. LdB's enforcer, Nilla Fisher, rushed over to the scene, and knocked Puranen over with a push from behind. The whistle blew and I thought for sure that Fisher would at least get a yellow, but apparently the play had already been stopped. A minute later, at the other end of the field, Fisher knocked Yamaguchi to the ground. These two players, as defensive center midfielder and offensive center midfielder respectively, were clashing all day; as a result of what we might charitably call a slight size mismatch, these clashes often ended up with Yamaguchi on the ground.

At halftime I chuckled, thinking that LdB was probably going to be in for a real tongue-lashing in the locker room; a damfotboll report of the match says that their coach, a half-hour into the game, was heard shouting "vakna nu för helvete" at his team. What exactly was said remains a mystery, but LdB came out for the second half looking determined and fast. Through a combination of nice play on their part and some bad luck in Hammarby's defense, LdB's Sara Björk Gunnarsdottir scored before four minutes of the second half have passed; she added a second goal, a much cleaner and well-struck one-touch full-volley, only five minutes after that. 2-1 and LdB never really looked like losing after that—Hammarby keeper Minna Meriluoto made a very nice save of a real daisy-cutter from LdB's Nilsson in the 57th, and Hammarby captain Matilda Agné was forced to clear a ball right off the line in the 78th. Hammarby very nearly pulled themselves up to a 2-2, when Helen Nottebrock sent a great long-distance cannonball at LdB's goal, but it bounced off the upper post. In the 91st Hammarby were clearly cheated out of a corner kick; in the 93rd, Gunnarsdottir completed her hat-trick and the game ended a minute later at 3-1. Not bad, though, for Hammarby, considering that LdB are last year's champions, and I hope that Hammarby can carry forward some confidence from this game into their next, an away stand against Dalsjöfors.

Highlights:

A tale of two Damallsvenskan debutantes (source): Hammarby's goalscorer Lina Larsson hails from Malmö, but relocated to Stockholm and played for Tyresö FF in the second division, under then-TFF now-HIF coach Tino Katsoulakis, who this year convinced her to play for his new team. A small group from her old club Husle IF was on hand to cheer for her, in her first season in Damallsvenskan. It was especially nice for her therefore to score a goal, her first one at this level, and at the advanced age of 30, no less. LdB's Icelandic forward Sara Björk Gunnarsdottir also made her Damallsvenskan debut last week in Round 1, playing in only the first half against KIF Örebro. I can only imagine that her hat-trick-in-the-second-half performance in her home opener will mean that she'll get as many full games in the future as she likes.

Must-see TV: According to the current schedule, TV4Sport will be showing at least one Damallsvenskan game per week up until the World Cup break in June, mostly on Tuesdays. It's nice to know so far in advance what I will be doing for two months worth of Tuesdays...

Third time's a charm?

2011-04-11T17:41:00.029+02:00

Hammarby v. Umea, Damallsvenskan Round 1
10 april 2011, Kanalplan, Stockholm
Weather: colder than I'd like
Pictures

There were four games on the slate for this weekend: Damallsvenskan's opener was televised on Saturday, as were the two first matches in the Women's Champions League semifinals. However, I'm most looking forward to the game on Sunday — my first game of the year, and marking my third season as a Hammarby supporter. I'm also looking forward to seeing Kanalplan after a year and a half worth of construction projects.

The first thing I note when I arrive is that they've changed the sign at the top of the hill, to a more modern looking and professional looking one, although the old one had a certain rustic charm. They have also finally finished the reconstructive surgery on the entrance: the gate is now properly back on the side where it belongs, and the steps down to it are clean new concrete and a little more safe. Snow is still piled up in the end zones, and it's very ugly looking now because it's covered with the black rubber pebbly bits that serve as the artificial dirt for the artificial turf on the pitch.

The first half doesn't go particularly well for Hammarby; they have a few off-target shots within the first ten minutes, but it's Umeå's Sofia Jakobsson who draws first blood with a fine solo effort up the right flank. 0-1 to Umeå and the team huddles and lets out a war cry to celebrate. Hammarby's captain, defender Matilda Agné, shuts down an attack by Umeå in the 19th and gets some cheering from the Hammarby partisans standing around the left corner of the field, but everyone in the stands gasps in appreciation five minutes later, when Hammarby's goalkeeper Minna Meriluoto makes a fantastic reflex save against Maria Nordbradt's hard and close shot. Her teammates help her up and pat her; the applause from the audience is sustained. But she's not finished with the theatrics. She comes out to punch away the resulting corner kick, then within a minute has to paw away a screamer of a shot from Hanna Pettersson that was headed for the upper right corner.

Sometime during the first half I notice that, on the other side of the field, someone is flying a Swiss flag, presumably in support of Umeå's Swiss player Ramona Bachmann, who has returned from a year in America, with WPS's Atlanta Beat. She's a talented, entertaining, and controversial player, who has made no bones about the fact that she was not too happy in the US, and was happy to return to Sweden. She has been injured, though, and I was not sure whether she would even be making the trip to Stockholm for today's game.

The half ends without too much further incident, so it's time to go poke around a bit and see what's new. I am happy to notice that last year's mud pit behind the bleachers has been replaced by a building; there are hot dogs roasting away on a nearby grill; there are three young women at a souvenir stand, where I see that Hammarby is continuing their "Söder Bönor" advertising campaign. New this year, one can buy actual cans (presumably of beans) with the logo, and the players' names and numbers listed as ingredients. They are also having a "Guess the number of beans in the glass jar" competition, for a season pass. I think it's 375, but out loud I guess 385, in order to avoid having to pronounce the number seven, which I'm still lousy at.

The second half starts with Hammarby looking a little more aggressive in at least the first ten minutes, and Umeå are nearly forced to concede an own-goal. On the resulting corner kick, Hammarby's outstanding off-season acquisition, Japanese play Mami Yamguchi, attempts a bicycle kick from only two meters out, but unfortunately for her Umeå keeper Caroline Jönsson is well-placed and the ball goes right to her. In the 63rd, Bachmann comes in for Umeå and wastes no time at all, receiving her yellow card in the 64th. Talk about Swiss efficiency!

Attendance is announced at 973. The sunlight goes away, the wind picks up, and I think with a little tinge of regret of the long underwear that I had packed but decided against wearing. It's a little chilly. When will I learn that the first Damallsvenskan game is always cold? The winner of the 'guess the beans' contest is announced and it isn't me. In the 75th a chant starts, and it's explained to me that the chant is exhorting the players to get a move on, and that this is a common thing to do when there's only 15 minutes left and your team is behind.

Hammarby is trying, after all, and Yamaguchi is being a little more effective now, receiving and holding on to the ball. In the 77th, Hammarby subs in a newcomer to the premier league, Magdalena Ericsson. They get a corner kick in the 80th, a nicely taken ball that five or six players swipe their heads at, in a way that almost looked choreographed. Meriluoto stuffs an attempt by Bachmann; Hammerby subs in Lisa Grönborg, another premier league debutante; Yamaguchi gets a yellow card for perhaps leaning a little to heavily on one of her old teammates from Umeå. In the 88th Umeå takes a shot that pings off the upper right corner, and Meriluoto goes up for it, but she is still on the ground when the rebound comes out to Jakobsson, who puts the ball in. 0-2 to Umeå and that's pretty much the game. Meriluoto and Jakobsson are named as players of the match and receive flowers for their efforts. A fair result, all in all. I'm sorry that my team didn't win but it could easily have been worse, and I remember the days when a loss by only two goals to Umeå was hardly something to hang your head over.

On the other hand... "It doesn't look good for Hammarby" says the headline at damfotboll... hmm, hmm, where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, that's what the journalists were saying about Bälinge early in the season, back in 2008. I supported Bälinge too. Uh-oh.

Fotboll, fußball, football, and fotboll again: It was a football-heavy weekend to say the least, with Saturday's league opener (pitting last year's second place team Kopparberg/Göteborg FC against this year's most outspokenly ambitious team Tyresö FF) and two Champions League games (Olympique Lyonnais hosting Arsenal, and Duisburg against Potsdam), followed on Sunday by the game noted above. The final scores of all these games I watched have a sort of pleasing pattern to them: 0-0, 2-0, 2-2, 0-2...

The first game was okay, considering that it was the first game of the year and a goalless draw at that, although the second half was a little slow and it was not as exciting as the other three. One highlight was Jane Törnqvist attempting a bicycle kick in the last few minutes. It didn't work, but it looked good.

In Women's Champions League action, Duisburg against Potsdam was a quite exciting game, with plenty of back-and-forth action, and four very nice looking goals scored. In the second game, with 20,000 onlookers, Sweden's Lotta Schelin scored twice for Lyon in the first twelve minutes of the game. Her goals were scored in a nearly identical style, starting with her receiving the ball on the left side and taking a shot past the keeper, into the far side netting, from an acute angle. Let's hope she can do more of this in the summer, for the national team in this year's World Cup.

A costly appetizer

2011-03-27T18:03:00.021+02:00

LdB FC v. KIF Örebro, Supercupen, Malmö IP
27 mars 2011
Weather: the sun is shining but the commentators are buttoned up tightly

Supercupen is the first 'serious' game of the season, pitting last year's league winner (LdB FC Malmö) against last year's cup winner (KIF Örebro).

And this year it may not have been worth it. Before even ten minutes have ticked off the clock, KIF Örebro's Icelandic goalkeeper Maria Björg Agustsdottir collides with LdB's Elena Sadiku. Agustsdottir lies on the field for a few moments, and the referee signals for a trainer; the trainer signals to the bench almost immediately that a substitution will be needed. The substitute, Nina Fellbrandt, looks surprised, and can be seen on the sideline hurriedly tugging on a jersey. She was obviously quite ready to play, though, and had a fine game, stopping several shots including a free-kick daisy-cutter by LdB star Manon Melis.

The game is not a great one, but pretty good for a first game of the year. After a scoreless first half, things pick up in the second. Örebro scores in the 56th, when Hanna Ågren wins herself a ball not far from LdB's goal; a teammate gets the rebound and passes it back to her, and she takes it close to the end line and score with a beautiful delicate curving chip over LdB's keeper. The shot is replayed several times, and the commentators admire it. I choose to view the goal as a little bit of karmic payback for LdB, as only a minute before LdB's Nilla Fischer can clearly be seen to have committed a hand ball in her own box.

Play goes up another notch as LdB push to equalize. LdB striker Sarah Storck replaces Sadiku in the 72nd, and she scores off a rebound from a corner kick in the 78th. I'm more than a little pleased by this, as I've been a fan of Storck's ever since the Bad Old Days (2008) when she dressed herself in Bälinge black. I am therefore extremely displeased when, in added time, she collides with Örebro keeper. LdB's Melis scores on the play but Storck stays down in the back of the net. Her teammates, who had started celebrating the winning goal, come trotting over, and call for the trainer. It doesn't look good; Storck is clearly in a good deal of pain, and out comes the stretcher.

Final score in goals: 2-1
Final score in serious-looking injuries to valuable players: 1-1

Was this game, which is only meant to whet our appetite for season's main course, worth it? At the moment, it does not feel like it, but I'll wait for the official injury reports.

A little light listening

2011-03-08T22:16:00.006+01:00

The state of women's football in Sweden is this: the national team has played three games in the Algarve Cup, losing to Iceland for the first time ever, then beating Denmark and China and earning a spot in the third-place game against Japan tomorrow; Damallsvenskan 2011 kicks off in just about a month; Champion's League action kicks off next week when Linköping FC travels to play Arsenal.

As I may have remarked once or twice or three times in the last three years, Swedish teams have not fared too well in these early spring UEFA games. It's not too surprising, really. It's been a long winter, and no amount of training indoors can really prepare one for full 90-minute outdoor games; furthermore, since wintertime is the Swedish offseason, all the players who were going to change teams have done so, and the players that now comprise LFC are not the same ones that got them to the quarterfinals in the first place. LFC has lost some good players, including defender Faith Ikidi, forward Josefine Öqvist, both of its Maria Karlssons, and Jessy Sharro.

The good news is that LFC has acquired two very talented players, Lisa Klinga (from last year's surprisingly good newcomers Tyresö FF) and Australian Kathryn Gill (from last year's champions LdB FC). The two of them are interviewed in this video made by the club. When I watched I felt a sudden strong pang of empathy with Gill, who listens to the questions in Swedish, then answers in English. When one does it oneself, it doesn't seem nearly as odd as it does when other people do it.

Post-season cool-down

2010-10-27T09:00:00.013+02:00

Sweden v. Norway, friendly
26 oktober 2010, Falkenbergs IP, Falkenberg
Weather: players from the southern regions are wearing turtlenecks

Last night Sweden hosted Norway in the last game of the year for the national team. The game was intended perhaps to help Sweden get over its recently-acquired 'Norway problem' before next year's World Cup. The 'Norway problem' has its origin in last year's embarrassing loss to Norway in the European Championships. Sweden also played a friendly against Norway before that tournament, losing 1-0 in a game that no one took too seriously. The commentators were calling the results of last night's game (3-1 for Sweden) 'revenge' for last year's loss. I assume they only mean 'revenge for the friendly,' because this game can in no way be construed as 'revenge for the loss in the Euros.'

Anyway, several national-team stalwarts were missing, most notably Therese Sjögran, Kosovare Asllani, Caroline Seger, and Sara Thunebro. Some of the younger generation therefore got a chance to show their stuff, and they did pretty well; see especially Antonia Göransson's hard work for Sweden's third goal. But whoever that Swedish defender is who made nothing but a lazy leg stab at Norwegian goal-scorer Isabell Herlovsen should really think hard about a future in TV repair instead of football.

The goals:

New beginning (again)

2010-10-19T11:13:00.007+02:00

Hammarby IF DFF v. Kristianstads DFF, Damallsvenskan Round 22
16 oktober 2010, Kanalplan, Stockholm
Cold air, but nice and warm when the sun shines

So here it is, the final game of the year, and never have the stakes been so high. Hammarby is sitting in 11th place, below the relegation line, and they need to win today in order to overtake the #10 team Sunnanå. Sunnanå is one of those peculiar clubs that generally performs poorly, but can occasionally pull off big upsets and can never be trusted. They play the #3 team today, Linköping, who for its part has been underperforming here at the end of the season, most notably, losing to Hammarby a few weeks ago, and thereby giving them the hope that they could pull themselves up above The Line. On a personal level, for superstitious reasons, I am especially interested in seeing Hammarby stay in Damallsvenskan.

The teams line up, and Kicki Bengtsson is starting. This is a startling fact if you think back to Hammarby's final home game last year, which was advertised as Bengtsson's last. But the Old Girl heeded the call back to her team a few weeks ago, and has been performing pretty well for them. On the other hand, some good players have broken their contract and are missing today. The team therefore must be feeling some extra amount of turmoil and unease, as are we fans.

All the final games are being played simultaneously, and today the other results matter quite a lot. The announcer lists which games will be which letter on the scoreboard, and everyone carefully notes that the "E" game is the one we want to keep track of. For the rest of the match, every time that the announcer starts a sentence with the words "I dagens andra matcher...", each audience member will simultaneously jerk their head sideways to look at the scoreboard, in order to get a split-second head-start on whatever the announcer is about to say. I at least do this listening rather intently, to try to understand what he is saying, with an unsettling mixture of hope and dread.

Hammarby score early, in the 3rd minute (1-0), and the cheering from the crowd is intense. I am too nervous and hyper to really take good game notes, but I do clearly remember Hammarby's second goal, a simple header from a corner kick delivered by Bengtsson. The score is now 2-0—"the most dangerous score in football" is a thought that I immediately do my best to put right out of my mind. Attendance is less at this game than at others I've seen here, but there are some fans waving flags and wearing green and white gear and now some chanting starts up, with one side doing a call-and-response to the other.

Halftime. I am far too nervous to eat anything. However, a souvenir is procured, a coffee mug that celebrates the 40 years of this team's existence, all of which have (so far) been spent playing at the highest level. Normally I would not dare to get such a souvenir before the game was over and the 41st year was secured; however, the cafe closes before the game is over, so I could either get one "too early," or I couldn't get one at all. Can superstition be cured by taking practical action?

The second half starts with my fervent hope that Hammarby can just hold on, just hold on, all they have to do is hold on to this lead. The score of the E-game remains 0-0, and that would be fine— if Sunnanå were to draw against Linköping, the two teams would be tied on points but Hammarby would still almost certainly avoid relegation on the ground of their better goal differential. Soon after half time the dreaded announcement comes— "In today's other match... game E..." the heads of my little hejarklack whip around to the scoreboard —ohshitohshitohshit— time slows down— the old-fashioned flip-style numbers take an agonizingly slow time to turn over —they have these kind of numbers on purpose just to torture us— the left-hand number flickers— I have a moment of panic when I forget who is the home team for that game— the announcer says that Linköping has scored against Sunnanå.

The cheering from the crowd is huge, frankly more than it was for the second goal and maybe for the first as well, and with an added sense of relief. I wish fervently for everything to stay exactly the way it is. "Wouldn't it be better if they scored even more?" one of my hejarklack asks. "No," I answer, "I don't want to be greedy." There is a Swedish word to explain what I am feeling, lagom, which means a satisfaction when things just right— not too much, not too little, but just exactly enough. Wish I had remembered it at the time.

The game goes on, and gets a little chippy some time around the middle of the second half, with players on both teams shoving and holding and looking a little wild-eyed. The crowd is starting to feel more confident, a feeling that increases as the E-game score climbs to 2-0 and then finally 3-0. Bengtsson comes off the field in the 80th minute, to much applause. The game ends, and the team members jump about and cheer, and link hands and run to each side of the field to bow and cheer their fans. The E-game ends. The improbable has become reality: Hammarby will return to Damallsvenskan next year.

But why the superstition, why my extra concern? Well... it turns out that I will also be returning to Damallsvenskan next year, and probably for a few more years yet to come. After two years living here, and of feeling generally somewhat unsettled and like a long-term tourist, I am looking forward to a trying to achieve little normalcy. It won't be easy— both Hammarby and I have our work cut out for us for the next year— but at least we have a chance. So in case anyone out there is reading this, and looking for an excuse to cheer and/or take a dram, join me in a toast to Sweden, and football, and the good things in life. Skål!

How to not break your head in advertising

2010-10-11T14:01:00.023+02:00

Tyresö FF v LdB FC Malmö, Damallsvenskan Round 21
9 oktober 2010, Tyresövallen
Weather: irrelevant

In what I choose to see as a bit of a karmic hint to LdB, in this week's game (LdB's first loss of the season), one of their own had run-in with the advertising signs lining the field. Frida Nordin tried to cross a ball in from near the end line, but her momentum (and perhaps a little tiny nudge from the defender) carried her well out of bounds, and crashing into the advertisements lining the back of the field. They all went cascading down, gently, domino-style, with a pleasing bowling-alley sort of sound.

The result of this accident? Nothing. Nordin hopped up smiling. It stands in rather stark contrast to what happened to that Sunnanå player at LdB's home field a few weeks ago. See, LdB, advertising can be safe and look okay at the same time.

The game was lots of fun to watch; Tyresö's fans must surely be among the loudest and boldest in the league. They think so themselves, too: pictures as proof. Madelaine Edlund's goal, and Elin Ekblom Bak's assist that led to it, were really pretty (see clip below). And there was a special guest in the stands: Marta, coming back from the US and a successful WPS campaign, presumably to cheer her old comrades from Umeå. The match report at damfotboll is almost touchingly breathless about Marta being there. Although the reporter doesn't let it slip until the very last line that he recognized her (while she was standing in line for snacks), the headline ("Marta watched Tyresö crack the masters' unbeaten record") kind of gives the surprise away.

A real nail-biter

2010-09-20T17:32:00.001+02:00

Women's World Cup Qualifiers

Sweden v. Denmark
11 september 2010, Gamla Ullevi, Göteborg, Sweden
Denmark v. Sweden
16 september 2010, Jokri Park, Vejle, Denmark

The first game: Why, defense, why did you have to allow that away goal? The game ends 2-1.

The second game, the notebook and halftime rituals of a desperate woman:

Note all the swearing. Mostly I remember the Danes celebrating their goals by rolling around together on the ground in a foolish ecstasy right out of late-night pay-per-view.

By the grace of who knows what (well, Charlotte Rohlin), Sweden does manage to 'tie' up the second game by scoring a goal, and we find ourselves in the strange situation of having to play extra time, even though there's a clear winner in regular time (Denmark 2, Sweden 1). Rohlin then manages a second in extra time, and Denmark cannot 'equalize' so the game ends 2-2, and Sweden goes through to the World Cup, by virtue of more away goals and the narrowest of reasonably imaginable margins. Does not bode well for the tournament!

Ouch!

2010-09-13T18:52:00.009+02:00

LdB FC Malmö v. Sunnanå, Damallsvenskan Round 18
5 september 2010, Malmö IP
Weather: irrelevant

If I may just have a quick rant about safety for a moment...

The game was televised, which allowed us all to see the danger of those damned metal posts around the sidelines. I am not a ghoul so I will not post a picture of the bloody head wound that resulted from this accident. I hope that Posten (the postal service, the yellow ad that's most visible) does not enjoy the publicity of seeing someone have her head nearly smashed in and getting blood all over their ad...

According to a this report, she's fine, but it doesn't look good, does it, her getting carted off with her head wrapped up, and wearing a neck brace? Questions are now being raised about the safety of these things— the article points out that the posts are a smidge farther from the field (3.05 meters) than regulations require (3m), but it also points out that in other parks they at least have padding wrapped around them. Padding would reduce the bloody head gashes, but a full-speed impact with a metal post embedded in the ground can still break your neck just fine, thanks.

The game at the end of the rainbow

2010-08-31T20:00:00.006+02:00

Linköping FC v. LdB FC Malmö, Damallsvenskan Round 16
29 augusti 2010, Folkungvallen
Weather: Rainy, cold, but perversely with sunshine throughout
Goals: 5' Manon Melis (passning Frida Nordin) 0-1; 37' Linda Forsberg (passning Frida Nordin) 0-2; 57' Josefine Öqvist 2-1
Warnings: LFC Josefine Öqvist 25'; LdB Amanda Ilestedt 85'

What a fun game this was to watch! Last year's champions Linköping had been the only team to take points away from league-leading LdB FC, a 0-0 draw back in spring. LdB played a nice calm possession game; they looked quite competent and in control. LFC also played very well, and have been buoyed by the return of Kosovare Asllani, but there was not quite the fine level of control that LdB showed. LFC's goal came in part from a defensive miscue, while both of LdB's goals looked a little more planned.

The first goal, a nice individual effort by Manon Melis, came after seven passes that worked the ball up the field cleanly and efficiently; Melis then got past her defender at the top of the box and sent the ball on the ground past a diving Sofia Lungren, who had come out a couple steps once it was clear that Melis had turned the corner on defender Maja Krantz. The second came from a cross by Frida Nordin, in from the right corner; midfielder (and very tall person) Nilla Fischer was there in the goal to take a swipe at it with her head, but when she missed, Linda Forsberg on the near post swept the ball neatly in with her right foot.

Linköping's goal came when Josefine Öqvist pounced on a very weak back-pass from Forsberg; she showed some speed and nice skill to touch the ball past LdB's keeper Thora Helgadottir. Forsberg can be seen gripping her head in horror as the ball slides into the net. In the 80th Linköping has a good chance to tie it up on a freekick, but the ball misses Öqvist's foot by inches. She spins and stamps in frustration.

The oddest thing about this game is that it appeared to have driving heavy rain for the whole time, and yet, and the same time, the shadows were long and sharp and clearly the sun was shining. Finally, during that freekick at he end of the game, the camera shows the view from LdB's goal, and we can finally see the large rainbow against the dark clouds. Unfortunately rainbows are notoriously hard to capture on camera, but it must have been very nice for the LdB defense to look at. Let's hope it's a good omen for next year; surely LdB, with six games left, will finish in either first or second place (probably first), and represent Sweden in the Champions League.

Fall stars

2010-08-19T12:02:00.000+02:00

Linköpings FC v. Umeå IK, Damallsvenskan Round 15
17 augusti 2010, Folkungvallen, Linköping
Lots of rain on the field, and not too warm either

Summer is apparently finished— det tar slut— after an uncomfortably hot Saturday, it has been cold and raining ever since. So it's just as well that the autumn leg of Damallsvenskan has at last gotten underway.

This game, which reasonably enough looked like it should be the pick of the week, was played on Tuesday evening and televised. The game heralded the return of two prodigals: Louise Fors, last seen in Sweden playing for AIK but with a brief stint in Spain, and Kosovare Asllani, recently returned from the Chicago Red Stars. Both players have been named to the Swedish national team, which next week plays two qualifiers for next year's World Cup.

The game itself was pretty well played, considering that it's the first game to be played since early July. But it is clear early on that Linköping will dominate. In the 10th minute, Asllani threads a very nice pass through Umeå's box to Josefin Öqvist, and although the Umeå defenders recover well, it was a dangerous chance. And only a few minutes later, Öqvist does indeed score, unusually from the right side of the goal box, her shot going more or less right through a UIK's keeper Caroline Jönsson, who rushed out to cover her. 1-0.

In the 38th minute, Asllani plucks a difficult pass, at the level of her head, right out of the air, a move that garners audible applause. A few minutes later she shows an even better bit of skill— she is running toward the inside of the box, but the through pass is sent to the outside of the box, on the left; the UIK defender (properly) shields it goal-side, waiting to either shepherd it out of the back, or for Jönsson to come out and get it. But they are too slow: Jönsson does amble over to get it, and is therefore bent over and in no position to gather the ball up as Asllani scoots to the side of the defender, and pokes the ball with the toe of her left foot, right past the defender and Jönsson both. All three players are nearly on the back line at this point, and many close-up slow motion replays are needed to show what really happened. 2-0 to LFC, and a well-deserved lead it is.

UIK never really threatens. In the 60th, Asllani scores again, nutmegging Jönsson. 3-0. She comes off the field in the 68th, to much applause, and is replaced by Linda Sällström. Around the 70th, UIK finally starts pressing, and in the 75, UIK's Anna Westerlund takes a shot that was actually decent, but it is on the ground and blocked by defender Charlotte Rohlin's feet. In the 86th a pass is sent to Westurlund's replacement, Ida Åberg Zingmark, standing static at the top of the box, but her shot is wide.

Perhaps everyone is tired at this point, but UIK's defense certainly loses concentration in as the game nears its end time, and Sällström scores in the 90th — keeper Jönsson has wandered upfield and is caught napping, and Sällström simply runs past her on the left side, then shoots at an empty goal. 4-0, and then two minutes later she takes a ball down with her chest, and simply runs straight at the goal, past three UIK defenders. Jönsson comes out, Sällström shoots low and past her. Simple. 5-0, and the referee blows the whistle as soon as the ball is set to the center circle again.

With this win, Linköping keeps itself in the running for second place, only four points behind Kopparbergs/Göteborg and four ahead of Jitex. With this loss, Umeå is now in eighth place, right after KIF Örebro and right before Sunnanå. If you had asked me five years ago if I would ever have seen this day, I would have said no. I cheered mightily against Umeå back in the day, when they were so strong; honestly I have mixed feelings about seeing them brought so low.

DIFdansen

2010-05-14T18:45:00.017+02:00

Danmarks IF v Djurgården IF, Svenska Cupen
13 maj 2010, Danelid IP, Uppsala
Almost sunny and warm, then rather cool, then raining and not at all warm
Report at damfotboll

It's a been more than a year now since I have managed to go to a game that can be considered local, and so I was quite pleased to learn that Danmarks IF would be hosting a Swedish Cup match, and on a red day at that: today is Kristihimmelfärdsdag. The weather has been almost spring-like in the Uppsala region in the last few days, sunny at times, and warm enough to sit outside for coffee. The game even starts at 14.00, quite early in the day, and so it should be over well before the evening chill sets in. I remember particularly that as I left the apartment, I said to myself "I don't think it's going to rain," and dared to go out for the first time this year without a fleece jacket or rain coat.

Danmarks IF plays in Norrettan, one of the two second division leagues under Damallsvenskan. The clubhouse and pitch are a little way out of town, perhaps 8km or so, to the very end of a city bus line. When the bus stopped at the train station, we acquired a group of four men, one 20-something, the rest 40- or 50-somethings, who immediately start up some pro-Djurgården chanting, hollering "Skål för Djurgården!", singing vaguely to the tune of "When Johnny comes marching home again" except that they can't remember any words so for the end of the chorus they do "La la la, Djuuuur-gååååår'n, Sverige's bästa lag!" Just in case we didn't know yet who they were cheering for, they seal it by shouting a few random flings against other teams from Stockholm teams, AIK ("Gnagasvin!") and Hammarby ("Hon ska köpa Hammarby...") They then start in on... well, let's just say they start in on a song about one of Uppsala's more well-known female footballers, and it sounds a little rude. The elderly lady across from me in the bus purses her lips and looks disapproving. I am having a hard time not giggling at them. One of them belches loudly. Lordy are they drunk!

At the end of the bus line, it's about a 100m walk downhill to the gates of Danelid IP, and the slight rise gives a nice view of the pitch and plains beyond it. Danelid is neither as small or primitive as I had thought it might be. There are plenty of (hard wooden) seats, and unusually decent music (Queen, "Don't Stop Me Now") is blaring from the unusually good sound system (no distortion or crackling). There is a large and growing crowd too, I guessed nearly a hundred at 15 minutes before game time. At the same time, dark clouds are gathering in the southeast, and the wind is picking up speed as the teams come out from the locker rooms, on the hill south of the pitch.

Danmarks IF and Djurgården IF, the two DIFs of today's dance, line up and are introduced. Djurgården has brought and is starting their first team, although it takes me a moment to figure out that captain Elin Cederroos is the same person who played as Elin Sölveskog last year for Hammarby; for one thing, it's hard to recognize her face under the protective mask. Meanwhile, the Danmark roster includes several names familiar to me from Bälinge 2008, like Moa Mattsson, Julia Lyckberg, Jenny Jansson, and keeper Veronika Svensson, who spent a little time with Djurgården last year when their first keeper was hurt. The teams get set, the ref blows the whistle to start the dance... but hang on, first they all have to swap places; somehow they've all managed to line up on the wrong side. One of the drunken Djurgården fans hollers "Hammarby!" at a baby being carried past him, a baby wearing a green and white hat. Its mother smiles wanly. One of his buddies jabs him in the ribs and probably tells him to knock it off.

Danmark looks good early, and gets a corner kick already in the 4th minute, during which a Danmark player heads the Djurgården keeper right over the line. The game is nicely back and forth for a while—Djurgården's Klara Lindberg makes a karate-style stab at the ball, which Danmark keeper Svensson makes a clean easy save on. The wind has gotten quite strong, coming from the southeast, favoring the team going from my right to my left, which is Djurgården in the first half. Therefore when Danmark sends a high ball towards their box in the 21st, it hangs up in the air, and even goes backwards a little bit. Keeper Gudrun Gunnarsdottir comes out to take it, and very nearly goes over the line while doing so. The line judge peers hard but keeps his flag down.

There's quite a good crowd on hand now—more have arrived, from parking lot and clubhouse; I guess the number to be nearly 200, which is a pretty nice attendance figure. Djurgården's Sarah Michael falls at the feet of Danmark's Mattson, who is furious that the call goes against her, and she spikes the ball with her hand at the referee. Djurgården now has a free kick from just outside the box, but the ball is lifted a little high, and then the wind takes it up and 'way over. In the 26th someone takes a shot at the audience; here on the leeward side of the field, we are likely to end up as targets. Danmark makes a very nice attempt to play a long ball through the center, on the ground; the pass is slowed by the wind enough that the Djurgården defense gets to it first, but it was a very nice idea and the fans applaud the play as much as if it had been a good shot on goal ("damn wind!" says someone behind me). Danmark takes a hard shot from the top right corner of the box, and the Djurgården keeper dives theatrically but a little after the ball hits the side netting.

Halftime. Having started the game with dessert (bulle och kaffe) it's now time for lunch; Cafe Danelid has their grill going, and so it's a burger with fried onions and "American" sauce for me. The cafe has a lounge, with TV and comfy chairs, lots of flags hanging on the wall, a case full of trophies, and, in a place of honor, an autographed Malin Moström jersey hanging on the wall. The music has started up again, "Livin' on a Prayer," which seems to be very popular song here. I have the revelation that this song is an American version of schlager: easy to bellow along to, and including a chord change three-quarters of the way through. I remember asking a friend with a musical background about the inevitability of a chord change in popular music here. "It is not absolutely required," she said, "but people will be very disappointed if it is not there."

When the second half starts, Danmark has the advantage of the wind as its back, and they try long high shots as soon as possible, worth the chance in these conditions. At the 50' mark the rain starts, just a light sprinkling, and the temperature drops. I've already put my spare layer on, and am extra grateful for the high-tech German-engineered sitzkissen; the layer of space-blanket material is keeping my hinder parts noticeably warmer than they would otherwise be. Danmark shoots, weakly; Djurgåden shoots, more strongly. The Djurgården players look individually stronger, but Danmark is playing well enough that they could maybe pull it off, maybe on a corner kick or surprise fast break. Djurgården's Michael makes a nice back-heel pass to another player in front of the goal, and that player collides with Danmark keeper Svensson, who stays down on the field for several minutes. As soon as play starts up again, in the 63rd, Michael receives a pass just in front of goal—the crowd calls for offsides, but no dice, and she scores easily from five meters out. 0-1.

Confusion and outrage in the 69-70th! Danmark score a lovely single-touch goal, from a cross coming from the right side; the team and fans celebrate wildly. But the referee, completely unnoticed, has called the player offside; an alert Djurgården player takes the resulting free kick quickly, and while nine of the Danmark players are still cheering in the Djurgården box, Michael and Emma Lundh take the ball and head to the Danmark goal, with no significant defense in front of them. She shoots and scores; Djurgården celebrates; all Danmark partisans are confused. What happened? Well, anyway it's 0-2 to Djurgården. And that's how it ends, despite Danmark pressing hard and doing its best.

The rain is coming down a little harder now and the crowd disperses. I pop in to the clubhouse, to see if I can score any souvenirs. I try to ask for a flag in Swedish; it's clearly incomprehensible to the young man behind the counter that anyone with my accent would want a Danmarks IF flag and he turns in bewilderment to a middle-aged fellow who is bustling around. This fellow looks a little concerned and says he will go to the back to check. It takes a few minutes, and I am just wondering whether he has forgotten, when he comes back triumphantly. "Here you are," he says with a smile as he hands me a flag, "just for you." Well, that's all it takes: I'm now a Danmarks IF fan for life.

About the name "Danmarks IF": The club takes quite a bit of teasing about being "Danish," if slightly facetious comments at damfotboll.com and in the local newspaper are taken as evidence ("Why are you bothering to report about a team from Denmark?"). There is some dispute that the name has anything to do with Danish people, though, and they think that the name comes from two archaic words for "marsh" and "forest" respectively, and that therefore the name just means "that marshy place by the forest" rather than "that dodgy place on the wrong side of the river where all the scruffy Danes live."

The title of this post is taken from a Swedish miniseries from a couple years ago called "Häxdansen." The plot centered around Bosjö IF, an Nth division women's football team from a teeny tiny town in the middle of nowhere. In the penultimate episode, the team celebrates wildly when they learn that big-city Djurgårdens IF will be coming to their pitch-in-a-field; in the final episode, we actually see a bus arriving and disgorging Djurgården players. Danmarks IF is not quite as rural as the fictional Bosjö IF, but the parallel is too much to resist.

I'm with Damallsvenskan

2010-05-11T21:52:00.014+02:00

Tyresö FF v. Kopparbergs/Göteborg, Damallsvenskan round 6
10 maj 2010, Tyresö
Still cold, even though it's May; players have long sleeves and fans have hats
Pictures of TFF supporters, and the game

This match was televised last Monday night, and was advertised during the program in the earlier time slot, a program dedicated to the silly things people have been filmed doing. A still of the resulting ad, which was flashed up on the screen during a commercial break, makes me giggle more than just a little bit.

Pre-game interviews included K/G defender Jane Törnqvist, who would be on the field, and Tyresö defender Johanna Frisk, who would not. The crowd was active and vociferous, burning red-tinged torches before the game, and chanting and waving banners and flags throughout: mostly good, vibrant support. Oddly, there was a small group of supporters who were less positive and chanted things like "Hate [player x who had the ball]." The reporter at damfotboll who covered the match comments about this a little bit, and may do more so later. Some of the fan behavior may have stupid, but it was an entertaining game, overall; Tyresö fought well, although K/Göteborg clearly dominated, and the goals are mostly quite pretty.

The goals, and Tyresö's closer chances, can be seen in the video below.

Spring ritual of champions

2010-05-05T16:33:00.002+02:00

Olympique Lyonnais v. Umeå IK, 3-2
10 april 2010, Stade de Gerland, Lyon
Umeå IK v. Olympique Lyonnais, 0-0
28 april, Gammliavallen, Umeå
Semifinals, UEFA Women's Champions League
Bright and sunny in Lyon, clear and cool in Umeå

Another year, another annual Spring ritual that in my mind has come to be nearly as traditional as the bonfires we all enjoyed last Friday for the Swedish celebrations of Valborg. The Spring ritual specific to Swedish women's football is this: we all watch with concern as Umeå slowly and sleepily emerges from Winter hibernation, and doesn't quite wake up in time, and so gets clobbered right out of the top UEFA club competition. Well, this year, at least they fought hard, and looked better than expected doing it.

The first game, in Lyon, was back on 10 april, a good three weeks ago now. The pre-game show included Johanna Frisk, back from her stint in the US league, and now helping Tyresö tear up the domestic league—in fact, she had come "nearly straight from the showers" after her own match. The emcee asks her about it; she is visibly grumpy to have to report her team's 0-1 loss to KIF Örebro. She perks up a bit after that, when asked about her old team Umeå, and their chances against Lyon. She and the other commentator agree that Umeå have a hard road ahead of them. Umeå has only played one real game so far this year, which was a shocking away loss to newcomers Jitex in the opening round.

The sun is shining brightly in France as the teams warm up, jog in, jog out, line up, toss the coin. It is strange to see sunshine on a pitch after this long winter, and... is that real grass? Oj, yet one more way in which nearly all competitors have an advantage over Umeå at this stage in the competition: not only are most of them in season, but they are used to playing on a natural surface. The teams shake hands. OL as a team looks tanned, large, fit, cheerful, and confident; Umeå by contrast looks young and small and pale and weedy. But they do not look frightened, rather, they look grim and determined.

OL's first goal comes early and easy, as a crossed-in ball takes an advantageous bounce off an Umeå defender, straight to OL's Louisa Nécib, and it's 1-0 as the clock ticks to the second minute. OL continues to play well after this but perhaps without a real edge; meanwhile, Umeå stick to its game plan of playing the fast break, and Umeå's goal comes out of nowhere in the 19th, when Hanna Pettersson gets a difficult ball in the box, controls it with her left foot, changes direction on the OL keeper, finishes the shot with the maturity and calmness of a much older player, and it's 1-1. OL wakes up a bit, and has the possession and some decent shots on goal, and they pounce on their chance just before the half. OL's Lotta Schelin sends a long ball up from the midfield to Lara Dickenmann, whose chip shot from within the box is gathered by Umeå's keeper Caroline Jönsson. Jönsson has been having a quite good game so far, but unfortunately chooses this moment to have a small lapse in concentration and rolls the ball out to a defender too close to where Dickenmann lies on the ground. The OL player springs up, dispossesses the defender from behind, and falls backwards while sending a through ball to Nécib. Nécib does a small stutter step, and Jönsson gets a piece of the shot but not enough. 2-1 and Jönsson is furious, glowering and taking short, tightly controlled steps as she retrieves the ball from the net.

OL puts the ball in the net early in the second half, but it is called back for offsides, a decision that the crowd hoots about for several minutes. The replay shows the crowd is probably in the right. In the 58th Schelin pushes down Umeå defender Maija Saari; possibly the push was unavoidable as Saari may have obstructed her, but the call goes Saari's way, and in response the near-side crowd starts chanting "Lot-ta!" (clap clap clap). They take the chant up on and off again through the next ten minutes, as Schelin takes a shot or two. In the 70th Umeå win themselves a corner kick. The cross is high and loopy, and seems to hang in the air just because it wants Petterson to run onto it, and head it into the net. Which she does. 2-2, on a beautifully executed corner. The announcers are besides themselves. "Two goals in the away match! Can you believe it?"

Predictably, this giddy time doesn't last. OL's late substitute Katia comes about about ten minutes later, and scores a header off a corner kick in the 84th. Phooey. Well, at least the team is taking two away goals into the next game, and therefore a 1-0 win by Umeå at home would see them through to the final. That outcome does not seem impossible, and the announcers are also cautiously optimistic.

That second leg in Umeå was to have been played the next weekend, but then there was the small matter of the volcano erupting in Iceland. The cloud of ash covered northern Europe, stopping air traffic on 15 April, the day OL was supposed to fly north. All the uncertainty caused the staff at Umeå a hectic day or two, trying to figure what was going on, and it probably cost the team some revenue as well, as the match was eventually rescheduled for 28 April, a Wednesday.

So fast forward to Semifinal #2. On my way home from work, just a few minutes into the game, the radio started broadcasting it. "Nej!" I said and covered up my ears. The driver laughed, and switched the channel. "Shall you watch it when you get home?" he asked. "It is Umeå you know. Don't drink too much beer," he advised me when I got out, and winked at me. I don't know what he was talking about; I think I could have used more beer. Pettersson took a defender's foot to the ankle and was stretchered off within about the first quarter of an hour, with what turned out to be a broken fibula and tendon damage that will keep her out for months. Despite her coming off the field, Umeå continued to look decently threatening as a long-ball fast-break team; this is not however a style of play that I have historically associated with the team.

Schelin was sitting in the stands with the mucky-mucks, having injured herself in the intervening 17 days. At halftime, she came down to the field and towered over Hanna Ljungberg while the two were interviewed; they showed a 30 second clip of some of Ljungberg's career highlights, set for some reason to a Johnny Cash song, and they list some stats. Ljungberg scored 196 goals in 227 Damallsvenskan games, 72 goals in 129 national team appearances, won the Swedish championship seven times and the UEFA championship twice with Umeå, and won the Diamond Ball, for Sweden's best female footballer, in 2002.

So, right, back to the game. Umeå didn't really start pushing hard until the last few minutes, I think, with the predictable result that they didn't score. Jönsson had a busy time in the nets for Umeå, and played very well; her reaction to the tie and Umeå's exit from the tournament was caught on camera and really just about sums up the whole UEFA semifinal experience better than I can.

Tongue tied

2009-12-05T18:07:00.053+01:00

Hammarby v. Djurgården, Damallsvenskan Round 22
7 november 2009, Kanalplan, Stockholm
Lightly drizzling, cold, dark, another damn november day in Sweden, it's more than a month later as I write and it hasn't changed, I can't take very much more of this
A few really crappy pictures, as proof

Kanalplan is a muddy mess, what with all the construction, and once again no admission is charged. Today is the last round of Damallsvenskan for the 2009 season, and all games are starting simultaneously, at kl. 14.00, presumably to ensure that all games are played with equal vigor. There's not too much at stake any more, though. Djurgården has a chance to finish 5th, if league winners Linköping beat KIF Örebro; Hammarby lies 9th, with little chance of advancement. Two big names in Swedish women's football bow out today. Last week was the last home game for Djurgården's Victoria Sandell Svensson; today is her last game ever. Joining her in retirement is Hammarby's Kicki Bengtsson, another national team stalwart of the whose long career includes stints with Djurgården and WUSA. They have a combined age of 71, and I am extra sorry to see Bengtsson go because... well, she's older than I am. The two teams are wearing their jackets as they stand in the lineup, and there's a short speech to honor Bengtsson's nearly 400 matches for Damallsvenskan. She gets some flowers, and there is much applause, although no cheering like Sandell Svensson got in her last home game, which is too bad. The Hammarby players have sponsor-emblazoned footballs and frisbees at their feet, and after names are announced, these are tossed out to the crowd in the western stands, rather unenthusiastically.

Despite the lousy weather, there are quite a few people here, more than usual, and because the wooden bleachers are wet, most of them are standing. It's pretty clear pretty quickly that this game is Djurgården's to lose, as Hammarby goaltender Minna Meriluoto has already had to handle the ball several times by the 12th minute. Some kids in the east stands start whirling their noisemakers, and the announcer tells us that Kopparbergs/Göteborg has just gone up 1-0 against AIK, news that is greeted with cheering (AIK, the third Stockholm team, is liked by neither Hammarby nor Djurgården fans). Hammarby doesn't really get a good look at Djurgården's goal until the 28th minute, when they take a shot that is blocked by Djurgården's goalkeeper, then another Hammarby player shoots the rebound right at her. My notes are frankly a little sparse, because I am supposed to meet someone here and we are sending texts back and forth, but I am a lousy text-er and wearing gloves is not helping and my mobile doesn't like me. At one point, in a flash of anger, I am seized with a desire to destroy the blanking thing. I imagine my next message: "Woman who screamed and chucked mobile onto pitch, thats me." Can you spot the flaw in my logic?

In the 32nd, Sandell Svensson gracefully raises her foot above her head and neatly brings down a high pass in midfield, a nice display of skill that gets her a few murmurs of appreciation from the crowd. Djurgården takes the ball all the way to Hammarby's back line, then passes it back out to forward Rebecca Johnson, whose shot is just barely deflected away by Meriluoto. The PA system announces that AIK has caught up with Kopparbergs/Göteborg, and it's now 1-1, news that is greeted with a murmur of disapproval. The wind picks up and there's a little extra spurt of rain; unfazed, the kids across the field start up their noisemakers again, and wave their Hammarby flag vigorously. Hammarby's Nazanin Vaseghpanah takes a shot hard at the Djurgården goal, and keeper Gudbjörg Gunnarsdottir bobbles the shot a bit on account of the dampness. In the 41st, Hammarby captain Karen Lissel gives a Djurgården player the slightest nudge in the goal area, and... a penalty kick? Are you serious, ref? She is, and so Sandell Svensson steps up to the line and puts it in without fuss. 0-1 to Djurgården. Nice for her to get a goal in her last game, I suppose, although if she had to score against my team, I would rather have seen one of her trademark awesome driven shots from distance. Besides, we all know that penalty kicks don't really count as goals. Not really.

My second half notes are even worse. For one thing, there are now some guys standing between me and the near end of the field so I can't see a third of it; for another, it's just not a great game. Despondent Djurgården Fan and I have managed to find each other, and we are now sitting halfway up the damp bleachers. The Hammarby players are frustrated: Hammarby's Lissel rather aggressively covers Djurgården's Linda Sällström (who audibly whines about it), and Vaseghpanah spikes a ball down hard when a call does not go in her favor. But things pick up for Hammarby in the 67th. Vaseghpanah tries to keep a ball in at the endline, but she loses her balance and falls on her face out of bounds. She then tries to head the ball back in while lying on her stomach. The crowd laughs—"What does she think she is, a seal?"—but the hard-core supporter's corner appreciates the show of spirit and starts up with the noisemakers again. Djurgården's Linda Fagerström makes a nice backheel pass to send Sandell Svensson through the Hammarby defense–she has a shot, which Meriluoto makes a nice diving save against.

The Hammarby players are perhaps energized by their run of good play, and they are suddenly getting some decent possession and both Bengtsson and Johanna Andersson take good shots, and then there's some more bad news for Djurgården in the 76th when the score of the KIF Örebro—Linköping game is announced: Örebro is winning 2-0, which means that they will nip just ahead of Djurgården to finish in 5th place in the league. Despondent Djurgården Fan cries foul. I suggest that one can hardly blame Linköping for taking its foot off the gas, as they are assured of winning the league and after all they have a Champions League game against Duisburg in four days. I say this only for form's sake, though, and Despondent Djurgården Fan's response is (quite rightly) an appeal to Sportsmanship and High Ideals. Attendance is announced at 596. Hammarby continue to attack but erratically. In the 88th Djurgården keeper Gunnarsdottir completely muffs a kick from the ground, and Despondent Djurgården Fan grits her teeth and covers her face in (mock?) horror.

In a move that surprises exactly no one at all, Victoria "Vickan" Sandell Svensson and Kristin "Kicki" Bengtsson are announced to be the players of the match. I'm sure neither of them hears it, though, as Hammarby are still earnestly trying to tie the game up, and Bengtsson takes a mighty leap at the goal in the 90th. In the 92nd, Vaseghpanah is given a yellow card presumably for petulance (for the 50th time or so this season), then the sideline ball girl is slow to get the ball to her for a throw-in. Vaseghpanah is rarely quiet when she feels she's been wronged, but this time she gives the ball girl a silent baleful glare that is pure poison. The crowd chuckles, a little uneasily: Vaseghpanah speechless? Unheard of. Mercifully, the game ends. A lackluster Hammarby home loss coupled with a last-minute Vaseghpanah yellow card feels like an entirely appropriate end to the season.

The Djurgården fans and players cheer and clap, while the Hammarby players stand around with their arms folded. Sandell Svensson gets a bunch of flowers, and she and Bengtsson are interviewed briefly at midfield while photographers snap away. "There's your front page picture in the morning," predicts Despondent Djurgården Fan, as the two players put their arms around each other and mug for the cameras. Now all the Hammarby players have gotten flowers from somewhere. Vaseghpanah, having signed some autographs for some of the ball girls, has for some reason stripped off her shirt and is now standing around half-naked. We linger a bit—it is after all the last game of a long season, and possibly the last Damallsvenskan game I will go to—but well before all the players have left the field, we head out of the park (I stop to peer through the clubhouse window at the the press conference) in search of beer and somewhere warm to sit.

I've been to Kanalplan several times now, but I've mostly been scurrying from the underground straight to the park, and I cannot say that I know this area of Södermalm. Never fear, Despondent Djurgården Fan is here, and she leads us unerringly through crooked back streets and dimly lit residential courtyards, past a small park with eerily glowing playground equipment that appears to have been molded from slightly used nuclear reactor fuel, down a set of wooden steps slick from the spitting rain, past a church office, back onto a well-lit street, and into a cozy bar with dark wood paneling and dim multi-colored lights. (I find out later that the place is notorious for having had a gang-related shooting some years ago. It's a good thing I didn't know that at the time, or I probably would have demanded to sit in that very booth.) The conversation is lively and personally enlightening. For example, I learn that the tragedy of last summer's European Championships is not something I can talk openly about yet; I feel a catch in my throat when the topic threatens, and we change the subject. For another, I am granted a frank diagnosis of my lingual difficulties; this knowledge comes at a price, which is that I will never be able to see, hear, or say "sjöar" again without smirking. Third, a liter of Staropramen Dark makes a quite entertaining post-game dinner, especially when taken on an empty stomach. The commute back to Uppsala is a warm pleasant relaxing blur, and now, on the last game of the season, I finally feel some sort of deeper connection with my team: the encounter with Djurgården has left us both mållös.

Full circle?

2009-11-27T18:00:00.004+01:00

Djurgården v. Kopparbergs/Göteborg, Damallsvenskan Round 21
1 november 2009, Kristineberg, Stockholm
Damp, warmer than it's been, but still chilly

It's a big football day today in Stockholm: it's the last round of Allsvenskan, the top league for the men, and the next-to-last round of Damallsvenskan. Possibly the former fact better explains the high number of people on my train wearing Hammarby and Djurgården and AIK gear, but whatever the reason, it's fun to see so many people wearing their colors. The fellow across the aisle from me on the train has today's newspaper open to a full-page article about Linköping's victory yesterday, and he actually appears to be reading it.

By the time I get up to the seats at Kristineberg, the teams are ready to hit the field. The ball girls dash from the tunnel in an unusually well-coordinated starburst formation, and the teams line up, with the visitors Kopparbergs/Göteborg wearing a shade of orange that makes me wonder whether moose hunting season has started already. Today is the last home game for Djurgården's Victoria Sandell Svensson, stalwart of this team, this league, and the Swedish national team for thirteen or more years; now, at the advanced age of 32, she has decided to hang up her boots for good, for club as well as country. In return for those hours of sweat and effort, she is feted with a quite short speech, handed two bunches of flowers, and then the fellow on the field with the microphone leads the crowd in giving her the traditional four cheers, a deep-voiced "rah, rah, rah, rah." That's all, and the referee seems anxious to get the game going, so the players break up and run to their starting positions. The game starts before the announcer has finished saying everyone's names.

Some kids start chanting "Vi.. är... Djuuuur... går'n" (clap clap) to the chorus of "We Will Rock You," which doesn't really work all that well. K/Göteborg should probably be the more eager team today, as they're playing for a shot at winning the league, and they start well, with forward Sara Lindén taking the first in a flurry of shots at the Djurgården goal. K/Göteborg pretty well dominates the first half of the first half, with Lindén and Johanna Almgren and Linnea Liljegärd buzzing about prettily and energetically. Sandell Svensson takes some shots from very far away, and Djurgården manages to keep K/Göteborg keeper Hedvig Lindahl awake. At the 28th minute, Djurgården's Anna-Kaisa Rantanen and K/Göteborg's Lisa Ek collide violently, and Rantenan stays down, right in front of Djurgården's bench, where the coach starts hollering bloody murder. Both teams head to their benches. Djurgården's coach keeps shouting, this time at one of his players, she shouts back, and Sandell Svensson has to step in and take him aside. Neither team seems especially keen to restart. The wind picks up a bit, so I start to zip my jacket up, and as I do so the zipper pull breaks off in my hand. Ek gets a yellow, from a tackle so loud I could hear it from all the way up here. K/Göteborg defender Caroline Näfver, in a frantic last-second leap, gets her body in front of Djurgården forward Marike Callebaut's shot.

Halftime, and I reflect on several things. First, Djurgården's printed program still generally looks like pixelated crap, although someone has taken slightly more care with Sandell Svensson's centerfold shot. Second, the national team coach has joined the crowd at some point in the first half, and he's sitting close enough to me that I can see he's wearing black shoes and blue socks to go with his brown pants. He really does have an embarrassment of choices, when it comes to forward-ish types; why, on the field today, there's Almgren and Liljegärd and Lindén, all of whom are talented and fun to watch and effective up front. Almgren in particular has been putting on a good show, and I wonder idly whether there's some sort of metaphor to be drawn between his fashion choices and player choices. It's getting cooler, and I think it might be nice to put on the warm layer I brought along. Unfortunately that would require me to take off my jacket, and I can't do that because I can't move the zipper down. Nor can I zip it up, of course. This is ridiculous.

When the second half starts, Djurgården are blatantly harassing Ek, presumably to encourage her to get another yellow card. Djurgården's Rebecca Johnson gets bumped into and screams; the referee stops play immediately, but apparently a pat on the head from her trainer is enough to get her back in the game. The play is generally sluggish, slightly in K/Göteborg's favor, but in the 71st Djurgården's Linda Sällström totally runs over K/Göteborg defender Stina Segerström, and take a shot... right at keeper Lindahl. Liljegärd receives a nice pass on the right sideline, but misplays it and it goes out. She lets out a thin high musical shriek of frustration that makes the crowd giggle. The score of the Djurgården's men's team is announced at 1-0, which the crowd likes, and then we learn that IFK Göteborg is beating AIK 1-0, which the crowd seems to like even more.

In the 83rd, the K/Göteborg defense fails to clear the ball properly, and Djurgården forward Sällström has open goal in front of her. She shoots and scores. 1-0, and now it's hurry-up time for K/Göteborg, who have been looking lazy and unconcerned for a while now. K/Göteborg sends (ex-Djurgården) defender Jane Törnqvist up top, as they are wont to do in these situations. K/Göteborg start to look hurried, and their precision passing goes out the door. In the 90th, they shoot wide, and Djurgården keeper Gudbjörg Gunnarsdottir dives theatrically to eat up the clock; in the 91st, she has the ball safely in her hands, but then bobbles it a bit to tick more seconds off the clock, and Almgren charges her, to no avail. In the 93rd Törnqvist takes a sideways karate-style swipe at the ball, sending it over the Djurgården goal, and the referee blows the whistle to end the game. Almgren and Djurgården's Linda Fagerström are announced to be the match's best players. The Djurgården players trot off the pitch with their heads up, the K/Göteborg players slouch off and look depressed, as they should.

Toa tales: It's November now, and we've had the time change, so games are starting early and I'd left home before noon to get to this game. Therefore, the morning coffee is still weighing on my mind, so to speak, and so I stopped at the ladies before the game (I'm not the only one here under the influence, there are several others queuing). Who knew that the toilets at Kristineberg are shared with the Djurgården players? Not me, until one of them stepped out from the locker room door behind me, fussed with her hair in front of the common mirror, and then totally cut me in line. Yeah, sure, she had a game to play in and all, but this is Sweden for heaven's sake. Waiting in line is a national point of pride. I can only (partly) excuse her behavior on the grounds that I suppose she's technically foreign (but not really foreign enough). Grumble grumble.

Mawkishness: Djurgården hosting K/Göteborg was the first Damallsvenskan game I ever saw, while on vacation in 2006, and back then I was cheering hard for Djurgården, who (of course) lost 2-3. At Djurgården v. K/Göteborg 2009, I was (mildly) cheering for K/Göteborg to win, both because I've grown to like them over the course of this season, and also because their victory would have meant that games in next week's final round would have been important. But that's next week, and I'm getting ahead of myself. The point is, I was feeling sentimental about this game, and I almost felt like I should stop with this one, having come back round to where I started. Next week, though, is the Hammarby v. Djurgården derby, in a battle for the chance at 5th place for Djurgården, and a point of pride for Hammarby, and Sandell Svensson's actual last game, and Kicki Bengtsson's too, and there are other things riding on it as well...

DamallDogIndex: Crappy weather, and my jacket broke. Joining in on Sandell Svensson's official farewell cheer was nice, though, another memory to keep me warm in my imminent dotage. 3.5/5 dogs.

More treat than trick

2009-10-31T22:41:00.024+01:00

Linköping v. Umeå, Damallsvenskan Round 21
31 oktober 2009, Folkungvallen, Linköping

This afternoon's game will basically decide who wins the league. Well, that's an overstatement, but it's fair to say that this game could at least determine who will not win the league. Linköping, with 46 points, has not one but two teams nipping at its heels—Umeå and Göteborg each have 45—and therefore Linköping cannot be content with a draw. In the first game of this series back in June, Umeå beat Linköping at home 2-1, but then Linköping has been on a upswing, and beat Umeå easily a couple weeks ago to win the Swedish Cup.

Pregame coverage is unusually extensive, and starts with the commentators mourning the fact that Linköping's excellent midfielder Caroline Seger will be headed overseas next season... it's a little reminiscent of last year's cup final, when they bemoaned the departure of Marta. Next, the camera cuts to the teams waiting in the tunnel, where Umeå captain Karoline Westberg chats and laughs with today's referee Jenny Palmqvist. As the teams trot out of the tunnel, Umeå keeper Ulla-Karin Rönnlund is laughing and shoving with a teammate; Linköping keeper Sofia Lundgren does not look amused when the teammate pushes Rönnlund back and Lundgren gets body checked into the mouth of the tunnel as a result.

Linköping's first goal comes as they so often have this year, with Seger breezing past and pulling a defender or two with her to the backline, then passing back to someone running on—in this case, Petra Larsson—who has an easy shot. 1-0 Linköping. A couple minutes later on a corner kick Linköping defender Sara Larsson shoots low and nutmegs keeper Rönnlund, who nevertheless makes the save, striking the ball with the back of her right heel. Nice! Rönnlund's heroics continue: in the 50th, Linköping forward Jessica Landström has the ball by herself at the top of the goal area. But keepers, as I've heard it said, are brave enough to put their faces where most people wouldn't dare put their feet, and Rönnlund's face arrives just as Landström's foot is swinging to its fullest extension. Rönnlund keeps the ball, and also, miraculously, her head on her shoulders. ("Landström!" shrieks the commentator, a tad theatrically.)

One of the duels to keep on eye on today is Umeå's Swiss forward Ramona Bachmann versus Linköping's Nigerian defender Faith Ikidi. Ikidi won that one hands down, holding Bachmann away from the ball with ease, and other times simply taking the ball away from her. Bachmann showed less petulance at this treatment than she sometimes has, but it's still her default behavior to flap her arms and pout. In the 42nd minute the two link arms and do a little do-si-do. Linköping's second goal in the 54th is a real beauty, which Landström starts at the midline with a pass to Tilda Heimerson, who takes it to the end, then passes back it back to Landström who has run to goal full speed. 2-0.

Maria Karlsson is subbed out for Kosovare Asllani in the 60th (this will momentarily confuse me in the 73rd, when Maria Karlsson comes on for Heimerson. I forgot!). Umeå has a bad spate of defending that the commentator suggests they need to wake up; Brazilian Elaine Moura bears much of the blame. In the 75th, Maria Karlsson (the other one) scores on a decent shot that Rönnlund probably had covered, but while on it's way to her arms, the ball strikes Umeå's Johanna Rasmussen on the leg and deflects the other way and into the goal. 3-0, and maybe Linköping suddenly look relaxed and just a wee bit happy.

The final oddity of the evening comes in extra time, when Asllani manages to get around Umeå defender Westberg in Umeå's box, and Elaine, trying to be helpful, smacks Asllani down. Referee Palmqvist blows her whistle and points at the spot. Elaine protests, and Palmqvist actually shrugs and explains to her that yes, it's 3-0; yes, it's the 93rd minute, but one really can't just knock into people like that. Asllani converts the penalty, and it ends seconds later at 4-0.

The post-game coverage is also extensive, and lingers on Bachmann sitting on the field, tears on her face. Seger and Westberg are interviewed, both looking extremely subdued at the start. It's been a long time, probably years now, since I have heard Westberg interviewed. "They were the better team," she explains patiently... and now for the first time her southern accent hits me. Well, that took me long enough...

With their loss, Umeå lose any hope at the title; Linköping are not safely on top yet, however, and they nervously await the outcome of 1 november's Djurgården v K/Göteborg game, as did I. Stay tuned...

Pushing it

2009-10-17T13:09:00.005+02:00

AIK v Linköping, Damallsvenskan Round 19
10 oktober 2009, Skytteholms IP, Solna
Clear and crisp
Pictures

If any Swedish football club has a reputation for "hooliganism," AIK is it. The great oracle Wikipedia tells us that the fans of the men's football team got a little out of control in the 1990s, and I have been told that even these days the fans can get a little "wild" (and yes, the person who said this was talking about a women's football game). Furthermore, as I mentioned way back in april, some older Swedes (Djurgården and/or Hammarby fans) have assured me that following AIK is the surest way to hell. Therefore of course I have been eagerly anticipating my first trip to their field Skytteholms IP in Solna, to see these devils in their native habitat, and to see what counts as "wild" behavior in these parts.

Today's game is against league leaders Linköping, who dare not drop a single point; meanwhile, mid-table AIK have been having something of a late-season resurgence, and so the relatively low attendance on this sunny autumn day is a little disappointing. Possibly the men's World Cup qualifier against Denmark later in the evening was distracting a few people who might otherwise have come (and they should have just come to this game instead, as it turned out). As the players are coming out of the fold-up tunnel, Skytteholm plays the AIK song. Not so strange in itself—after all, Kanalplan has its Hammarby song, Kristineberg has its Djurgården song—but here, most of the fans are singing along. Unprecedented! Linköping players do get some half-hearted applause as they're introduced, but the biggest cheers come for AIK's Finns. And that's a lot of cheering—AIK has more Finns than you can shake a birch branch at.

The game starts, and so does the chanting. "AH-eee-KOH. AH-ee-KOH. AIK, AIK, AIK..." etc, vaguely to the tune of "Over There", for the first minute. In the 7th minute, AIK's forward Louise Fors (who wears bright blue shoes and is easy to spot) talks back to the referee for (rightly) making her give up a throw in; the ref tells her to knock it off but she continues to mutter for several seconds. The pro-AIK chanting gets louder. In the 8th Linköping's Maria Karlsson takes a (possibly faked) tumble, and a group in the stands starts singing "Moviestar!" at her. In the 11th minute, it is announced that Stattena have just scored and taken the lead in their game against Hammarby; there is much more cheering, and maybe even something unflattering about Hammarby is mentioned. Karlsson gets a yellow in the 12th, which is greeted by yet more cheering, and then the resulting free kick is preceded by a free-kick specific chant.

It's shaping up to be a really enjoyable game: both fans and players are feisty, and more than willing to share their feelings and opinions over any matter. AIK's Essi Sainio repeatedly puts on some nice moves in Linköping's half. In the 26th Kosovare Asllani takes a hard shot at a sharp angle that AIK goalkeeper Maja Åström has to leap and stretch waaay out to her left, just barely touching it away with one hand; had she not, it would have been in, just under the bar. The crowd yells appreciatively. Åström has no fewer than three occasions to show her stuff in the next five minutes, making stops against Karlsson, Asllani again, and Jessica Landström; I would say that Åström had a very good game indeed. The save against Karlsson was particularly nice—the shot, a driven free kick from not too far outside the box. The ref has begun to call fouls at the slightest hint of tetchiness.

Defensive chaos in the box, in the 35th minute, when Linköping defender Faith Ikidi sends it in and Asllani scores (off a header?). 0-1 to Linköping and I am startled by a sudden eruption of noise just behind me as some Linköping fans, who had been completely silent until now, leap to their feet and cheer. One minute later the AIK fans cheer back, when Linköping defender Sara Larsson gets a yellow card. That's two yellows to Linköping in the first half. Am I finally seeing some home-field advantage at a game? AIK very nearly gets a goal back in the 40th, when Saino again makes a great individual effort and takes a nice shot at the upper right corner, a shot that Linköping keeper Sofia Lundgren swats away. Asllani pouts about something. The ref ends the half abruptly and sends everyone to their corners.

Halftime. Note to AIK management: Take a hint from Hammarby, and send your F02s (that is, 7-year-olds) around to sell your charity lottery tickets. Your F95s have a shorter attention span and are much easier to say "no" to.

Second half, then, and the score of the Stattena-Hammarby game is announced; Hammarby is still losing 1-0. There is some nasty laughter at this. Onfield, the players are quick to get into the groove, and Landström is immediately run over. The game has a very nice tempo to it, fast but not frantic, with the advantage going to the visitors. AIK is not defending closely in the midfield, which gives midfielder Caroline Seger time to plot, and you can almost see Linköping's plans taking shape, several passes in advance. Before the 60th minute, AIK keeper Åström has again made several good saves, scrambling over Landström to get to the ball, and blocking away another Asllani shot that was so good that the fans behind me had already risen to their feet to celebrate. "Nej!" they groan instead. And they say it again, loudly, in the 66th, when the ball makes its way into the Linköping goal area and is passed back out to AIK's Annica Sjölund, who sends it low and to the left, beating a diving Lundgren. 1-1 and the cheering is prolonged.

No doubt feeling encouraged, in the 72nd Sjölund smacks down a Linköping player rather blatantly but gets only a foul, not even a glance from the ref. The crowd chuckles good-naturedly. Linköping suddenly put on a full-court press, and keep the ball in AIK's third. In the 80th the guys at the rail get permanently switched on, and start bouncing and yelling non-stop. AIK manages some nice offense and precision passing, all broken up in the end by Ikidi, and anyway in the 88th Landström somehow gets completely past AIK's defense and is about 5 meters from the goal. There's not much Åström can do. 1-2 to Linköping, and Landström's goal celebration appears calculated to tick seconds off the clock: she walks off the end of the field, and stands stock still, letting her teammates come to her. But AIK press hard when play restarts, and they even earn an extra-time corner kick; the Linköping fans behind me remain seated but are wriggling frantically and muttering. The game ends, and their cheers have more than just a tinge of relief.

Post-game mingling was brief, as it was quite chilly by the end, but players hung out by the rails a little bit, and Seger waved to a young fan as she took her cool-off jog, and promised to come back later. There was a gaggle of young women wearing scarves supporting Åland, the legally Finnish, quasi-Swedish group of Baltic islands that makes its living by selling tax-free alcohol on cruise ships; one of the AIK players came out of the locker room in record time, and the group of them passed me on the street as they trotted off towards the subway line, cheerfully chatting despite the loss.

DamallDogIndex: Physically, Skytteholm was unexpectedly decent. The scoreboard was close, which means the match time got included in lots of pictures. This is very helpful for game reconstruction when it's been one of those "between the match and the blogpost falls the shadow" kind of weeks. The lady's was messy but not filthy, had some fun graffiti, and of supreme importance, was heated ("I'm just here for the warm," finally confessed the woman who repeatedly gave up her spot at the front of the line). Hot dogs? Nothing special, but the freshly-prepared crispy waffles were a treat. The crowd-control folks were numerous, and their attitude no worse than standard Swedish bored-bureaucrat surly. I skipped the much-maligned Max nearby, but it's nice to know there's a cheap source of warmth and junk food close at hand. I forgot my notebook, and had to scribble notes on my train ticket, and somehow I lost the novelty camera case given to me by a strange uncle.

And about those AIK fans. I liked the cheering, and I liked the fact that people took a vocal interest in the game; this is the sort of thing I'm used to. But enthusiasm so often seems to have a flip side. Those of you who have been to the stadium, or seen an AIK home game on TV or sverigewebben, have probably seen the guys that stand by the rail throughout the game, with a banner, harmlessly hooting and hollering through the whole thing. I am pretty sure that these fellows are, well, let's say not quite in full possession of their faculties. To see other fans rile them up on purpose—only once, mind you, just a little and very gently at that—still, it just isn't cool, in my opinion.

The title of the post comes from the fact that I shouldn't have come at all, but I was still stinging from the fact that I missed Hammarby's bolt-from-the-blue triumph over Umeå last week. I was also still suffering slightly from Friday night's disputationsfest. Fortunately I got a ride to the stadium from a friend, which was nice—there's no denying that, even in Sweden, it's easier to get to some places in a car. (When the t-bana blue line direct to Central reopens, it will be easy to get here, possibly easier than either Kanalplan or Kristineberg.) Overall... I guess this game gets a 3.8 out of 5.

And one last random story: While I was waiting for the train back to Uppsala, two neatly-dressed young men bearing a tape recorder and a newspaper approached the bench I was sharing with a middle-aged woman who had several pieces of luggage at her feet. They glanced back and forth from her to me, their pace slowed... at the last second they decided she looked more like what they wanted. They introduced themselves as reporters from Aftonbladet, and asked her if she would mind being a subject for one of those street interview spots. Today's question? "What do you think about yesterday's [i.e., 9 oktober] announcement that Barrack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace prize?" Time for me to go, I decided, having already taken some shit over this topic at the party the night before. In retrospect I should have at least hung around long enough to hear her answer.

A spanking

2009-10-13T22:04:00.009+02:00

Linköping v Umeå, Svenska Cupen Final
13 oktober 2009, Folkungavallen, Linköping
Cold; at least one player dons a turtleneck at the half

Caroline Seger and Jessica Landström, with one goal and one assist each, handled Umeå quite easily this evening. Here's Marie-Louise Skålberg doing her part:

Shoulda, woulda, coulda...

2009-10-04T20:47:00.015+02:00

Hammarby v Umeå IK, Damallsvenskan Round 18
4 oktober 2009, Kanalplan, Stockholm
Rainy and cold, it was really rainy and cold!
Gallery of Dohs

Okay, I swore I'd never write anything about a game that I did not actually see. But what's the point of rules if they're not sometimes gleefully ignored? No, I didn't go to this game. I want to see Hammarby win again, dammit, something I haven't seen them do since their home opener against AIK back in April, and I'm surely not going to get that joy from the Umeå game, I thought. Also, see the weather report above. Also, I had other things to do. Also, blah blah blah. At least those other things required me to be at the computer, where I could have svenskfotboll.se's Livescore running in the background.

It was already 1-1 (goals by Umeå's Johanna Ramussen and Hammarby's Annica Svensson, in the 7th and 10th respectively) when I got it started in the 10th minute and I thought that was as good as it could possibly get. Imagine my amazement when Hammarby went ahead 2-1 in the 30th, off a free kick by Nazanin Vaseghpanah. Imagine my astonishment when Hammarby's Johanna Andersson scored in the 36th, making it 3-1. At this point I turned my browser off, convinced that somewhere between Kanalplan and my desk, all the electrons had decided to lie to me. Nope, the score was the same when it all came back up, and then Andersson scored again in the 90th, to make the final 4-1. Vaseghpanah, who I slightly maligned after last week's loss to Göteborg, assisted on all Hammarby's goals that she did not score herself.

On this day, 4 oktober 2009, Hammarby defeated Umeå IK by 4 goals to 1. Is writing a post about watching a Livescore a little lame? Maybe. But anyway the primary purpose of this blog is to serve as an external drive, to force me to record and therefore remember the little experiences that I've had because I follow Swedish women's football. Ibland är livet inte en dans på rosor — the weather is bad, the hours of daylight are shrinking fast, I have too much to do and not enough time to do it. But this result cheered me up and inspired me, and I want to remember that, oh yes I do... if Hammarby can beat Umeå, then by golly I can get stuff done too.

Reports at svenskfotboll and Hammarby's homepage, if you're looking for more substance in Swedish.

Back in harness

2009-09-28T21:06:00.027+02:00

Hammarby v Kopparbergs/Göteborg, Damallsvenskan Round 17
26 september 2009, Kanalplan, Stockholm
Sunny but a cold wind, and lots of it
More pictures

Heavens, was it as long ago as May 3 since I got sneezed on at Kanalplan? Time has not stood still here in the meanwhile. The long flight of steep concrete steps down from the street have been obliterated, as have the old gatehouse and turnstiles. The temporary descent down the cliff to pitch-level is made of nailed-together unfinished pine 2x8s, and looks extremely rickety. I decide instead to go in around the bottom, past the pens of pigs in the petting zoo. There is no entrance fee today, and no programs (a worrying sign, as this is exactly what happened at financially-troubled Bälinge at the end of their season last year, and we all know how that ended). After dallying in the sunny eastern stands, I (foolishly as it turns out) head over to the wooden bleachers on the west side, which are marginally more comfortable, and have a better view.

The visitors are out warming up before the home team. Linnea Liljegärd and another player are fooling around with ball-control exercises, showing off a little, and they look like they're having... fun. The usual stadium music plays; the loudspeakers are now much closer to the fans, but they haven't turned down the volume, so it's unpleasantly loud. The teams walk out to form their line-ups, and as they do so a group standing to my left cheers and waves to defender Matilda Agné, who surreptitiously waves back. I had thought there might be a decent crowd here today—it's Saturday, it's sunny, the visitors have several Big Names on their squad... but sadly, there aren't too many people here.

The game starts familiarly enough. Hammarby's Nazanin Vaseghpanah rides down an opposing player in the midfield, then Hammarby central defender Elin Sölveskog, who is much larger, knocks Liljegärd off the ball . But Liljegärd has her revenge immediately, scoring in the 5th minute; 0-1 to K/Göteborg. How did it happen? I don't know, I was busy being distracted by the pile of boulders in the gaping construction hole only a few meters behind me. Clearly I've been spoiled by watching too many TV games lately. But I take the lesson to heart, and I am paying proper attention when she scores again in the 19th minute—she gets the ball on the ground on the right, touches the ball past her defender—looks up to see Hammarby goal tender Minna Meriluoto off her line, and chips hard it right over Meriluoto's head. 0-2 to K/Göteborg, and Liljegärd raises her arms, shakes her fists, and bends nearly all the way over backwards in celebration.

Clearly, Liljegärd must be stopped, and in the 21st, a foul is called on Sölveskog for defending her a little too enthusiastically, and Vaseghpanah, who is is no danger whatsoever of ever winning the annual Referee's Favorite award, argues with the ref about it. In the 30th, Hammarby gets a corner kick. Kicki Bengtsson sends the ball into the scrum in the goal—Hammarby's captain of the day, Annica Svensson, leaps high above everyone else, and heads it in past K/Göteborg's keeper. 1-2 and there is some hope that Hammarby can keep this one close. They start fighting harder for balls, and in the 36th, Hammarby's Hodan Siid Ahmed gets a yellow card. Fighting spirit can't really replace defending, though, and in the 39th Sara Linden gets past everyone on the right and has only keeper Meriluoto to beat, which she does, without fuss. 1-3. The rest of the half is better for Hammarby, though, with Meriluoto making a good athletic save against a hard, low shot from Liljegärd on the left, and a Hammarby shot at least making K/Göteborg keeper Hedvig Lindahl hit the ground once.

It's halftime, and I am bailing to the concrete stands. For one thing it's cold here in the shade, and the wind is biting. For another, L. sms:te mig some time in the first half, and she is over in the stands somewhere. When we meet we spend some minutes commiserating over Sweden's loss to Norway in the European Championship, and agree that the team had some emotional difficulties, but we reach no particular solution to the problem. Of more immediate concern are the recently-built benches on this side of the field. Kanalplan used to have perfectly decent plexiglass bench covers on the west side... why on earth did they build opaque dugouts on the east side? To summarize: it's cold, the Swedish national team needs a shrink, and now I can't see half the field. Complain, complain, complain. But there is sun, and that's an unequivocal good.

A good start to the half for Hammarby as in the 47th Johanna Andersson takes a good shot on the right that pings off the top bar of K/Göteborg's goal. But disaster strikes a scant minute later, when Liljegärd again gets through Hammarby's defense in the middle, at the top of the box, spinning and twisting... and Hammarby defender Sölveskog has had quite enough of this behavior. Together with a teammate, they knock her flat. The whistle blows—oh, well, that's probably a yellow then, I think—the referee saw something much worse than I did, apparently, and it's a straight red. My jaw drops. Sölveskog stalks off, and now Hammarby is without its biggest meanest central defender. Johanna Almgren takes the resulting free kick, and it goes right the wall, but Meriluoto makes a good save on it. Now Hammarby's task is to keep this game from becoming a bloodbath, a task that I worry may be beyond them, and five minutes later, K/Göteborg's Ahlstrand scores from the left side of the field. 1-4.

Hammarby stiffens up bit after that, and even keeps the ball on the other side of the field a little bit, with Andersson spinning enough to make herself dizzy, but leaving it off to defender Agné who takes a nice shot. In the 71st Hammarby have a corner kick, but K/Göteborg makes a nice reply up the left side, with Almgren dishing it off to defender Stina Segerström, who then sends it up to a mostly-open Linden... but Linden fiddles with it too long, and the defense catches up with her. The announcer asks the members of some other Hammarby football team to please stop running around behind the goal. Liljegärd gets taken out in the 73rd, much to the relief of Hammarby's defense, but her replacement Olivia Schough is also a nuisance, and in the 83rd someone tiredly pushes her down in the box, we could see it clearly despite the dugouts. Linden lines up to take the penalty kick, probably eager for the chance to catch up with Liljegärd—the two of them are first and second in the league for points, I believe—but Meriluoto stretches out to her right, and saves it. There is cheering and applause. At some point attendance is announced at 300-something, a figure that I simply do not believe.

At the very end, the sun is slanting low, and Hammarby forward/midfielder Vaseghpanah has a sudden burst of energy, and starts scrapping hard for the ball. I'm quite sure I've said that before, about Vaseghpanah suddenly coming to life at the end of a game... why, yes I have, here for instance. Searching back through some posts, I note the number of times that Vaseghpanah has been warned by the referee for emotional outbursts; she's been relatively quiet today, both with her feet and her mouth. L. and I agree that she appears to have lost some of her edge. The parallels with the Swedish national team's lack of positive passion is alarming. Hopefully it indicates nothing more than a slow re-start to the season. The game ends, with Hammarby heads hanging, and I feel a contemplation of the importance of emotion in football coming on. Some time later, that is, when I can get excited about it...

DamalldogIndex: I'd come in to Stockholm early to get in some last-second tourism while there is still sunshine during the day, and I can now say that I've truly lapped Södermalm, with its oh-so-desirable and ecologically sound gentrified neighborhoods. In some places, I got an unexpected Mediterranean vibe, with all the benches outside of pubs occupied by late-middle-aged men smoking and nursing beers. I had time for a decent meal of "American-style" pancakes at a club-sponsoring cafe before the game. I haven't had pancakes for a long long time, and I had forgotten about the coma that comes with eating fried starch soaked in sugar syrup. However, there was also time for a nice bask in the sun, on warm rocks, before the game; very pleasant and almost makes up for shivering through the first half. Post game mingling went on for a while, some of it entertaining; I will dare to be sappy for a moment and say that watching the cheerful energy of Youth can sometimes be uplifting. Dinner was a box of pad-thai noodles bought at the train station, which was snarfed down well before the first stop at Märsta. 4/5 dogs.

Signs of life

2009-09-24T19:18:00.020+02:00

Sweden v. Belgium, World Cup qualifier
23 september 2009, Gamla Ullevi, Göteborg, Sweden
Cold; the skinny Swedish players have on long undershirts

So here it is, the first game after Sweden's European Championship debacle. The last game Sweden played, in which they were beat by Norway in the quarterfinals of the European Championships, was traumatic—a toxic oil spill that has choked the life out of the otherwise beautiful landscape of 2009. Therefore I've tuned in to tonight's game a little warily, wondering which version of Sweden will show up: the team that beat Brazil, Germany, and the USA in this selfsame calendar year, or the team that completely fell apart against Norway.

Two changes are immediately apparent. First, representing Sweden at the coin toss is Caroline Seger, the new captain after the retirement of Victoria Sandell Svensson. Second, Kosovare Asllani is starting up top instead of midfield (and also has her collar mostly turned down, despite the picture at svenskfotboll's match report). Within the first five minutes of the game, there is a already some positive activity in front of the Belgian goal. In the 7th, defender Sara Thunebro and Louise Fors huddle briefly over a free kick near center of the midfield—suddenly Fors backs up two steps then drills it at goal, well before Belgium's defense is ready for action, but it's just a little off target. In the 10th, Jessica Landström, on the right, plays a ball in to Asllani in the box which doesn't quite work, but Belgium's clearance goes to Thunebro on the left, and she holds the ball patiently, then sends a really lovely little chip pass up the middle to Seger, who has gone streaking up to the goal from the right. Seger's one-touch is not quite spot-on, and the ball goes wide of goal, but it was a good chance.

A downright wacky moment in the 17th, when Seger gets the ball in the center circle, and sends it up the middle to someone who is speeding toward the goal... well, no, she's not really speeding, exactly, more like taking time to clear a path... hang on, is that Nilla Fischer pretending to be a striker? Fischer is a solidly-built defensive midfielder, and is perhaps better suited to holding up speedy players than being one. Belgium's #3, Maud Coutereels, who is smaller but faster, interferes with Fischer just enough, and Belgium's keeper Sabrina Broos has time to run out, slide, and collect the ball, catching Fischer at the ankles as she does so. When this happens to most forwards, they use the opportunity to show off their modern dance skills, twisting and diving and rolling. Not Nilla Fischer, though: Fischer drops like a sack of pig iron. Oof! I really hope this play works someday, it is certainly entertaining to watch. In the 21st, Fors wrestles down Belgian defender Hanne Van De Goor and makes a nice cross into the middle; these two players will be wrasslin' and spittin' at each other all game.

The play has been mostly in Sweden's favor, but Belgium catches Sweden napping and Aline Zeler is left criminally unmarked on their left—she has a nice run and shot at goal in the 23rd, and Belgium keeps the ball on Sweden's half for a while. This leaves them vulnerable to a fast break in the 30th, when defender Stina Segerström sends a long pass up the middle to Landström, who splits two defenders, runs onto it, kicks the ball and keeper Broos in the face simultaneously, can't quite get ahold of the rebound, and finally falls in the goal, gives the ground an extra pound in frustration, and sits up laughing. Sweden continues the pressure, and Seger puts on a nifty little spin move, and lifts the ball to Asllani, who shoots... and scores! 1-0 Sweden. Asllani's celebration is quite muted; she flaps her hands a little, but doesn't do any of that "I'm #1 and silencing the critics!" stuff like before. In the 43rd, Fors and Van De Goor collide on the sideline and then wrestle hard for a solid ten seconds, which is a long time. Wrestlemania fans, check out the video at the end.

Second half, then, and Fors takes a nice hard shot just wide left in the 59th. In the 64th Sweden has a flurry at the goal—Fors shoots hard on the left, keeper Broos makes a nice save—but it falls to Asllani in the center—Broos scrambles up and makes another save, then she manages to fling herself on it at the endline to keep it from Schelin. A very nice series from Broos. In the 66th, Fors lifts the ball over to Landström, who lifts it again in a pass to herself over a defender, works herself a bit closer to goal, shoots, and scores. 2-0 Sweden. Her celebration is a little more demonstrative than Asllani's—she throws both arms up in the air, and yells a few times. After a few moments her teammates have left her, but the camera doesn't; once the team is gone, she puffs her cheeks out and breathes a visible sigh of relief.

2-0 is the most dangerous score in football. Cliche but true: in the 68th, Belgium's Marijke Callebaut takes a short corner to Femke Maes, and the two of them manage to work it into the goal area... Maes drives it on the ground in to the center... where it hits Segerström on the leg, and bounces into the goal. Stackars Stina "Självmål" Segerström, whose (completely unfairly acquired) own goal accelerated (but did not start) Sweden's death spiral in that EM quarterfinal match against Norway. 2-1. Sweden's keeper Hedvig Lindahl is the only one to betray emotion at this setback, swatting at the air in frustration while retrieving the ball from the back of the net, and saying a few choice words to it as she kicks it away. The rest of the team, Segerström included, have turned away immediately, jogging into position for the restart, and do not look back.

Oh, heh, did I mention that environmental disaster of a Norway game again? But this game has been decent, and it looks like the clean-up and remediation has already started. Soon there's a even a hint of regrowth on the blighted land. In the 82nd, Linnea Liljegärd enters the game... and she's wearing number 11. Number 11 has been inhabited by one of my favorites, Victoria Sandell Svensson, since as long as I've been following the Swedish national team, and I am sorry to see her go (and especially to end her career in tears, after that ugly dog's breakfast of a game). I had been wondering who was going to get that number, and I felt a moment of joy and hope in seeing it handed over to Liljegärd, who leads the domestic league in scoring, and has some of Svensson-like qualities: always in motion, fast and sneaky, pig-headed and persistent. She is also 11 years younger than Sandell Svensson. Coincidence?

Liljegärd gets a couple of touches, and even heads a decently-aimed shot at goal, but it's weak and the keeper Broos gets it easily. She gets in on a corner kick, the visual of which is slightly amusing, as it looks to me like they are partnering up for a dance or something, and the player guarding her is giving her a really strange look. Fors hammers one last free kick really well, forcing Broos to dive to save it. The game ends after 3 extra minutes. The competition in this case was not overly fierce, but it was a surprisingly entertaining game, and Sweden, in a group with Wales, Czech Republic, and Azerbaijian, have made a good start to their bid to be in World Cup 2011.

Coda: There's another funny moment after the final whistle has blown, when Belgium's Zeler approaches Lina Nilsson to shake hands, then starts tugging at her own jersey in the most blatant proposition I've seen caught on camera. Nilsson responds politely but just keeps walkin' past. To be fair to poor Zeler, no one else trades jerseys either, but she looked so disappointed to get turned down... and Nilsson has a new nickname in my book: Heartbreaker.

Fischer as striker (highly recommended)

In the blue shorts, Lousie Fors; in the black, Hanne Van De Goor

Katastrof!

2009-09-04T22:15:00.019+02:00

Sweden v. Norway, European Championships, Quarterfinal
4 september 2009, Helsinki Football Stadium, Helsinki
A cold day in hell

What happened?

Sweden has no backbone and no fighting spirit to speak of. My contempt for them at this moment in time is high.

From Sweden v Norway again 2009, dammit

From Aftonbladet, 4 september 2009.

Having an own goal is bad, yes. But shit happens, and you have to deal with it. Going into the locker room down by two goals is bad, yes. But it is by no means a death sentence, and you can't abandon your game plan along with your pride just because your second half opening blitzkrieg did not yield an immediate goal.

You could see it in their eyes, from the start. During the anthems, Kosovare Asllani, swallowing a few more times than necessary, looks young and scared, like she is about to puke. She's not alone in the dry heaves camp; the TV camera catches coach Thomas Dennerby staring at it, glassy-eyed and unshaven. Sweden takes the kick-off, which makes it even more unforgivable that within the first ten seconds, a Norwegian player has rushed ahead and is making the Swedish defense look uncertain and nervous. As the 12th minute turns into the 13th, a late back-pass by Sweden; keeper Hedvig Lindahl stalls with it at her feet, because there is no one to pass it to, but the Norwegian player who has chased the ball from the midfield doesn't pause and Lindahl passes it back out to the center. Dangerous. In the 18th, a long ball is sent forward that Asllani does not run onto; the camera catches Dennerby kicking at something on the ground, looking unhappy.

In the 39th minute, good effort by Norway combines with horrible luck for Sweden to produce the first goal. Norwegian forward Elise Thorsnes is sent through the Swedish defense with a nice short pass, but it takes her away from the front of the goal. Her shot is from an acute angle, on the ground, not especially powerful. Defender Stina Segerström comes flying to the rescue and slides to intercept it, which is the right thing to do 99 times out of 100... her calf strikes the top of the ball, which bounces it up and over Lindahl, who has already crouched to take it on the ground. Lindahl frantically attempts to leap backwards off her butt to get it. It doesn't work. 0-1 to Norway. "Stackars Stina Segerström," says an announcer.

That's it, really; that's the game. Norway scored again at some point— does it matter that a handball helped the goalscorer? it does not— so it is 0-2 at halftime. Sweden comes out of the locker room with Jessica Landström and Louise Fors replacing Asllani and Nilla Fischer, and they immediately launch an offensive, with Landström in particular spraying shots about. None of them go in. My very short notes of this game include a despairing scrawl at the 54th: theyre losing it, and by "it" I didn't mean the game, I meant their minds. They are panicking. Passes and shots are rushed and inaccurate. Sweden pushes forward. Norway scores again, 0-3. Fors smacks the woodwork of the goal in the 78th on a freekick. Victoria Sandell Svensson scores a goal around the 80th, with the back of her head from a corner kick. 1-3. The game ends. Sweden is out. I'm depressed and disappointed. Team Sweden, confronted with a bit of pressure, totally freaked out.

What a mess.

From Sweden v Norway again 2009, dammit

First and third

2009-09-01T22:25:00.021+02:00

Sweden v. England, European Championships, Group C
31 augusti 2009, Turku Stadium, Åbo/Turku, Finland
This time, the commentators are wearing jackets even before the game starts

I really enjoy group play in big tournaments. The absurdity of it is quite amusing: are we talking about football, or battle tactics from an obscure European expansionist campaign in the 16th century when you hear us saying things like "England really should just try to draw Sweden and hope that Russia loses because then Denmark is definitely out of it and we can all just let Germany destroy Italy"?

The reasoning and math behind the absurd statement are just too much to explain here, so I'll try it as a simple deductive argument:

1. Germany is scary.
2. The second place team from Group C plays Germany next.
3. Therefore, Sweden and England should play a boring draw in which no one strains themselves or gets hurt.

I know I didn't connect all the dots there but trust me, the logic is sound.

All this is in part to make excuse for the fact that it wasn't a particularly pretty game to watch, especially because not everyone has gotten the "No one gets hurt" memo.

In about the 5th minute, midfielder Caroline Seger is on the receiving end of some heinous and blatant shirt grabbing by England's Kelly Smith. Smith has ahold of her jersey so tightly that it stretches far from Seger's body, and when Smith lets go of it, the rebound is so strong that it snaps up into Seger's face. I am immediately reminded of last year's match in the Olympics, when Germany's Birgit Prinz tried to rip Seger's shorts off. Why do aging brutish power forwards have it in for poor Seger? Why does she irk them so? Could it be because she is faster and more talented than they are, and they realize this instinctively and resent it?

In the 18th minute, Sweden attempts to score a goal nearly like their second one against Russia, with a long ball forward that Victoria Sandell Svensson nearly gets her head on, but it is cleared out by England's defense. Before the resulting corner kick, the TV camera cuts to the stands to show ex-Germany player Steffi Jones sitting up there somewhere, chewing gum and taking in the scenery, presumably spying for Germany. The corner kick results in another corner kick, on which Sweden scores a goal. The players raise their arms, but no, the play is called off and England are awarded a kick. The reply shows that, during the kick, Sandell Svensson might possibly have touched England's goalkeeper just ever so slightly. In the 21st minute, on the other end of the field, Sweden's Sara Thunebro gets the ball away from English forward Sue Smith, and then puts some fancy foot moves on that make Smith look a little sillier than she already does with her somewhat odd hairstyle.

In the 27th minute, England's Karen Carney gets her foot tapped by Therese Sjögran, and makes an absolute meal out of a this tiny incidental contact. Sjögran gets a yellow; England gets a dangerous free kick, which is booted into the box where captain Faye White heads it up and over Hedvig Lindahl, just into the upper right corner. 0-1 to England on a good looking goal, even I have to admit.

Justice prevails only ten minutes later, when Sweden's Anna Paulson works the ball all the way into England's corner, despite English defender Casey Stoney (just now returned from suspension for her a red card against Italy) grabbing and tugging at her relentlessly. Paulson passes the ball to Lotta Schelin who is open in the box—Schelin plants her left leg and starts to swing at the ball with her right—when England's Katie Chapman tackles her left ankle. A penalty kick is rightly awarded to Sweden. Sandell Svensson advances on the ball immediately after the whistle blows, never even looking up at goalkeeper Rachel Brown, who is trying to do a little dance to distract her, waving her arms and bouncing around on the line. Sandell Svensson puts it on the ground in the right hand side; Brown's fingertips were close. If Brown had held still and concentrated instead of dancing, she might have gotten to it. 1-1 and the game is tied.

In the 45th, Sjögran knocks knees with and English defender and they both go down. Honestly they look like they're playing a game of "You hurt me worse and I won't get up until you do," but eventually they both limp away, and Sweden gets a free kick in a dangerous place which they then squander.

Second half then, from which my notes are fairly thin. England's Kelly Smith immediately tries a long chip shot on Lindahl, who is alert, and leaps and paws it away. In the 60th minute, Lisa Dahlkvist, who has had a pretty good tournament, comes off to be replaced by Jessica Landström. In the 63rd, Smith tries a long shot again; again, Lindahl is well ready for it and makes a nice unhurried diving save. A minute later Sweden's Kosovare Asllani gets a yellow card for getting the ball away from Stoney; the replay makes it looks as if she tackles Stoney up high and then knees her in the groin as she's falling. Asllani is subbed out shortly thereafter, and in the 72nd Stoney chops down her replacement Lina Nilsson.

In the 79th or so the announcers mention that Italy have scored. This is good news for England; it means that they can relax and just let the draw happen and not have to worry about accidently finishing the group in second place. That should also be good news for Sweden, because maybe everyone will calm the frak down and stop hacking at the other players. But no. In the 84th, Paulson on an offensive run loses the ball to Stoney and tackles her hard; in the 86th, there's a sight to chill any Sweden fan as Carney and Thunebro collide; Thunebro goes down and stays down. Yikes. "Helt grymt," I think I hear an announcer say. In the 88th, Smith pulls Seger down one last time. For some reason Sara Linden replaces Lotta Schelin in the 93rd. The game ends none too soon for me, I want an end to this before someone really does get injured.

So there it is: Sweden wins the group and goes on to play Norway in a quarterfinal on Friday, while England finishes third and plays hosts Finland next. Italy did hold on to beat Russia, and so they play Germany next. Last time Sweden played Norway? Why, I was there, to witness a rather boring game in which Sweden showed nothing and lost. Fingers crossed for a better result next time.

Redemption

2009-08-29T13:24:00.017+02:00

Italy v. Sweden, European Championships, Group C
28 augusti 2009, Turku Stadium, Åbo/Turku, Finland
Coolish, I reckon; the commentators put on jackets before halftime
Aftonbladet's pictures featuring plenty of Asllani

Video of the goals; you may have to watch an ad first. If you can't get fotbollskanalen to work, try the small video at the end of this post.

Two of Sweden's players have been consistently criticized in Swedish media this week—here's just one example. It has been suggested that Lotta Schelin, who now plays in France for Olympique Lyon, has completely lost her goal-scoring edge since leaving Sweden and Damallsvenskan, where she played for Göteborg. The other player, Kosovare Asllani, has perhaps been a victim of her own mouth. I gather she's not the modest type, and there have been rumors that she has been starting to believe her own press before she's really earned the right to do so. Neither Schelin and Asllani exactly shone brilliantly in the opening game against Russia, with Schelin in particular failing to convert several chances, and Asllani doing only okay. Still, the grief they've been getting seems unwarranted.

The pre-game line-ups show Göteborg defender Stina Segerström in for Sara Larsson, but an unchanged configuration up top, with Victoria Sandell Svensson starting again as a forward along with Schelin. Captain Sandell Svensson, cagey veteran that she is, goes out early to greet the referees and shakes hands with them both before and after the coin toss. I have an irrational hope that Sandell Svensson has thereby endeared herself and her team to the referees, especially since the Italian captain is late to the toss, and only manages to shake hands afterwards.

Within the first half minute after the kick-off, Schelin has already had a chance on goal; the kick-off comes back to Sara Thunebro, who sends a long ball up to her Djurgården club-mate Sandell Svensson, who sends a nice little ball into space for Schelin to run on to—Schelin has only keeper Anna Maria Picarelli to beat... and Picarelli does in fact beat her with a nice save, running out and throwing her hands up in the air to block Schelin's attempt to chip it over her. In the third minute, Sweden have a corner kick, and Caroline Seger heads the ball in! The Swedes start celebrating... but no, it's waved off, for some infraction in the box that I certainly couldn't see on replay. The Swedish commentators couldn't see anything wrong either, and sound slightly offended about it. In the 6th minute, Schelin has the ball deep, and plays it back to Lisa Dahlkvist, who sends it back to her... and she's called offside. Was she really? The replay is close, oh so very close, and I wonder if the far-side line judge has gotten the memo that even is on. I also wonder whether this bias I'm perceiving against Sweden will continue— whether Sandell Svensson's attempt to make friends with the refs has backfired somehow.

Fortunately it doesn't matter. Late in the 9th minute, Thunebro manages to squeak a ball out of a clutch of players up the middle to Sandell Svensson, who sends a beautiful ball past the last Italian defender for Schelin to run on to. Keeper Picarelli comes out again—this time Schelin keeps her shot low, and Picarelli partially blocks it, but it goes through her legs and bounces unevenly towards the goal. Schelin is frozen on her hands and knees as she watches it—Picarelli almost got enough of it to deflect it out—it tucks just barely inside the goal post. 0-1 Sweden. Schelin leaps up, and the relief on her face is clear to see. Picarelli is furious, and another Italian player boots the ball back at the net in frustration.

In the 18th minute the Swedish defense knocks an Italian player down in the box, and I hold my breath because the referees seem a bit twitchy today, but nothing happens. In the 19th, Sandell Svensson is called for offsides again; the replay shows her to be a good meter on-side. Sweden's Anna Paulson takes a throw-in on the right side, which Asllani gets, and kicks up over herself and the Italian defending her. She runs to it and sends a lunging header forward to Schelin, who dumps a defender and takes it to the end line, the passes back to Asllani who now stands unmarked at the top right corner of the penalty area. Asllani steps up to receive the pass, takes a touch to move it forward, then coolly threads it between the keeper and a defender who is rushing from the left to help. 0-2 Sweden. Asllani has scored her first goal for the national team, and she holds one finger up in celebration, presumably to remind us of this fact.

The rest of the game is not as exciting, although a few amusing things happen. In the 67th, Dahlkvist (who has had two very good games) comes off to be replaced by Nilla Fischer, who is by far the largest yellow spot on my small screen. In the 70th, an Italian player is about to beat her to a ball just with speed; Fischer leans into her a bit, the Italian unwisely leans back at her, and bounces away, staggering. In the 74th, everyone wakes up a bit when Thunebro gets the ball halfway to Italy's goal line, and takes a long shot that bounces off the top bar of the goal. Asllani goes out in the 79th, to much applause, and is replaced Linnea Liljegärd. In the 86th, Fischer gets a yellow for being bigger than anyone else, and the game ends after a few moments of extra time.

Next on Sweden's slate is England, who were down 0-2 at one point in the game against Russia but managed a come-back to win 3-2. If Sweden wins or ties that game, they win Group C outright, and will avoid facing Germany in the quarterfinal game on Thursday in Helsinki. England, for its part, needs to beat Sweden. Should be a great game. These tournaments are rough on the psyche: I've hardly had time to savor Sweden's victory over Italy, and now I'm already worried about England...

A good enough start

2009-08-26T19:10:00.013+02:00

Sweden v. Russia, European Championships, Group C
25 augusti 2009, Turku Stadium, Åbo, Finland
Not too warm, I gather; fans in jerseys have sweatshirts underneath

TV coverage of this first-round match of the European Championship Tournament starts with a pre-game show at 18.15, almost ten whole minutes before the other Group C game, England versus Italy, is finished. The show starts with, but thankfully does not linger too long on, Sweden's ignominious exit in 2005 at the hands of the Norwegians. Despite that, this year Sweden is thought (by fans, coaches, and the players themselves) to have a chance to win the whole tournament. But a look at tonight's line-up does not soothe my nerves. Jessica Landström had injured herself in practice, and so Victoria Sandell Svensson will be playing up front. As a nod to her age and the team's need for midfield distributors, she has been playing in midfield recently and looking quite comfortable there.

Within the first couple of minutes, the Russians split the Swedish defense, but Sweden gets a corner kick in the 6th minute. Therese Sjögran does her trademark shorts-hiking to take it—it's an in-swinger, headed for the far post—and defender Charlotte Rohlin is right there, to head it in from point-blank range. 1-0 Sweden. They made it look easy. Too easy. An early goal is nice of course... better to have one than not... but I'm not convinced yet that the game will continue in this vein.

It's not even ten minutes later, though, when Sweden gets their second. This goal is an absolute beauty. It starts when the Russian defense makes the mistake of letting Sara Thuebro pass the ball to Sjögran on the left side, and then letting Skögran turn inside with it, with plenty of space around her. She starts to run toward goal—the Russian defense converges on her, leaving Lisa Dahlqvist open to her right. Dahlqvist looks up, runs up and takes... was is a shot? Was it a pass? It doesn't matter, as Sandell Svensson is right there in the middle, and deflects a powerful header to the other side of the goal. The Russian keeper has already dived right to cover Dahlqvist's strike, and is on the ground before the ball is in the net. She looks stunned. 2-0 to Sweden. Sandell Svensson's still got it, and I'm starting to feel a little better about things.

Within the first few minutes of the second half, a Russian player has made a dangerous tangled-legs tackle from behind on midfielder Caroline Seger. Kosovare Asllani, who had an active first half, is still feeding useful balls to Lotta Schelin; Schelin, unfortunately, is not exactly making the most of these oppotunities. In the 69th minute, forward Linnea Liljegärd comes in for Dahlqvist, and this swap briefly confuses me, but of course she takes Sandell Svensson's spot up front, and Sandell Svensson drops back to midfield for a breather. In the 73rd minute, defender Sara Larsson makes a good tackle out of bounds in the box, on a play that could have had some potential for Russia. In the 78th, Sjögran puts Schelin through, with only the keeper to beat... and Schelin smacks it high.

In the 82nd, Sjögran is again the key in the midfield. She runs at goal, draws defenders, and passes off to a now-unmarked Seger at the top of the box. It seems like I've seen this play or close to it at every Linköping game I've been to this season... Seger has plenty of time to pick her spot, and sends the ball looping up and over the keeper and just under the crossbar into the net. 3-0 Sweden on another lovely goal. Seger holds her celebrating teammates off, she wants to do a little dance. Her arms wave vaguely in the air... is trying to fly away? Does she think she's doing a hula dance? If so she needs to spend more time in Hawaii learning.

The game winds to a close, never really turning nasty although a disgruntled Russian player on the ground does aim a kick at Anna Paulson, who is trotting past, having just ridden the Russian down. Nilla Fischer comes in for Sandell Svensson in the 87th, to get a couple touches and loosen up. The announcer says that this game was just a day on the job, a phrase that has unfortunate associations for me. The game ends. Sweden won an opening game in a major tournament. This is remarkable. Can it really have been twelve years since it happened last?

To paraphrase Raymond Chandler slightly, this was maybe the best possible start to this tournament, and a good enough start for any tournament. Russia really did look sluggish, though, presenting not much threat to Sweden, and frankly not looking like much of a threat to anyone—I think my paranoia about Russia must stem from Umeå getting taken apart by Zvezda in the UEFA Cup earlier this year. Next up for Sweden is Italy, who, against the odds and conventional wisdom, defeated England 2-1, and are all the more worrisome for it.

Euro practice II

2009-08-21T20:23:00.016+02:00

Sweden v. Norway, international friendly
19 augusti 2009, Enavallen, Enköping
Warm at start, cool-ish by the end, very pleasant
A couple pictures

To and from the venue: A comfy regional bus from the Uppsala train station right to Enavallen.

Music: Unmemorable.

Food: Burgers, and this American, who knows a thing or two about them, wonders who is the genius who first thought to have the option of adding fried onion chips to a burger? Brilliant.

Swag: Next time I must go earlier and bring empty luggage; free stuff was being handed out by the bagful. Ended up with only a bottle opener from the State and big Sweden flag/noisemaker courtesy of Malmö Aviation.

Stadium: Comfy enough and cute, smaller than Studenternas, less steep than Kristineberg.

Atmosphere: Fun, genial, relaxed. A broader spectrum of society than I’ve ever seen at a game in Sweden, with far fewer little kids and prams, and no dogs. All other ages represented almost equally. Enköping SK’s Old Boys looking very proud in their club windbreakers. Serious looking middle aged men in replica jerseys. Quite a few teenagers actually watching the game. Girls and boys with faces painted; a few girls clad head to toe in gul och blå.

Oddities: Some announcements were made in Swedish and then English, presumably so that the few Norwegians in the crowd would understand them. The seriousness with which the national anthems are greeted was broken somewhat by the fact that many players were swatting at mosquitoes during the music. The state church had a tent there, doing youth outreach, with the bizarre slogan “Are you under 14 and unemployed?”

Game: Both teams cautious and not willing to exert themselves too much. The midfield did really pretty well with their passing, with the veteran from Djurgården and a young Linköping player playing quite nicely together; I think the latter may have secured a starting spot, based on her activity in the first half. I was very pleased to see my favorite young forward from Göteborg come in at around the 60th minute, but the fact that she’s new on this squad was evident: passes to her were not quite where she actually was. I was just as pleased to see her clubmate come in a while later, and thought that perhaps these two could hook up successfully as they do for their club, but there was hardly enough time. They both got some touches, though, and the second one had some good footwork and a (blocked) shot near the end. My favorite brutish defensive-midfielder type from LdB was missing, injured, but I don't see a place for her in the starting line-up anyway at this point. My favorite defender from Djurgården was excellent, of course (the program specified that she plays for Djurgården, even though she will transfer to Frankfurt after this tournament). My least favorite defender, who plays now for St. Louis Athletica, looked slow and made a strange decision or two. I wish I had time to give a narrative summary, but I don’t. And anyway, rumor has it there are Spies from Europe about, and I’m not going to risk helping them.

Postgame: Hung around a little bit afterwards, and after a year and half of stern self-discipline about not approaching players, I couldn't resist when my favorite defender came to the fence right about where I was standing. I have now shaken my favorite defender's hand and wished her luck in Finland, which makes me feel good. I hope I didn't jinx her.

Setting: Enköping is a charming little town, full of green space and flower beds. If you ever go here, be sure to pause a while at Konditori Drott near the train station. Decent coffee and chocolate, excellent pastries, and a lovely ambiance that is utterly unencumbered by pretension or aesthetic sensibility–I suspect that the fake wood panels and plastic geraniums are unchanged since the 1960s.

Unwise statement of the week: Lotta Schelin, who graces the cover of this week’s TV guide, is quoted in it saying “I det här läget ska vi inte ha några större problem att vinna,” which to the best of my abilities means something like “This tournament should be no problem.” Why, why, why would anyone say anything like that?

My new favorite Swedish phrase: "Det var en riktig generalgroda," said Thomas Dennerby about Norway's goal, which translates literally to "It was a real general frog," and it was apparently a somewhat odd thing to say, as I was told that the expression is usually used to refer to spoken mistakes, not goals resulting from silly midfield-defense miscues.

DamallDog Index: 3/5 dogs.

Euro practice I

2009-07-21T19:12:00.010+02:00

Sweden v. China, international friendly
17 juli 2009, Stadsparksvallen, Jönköping
It looks quite damp

I have had various misadventures with my cable service for a long time now. Therefore, when the TV was turned on (for the first time in weeks) at 17:55 for an advertised game start of 18:00, and the cable was out, I was mad but not particularly surprised. Happiness, when the cable came back just at 18:01; despair again when the picture revealed only a scrolling message saying that we were all waiting for pictures from Jönköping. TV4-Sport finally got its act together in about the 40th minute, but not much happens in the last few minutes of the first half so let's skip right to the second. In fact, let's just skip to the goals.

The first goal is a nice one, starting in the 49th minute with Nilla Fischer muscling a Chinese player off the ball back near Sweden's box. Five passes later, the ball is sent into space on the right, where Lotta Schelin gallops onto it unopposed. She crosses it to Victoria Svensson right in the middle; Svensson's one-touch shot is saved by China's keeper Zhang Yanru. The ball takes a strange deflection in Therese Sjögran's direction, but she somehow manages to redirect the ball with the outside of her right foot into the open goal. 1-0 Sweden, and the players appear decently satisfied with themselves.

The game continues... frankly it's a little slow going, a quite friendly friendly... then in the 61st minute the picture cuts out again. It comes back ten minutes later, just in time for us to see Sara Thunebro take a free kick from the left side, a really well-struck ball that bends quite a lot, but keeper Zhang snags it before anyone else can get there. Sometime in the ten minutes of dead air, the score has become 2-0. A few minutes later they manage to replay the goal, a result of some nice passing on the right side among Sjögran and Caroline Seger, and then some nice dribbling and low not-too-hard shot from Kosovare Asllani that Zhang failed to hang on to; Jessica Landström, who had entered the game early in the second half, has followed the play and is right there to take advantage. It almost looks like she hesitates a little, as if she's not sure she can believe her luck. She passes the ball into the net as if she were passing it to a tiny child. Her celebration, if you can call it that, is extremely muted.

Not much else happened, really. LdB's Lina Nilsson came into the game at the same time as Landström, for her national team debut, and very nearly scored in the 86th; Göteborgare Johanna Almgren and Sara Linden came in in the 83rd minute and got a few decent touches. Starting keeper Hedvig Lindahl was replaced by KIF Örebro's Kristin Hammarström at the half, and Hammarström did okay but wasn't really tested. Sweden's passing looked pretty good, although they were given a fair amount of leeway, as China's players looked a little slow to defend. Overall, a good warm-up game in preparation for more warm-up games, I'd say.

The biggest disappointment of this game happened before the ball was even kicked off: it was the fact that the game was played in Jönköping. I first heard rumor of this game back in May, and I was all excited to go to Stockholm to see it... but no. Then I was glad that it least it would be on TV... which it was, sort of. At least Sweden won, and no one got hurt, and that's something.

Valhalla's friendly football folk

2009-07-03T17:43:00.048+02:00

Kopparbergs/Göteborg v. Linköping, Damallsvenskan Round 13
28 juni 2009, Valhalla IP, Göteborg
Sunny and hot, hot, hot; most fans are clustered in the shade
More pictures
Short youtube game highlights

A couple months ago, when I first learned that I would be going to Göteborg and therefore miss the Hammarby-LdB game in Stockholm on this day, I was a little mad; when I checked the schedule and saw what I might be able to see instead, I was elated. Today's match features the league's #2 team, Kopparbergs/Göteborg, against its #3, Linköping, and therefore should be excellent. It could be a bit of a grudge match, too, as K/G somewhat unexpectedly defeated Linköping all the way back in Round 2. There's a jolly atmosphere here at Valhalla IP, smack in the center of Göteborg: a large kiosk is doing a brisk trade in ice cream and cold drinks, no fewer than three grills are at work cooking burgers, and 45 minutes before game time, there are already plenty of people here, laughing and talking rather animatedly. The woman with the table full of souvenirs actually smiles at me as I pick through her various wares. The pre-game music is excellent: some Motown, and Bellini's "Sambo de Janeiro," which borrows the incredibly catchy riff that stadiums like to play when goals are scored. It's awfully hot today, and there are sprinklers watering the artificial turf even as the teams warm up. On the south end of the field, Linköping's Jessica Landström is dribbling about by herself in the goal, but talking to others and laughing, while the rest of her team is in a juggling circle. K/Göteborg, meanwhile, are earnestly performing exercises that seem to have been inspired by folk dances, and are frankly somewhat silly-looking although no doubt effective at stretching muscles.

The teams jog off the field; K/Göteborg's famous coach Torbjörn Nilsson is interviewed at midfield. When the teams come back out, everyone in the seating area claps in unison and cheers. The crowd is quite large, and there are very few empty seats left in the shade. The audience for today's game is a more heterogenous crowd than I'm used to seeing: along with the usual old guys and kids, there are a lot of middle-agers, and young couples without children, and groups of young men sporting emblems of various other local sides. Linköping's players get polite applause as they are introduced, but all home team players get yells and whistles in addition.

The game starts, and the action on the field is immediately engaging. Two of the names to watch today are Linköping's Landström and K/Göteborg's Johanna Almgren, both of whom achieved some notoriety during Sweden's run in last year's Olympics. They are facing each other today at left and right midfield respectively, and within three minutes they've already bumped hard. The smaller Almgren gets the better of this first meeting; Landström shoots her a wary look while appealing to the referee for a penalty. Only two minutes later K/G have a really lovely play up the right side of the field, in which Almgren and forward Linnea Liljegärd alternate precise passes and fancy footwork to get the ball all the way up to Linköping's goal line. The crowd cheers the play enthusiastically, but the ball is out. Linköping in turn works the ball all the way back, and K/G defender Jane Törnqvist is harassed by Linköping forward Kosovare Asllani into playing the ball out for a Linköping corner kick. Asllani continues to hustle after every ball on K/G's side, but in the 9th minute she loses an altercation with K/G midfielder Stina Segerström and spends a moment on the ground with her hands pressed to her face. Her enthusiasm for running full speed at defenders with the ball seems a little dampened after this.

In the 13th minute, there is more nice footwork by Almgren, this time in her defensive half, to get the ball away from Landström, and she gets more applause. The game is being played at a quite high pace, despite the beastly heat. Both teams are playing their usual game, and doing it well: Linköping with short passes on the ground, while K/G is trying more long passes up to frontrunners Liljegärd and Sara Lindén. K/G perhaps has a slight advantage of momentum, and in the 23rd a long cross is played up to Lilijegärd in Linköping's goal box—the ball goes just over her as she leaps—it was close! The crowd roars, and a man stands up to lead us in a cheer of "Kopparberg!" (clap clap clap) Landström is cut down from behind by defender Marlene Sjöberg; she stays down but play continues and the ball gets to Liljegärd far upfield again. She is stopped just barely by Nigerian defender Faith Ikidi, who was the last one back.

Linköping is having its chances though, and in the 26th they nearly score. Keeper Hedvig Lindahl slides to make a point-blank foot-save off a shot from Landström, then she makes another one a second later off of the rebound. The man who instigated the cheering last time leaps up, turns to the crowd, and starts another cheer, but this one is more specific: "Hed-vig!" (clap clap clap) Linköping have another close shot, and Almgren and defender Sjöberg take each other out in their hurry to keep a ball away from Landström, who, in the 33rd, gets her left foot to a ball and cranks her shot well out of the park, where it strikes a luxury car loudly on the side. The crowd winces out loud. Play continues at a fast pace, and the two teams seem remarkably well-matched. Sjöberg and Almgren work the ball upfield and win a free kick; Linköping has a corner kick that comes to Asllani at the top of the box—a play they've scored on several times this year—but fortunately for K/G, a defender gets her body to the well-struck shot.

The momentum has shifted to Linköping in the last minutes of the first half. The unenviable task of keeping Landström in check today has fallen mostly on right back Sjöberg, which is a bit of a mismatch, purely in physical terms; Landström is 20cm taller and 18kg heavier, and she uses it to her advantage, holding Sjöberg away from the ball with not too much trouble. Sjöberg is persistent, and usually manages to force Landström to pass, or at least holds her up long enough to get some help. In the 43rd, though, Landström manages to get past Sjöberg, and Sjöberg pushes her down. Linköping now have a free kick from a very dangerous spot, just outside the box. Linköping's Petra Larsson takes the kick, and lofts it up perfectly—Lindahl has no choice but to come out for it—the ball is placed just exactly right for Landström to get her head on it—and she does, with some authority. 0-1 to Linköping, on one of the most well-taken set plays I've seen. The half ends shortly thereafter, with no extra time given.

Time for a much needed stretch. While standing in a line, the woman ahead of me smiles and offers up that the weather is awfully hot today; I agree and we exchange a few additional words in Swedish, which makes me feel good. The burgers smell excellent, and taste even better, which I attribute to the grilling, or perhaps the secret ingredient is the unidentifiable pink sauce that's been liberally applied to the top bun. 50SEK includes burger and drink: all that's left is RC Cola ("America's favorite!" proclaims the can), which is a completely unexpected thing to run into. It turns out that Kopparberg brewery, the team's main sponsor, also owns the distribution rights to RC, a beverage which I have always thought of as rather obscure. After I return to my seat, yet another person speaks to me—one of the old guys sitting behind me smiles and asks me about myself, and we talk for a little bit. He says he has no English, so we speak Swedish and I only have to resort to hand gestures a few times. That's two Swedes that have initiated a conversation with me in the space of a single halftime. What an unusually outgoing bunch!

The second half starts in a little more leisurely fashion than the first. Linköping, not surprisingly, have been buoyed up by their goal and have come out of the locker room looking quite confident, and determined to maintain possession. Midfielder Caroline Seger receives a nice backwards pass from Ikidi, and she takes it to the center circle, and holds, holds, holds, waiting for her forwards to get into position... then her final touch deserts her completely. In the 53rd K/G defender Törnqvist unexpectedly passes to the center, deep on her own side of the field, and the ball is intercepted by a Linköping player who charges at the goal. Törnqvist manages to catch up with her and stop the play. The old guys behind me are pursing their lips in disapproval, but these change to appreciative nods only a minute later, when Törnqvist sprints from the back, receives a cross just inside the goal box, and heads a shot at goal, a shot that Linköping keeper Sofia Lundgren is well positioned to catch.

Both teams are tired now, and everyone's movement off the ball is notably slower. In the 69th minute K/G defender Amelie Rybeck has a nice long a long run up the field, but her final touch deserts her and she can't get the ball through traffic to any of the front runners; she has been knocked down at the last moment, and she lies on the ground and yells "Fa-aa-aa-an!" loudly. In the 73rd a light breeze starts up, which is most welcome; in the 76th, attendance is announced at 783, which I learn later is a record home crowd. Around the 80th minute, K/G's moves its defensive line up quite a bit higher than usual. The old guys behind me are pointing at the field and discussing this change in tactics, noticing also that Törnqvist (known for her heading ability) has been moved up front and center, and now K/G are pushing hard for the equalizer. In the 85th Liljegärd calls for the ball through traffic—it skips up off the turf, and she takes an ambitious shot from a ways out that might have worked if keeper Lundgren had been napping. K/G are pushing now but nothing is quite clicking for them, and Linköping are managing to keep the ball at K/G's end of the field as the seconds tick away. In the 89th Landström gets a yellow card, probably for time wasting. Two minutes of stoppage are announced, K/G sends the ball desperately forward but to no avail. The final whistle blows and players on both sides collapse where they are, too exhausted to even crawl immediately into the shade.

The post-game atmosphere is a little deflated, but there's plenty of mingle. Players are interviewed by sverigewebben.se, the service that provides occasional webcasts of Damallsvenskan games. Both teams are slow to gather up their things, and some Linköping players pretend to jog around the field to cool down. A Göteborg player, after a bit of a rest, chases some children around the field and then climbs into the stands to greet friends, as do several other players. A fellow wearing a Marta jersey hangs out at the end of the field, and gets a few autographs from players as they headed to the locker room one by one. As the sverigewebben guy was wrapping up his cables I stopped by; he looked at me quite suspiciously at first, but then when I expressed my thanks to his company for providing Damallsvenskan games online, he seemed genuinely gratified to hear it.

Travel log: Göteborg itself is a big city with a definite "second-city" vibe, like Chicago (dare I suggest Glasgow as well?): a post-industrial port city with cultural ambitions, and full of summer tourists. More laid back, less fashionable than Stockholm. What luck for me that I just happened to have been sent here for work this week; even better luck that the pitch was just around the corner from my hotel, a not-too-far walk past the big amusement park and then northwards following a small canal. The atmosphere at the stadium was really fun, and I learned later that the people of Göteborg are known for their friendliness ("One of the few places in Sweden where stranger might talk to you first," says my guidebook). I would go back to this city in a heartbeat.

DamallDog Index: New city, great game, tasty treats, friendly fans, plentiful souvenirs; my expectations on these fronts were met or exceeded. Boy was it hot though; a player even complained about it in the newspaper report the next day. Facilities? Portajohns in the full sunlight; the less said about them the better. 4.7 out of 5.

There and back again

2009-06-03T22:03:00.055+02:00

Djurgården v. Sunnanå, Damallsvenskan Round 9
31 maj 2009, Kristineberg IP, Stockholm
Hot in the sun, warm with a lovely cool breeze in the shade
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>It's been a while since I've been to Kristineberg IP... a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. As I push through the creaky iron turnstile, I am handed a pen and questionnaire about my Damallsvenskan experience, and I curse myself for not bringing along my Swedish dictionary. The music blaring from the crappy loudspeakers ("Crazy," "SexyBack") during the warm-ups is reassuringly bland. Kristineberg presents an interesting contrast to Kanalplan, Hammarby's home, which is the field I've been to frequently more of late. The game experience feels quite different: at Kanalplan, with no track and primitive stands, the game is played practically in your lap; at Kristineberg, with its track and unnaturally steep and high bleachers, the viewer hovers above the action.

The teams line up. The first player I look for is Veronica Svensson, ex-Bälinge starter, an emergency acquisition by Djurgården after their starting goalkeeper, Iceland's Gudbjörg Gunnarsdottir, lost a battle with the goalpost a few weeks ago in Djurgården's loss against Umeå. However, Svensson is not there: instead, the player wearing the fluorescent green jersey is Djurgården's official back-up keeper, Sofia Åhman, who had a somewhat shaky time of it when she filled in for Gunnarsdottir after the injury. Sunnanå offense must have noticed this, and I imagine them looking forward to shooting whenever possible. After everyone has been announced, the Djurgården players boot the plastic footballs they've been holding up into the stands, perhaps causing an anxious moment or two for concerned parents as their small children rush down to the railing, small protection against the precipitous fall to the stands below.

The game starts, and it looks like Sunnanå's keeper Barbara Micheline do Monto Barbosa is going to be fun to watch today. She decides, in the 2nd minute, to try to play cat-and-mouse with Djurgården's Victoria Svensson, with the ball near the end line and when everyone knows that she can't pick it up. Goalkeepers rarely win this game, but she's lucky and the result is only a Djurgården corner kick. A few minutes later Djurgården sends in a very nice long cross that Svensson misses, and she yells an obscenity loudly. Sunnanå really aren't showing much of anything at all—there's a little bit a life when their Australian player Kathryn Gill gets the ball on a throw-in, does some fancy footwork to keep her defender at bay, and back-heels it out of trouble. In general, Sunnanå appears to be trying to play long ball. Djurgården on the other hand are maintaining possession and passing well, and it pays off in the 24th minute when Svensson takes the ball to the goal line, then passes back to Linda Sällström who's standing at the top of the box. She shoots—Sunnanå keeper Barbara dives—but the ball tucks just a little in at the left post. 1-0 to Djurgården, and deservedly so.

During the cheering, I sneak a peek at the Ancient Djurgården fan sitting behind me. When he first tottered up the steps and settled in, I was alarmed by his wheezing, and flashed back to the Hammarby-Sunnanå game when I was sneezed on by someone very much like him. However, I soon realize that this fellow's grunts are not a nuisance at all, but instead a very valuable indicator of what's happening on the field. While I write, I can rely utterly on his breathing changes and excited squeaks to tell me to stop taking notes and pay attention to the game.

Keeper Barbara continues to make some decisions that seem odd. She throws it out to one of her defenders who is surrounded by opposing players and Djurgården's Sara Thunebro almost makes her pay for it; a minute later, Barbara dribbles the ball out of the box on her own, and again almost gets caught by a much faster Djurgården player. In the 32nd, Sunnanå suddenly look as if they have been instructed to not even attempt to defend the ball in the midfield—when a Djurgården player dribbles forward at the half-way line, Sunnanå defenders fall away. The Djurgården players are as surprised by this as anyone, and the defense comes far up. In the 36th one of them is suckered into taking a shot/long pass from 'way 'way out. They don't move back quickly enough on the goal kick, and Sunnanå have had a break that Perpetua Nkwocha nearly scores on, so very close to scoring that Sunnanå players on the bench slap the plexiglass of their dugout.

Halftime. I fill out the questionnaire I was handed at the gate, which includes questions about about how many games I attend in a year, and how far away I live from my 'home pitch.' My answers make my polite "Ja" in answer to the question "Jag är en aktiv konsument av Damallsvenskan" seem like an understatement. Fortunately "Fotbollstokig" is not an option to mark. A song plays over the extremely poor PA system that I suspect is a Djurgården-specific song, but the crackling is so bad that I can hardly make any words out at all. A young-ish fellow is spotted stretched out on the top row of the wooden sauna-style benches, taking a nap. There's a big black dog behind me, also stretched out snoozing. The Ancient Djurgården fan is upright but inert. It's that kind of afternoon: hot, sunny, and good for dozing.

Everyone in the stands perks back up briefly when the second half starts. Djurgården continues their dominance, and five minutes in they get a free kick from forcing a Sunnanå player into an accidental handball. That comes to nothing, but the tone is set for the half, and in the 53rd, Sällström scores again, on a play very similar to their first goal, except with Linda Fagerström providing the assist. 2-0 to Djurgården. There is some intense cheering from the bleacher seating across the way, where fans are sitting in full sunlight and are therefore scantily clad. Cheers of "heja, jur-gorn" start from the kids sitting at the south end of the home stands.

Sunnanå continues to look oddly too timid to try anything, and rushed and inaccurate when they do try to move the ball forward. They are not on their game today, and do not look like the Sunnanå team that I saw beat Hammarby earlier in the season. For Djurgården, defender Thunebro continues to run up the left whenever she feels like doing so. For Sunnanå, Gill continues to look hlepless up front, as her team is just not getting the ball to her, and her frustration is not eased when Djurgården's Marike Callebaut blatantly trips her in the 69th, on a throw-in, after Gill had done well to shield the ball from her. Keeper Barbara has had some good saves, and continues to play close to the edge, in the 78th minute literally, when she just crosses the line of the goal box while holding the ball to punt it. The linesman squints at her but appears to decide it's not worth the trouble to call it. In the 82nd, Sunnanå have a chance in the box, and Nkwocha is hauled down. The crowd has a sharp intake of breath—could it be a penalty?—but play is not stopped. The three Djurgården players who have been substituted out cool down halfheartedly on the track, looking red-faced and tired. The Ancient Djurgården fan behind me is no longer making any sounds, and appears to have nodded off. The whistle blows and the game ends, which is good because everyone, both on the pitch and off, is losing focus and getting lazy.

As you might expect for such a nice day, the post-game mingle is extensive. All the kids who got their hands on one of those plastic balls at the beginning expect them to be signed, and the autograph scrum is pretty big. A girl of maybe eleven or twelve comes scrambling out of it with a somewhat glazed look on her face, clutching her Djurgården jersey which is covered in autographs. Her presumed father smiles and asked whether she's finally gotten Svensson; her eyes shine and she nods vigorously, and she has a big smile on her face.

Travel log: It had been two and three-quarters years since I was last at Kristineberg to watch Djurgården, a 2-3 loss to Kopparberg/Göteborg. I have not yet looked back at my write up for that game. I will do so right now, with this question in mind: Has living in Sweden for more than a year changed my impression of the place?

Surprisingly... not too much, really. And not much has changed about the stadium or neighborhood, as far as I could tell. But it is a funny feeling, to return somewhere that you once visited as a tourist, a place that at the time you didn't think you'd ever see again. I certainly had flashes back to that trip. And the little girl who finally bagged a much-sought autograph might as well have been me. Perhaps I was a little more self-conscious about my feeling of total triumph, or maybe not—eleven year old Swedish fan and adult American fan are probably at a similar emotional age and level of demonstrativeness. And as much as I complain about my Swedish, these days I probably could manage to purchase a souvenir without freaking anyone out. (I had completely forgotten about that little incident until just now. That poor souvenir-stand girl...)

DamallDog Index: Sunshine and warmth is great, but I'm not used to it yet and was feeling sweaty and grimy just from the walk from the t-bana stop; therefore I stopped first to splash some water on my face. The facilities offered a choice of either soap or towels but not both; I opted for the soap, and then regretted the towels when the soap attacked me with an unexpectedly vigorous squirt at a funny angle. The sign above the WC door, though, warning ladies against the perils of wearing cleats in the toilet, makes up for a lot, by teaching us the international symbol for "female football player." There was no time for snacks, but they have a cafe that I will surely try to get to if I manage to arrive more than five minutes before game time. What a very pleasant day, diminished slightly by the fact I was on my own. And after all that, I forgot to turn in my questionnaire. I give it 4 dogs out of 5.

The high life

2009-05-17T22:06:00.065+02:00

Djurgården v Linköping, Damallsvenskan Round 7
17 maj 2009, Stadion, Stockholm
Sunny and warm, fans are barefoot
Picture gallery

Djurgården's match today against Linköping is being played in Stadion, Stockholm's historic stadium built for the 1912 Olympic games. The stadium is not exactly crowded. My eyes immediately fall on the media section, with its fold-down wooden chairs and writing desks. There are a couple of people there with laptops, but there's plenty of free space, so I ignore the signs saying that the seats are reserved and plop myself down in a seat with an excellent view at just about midfield. On paper, today's game should be a mismatch: Djurgården has underperformed this season and currently lies in 8th place, while Linköping is third and a serious contender for the top spot in the league. But Djurgården tends to play tougher against top teams; Linköping, for its part, has had a couple of unexpected stumbles this season. The outcome of this game is therefore by no means certain.

The teams enter from a tunnel at the narrow northeast end of the field, and have quite a long walk to the center of the pitch. The visitors are introduced first, to a fair amount of cheering. When the players for Djugården are announced, their new goalkeeper Veronica Svensson gets a big hurrah. Svensson tended goal last year for Bälinge, and although her first game last week, a 0-4 loss to LdB, was perhaps a rough re-entry to Damallsvenskan, she's a good keeper and I'm looking forward to seeing her play again.

The very first thing I think I notice is that the Djurgården defense may have a tough time with Linköping's forward Jessica Landström, who is considerably taller than any of the defenders who will be trying to stop her. In an early clash, Landström sends defender flying; she then tumbles herself, almost as an afterthought. The game is back-and-forth for the first ten minutes, with each team having good looks at goal. Djurgården defender Sara Thunebro is getting quite far upfield with the ball, and in the 7th minute forward Marijke Callebaut receives a beautiful cross right in front of Linköping's goal, but her head misses the ball by millimeters. Linköping wins a corner, which comes out to Caroline Seger standing outside of the box, who blasts her shot well off target.

The game then hits a little bit of a wall, and the pace slows down considerably. Linköping have perhaps the advantage of more sustained possession, and their offensive players Seger, Kosovare Asllani, and Julie Bukh are alert, showing off their footwork and working the ball into Djurgården's defense, but they are not getting off dangerous shots. I have meanwhile been joined by L., who points out that the ground is soft—players are leaving divets in their wake when they accelerate, and kicking up large clods when they shoot—perhaps these conditions are slowing Linköping down. For my part, I wonder why Linköping are not using the wings more. When balls are played out to the sides, especially left, the player often does not get all the way to the sideline, and is therefore not pulling a defender out of position. Is the pitch at Stadion a little wider than others? There's a little tiff in the 32nd minute, when Landström takes down a defender; the ref calls her over and gives her a little pep talk about the Golden Rule and so forth, but no yellow card is issued. My earlier feeling, that Landström would have her way today, was wrong—since the first minutes, the Djurgården defense has done a fair job of neutralizing her, and she's no doubt a little frustrated.

In the last 15 minutes of the first half, the pace picks up. Thunebro continues to run through Linköping's midfield unhindered, and threads some nice passes up to Djurgården's frontrunners. Asllani is doing the same for Linköping, and in the 38th she puts a nice one through to Landström, who slides at it from just in front of the goal but misses completely. The Linköping partisans in the benches groan loudly. Linköping wins a corner in the 42nd, and the ball comes out to Asllani at the top left corner of the box—this play is exactly how she scored against Hammarby earlier this year—but her shot is well wide and over. The half ends. I stretch and laze in the sun, and cluck over Djurgården's program, which is surprisingly sloppily done, with even the 2x4cm mug shots of players badly pixelated. L. brings me back a hot dog from one of the grills near the entrance, a most welcome fortification.

The second half starts off with some noise from the Linköping fan contingent. Someone chants "Kom igen, Linköping!" at kickoff, and in the 47th minute we who were at the Hammarby-Linköping game are treated to a reprise of the "jätte, jatte bra" song, which is now stuck in my head again. On the field, Landström responds by kicking a ball straight up and into Djurgården defender Gudrun Gunnarsdottir's face; other defenders clear the ball, but Gunnarsdottir is shaken up, and holds her face for nearly a minute as play continues. She checks her hands and is probably surprised to not find them covered in blood. In the 52nd Landström takes down another defender and they tangle a bit and then are both slow to get up. Victoria Svensson takes a good shot from point-blank range in the center of the box, but Linköping keeper Sofia Lundgren blocks it by sliding at her. A minute later keeper Veronica Svensson has the good vision to slide out and stop a low cross Linköping into Djurgården's box. Oh dear—now Djurgården has both of the V. Svenssons. I can only hope that context will make it clear which one I mean in the future... Djurgården's Callebaut takes a really nice shot from halfway to the Linköping goal: it's bending down and dipping and would have gone in just under the crossbar but keeper Lundgren is well-placed to jump up and grab it.

The momentum has shifted in Djurgården's favor, and in the 68th they have a nice play going forward—Svensson snaps at a ball girl who is not quick enough to hand her a ball, then she drops it for someone else and slows down the play anyway. The beefy stadium security guys wander over, and for a moment I wonder if they're going to turf us, but no, they've just decided that they'd like to sit in the media section too. We Damallsvenskan types don't need close watching, being such a peaceful bunch. As if to prove the point, Callebaut and Seger have a bizarre moment of choreography, and appear to hold hands with each other as they serenely watch the ball roll slowly out of bounds; I can only suppose each of them thought the other had touched it last. The game intensity has racheted up a notch again. Linköping works the ball around Djurgården's box, and then a player cracks a shot that is just barely over the goalpost, a nice play that has all 372 fans applauding and cheering, either in encouragement or relief. Keeper Svensson does well to punch a Linköping free kick out. In the 77th, Thunebro takes Landström out and also comes away with the ball; their duals have been entertaining for the whole game. Linköping intercepts a Djurgården pass and takes a quick shot that goes just barely wide; they protest that a diving Svensson had saved it and touched it last, and I think they were right, but the referees do not agree and it's a goal kick.

Djurgården have lost the momentum, though, and in the 81st their forward Rebecca Johnson (who has only come in the the 66th) is yelled at by the coaching staff for not fully chasing a ball that is rolling slowly to Linköping's keeper. Linköping therefore easily maintains possession, and work the ball up quickly to Djurgården's box. Just a few quick passes, then the ball comes to Danish international Catherine Paaske Sørensen on the right. She is nearly uncontested, and sends a beautiful soft cross to Margrét Vidarsdottir, who is waving her arms frantically at the left post. It's almost as if they are practicing this play with no defenders present: the cross is accurate, and Vidarsdottir heads the ball in hard, from very short range, giving Svensson little chance. 0-1 to Linköping in the 83rd.

In the 40th second of the 83rd minute, Djurgården almost gets one back, in Linköping's post-goal haze. The ball goes upfield quickly, Djurgården's Linda Fagerström sends it to the goal, and keeper Lundgren bobbles it badly on her own goal line. Encouraged by this play, the Djurgården youth in the stands start cheering loudly and waving their scarves. In the 86th Svensson has another nice save on Landström (I think), diving and just touching the ball wide. In the 89th Thunebro starts a play from the back; she has some fancy footwork to get by Linköping's Sørensen, then passes the ball into a scrum in the box: the ball comes back out to her but she boots it well off target. That was Djurgården's last gasp, and the game ends.

DamallDogIndex: The weather was excellent, almost hot in the windless eastern stands. The seating in the media section was fantastic, with a good backrest, a writing desk, and a great view. I managed to photograph the goal being scored, which was a nice bonus. The hot dog was plain but grilled and I was starving. The toilets at Stadion were the nicest stadium facilities I've ever been in: automatic lights that knew which booth I'd picked before I did, well-stocked, lined with gleaming white tiles. I swore to myself that I wouldn't do fractions, but this game gets DamallDog score of 4.8/5.

Travel log: The escalators up to the street from the subway at the Stadion stop are steep and long enough to give the rider time enough to remember all the horrible things that can go wrong with escalators. The hall is nicely decorated, though, painted a sky blue with a large rainbow covering an archway, and featuring the emblems of various athletic clubs. This part of Stockholm is quiet (at least on a Sunday afternoon), residential, and has no need of gentrification: I suspect it's never seen even a sniff of industry. The numerous people I saw walking around kitted out in full riding gear does nothing to allay my suspicions that this neighborhood is somewhat posh, or at least posh-adjacent. If one had to live in Stockholm, one probably wouldn't mind doing it here. And I'm sure glad I checked Djurgården's website before starting the 45 minute trek down to the city—Djurgården usually plays its home games at Kristineberg, and the two venues are in quite different parts of the city. I would not have been amused to have arrived at Kristineberg and discovered a rugby match going on (games for the women's European championships were being played there). Stadion is really cool, and I'm sorry I didn't have more time to poke around in it. The stadium has a track, of course, so one sits further away from the action than at a place like Kanalplan, but the elevation makes up for it. And how many stadiums have a seating area for the king (complete with flowers), should he decide to pay a visit? More importantly, how many stadiums have a walrus for a hose keeper?

Prosit!

2009-05-03T22:28:00.032+02:00

Hammarby v. Sunnanå, Damallsvenskan Round 5
3 maj 2009, Kanalplan, Stockholm
Coolish, weak sunshine through weak clouds
Pictures

I'm a little later than usual, so I sit in the middle of the stands rather than the top as I usually prefer to do, as the top row is already filled with some older guys. The weather on this holiday weekend has been gorgeous, sunny and warm, but today there are clouds and just as the game is about to start, I feel some drops from the sky hitting my neck and head. Sigh. Too bad, it's starting to rain. Then, as sometimes happens, I start to think about that. My mind plays the last ten seconds of my life over again, and I hear a tremendous sneeze as the overture. My mind freezes in horror, and rewinds again. This time the conclusion is inevitable. I have been sneezed on. I'll say that again, because I think it bears repeating. I have been sneezed on so hard that I thought it was raining. My inner microbiologist starts screaming. Mercifully, the game starts so that I can concentrate on something else.

Early on, it looks like Hammarby may have a decent day of it. Already by the 4th minute Nazanin Vaseghpanah has looked up, seen Sunnanå's keeper off her line, and lobbed a nice shot at the goal that goes over. A minute later Hammarby has a corner kick that might have been good but Leena Puranen mis-hits the service; she hangs her head and says "Fan!" well before the ball even reaches the goal area. For the next few minutes it looks like the Hammarby offense may be useful: Vaseghpanah and Kicki Bengtsson are having their run of the left side and middle, passing well to each other and also to where they think the other one will be in a millisecond. In the 7th, Hammarby's Johanna Andersson flings herself at a long cross into the box, and does manage to hit the ball with her hair.

The ball is spending somewhat more time in Sunnanå's end than in Hammarby's, but nevertheless it is Sunnanå who scores in the 16th minute. To tell the truth I didn't see what happened—it didn't look like anything alarming was going on just at the moment, so I was scribbling. Or maybe I was thinking about the threat of a swine flu epidemic. The Hammarby defense must not have thought much was going on either, or else they were also thinking about how just how many viruses there are in a single droplet of snot. 0-1 to Sunnanå on a goal by Carina Holmberg.

I'm still optimistic at this point, because I think Hammarby's offense is playing well. Things are starting to unravel a bit, however. Vaseghpanah seems to have a bit of a temper, you see, which is bad if it negatively affects your play. In the 22nd minute, play is stopped for no apparent reason other than that the referee needs to talk to Vaseghpanah. Right. Now. Young lady, you had better stop that behavior Right Now. When play resumes it's starting to look almost as if tempers may get away from more players than just Vaseghpanah; there are lots of short, sharp slide tackles resulting in tangled legs and some hollering from the players involved. In the 28th Sunnanå's keeper, with the wonderful name Barbara Micheline Do Monte Barbosa (but we'll do like they do and call her Barbara), makes an entirely understandable error. A ball comes in from far out—a hard, low lob, if that's not a contradiction—and she can either move forward and hit it with her body but not hands, or move backwards and risk that it will bounce over her head. She chooses the former. The ball skitters up in a half volley off her shins. She paws at it but can't hang on. Bengtsson is right there and can head it at the goal... but her shot is too weak, and off-target. She shakes and hangs her head and laughs a little.

More signs that the tide continues to turn against Hammarby. They are called for a bad throw in, which is embarrassing. It is just not that hard to make a legal throw in. Sunnanå has the ball, Barbara can be heard yelling "Shoot, shoot!" from her goal, Hammarby keeper Minna Meriluoto makes a really good save. On the punt, Sunnanå's Holmberg gets the ball and jukes Hammarby defender Annica Svensson rather badly. Vaseghpanah is enraged again, but this time for a reason, as Sunnanå's Perpetua Nkwocha gets a yellow card for making some sort of illegal contact with her. Sunnanå's Hanna Marklund, ex-national team defender and team talisman, is having a good game, stopping Hammarby drives by intercepting passes and successfully clearing balls, even when seated firmly on the ground. And somehow the Hammarby defense has become completely porous in the midfield: if Sunnanå get get the ball near the midline, then they can take it all the way to Hammarby's goal line. Which they do, repeatedly. Bengtsson leaps at another cross and misses. Nkwocha is hit, falls and screeches in the same voice that so startled me last year at the Bälinge-Sunnanå game, and gets the call. Thankfully the half ends before anything else happens.

Some people are coming out of the cafe with hot dogs, but one of the men sitting near me comes back from there with a wrapped fruit salad instead. I wander over to the souvenir stand, and purchase a t-shirt, the design of which looks enough like a beer logo that I'll be able to pull it off stateside. The friendly man selling them asks where I'm from and I tell him. "What do you think of this one?" he says, pointing at the tank top that says "I kick balls!" in a rather girly script beneath the Hammarby Damfotboll logo. "Uh, very nice," I say. "Next time you buy one of these!" he insists.

The second half begins slowly. In the 52nd minute Sunnanå have a free kick 5 meters from the goal box and in the center; the Hammarby defense keeps their line as high as they possibly can and Sunnanå's Matilda Forslund takes a shot that Hammarby keeper Meriluoto handles easily. Bengtsson absolutely rips a shot on the ground that goes wide left. The resulting goal kick is well-taken, and I admire keeper Barbara's kicking game. Sunnanå get the ball, and loop in a shot that arcs up and up... could be over Meriluoto's head... she is backpedalling but should get there in time... she catches the ball easily, but I'm pretty sure that she then took a step backwards into the goal with it. Had there been any Sunnanå fans about, they would have been screaming in protest.

The chippiness that was threatening to develop midway through the first half is starting to show up again. Hammarby's captain Karin Lissel and Sunnanå's Linda Fransson get into a little tussle right at the sidelines right in front of me; they are careful not to actually look at each other as they tangle arms. In the 61st, Vaseghpanah finally gets a yellow card for petulance, and when the referee talks to her, she talks back and will not shut up. The referee actually wags her finger centimeters from Vaseghpanah's nose while delivering a rather lengthy lecture. Another yellow is given in the 75th, to Sunnanå's Josefin Johansson, deep in Sunnanå territory. Bengtsson takes the free kick and drives it straight at the wall, which should at least sting a little; the ref hadn't blown the whistle yet, however, and on the re-kick Bengtsson sends it wide right. Attendance is announced at 464, and also the score of the simultaneous Kristianstad-LdB game, which is 2-6 at this point (it ended at 2-7). "Usch!" say the guys behind me.

The last ten minutes of play are quite a bit more exciting, as Hammarby suddenly remembers that they are losing—only by one goal, but tempus fugit and they had better pick it up a bit if they want a point out of this game. Sunnanå's tall Australian forward Kathryn Gill barrels into Hammarby keeper Meriluoto and knocks her down. Meriluoto exaggerates the fall a little, perhaps, but Gill apologizes right away and the two part without acrimony. A Sunnanå player chases a ball down at Hammarby's goal line so hard and fast that she flies out of bounds and is stopped only by the additional netting behind the goal; she gets tangled up for a moment and I think that it's too bad it wasn't Gill who got caught in the net because then I could make some sort of fishing joke. So... err... maybe it's just as well.

In the 85th Nkwocha gets a second yellow for knocking a Hammarby player in the back. Hammarby now have an advantage and they press furiously. Keeper Barbara comes out for a ball and misses again. The ball is loose! The keeper is out! Bengtsson has a chance... and blows it wide left. Other Hammarby players on the field slap their thighs in frustration. In the 90th, Hammarby defender Matilda Agné, who came in late but has had a good game, takes a shot from the right side, maybe 30 meters out, that heads toward the upper left corner of the goal, a pretty good shot. In the same minute Bengtsson heads the ball up and over onto the top netting, and heads another one right at Barbara. In the 94rd, Sunnanå have a last chance to double their score as Gill gets the ball but her header is too weak to threaten Meriluoto. Meanwhile, back up the field, on Sunnanå's half, two players have collided and are still on the ground. The referee decides enough is enough and calls the game. It's gotten too cold for post-game mingling, and anyway I want to get home as soon as possible to take a shower and perhaps write a letter to an editor somewhere about the deplorable state of public health education in Sweden, where apparently some people have not been taught to sneeze into their sleeves. For heaven's sake, don't they know there's an epidemic?

Prosit, by the way, is what you say in Swedish when someone sneezes.

The two players who knocked heads in the last minute of the game must have really been feeling it. I don't know who they were, but they sat around for quite a while after the game was over. When I finally left the stadium, about 15 minutes later, the Hammarby player had an ice bag on her head and had wandered unsteadily halfway to the locker room, and then sat down again on the field, apparently still dazed. Hope she's okay.

DamallDogIndex: Not expecting any hot dogs at Kanalplan this year, I stopped at a street sausage kiosk on the way into the stadium and ordered a French special. To make one, you drill out a baguette, fill it with every sauce imaginable, then stuff a grilled hot dog into it. It was absolutely delicious. Good thing I was so hungry that I completely scarfed it down before it got sneezed on too. So-so game, my team lost, I was freezing cold by the end again. Oh yeah, and then there's The Sneeze. Disgusting. I give this game a 3 out of 5.

The bus says it all

2009-04-14T22:07:00.049+02:00

Hammarby v Linköping, Damallsvenskan, Omgång 3
13 april 2009, Kanalplan, Stockholm
Sunny-ish, not cold for a change
Pictures

The uphill approach to Kanalplan today is dominated by the Linköping bus parked right at the entrance; it is somewhat intimidating and completely covers up the Kanalplan sign. I peek in as I go past, and it seems pretty plush inside. I pay my fare and enter the arena, this time with the immediate goal of getting a pre-game hot dog, because I'm hungry and I have not yet sampled Kanalplan's wares this season. I therefore go to the kiosk in the northeast corner, thinking I've spotted mustard and ketchup bottles there, but alas, ingen korvar. Disappointed, I turn back to check out the cafe, but then I run into L., who I met last season when she lent me a pen at a Bälinge game. I go to sit with her and her friends on the east side, which is bare concrete slabs, and therefore even less comfortable than the wooden slats on the west side. The northeast corner is the one from which all the pro-Hammarby chanting and cheering came at the AIK game, but this time, the crowd is mixed—there's a cadre of Linköping supporters around me, but with plenty of Hammarby fans nearby, and there is a feeling of good-natured cheerfulness. The Hammarby song issues from the speakers, cueing the line-ups. Hammarby's home colors are white-and-green, and therefore the visitors Linköping are wearing their home colors of solid blue.

The game kicks off. In the 8th minute, Linköping has a freekick into the box, and their target is Jessica Landström, who I've wanted to see play ever since her good run in the Olympics last year. Landström is tall to begin with, but adds to that an impressive vertical leap: on this and all other crosses into the box, she gets her head far above everyone else's, and sometimes her shoulders as well. However, she doesn't connect with this particular kick, and leaps but then falls heavily in the box. A minute later, on Hammarby's response to this play, veteran Kicki Bengtsson puts the moves on two Linköping players on the left sidelines, juking them and then leaving them in the dust. In the 10th, there's another dangerous cross into Hammarby's box, and again Landström is there and almost heads it, but the ball goes to Hammarby keeper Minna Meriluoto, who then bobbles it. Landström is well-placed to get a clean-up goal, but Meriluoto recovers just in time. The ball goes back the other way, and Hammarby have a chance so close that the home-side crowd is energized and starts chanting. On Linköping's return, a Hammarby defender clears the ball so hard that it goes well over the netting and bounces on the roof of the clubhouse. On the resulting corner kick for LFC, the ball goes into the scrum in the box, and bounces out in the middle, right to Kosovare Asllani, unmarked and waiting patiently at the top of the box. Her shot is true, cuts through the mob in the box, and hisses into the net. 0-1 to Linköping and it's shaping up to be a fun, exciting game.

The crowd in this corner are clearly Landström partisans. They cheered her especially when her name and number were called during the line-up, they cheer her every positive play, and now they lightly heckle the referee and opposition, because she's getting pushed around a little by Hammarby's Annica Svensson. The Hammarby defense as a whole is actually looking quite okay in these early minutes, despite the goal. They put a fine stop to a threatened Linköping break, a hard but clean tackle that sends the ball flying out of bounds in the 18th minute. The ball goes back to Linköping's end, and Bengtsson takes a hard shot from just outside the box that is close, which gets the crowd fired up again. Bengtsson is clearly Hammarby's go-to player for this game, which is not such a good sign for their offense; meanwhile, several players for Linköping are involved in all attacks, and at least four players have looked like they could score.

In the 35th minute, a fan to the north of me starts singing loudly: "Jessica Landström är jätte, jätte bra—jätte, jätte bra—jätte, jätte bra" to the tune of the chorus of "Yellow Submarine." The crowd in the corner laughs and applauds when she's finished. A little girl sitting behind me is impressed by the reception this fan is getting, and from this point on, she starts repeating everything that this fan cheers, but she does it quietly, as if she wants to be sure to get it right. Sometime before the 40th, scores for concurrently played matches are announced. I sigh at my continued incompetence with the Swedish language: it sounds awfully like he said the score of the Umeå-Sunnanå game is "null–två" which can't possibly be right.

In the 37th, Linköping's Asllani intercepts a ball right on Hammarby's half of the field, dribbles in, and the resulting shot is just barely headed away from goal; on the same play, but away from the ball, Hammarby defender Svensson takes down Linköping's Maja Krantz rather inexcusably hard, but no foul is called. In the 41st, Hammarby forward Nazanin Vaseghpanah, who has been silent up until now, has a very nice twisty run up the left-hand side of the field and wins her team a corner kick, which Linköping keeper Sofia Lundgren catches easily. In the 44th, Linköping has another hard shot in, which is again barely intercepted by the head of a Hammarby defender. Halftime now, which would have been my chance to go find a hot dog, but I'd rather spend the time as I did, chewing the fat with L. We agree that Linköping are dominating the possession, which is especially impressive considering the fact that they play so many high passes; their individual ball handling skills are clearly superior.

The second half gets off to a quick and positive start for Hammarby, with Bengtsson getting a good chance already in the 47th. There's a little outrage from Hammarby fans and other fair-minded folk when Hammarby is called offside in the 51st, when they clearly were not offside; the near sideline judge who made the call gets some deserved guff for her interpretation that 2-meters-ballside-of-the-defender is somehow offside. In the 53rd, Hammarby gets a corner kick that is headed just barely wide by their defender Elin Sölveskog, who has spent most of the game doing her part to hassle Landström. In the 55th Hammarby's Leena Puranen send in a cross that Bengtsson almost gets to. But Hammarby's defense are caught napping on a quick counter by LFC, when Maja Krantz runs up the right side and unexpectedly takes a shot from a good 30 meters out and an acute angle. The ball sails into the net, surprising the fans at least, who gasp and question each other before cheering. 0-2 to Linköping.

Hammarby does not give up, although the overall pace of the game seems to slow down after the second goal. In the 60th they intercept a ball halfway in Linköping territory, and pass it forward to Bengtsson, who powers her shot wide of goal. "Argh!" says the crowd. Meriluoto has an excellent fingertip save to push the ball just wide in the 61st. In the 67th, Hammarby has three shots within about 15 seconds, as Lundgren makes a save but doesn't catch it, and the first rebound shot hits a defender, while the rebound shot from that is sent out. This flurry gets the crowd riled up again, and their "oooo!"s get louder with each chance. In the 78th, Landström takes a nice chip shot that has Meriluoto beat, but bounces off the top bar. A minute later the ball comes back to Linköping's goal, and Bengtsson throws herself at the cross in. Unfortunately, all she puts in the goal is herself. Hammarby players are looking tired, and they have resorted to attacking straight up the middle, tactics that Linköping's defenders smother easily.

In the waning minutes of the game, Hammarby's Vaseghpanah suddenly comes to life again, fighting like mad for every half chance at the ball. Linköping's Krantz stops a Hammarby break by hauling Bengtsson down; the foul is not called, and Krantz may be justified in feeling hard done by, as she's been sent tumbling by a Hammarby defender more than a few times today. In the 87th Vaseghpanah takes an accurate shot from far out, which keeper Lundgren handles comfortably. In the 90th minute, Bengtsson for Hammarby and Caroline Seger for Linköping are announced as players of the match. I haven't mentioned Seger here, but she was responsible for a fair amount of Linköping's possession. In the last few seconds of extra time, she is further rewarded when a late Hammarby defensive breakdown leaves her with a clear shot from just about the penalty spot. She shoots it in calmly. 0-3 to Linköping, and the whistle blows to end it shortly thereafter.

All in all, Linköping's bus looming calmly but menacingly over Hammarby's field is a decent metaphor for the entire game. Linköping has a huddle and raises a brief cheer at midfield, while the Hammarby players slowly disperse. The weather is nice enough that the players hang out for a while, talking to friends and family at the fences and in the stands. Two things nag at me as I slowly gather myself to head out; first, I remember again the scores of other games, and wonder again why the final of the Umeå–Sunnanå game was announced as "ett-två" instead of "två-ett." And with the excitement of the game at an end, I now realize that I still have not had my hot dog...

It's many hours later now and I've still got that damn "Jessica Landström är jätte, jätte bra..." song stuck in my head. Some of the lyrics of "Yellow Submarine" may have been appropriate to the mellow mood of the day, and can even be easily adjusted to fit the circumstances ("As we live a life of ease, everyone of us has all we need/team of blue, and team of green..."), but I can't help but think of my old-fashioned Swedish teacher who is of the opinion that this use of the word "jätte" is corrupting the language. And anyway, the fan who sang the song was later heard to be cheering for Hammarby, so perhaps she meant it ironically.

Oh, and what about that Umeå score? Yes, I had heard it correctly, both times. Sunnanå wins, in Umeå, by 2 goals to 1. Does that answer my question from the previous post about whether Umeå's defense takes any pride in their craft? This may be shaping up to be one very interesting season, as the Big Three (Umeå, Linköping, and LdB) have all lost a game early on in the season, putting them more or less on equal footing again. And no, I do not need to be reminded that these three are not actually in the top three at the moment... but do you really think that Djurgården will be able to stay at the top of the table, now that their opening games against cream-puffs (newly-promoted Piteå and Stattena, and last year's 10th place Kristianstad) are over? But then of course there's Kopparbergs/Göteborg, who beat both LdB and Linköping already, to everyone's shock. Can they keep up that pace throughout the season?

13 april 2009, what a fun day. This, this is the kind of action on the field and atmosphere in the stands that I want out of a game. I didn't get this at all last year. I'm still adjusting to it, but I think I like it.

"Vad gör du, Umeå?"

2009-04-12T21:45:00.019+02:00

Umeå IK v Zvezda, UEFA Women's Cup semifinal
5 april 2009, Gammliavallen, Umeå
"Lite kalt," according to one commentator

The opening comment of the TV coverage is that it's a little cold out... snow is piled up quite deep in the end zones, and rather deep on the sidelines as well; the ball girls are occasionally to be seen playing in it. UIK lost the first semifinal away match 0-2, so they need to win by three (or four if Zvezda scores an away goal on them) to advance to the finals. UIK looks so good in the early play: passes to each other are on target, and they move the ball around at will. Zvezda's defense looks solid, but the first goal for Umeå is promising: the ball is worked up to Zvezda's left endline, then passed back to Hanna Ljungberg who is standing at the top left corner of the box. Her left-footed shot crosses the box and goal, and goes perfectly into the upper right corner, a very pretty goal indeed. 1-0 and a good omen for UIK, in the 23rd minute.

However, UIK had been passing around in their defensive quarter an awful lot, and the predictable disaster strikes, when Umeå's keeper Ulla-Karin Rönnlund gets the ball to her feet in the box and sends an inexcusable pass all the way across the goalmouth to Emma Berglund, standing near the top of the box... with a Zvezda player within just a couple meters of her. The ball should never have been played there in the first place, but Berglund does not come to it quickly enough, and the Zvezda player pounces on it before Rönnlund can get back in position. The ball is put calmly into an open net. 1-1 and now UIK must score 3 more times in the next 60 minutes. Too bad, for Ljungberg's lovely strike to be cancelled out by a defensive mental lapse like that. There's a rash of injuries as the half ends, with a Zvezda player getting a knee to the head from Umeå's Elaine, who then a minute later gets one back from a Zvezda player. I close my eyes during the halftime recap to avoid having to see replays of the Zvezda goal again. Stupid, just stupid.

The second half is like the first. UIK dominates possession, and works the ball up to forwards who then fail to score. Sometime around the 60th minute, Madelaine Edlund is offside and still manages to miss the net. I think various uncharitable thoughts about her, which I immediately regret as she finally puts one in only minutes later. It's now 2-1, and some flicker of hope for UIK is restored... they still need two goals in 25 minutes, but stranger things have happened. In the 75th minute, a Zvezda player slides out of bounds at the sideline, and throws up a respectable spray of snow, an amusement which probably would have been replayed several more time, except that in the 76th minute, Zvezda scores again. 2-2 and the game is effectively ended, as Umeå must now score four goals in less than 15 minutes to continue in the tournament. It doesn't even come close to happening.

The title of this short and dispirited post comes from one of the commentators who, around the 40th minutes, after a series of questionable passes, whines "Vad gör du, Umeå?" and it was a fair question. Umeå's lackluster performance is too bad, really, but I am not sure that their mental lapses in this game has any particular implications for their Damallsvenskan season. These sorts of mistakes are fixable, and if these players have any pride at all, they will not let anything like that first goal happen again. We'll find out, I suppose.

The name and rules of the tournament have changed this year, and next year, the new UEFA Women's Champions League will feature two Swedish teams, Umeå IK and Linköping FC. Let's hope that, between the two of them, Damallsvenskan can bring this trophy to the country where it belongs, darn it!

A freezing second to 2009

2009-04-02T12:50:00.054+02:00

Hammarby IF v AIK, Damallsvenskan Round 1
1 april 2009, Kanalplan, Stockholm
Clear and warm, clear and cool, clear and arctic

Finally, finally, I'm going to a game. Getting to the southern edge of Södermalm, the island home of Hammarby's field Kanalplan, is a fun exercise in public transportation, employing bus and regional train and subway. It was sunny and quite warm in Uppsala, and rather stuffy on the train. I distinctly remember that, at some point, I regretted my backpack, and thought it was just too full of stuff. A hat, gloves, an extra layer... harrumph, I thought, spring is here, why so many clothes? From the subway stop, the walk to the pitch is a pleasant stretch after the commute; cafes and bars have put their tables and chairs outside in the sun; there are notices on some parking ticket kiosks advertising the derby I'm about to see. Hammarby versus AIK is a big deal. When I went to this game last year, it was as a neutral, without any particular feeling for one side or the other. Since that time, I have been informed that southsiders Hammarby are noble and pure of heart: the visiting northsiders, AIK, are spawn of the devil.

The sports complex of Kanalplan is built on a hollowed-out rock, so one walks down a few flights of steps and out of the early evening sunshine on the way to the field. The music fuelling the warm-ups is a mixed bag, with U2 reminding us that it's a beautiful day right before Lady GaGa is heard decrying the modern trend towards paper gangsta-ism (well, she's right that short-selling consolidated debt obligations is not particularly sexy). The souvenir stand, annoyingly, is not open, nor are the hot dog vendors about. I settle myself into some prime seating, and, without really noticing, zip up my jacket. The stands are not full yet, but they are filling, and Hammarby flags and banners are flying in the southwest corner. The youth teams of Hammarby are here in force.

A song that I'm pretty sure is excoriating all other Stockholm teams is played, which is the cue for the teams to line up and be introduced. Hammarby's team seems mostly unchanged from last year; the team includes perennial favorite Kirsten Bengtsson, ex-national team player who turned 39 a few months ago. AIK, meanwhile, has lost their Australian stars Lisa de Vanna and Kathryn Gill from last year, and may have trouble matching last year's fourth-place finish. It's the AIK fans in the northeast corner who start the chanting at kickoff, but the Hammarby fans in the southwest start chanting back in the 3rd, after Hammarby almost scores on an early corner kick. AIK doesn't even get the ball deep into Hammarby territory until the 7th minute, and then Hammarby comes back directly with a rocket of a shot from outside that AIK keeper Maja Åström manages to paw over the bar just barely. On the resulting corner, a Hammarby player puts a header oh so close, but just on top of the top post.

The stands are full now, in the 16th minute, which means that there are plenty of partisans to holler about it when an AIK defender gets a little rough with a Hammarby player in AIK's box. The whistle blows, and it is indeed called a penalty kick. Veteran Bengtsson steps up to take it... she runs up to it slowly, and keeps it on the ground. It would have tucked just inside the right-hand post, and the records will say that she missed it, but the truth is that keeper Åström guesses correctly and makes a lovely save, at full stretch; she can not hold on to it, though, and the ball stays in bounds so there's a mad scrum for it, which results in nothing. Hammarby still clearly has the run of play, with their young player Nazanin Vaseghpanah is working especially well up top with Bengtsson and Annica Svensson. Bengtsson appears to be somewhat miffed by the penalty; she is quite active over the next five minutes, and somehow earns herself a yellow card around the 22nd. I take advantage of the lull to dig more clothing out of my bag. The man in front of me puts on a hat and pulls his hood over that; the woman sitting beside him is looking quite comfortable and maybe a even a little smug, to my jealous eyes, in her thick down parka.

AIK are really not looking too impressive, and even worse in retrospect. My notes point out the fine defensive play of their #9, who later research reveals to be a forward. The ball continues to be in AIK's half—in the 34th, Bengstsson gets kicked hard, and goes down—we hold our collective breath but she gets up and runs it off, grimacing. Vaseghpanah receives a nice cross in the 35th, and one-touches it just barely past the post. AIK is having real trouble handling plain old-fashioned crosses into the box, and they pay for it in the 39th, when Hammarby's Johanna Andersson heads a cross in. 1-0 to Hammarby. Thumpy music plays. The crowd cheers. Andersson is beside herself with joy, skipping in a circle and waving her arms wildly. I'm shocked and not sure what to do exactly—my team just went ahead by a goal—this hasn't happened to me in a long long time—I manage to croak out a rusty hurrah while it's still relevant, losing valuable body heat in the process. I put on a hat.

Hammarby relaxes a little too much in their post-goal euphoria, though, and less than a minute later AIK has a great chance, when their Finnish international Anne Makinen has a hard shot that Hammarby keeper Minna Meriluoto does well to touch over the bar. In the 44th, Hammarby gets another drive going that ends in another good shot that keeper Åström covers. The half ends. The man sitting in front of me stands up, announces "Kaffe" sternly but to no one in particular, and hustles off. By now I am wearing every last item of spare clothing I have brought, and wishing for more. The cafe and satellite kiosks are crowded messes. I content myself with a brisk walk to check out the radio van, from which they are apparently broadcasting the game. They announce the score of the concurrent Stattena-Djurgården game at 0-7, a rather warm welcome to the league for newly-promoted Stettena. An ex-Bälingare now with Djurgården, Alexandra Höglund, has scored twice.

The second half starts, now under the salmon glare of sodium lights. Play is much like the first, with Hammarby mostly dominating. Excitement in the 58th, when a Hammarby player is apparently injured in her own box, and lying motionless on the ground. Most people have stopped moving, and the Hammarby player with the ball sends it towards the sideline to stop play, but one AIK player has not gotten the memo and intercepts it and starts running towards Hammarby's goal. This sort of unsportsmanlike behavior is just the kind of thing one expects from AIK. Players and fans alike start yelling at her, which startles her, and she plays it out. But Hammarby's Vaseghpanah is not satisfied: well after the ball goes out, she suddenly starts shrieking and charges at the AIK player. She is intercepted by one of her own teammates, defender Elin Sölveskog, who literally holds her back and spends several seconds talking her down. In the 61st, AIK puts in former Bälinge player Emilia Appelqvist. Vaseghpanah is still enraged, apparently, but now puts this anger to more positive use, spinning, putting on the moves, making good crosses into the box, generally terrorizing AIK's defense, showing why she was a nominee in 2008 for newcomer of the year. Other players have newly shortened tempers as well—Hammarby's Madeleine Tegström gets a yellow in the 64th, for pointlessly kicking an AIK right in front of the referee. Attendance is announced as 1346, which is really good for a Wednesday night in early April, and is an underestimate of the people actually watching the game—many have not come in the gate, but are watching from the nearby hill. As I write the number down, I fumble my pencil, because I am freezing to death.

Play continues—AIK has occasional chances, and being up by only one goal, Hammarby must be cautious, but the ball is mostly in AIK's half. Bengtsson takes another good shot that goes just barely over the goal. In the 80th, Hammarby starts trying to slow the game down by keeping possession. In the 84th AIK has a free kick that they spend precious seconds conferring about, and they end up sending in a dangerous low skipping shot that is covered nicely. Hammarby comes all the way back, and nearly scores as the ball skips off Åström's hand. The crowd is smelling victory, and says "oooOOOOoo!" rather cheerfully. They do it again in the 90th, when Bengtsson's cross is nearly headed in, then there is full-throated cheering when Hammarby's Lisa Björkvik, who came in in the 75th, heads another cross in from three meters out. 2-0 in the 91st, victory is now assured. The whistle blows, the game ends. The home-side fans whistle and chant briefly, our team has a very short cheer at midfield, but there is no mingling, and the crowd disperses quickly. I rub my knees to thaw them and hobble off to the welcome warmth of the subway station. Not until I'm on the train does it really hit me that I've just witnessed a first in Damallsvenskan history: the team I was supporting won! Hooray, and heja Hammarby!

I'm looking forward to future Hammarby victories. I'm also looking forward to my brain being warm enough to appreciate them at the time.

Ahem. Just to clarify, Djurgården beat Stattena by 7 goals to 0, not the other way around, as I had it originally... thanks to a sharp-eyed Djurgården fan for the correction, sorry for the heart-attack.

A hot start to 2009

2009-03-29T13:05:00.022+02:00

Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC v LdB FC Malmö, Damallsvenskan Round 1
28 mars 2009, Valhalla IP, Göteborg
Clear and cold, from the look of it
Screen shots

Damallsvenskan 2009 started last Wednesday with home-side Umeå defeating KIF Örebro in tempertures reportedly around the -10C mark, and today's game, in bright sunny southwestern Göteborg, reminds ex-pats that summer is far away yet. Unmelting snow is piled up not a meter out of the end zones. But at these latitudes, one cannot wait for a thawed-out pitch and still manage to play twenty-two games, and so the season begins before winter is really over. Last year, when LdB came to Uppsala to play Bälinge, it was one of the loveliest days of the year, and I greatly enjoyed watching LdB's possession style; this year, in a pre-season poll of people who should know something, LdB has been picked as favorites to win the league. K/G meanwhile has lost the services of internationals Lotta Schelin and Ingvild Stensland, and should be the weaker of the two teams by far.

The first quarter hour of play do little to suggest otherwise, although these minutes do offer a fair glimpse into what the entire game will be like. Within the first five, LdB has already had several decent chances, working the ball patiently into shooting range, and their dangerous Dutch forward Manon Melis sends a shot just barely over the bar. In the 7th, the LdB defense decides for some reason to give the ball right to K/G forward Sara Lindén, who has a dangerous chip at the goal: LdB's Danish international keeper Tina Cederkvist Viskaer has been caught loping back into position, and scrambles backwards and just barely swats the ball down right off the line. LdB resumes possession, the ball is worked upfield and into the box, and passed back to Therese Sjögran who hits a smoker right from the top of the box, too fast for K/G's keeper Hedvig Lindahl to cover although she has a good dive at it anyway. 0-1 to LdB in the 11th minute, and it's looking like a runaway for LdB.

The game settles into a textbook example of possession play versus a long-ball/quick counter style, with LdB holding and K/G occasionally striking back with admirable speed. In the 36th, something happens that I have waited a long, long time to see with my own eyes. K/G recovers the ball at around midfield, Lindén gets it and holds, pushing forward just a little; a player streaks by her, and suddenly there are more K/G players than there should be in LdB's half. LdB's defense is confused, and no one properly picks her up. She's onside, just barely, and is both ballside and goalside on her defender, as Lindén sends it to her in the box. The player has only the keeper to beat, and does so. Only on replay does it become clear that the scorer is defender Jane Törnqvist; fyller 33 år, she is still speedy and crafty enough to come out of the backfield and create chaos in the opposing defense. 1-1. The half ends; a grinning Törnqvist is interviewed on her way to the tunnel; my favorite Cardigans song can be clearly heard playing over the stadium loudspeakers; my heart warms to K/G even more.

The second half is a mirror of the first, but with pleasing variations. LdB's Czech star Pavlina Scasna nearly scores immediately, bouncing the ball off the top of the top goalpost. Keeper Lindahl nearly has an assist off a punt to Lindén, and then in the 53rd, K/G's Linnea Liljegärd gets the ball on the right and is past all defenders; LdB keeper Cederkvist comes 'way out to the top right corner of her box, Liljegärd neatly chips it over her and into the net it goes. 2-1 to K/G and Cederkvist is not happy with herself or her defense. LdB continues to possess, and has series of passes that are really noteworthy for their precision. In the 64th, K/G wins a foul a meter outside the goal box just in the middle, a shot that last year surely would have been taken and buried by Stensland; today, the shot goes over. The game starts to heat up. In the 65th, Sjögran comes in at a K/G defender with her foot at face height and is called for dangerous play; a few minutes later Melis has another hard close shot that Lindahl manages to palm over, a nice reflex save.

In the 69th, another thing happens that I wasn't sure I'd ever see: Sarah Storck comes into the game! (To replace LdB's relatively silent Brazian Renate Costa, of all people.) Storck is one of the more promising young players to have survived last year's campaign with Bälinge, and I had been hoping but not really believing that she would see some playing time with her new team LdB. In the 79th, LdB's Sjögran, who is looking increasingly frustrated, wraps her arm around a K/G player's neck, and during the resulting free kick, keeper Cederkvist punches Liljegärd in the head; she stays down in the box for a few minutes. Thus there are a few minutes of added time, and in the 91st, Storck at least gets a chance to show her speed and skills, dribbling past a couple K/G defenders, getting tackled at the top of the box, and taking just one step too many in order to fall into the box instead of outside it. The referee lets her know that she needs to work on her acting skills. The game ends. Keeper Cederkvist is interviewed on her way to the tunnel, sounding neither happy nor particularly Danish, to my ear.

A really good game, and of course the upsetting of a favorite is always an auspicious beginning to a season. What further surprises are in store for us, with a Marta/Jeglertz-less Umeå, a now-wounded LdB, a Linköping rising?