IFK Gothenburg 0 v 1 Mjällby AIF

Saturday 1st October 2011
Swedish Allsvenskan
Gamla Ullevi, Gothenburg
Admission: 130 SEK
Programme:Free
Attendance: 7,407
Match Rating: 2

With Gothenburg currently being one of the bargain Ryanair destinations, this was my second visit to the city of the year, and to Sweden inside two weeks, for a top tier, Allsvenskan game, at the home of one of the biggest names and most successful teams in Swedish football. Despite buying my tickets in advance, it did look like I might not make this game, as my destination airport, Gothenburg City, was closed due to fog. An alternative airport of Skavsta, near Stockholm, was mentioned, but happily the plane was able to land at the alternative Landvetter airport the other side of Gothenburg, happily with minimal disruption to my plans.

The Gamla Ullevi, which is located just a five minute walk northwards from the city centre and very close to the much larger and impressive looking Ullevi stadium, is a rather interesting stadium despite its rather bland modern appearance. The name translates to "Old Ullevi", which is rather misleading, as the current stadium was only opened in 2008, built on the site of the stadium it replaced - which was also called Gamla Ullevi. There cannot be many stadia in the world that host as many as four different teams, with club sides IFK Gothenburg, GAIS and Örgryte IS all calling the Gamla Ullevi home, as do the Swedish national women's football team. The stadium has a nice uniform, continuous look about it, with seating along both lengths of the pitch and in all four corners. Behind both goals, there is a small area of terracing in the lower tier, and in the upper tier  is a "dual purpose" area, with seating installed but handrails installed along each row for those who prefer to stand - as most do in this area. One of these areas - where I was located - is where the hard-core support of IFK Gothenburg gathers. Views are excellent and unobstructed from everywhere in the stadium, and with the whole stadium wrapped closely to the pitch, it is a very good arena to watch football in. A small sized 12 page programme was given out free of charge around the stadium - indeed, the distributors almost chased people to give them a programme, even persons cycling or driving past clearly not going to the match. It had squad lists but that was about the limit of interest to a non-Swedish speaker, no results list nor league table.

For the home side, there was little left to play for with just three games left of the season, as they cannot qualify for European football. They were in sixth place in the league, and they will have to settle for a mid-table finish - following on from last year's seventh place, which surely cannot be considered acceptable considering the club's status. Things are a litle more interesting for Mjällby as the Allsvenskan season draws to a close, in twelth place in the sixteen league, six points clear of the relegation zone and only three points clear of the relegation play-off position. When the two teams met at Mjällby earlier in the season, IFK triumphed 2-0.

Although this was a match played at a higher tempo than the average Scandinavian game, it was desperately short on quality and ideas, as both teams looked exactly what they are - a "big" club going through the motions against a limited team battling against relegation. Although the home side looked slightly the better side, neither side really looked like scoring, and the scoreline remained goalless at half time. I just had a feeling throughout that things were building up to the visitors claiming a scrappy win, and that is pretty how much how it panned out. Mjällby started to carve out the few half chances that there were, most notably on the hour mark when a long kick from the goalkeeper presented a one-on-one, which Erton Fejzullahu completely fluffed having down all the hard work holding off a defender when he miskicked tamely straight to the keeper from close range. However, they did score what turned out to be the winner when David Löfquist worked some space before unleashing a 25 yard screamer into the top corner which gave the keeper no chance. A wonderful goal not in keeping with a mostly dull game and to which one could say, "take a bow, son", and Löfquist duly obliged in his celebrations in front of the IFK hard core support. The home side could not muster a threat of an equaliser in the few minutes that remained and so Mjällby secured a vital three points to almost certainly guarantee survival in the Allsvenskan - only a freak swing in goal difference could see them slip into the relegation play-off position, with their two remaining games against the bottom two clubs in the league.

Special mention must be made of the IFK Gothenburg fans today, who were absolutely superb in their support, from before kick off when the crowd sang along to the club anthem with scarves aloft, right through the game with singing and chanting despite the fairly dire fare on offer on the pitch. At the final whistle, their boos were deafening - which was exactly how it should be from supporters, superb support of their team during the match, but register their justified discontent with the dreadful performance once the game had ended. English fans at league games could learn a lot from this....

Video highlights of this game can be found at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIqn4SpdZoQ

BK Häcken 2 v 2 IFK Norrköping

Saturday 11th June  2011

Allsvenskan (Swedish Premier League)

Rambergsvallen, Gothenburg

Admission: 140 SEK

Team Sheet: Free

Attendance: 2517

Match Rating: 3

A desire to eke out football watching just a little bit further into the summer inspired me to plan a daytrip to Gothenburg, made relatively easy by Ryanair's cheap flights with favourable timings, and flying into Gothenburg City airport, which is only twenty minutes away from the city centre by coach. In an ideal world, I would have taken in a visit to the Gamla Ullevi, to visit one of the best and most modern stadia in Sweden. However, with only the odd game played on a Saturday afternoon in the Allsvenskan, beggars can't be choosers and I had to settle for a visit to the Rambergsvallen, the humble home of BK Häcken, very much the poor footballing relations of Gothenburg in almost every respect.

After spending several hours taking in the sights of Gothenburg, I then made my way on foot north-westwards from the city centre and onto Hisingen island, where the Rambergsvallen is located. The walk took about 40 minutes along a busy dual carriageway (although pleasant views can be seen looking back to the city waterfront when walking across the bridge to the island). Regular buses and trams also ply the route. The stadium is set in a subruban commuter area, and inside is, in all honesty, a rather unappealing arena for football. It has the dreaded running track around the pitch, so has an open and distant from the action feel to it. There are two fairly low grandstands running along each length, one stand by the dugouts having for the most part bench seating with a small section in the centre having more conventional plastic seats, the other stand has bench seating in the middle third, with standing areas either side, one of which was for away fans, although plenty of away fans were interspersed in all other areas of the ground. Behind one of the goals is a metallic terrace which was not in use today, a marquee for VIP guests, as well as a large screen which always seems to be present at all Allsvenskan matches showing interviews and match action. Behind the other goal was just hand standing, which a handful of people chose to watch the action from despite the distance from the action. Although it wasn't necessary, I bought my ticket in advance on the internet which I collected from a supermarket in the morning - it's a very simple system of purchasing and collecting tickets for games in Sweden.The issuing of programmes always seems to be a complete lottery in Sweden - here, an A5 double-sided sheet was handed out free of charge on entering the ground, containing the current league table and squad lists for each team - for a non Swedish speaker, this was perfectly adequate.

Today's encounter was between two teams struggling in the bottom half of the table after ten games played, with BK Häcken in twelth place in the 16 team league and just one point above the relegation play-off position of 14th, whilst IFK Norrköping, newly promoted to the Allsvenskan, one position and one point better off. BK Häcken's form has been nothing to write home about, gaining just one point from their last three games, although that included a narrow 0-1 defeat at city rivals GAIS and a very creditible 1-1 draw at home to reigning champions at Malmo. IFK Norrköping have been in worse recent form, gaining just one point from their last five games after winning their previous three.

On a very warm, sunny day, the match started at a fairly slow pace as is often the way in Scandinavian football, although the visitors had the upper hand and could easily have taken the lead with a quarter of an hour on the clock when Häcken's goalkeeper, Christopher Källqvist, tried to dribble the ball wide outside the penalty area and was dispossessed, but luckily by the time Shpetim Hasani had managed to line up the shot from 20 yards out, Källqvist just managed to retreat in time to collect the ball. Another defensive error was punished at the other end on 25 minutes when the Norrköping defender Bobby Friberg inexplicably tried to dribble the ball deep inside his own penalty area but was dispossessed by Rene Makondele, who then had the simple task of firing home past the keeper from about 8 yards out. The home side went on to control proceedings for the rest of the first half, missing some decent chances to equalise, including hitting the crossbar direct from a corner, however on the stroke of half time, the away side were back on level terms out of the blue, when Astrit Ajdarevic fired a low shot from 25 yards through a crowd of players which presumably unsighted the keeper. 

IFK Norrköping were slightly fortunate to be on level terms at the break, and there was little sign in the second half that they could score a winner, as the game became rather pedestrian with the home side looking comfortable and the more likely to score, indeed, IFK Norrköping had their goalkeeper, Abbas Hassan, to thank for several excellent saves to keep them in the game. However, just as the game entered added-on time at the end of the match, BK Häcken scored what surely would prove to be the winner when a corner was met with a bullet header at the near post by Matthias Ranegie from eight yards out. However, to their credit it was clear that IFK Norrköping's players had not allowed their heads to drop, which would have been understandable after such a devastating blow so late in the game, as they had an aggressive look about them as they restarted the game, and indeed they got their reward deep into added on time, when a long ball pumped forward was allowed to bounce by two defenders, and Gunnar Thorvaldsson, who I had seen on trial for Charlton Athletic in a pre-season game at AFC Wimbledon last July, just beat the keeper to poke the ball home to spark wild celebrations amongst the visiting players and disbelieving fans and stun the home fans into silence. A very dramatic end to what had been quite a dull second half, and surely was a point won by the visitors and two lost by the home side, not just in view of the last gasp equaliser but how BK Häcken had by far the better chances to put the game to bed.

Hammarby IF 1 v 2 Helsingborgs IF

Monday 3rd August 2009
Allsvenskan (Swedish Premier League)
Soderstadion, Stockholm
Attendance: 9949
Admission: 125 SEK
Programme: 20 SEK

The second game of my Swedish tour took me to southern Stockholm to the Soderstadion, with apparently the largest globe in Europe adjacent. This was the game I was looking forward to most of all, at a stadium with a capacity of 15,000, the Hammarby fans famous for being the most passionate and noisy support in Sweden, and Henrik Larsson lining up for the visitors.

Unfortunately, Larsson had damaged his leg the previous week ruling him out, but the support indeed was impressive. I took my place at the top of a huge bank of terracing behind the goal (I always prefer terracing) with a great if distant view of the pitch and stadium. Helsingborgs certainly would have been favourites for this match, lying in 4th place in the league with Hammarby hovering just above the relegation zone, and failing to score in their previous 3 games.

This game did indeed go according to predictions. Hammarby had most of the possession and chances, but Helsingborgs played on the counter, always looking dangerous and took the lead just before half time. They extended this on 60 minutes, and although Hammarby almost immediately pulled a goal back with a wonderful free kick and fair chances to equalise, Helsingborgs looked pretty comfortable to take the win which sent them to the top of the table and Hammarby still struggling above the relegation zone.

IF Brommapojkarna 2 v 1 Halmstads BK

Sunday 2nd August 2009
Allsvenskan (Swedish Premier League)
Grimsta IP, Vallingby (Western Stockholm)
Attendance: 1708
Admission: 120 SEK
Programme: 20SEK

The first game I took in during my summer holiday was at Vallingby, a western suburb of Stockholm, which was a 45 minute tube ride away from central Stockholm. Blessed with gorgeous summer evening sunshine, Grimsta IP is located in the middle of a park which makes for a wonderfully green and tranquil setting, even if it's hard to believe that this small, homely ground hosts top-flight football. Brommapojkarna is a strange club - this is only the second season they have ever been in the Allsvenkan (Swedish Premier League), the ground only has a capacity of 7,000 (even that seems a tad ambitious to me) and with attendances ranging from just 1500 to 3000. Yet Brommapojkarna is apparently the largest club in Europe in terms of youth teams and players associated.

Both sides were in the bottom half of the table, but this was an entertaining game, played at a much slower pace than I am used to in England although the warmth probably was a factor. Brommapojkarna took an early lead on 4 minutes, which they doubled on the half hour, and were full value for their comfortable half time lead. They continued to look comfortable in the second half, missing some guilt end chances to score a third, but Halmstads pulled a goal back with quarter of an hour to go, and then had numerous chances to equalise, but Brommapojkarna held on to take an important win to keep them comfortably away from the relegation zone. An enjoyable start to my short Swedish (Stockholm) tour

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