Allsvenskan Round 21 Review and some extras of the day!

August 22nd, 2011 | by: aron | Comments Off

I´m a bit behind on the blogging here and I thought I would write a quick post with the scores from the 21^st round of the Allsvenskan as well as a few updates on some of the national team players around Europe. To end it I will touch on the transfer market really briefly.

The 21^st round of the 2011 Allsvenskan didn´t prove to be all that crazy when it came to results or even the meaning of the results, but there are some important games to cover so I will dispense with the pleasantries and get down to the meatier parts of this post.

Häcken played away to Halmstad and managed to squeak out a 1-0 victory against the team that is doing everything to avoid relegation, but Halmstad at this point has no way of escaping their Superettan fate.

Mjällby continued their good run of form by dismantling Syrianska 3-0 at home. Sure there have been some real rough patches for the tiny Scanean club, but they seem to have that past them now and a couple of more good home games and they might just be able to kiss their worries farewell.

GAIS also proved that they are no yo yo team this season with a strong showing and a weak scoreline against a very defensive Kalmar. The final score was 1-0 for GAIS and if they keep this up, they will be playing in Europe next year.

Helsingborg is beset with transfer rumors and all the usual stuff that a club at the top has to deal with. Despite all this and an ever-improving Elfsborg, the team managed to beat a strong Trelleborg at home with the safe score of 3-1. No surprises though considering how they have played all year.

Örebro also continued their recent good run and if it wasn´t too late to get the title, then they have at least shown a lot of heart in fighting back this last month and winning all these games have definitely helped their standing. They beat DIF away with a comfortable 2-0. DIF without Mattias Jonsson is like a vampire without teeth: still strong, but without that bloodsucking bite!

In the closest thing to a Stockholm derby or a 08 derby, Norrköping hosted AIK. Of course nothing goes Norrköpings way these days and sure enough though they fought long and hard they couldn´t help but lose 1-0 in the end. AIK keeps that third place and a loose grip on the title fight. How loose? Really, really loose to be fair.

Elfsborg and Göteborg decided they were just going to have a standoff and shoot as many goals as possible. Defending went out the window and the decision was going to go to the team left standing at the end. Home teams have that special little advantage and since Elfsborg were the home team they walked away with a 3-2 win.

Malmö against Gefle was cancelled due to the Champions league qualifier coming up against Dynamo Zagreb. I will be played in September instead.

That’s all for the Allsvenskan at the moment.

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Two big rumors are surrounding Malmö midfielder Ivo Pekalski as of the last two days. Rumor number one says AC Milan is watching him, which I find very, very hard to believe even though I would love it to be true. The second is that the Polish national trainer is going to have a little chat with the young man about switching his allegiances to his motherland. I would really hate to see Sweden lose him, but this is all up to him and its better to choose a country that you truly want to represent than play for someone that doesn´t motivate you. Come on Pekalski, in a year or two you will be playing for Sweden do you really want to throw that away?

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There were some succesfull Swedes in the Eredivisie this weekend with Rasmus Elm, Emir Bajrami, Petter Andersson, and Ola Toivonen all finding the back of the net. That is good news for the up and coming Hungary game as we need all the goal scorers we can muster.

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Sweden International Albin Ekdal has now signed a four year contract with Cagliari and while it isn´t the team of his dreams, I think it is a good place for him to sharpen his skills and really blossom as a player. After all, if he doesn´t start to bloom now, then we can forget him.

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The almost forgotten Joel Ekstrand of Udinese popped up in the starting line-up against Arsenal in the away leg of the champions league play off. Does Hamren have his number? Does Mikael Lustig know he´s got competition?