Sunday Afternoon in the Park

click images for larger versions

Pick me, pick me

So here I am at Kristineberg IP, west of downtown Stockholm, to watch Djurgården/Älvsjö play this afternoon's game against Kopparbergs/Göteberg. Both teams are in Damallsvenskan, which is the premier league of women’s soccer in Sweden. The weather today is perfect, sunny and in the high 60s F/high teens C, with bright blue skies and no breeze. Tickets are general admission. After terrifying the young girl at the souvenir stand with my execrable Swedish, I put on my new D/Ä t-shirt and head up to the stands, which are steep and very close to the pitch. The teams are just heading into the locker rooms after warm-ups, and the ball boys, who are earnest and absolutely tiny, are receiving their assignments and instructions.

Today's starting line-ups, giving racists their well-deserved red cards

The teams come back out for the pre-game rituals. The line-up pleases me to no end—there are three reasons that I am a Djurgården/Älvsjö fan and they are all healthy and starting today. This week’s public service message at both women’s and men’s Allsvenskan games is that racism is bad—players and fans have been given placards that say “Ge rasismen rött kort,” and the players hold up their red cards as the team captains read a little piece. Perhaps we were supposed to hold up our cards in response, but most fans are busy finding the perfect seat and juggling their coffees and snacks.

Smiles and high fives all around

The cards and banners are put away, the teams huddle together and then break up, jogging to their positions and bouncing and jumping to work out last-minute kinks. D/Ä is wearing navy and blue today, while K/G is in black. The whistle blows, and we’re off! The ball spends the first few minutes meaninglessly meandering in the midfield. I am blissed out, such a beautiful day, I can’t believe I’m actually at a Damallsvenskan match watching these marvelously talented players ply their trade, la, la, la... suddenly, in the 6th minute, out of the clear blue sky, I am rudely jolted when something goes horribly wrong on the defensive end—defenders are strewn around on the ground, and Sara Lindén of K/G has a clear shot at an open goal.

Horribly, horribly wrong

0–1 to K/G. The crowd gasps. I stare, stunned, and start paying closer attention. I have not yet recovered from the shock when, not five minutes later, another horrible thing happens, this time courtesy of K/G’s lanky star and league player-of-the-year Lotta Schelin, from a corner kick. 0–2 to K/G. I curl up on the wood-slat bleacher seat and start rocking and muttering to myself. This ugly turn of events is not helping to assuage my conviction that I am bad luck to whatever team I cheer for. I consider ripping my D/Ä shirt off and leaving the stadium, if only that would help.

The valiant defenders

But reason asserts itself and play continues. D/Ä valiantly defends a number of additional attacks, and the run of play soon turns in their favor, with the ball in K/G’s half most of the time. Kristin Bengtsson, D/Ä stalwart, is playing very well—a hard outside shot forces a good save from the keeper in the 19th minute, and not a minute later she sends a through ball to D/Ä’s star forward Victoria Svensson that is just a tad too far in front. The pressure is on—surely D/Ä will score soon.

It nearly happens in the 24th minute, when the K/G keeper is beaten but a defender stops the ball on the line, with a shaky desperation clear that perfectly parallels the goal mouth and by all rights should have been an own goal. The crowd moans quietly in despair, but utters a series of excited “ooooo”s three minutes later when, off a D/Ä corner kick, K/G defenders make two header saves off the line—first by the guard of the left post, then by the guard of the right post when left guard’s weakly headed clearance is shot back in. The lack of payoff from all this effort is clearly unfair, and the crowd groans again.

It was not supposed to be like this

Play continues, again mostly in the visitor’s side. Suddenly in the 38th minute the ball comes back up the field on a counterattack, and the D/Ä offside trap fails badly. Schelin gets in behind the defense and fakes out D/Ä keeper Bente Nordby, dumping her unceremoniously. Schelin then coolly puts the ball into the open net. 0–3 to K/G.Oy!

Happily, it is only three minutes later when some hope is restored. In the 41st minute Svensson takes a shot that is blocked by a defender. She gets the ball back, spins around, looks up, and deftly chips a lovely left-footed shot over the K/G keeper who has just started to cheat off of her line. 1–3! The crowd cheers unexpectedly loudly. Shortly after the restart the crowd, now a little excitable, yells in protest at the referee's failure to call a blatant and outrageous K/G foul. Bengtsson takes another hard shot that goes a little wide, Katrine Pedersen has a decent head-ball barely turned away, and Svensson has the ball in the box and is just about to shoot... and the ref allows no extra time and blows the whistle to end the half. Clearly the referee is unclear on the concept of home field advantage.

Factories looming on the horizon

Halftime, and time to look around a bit. Despite the park-like feel of this part of Stockholm, Kristineberg IP is very much a city stadium, boxed by streets and industrial buildings. I don‘t know if D/Ä is actually considered a working-class sort of team, but the area certainly feels urban, in that ultra-clean Scandinavian sort of way. Later I am told that this area is probably due for more housing development, as its location is most desirable, only a half-hour walk or five minute train ride from downtown.

There is no particular halftime entertainment on the pitch, except that some techno I haven't heard in ten years is played over the stadium speakers (oh, happy memories), and there are clear signs that D/Ä will be starting their young forward Elin Ekblom in the second half (why else would she be re-kitting herself on the sidelines?). I duck out of the stands for a moment, and spend much of halftime discussing politics with a charming Swedish man who predicts (correctly) that the Right would gain a little in today's parliamentary elections, mostly as a vote against turning Sweden into the 51st United State of America. Well, that would be one way to get professional women's soccer in this country again...

The second half begins, with Ekblom substituted for Pedersen, and her impact is immediate. We are a little late getting back up into the stands, but we’re just in time to see D/Ä make an early threat on the K/G goal. The ball pops out of K/G’s box straight to Ekblom on the right side outside the box—she shoots through heavy traffic, she scores! 2–3 in the 48th minute, and the crowd cheers wildly. Shortly thereafter Camilla Schelin of K/G is shown her second yellow card for the day and sent packing. She indicates her displeasure by arguing briefly with the ref, then stamping her foot petulantly and marching off the pitch. K/G is now down to 10 players with 40 minutes left to play—things are definitely looking up—I cackle and rub my hands together and imagine D/Ä running the score up. The urbane Swede from halftime is now sitting next to me, and he takes advantage of the lull to check a PDA mobile for the score of a UEFA Women’s Cup qualifying match. Good news—with just a few minutes remaining, Umeå IK, last season’s Damallsvenskan champion and therefore Sweden’s entry into the competition this year, is ahead of Kolbotn from Norway.

D/Ä corner kick

The rest of the game is predictably spent in K/G’s half, where K/G have decided to defend with 8 of the 9 remaining field players. Between the 50th and 80th minutes, D/Ä fires many shots just high or just wide, and several corner kicks are taken, one of which results in a hard and accurate headed shot by the inimitable Jane Törnqvist but the keeper is well positioned and gets to it. Tackles get harder and sloppier on both sides as D/Ä desperately presses and K/G scrappily defends. On a rare breakaway back into D/Ä territory, Nordby comes out to challenge the K/G player. The K/G player slams into her, and Nordby stays down for a couple precious minutes. The crowd boos spiritedly.

See this guy, and see that ribbon of metal running around the edge of the bench cover, and see how his head is right under that metal ribbon? Soon he'll be very sorry

Shortly thereafter, some comic relief breaks the tension when a D/Ä sideline staff member jumps up to catch a ball that sails out of play just near the halfway line—unfortunately he’s standing under the bench’s cover, and as he leaps he cracks his head on underside of it so hard that the whole contraption moves and we hear the impact up in the stands. Adults in the crowd wince but then chuckle; some kids start yelling things that sound kind of nasty. He wanders around grimacing for the rest of the game, and I am surprised that he’s not gushing blood. While he’s massaging his head, the official attendance is announced as 407, with the stadium less than half full. It’s too bad that there are so few people here, because it is a beautiful day and an entertaining match.

In the 80th minutes D/Ä has their closest chance yet to tie the game. The ball is in K/G’s box, D/Ä takes a shot that hits a defender, the ball hits the ground with spin, takes a funny bounce and slowly dribbles wide of the left post as everybody in the box makes a mad scramble for it. On the resulting corner kick, nearly the same thing happens at the right post. Very bad luck for D/Ä there, I complain, and the Swede sitting next to me amiably agrees. The ball boys, who have been attentive for 85 minutes, are losing focus and several seconds are wasted getting the ball for another futile D/Ä corner kick. K/G stops even trying to get out of their own end, and the last few minutes of the game look like a bad day’s shooting practice for D/Ä. Ann-Marie Norlin takes a hard shot that the keeper holds on to, another shot goes high but scrapes the paint on top of the crossbar, Laura Kalmari takes a final shot in the 91st minute that the commentators on my Playstation would call high, wide, and handsome. The amiable Swede suggests that I should confront the team administrators and demand a rebate (“I came all the way over here... FOR THIS??!”). The whistle blows. Final score, 2–3, victory to the visiting Kopparbergs/Göteberg over our heroes Djurgården/Älvsjö. Phooey.

After the game, I wander down to the field entrance from the stadium in the hopes that some players will come back out, despite the disappointing result, and several of them do. The only barrier between fans and players is a rail running around the track. I get my program autographed, and since it’s all rather casual, I dare to speak with a couple of them for a moment. I imagine that at every game some kid tells them they’re the best, but I do it anyway, with complete sincerity. One of them, too modest, peers at me and responds with “Do you really think so?” The other says “Not today” somewhat grimly. Too bad they lost today, but what fun—I have been devoted to these players since the 1999 Women’s World Cup, and to have finally seen them play in person is deeply satisfying indeed.

Jane Törnqvist	Kristin Bengtsson	Victoria Svensson	Laura Kalmari (back) and her biggest fan (front)

Credits: Joe Scott (design and snaps), hqfl.dk (DIF logo, currently under reconstruction), Jonas Dagson (K/G logo), och dandal.webblogg.se (fact checking).
Problems? contact