Allsvenskan Round 20 Review

August 8th, 2011 | by: aron |

Well, with a weekend like that I don’t really know where to start. Perhaps I should just take the first game then, which was of the utmost importance for the gold race. It was on Thursday and played in Gothenburg between IFK Göteborg and AIK. Until the last two rounds, AIK had been steadily making their way to the top and chasing Elfsborg and leaders Helsingborg. They really needed a win away at Göteborg to keep the chase alive and things started well with Mohammed Bangura putting away a real beauty to make it 1-0 in the first half. Ten seconds after the kick off, Göteborg got a penalty and it was dead even at 1-1 again. Then to make things worse Göteborg got 2-1 in before halftime courtesy of Sweden International Sebastian Eriksson. In the second half the game swung back and forth and finally ended 3-1 to Göteborg thanks to Tobias Hysen putting on a demonstration of how to score a solo goal.

I give you the highlights:

With the loss away, AIK now have six points up to Elfsborg and that would only put them in second place. A better way to explain the whole thing is to say that as of this writing it looks like a two horse race at the top.

Malmö have made it to the final play-off before the group stages of the Champions League and the only thing standing in the way of them playing in the top competition in Europe is 180 minutes of hard football against Dynamo Zagreb (which isn’t going to be easy believe you me!). After knocking out Rangers, Malmö went back to their day job of playing in Allsvenskan where they played away at Mjällby. In a tough game of back and forth against a relegation struggling team, it ended an unsatisfactory 1-1 draw. Hamad scored again for Malmö and if he can keep up his current good form and Pekalski doesn’t injure himself, they do have a decent shot at Zagreb in a week’s time.

Trelleborg beat Gefle 2-0 at home and suddenly the miracle team of the midseason is steadily sinking toward the mire of relegation. I think they will stay in Allsvenskan, but it won’t be easy.

Halmstad managed to win a game. That last sentence could in many ways, along with the AIK loss, be the highlight of the round. At home against a struggling IFK Norrköping, they first took the lead, went down 3-1 and then came back to win it in the last minute of stoppage time 5-4. That is the kind of game that a neutral fan can appreciate: a fight to the death with lots of goals!

Apropos the big news of the week, it’s now become clear that Helsingborg has signed 20 year old Sebastian Carlsen from Inter Milan on loan for the rest of the season. While he wasn´t available for their game against Syrianska, Helsingborg managed to hold on even when they were down 1-0 in the first half and come back to win it 2-1. The highlights of the game were the red cards that Syrianska got: two men sent off on the pitch and the coach sent up in the stands. Bad behavior on Syrianskas part and there really was no excuse for how they acted. Helsingborg looks like they might just have this thing in the bag. Syrianska are looking forward to either a relegation play off or simply the Superettan without a struggle. They will have to choose which.

Häcken have the reputation this season of either playing like gods among men, usually led by Ranegie, or they are the whipping boys of the Allsvenskan Aristocracy. In the game against what has been a season long disappointing team in Örebro, they were nothing more than whipping boys. The final score was 4-0 for the home team and Häcken go back home to lick their multiple wounds.

Djurgården hosted GAIS and it ended 2-2. I am bored with the Stockholm teams to be honest. Every time the season starts, there is all this talk about them being the teams to beat and how they are going to start a dynasty and so on and so so. Of course they usually manage to have decent seasons, but Dynasties? Ha, who are they kidding? The Stockholm teams have been nothing short of disappointing even when AIK won two years ago. The year afterwards they were lucky to stay in the league. What we have in Stockholm is a bunch of clubs that used to be solid and are now run by ignoramuses who have no plan beyond the year ahead of them. Until this short term mentality changes, the Stockholm teams will only be able to dominate every couple of years and then only for a season at a time.

Finally second placed Elfsborg hosted Kalmar in a game that ended 0-0. I could say that it was most likely a boring game of strategy, but that would be lying. I think Elfsborg dominated the game for ninety minutes and just couldn’t finish properly. On that note the 20^th round of the Allsvenskan was over.