Damallsvenskan Round 9: Linköping hammers Djurgården, while top three all win

By Rainer Fussgänger – The talk of the weekend was most likely Linköping’s huge 11-0 win over Djurgården, whose regular keeper Gudbjörg Gunnarsdottir sat on the bench due to an injury while 17-year-old Tove Enblom was sent onto the pitch as goalie and had a disastrous debut in the first league. It was not Tove’s fault though that her defense collapsed. The three top teams Tyresö, Malmö, and Vittsjö all have 21 points now while four squads lie already eight points behind.

Jitex BK vs Vittsjö GIK 1-2
Attendance: 276
Jitex: Christina Julien (Amelie Rybäck) 18′
Vittsjö: Sofie Andersson 10′, Emma Sjödahl 28′

No more a surprise that Vittsjö takes another win. In a quite even game, Vittsjö was just a little sharper in their attacks and took their seventh victory this season. When Sofie Andersson told us at the press opening of the league just two months ago that Vittsjö aimed to be one of the best eight teams by the end of the year, nobody took her seriously. That surely has changed.

Piteå IF vs Kristianstads DFF 2-0
Attendance: 643
Piteå: Jennifer Nobis (June Pedersen) 6′, Ann-Mari Dovland (Hanna Pettersson) 17′

Kristianstad started bad into the new season, played three away games in Stockholm in May, won them all, and seemed to slowly make their way up in the table. But where Stockholm is good for Kristianstads, Northern teams are not. After losing 1-0 to Umeå last week, Kristianstad went for another loss in the very north of Sweden against Piteå. Although much more succesful as last season, Piteå has lost around 1,000 spectators compared to last year. Is this due to expensive tickets?

Kopparberg/Göteborgs FC vs Tyresö FF 0-1
Attendance: 2,120
Tyresö: Madelaine Edlund (Emilia Appelqvist) 84′

Caroline Seger controls the midfield in Tyreso's win over Goteborg (Photo By Per Montini)

Marta draws a lot attention in the league. Wherever she is coming, you can be sure there will be some hundred people attending just because of her. Young children were seen in Göteborg screaming for Marta and Tyresö although they are at home in Göteborg. In a very tense game, Tyresö finally scored the only goal, probably already denying Göteborg’s dream of the championship with now eight points behind the leading three.

KIF Örebro vs LdB FC Malmö 3-4
Attendance: 338
Örebro: Sarah Michael (Edda Gardarsdottir) 54′, Marie Hammarström (Sarah Michael) 68′, Marina Pettersson Engström (Edda Gardarsdottir) 86′
Malmö: Elin Rubensson (Katrine Veje) 43′, Elin Rubensson (Katrine Veje) 51′, Ramona Bachmann (Katrin Schmidt) 63′, Ramona Bachmann 92′

Örebro is lying in 10th position and has disappointed so far. Only seven points yet, though they had planned to be one of the top six teams. But the game is getting better and better. On Sunday, Örebro was down 2-0 and 3-1, and few teams would manage to equalize in such a situation. Örebro did that with four minutes to go, but Ramona Bachmann, who had difficulties in the first games without goals, has woken up now and on days like this she can make the difference. Pretty late victory thanks to Bachmann in stoppage time.

AIK vs Umeå IK 2-2
Attendance: 331
AIK: Nazanin Vaseghpanah 86′, Clara Markstedt 87′
Umeå IK: Ogonna Chukwudi 62′, Linda Molin 75′

AIK continues to show good games with its young team full of talents. Trailing 2-0 after 75 minutes, not many people would have put money on the home side, but within a late minute between 86 and 87, they scored two quick goals and gave their fans hope to survive this year.

Linköpings FC vs Djurgården 11-0
Attendance: 411
Linköping: Emma Lundh (Jessica Samuelsson) 1′, Louise Fors 11′, Petra Larsson (Mariann Gajhede Knudsen) 16′, Lisa DeVanna (Petra Larsson) 26′, Manon Melis (Petra Larsson) 37′, Louise Fors 39′, Manon Melis 41′, Emma Lundh 45′, Manon Melis (Emma Lundh) 68′, Josefine Alfsson 83′, Manon Melis 92′

Djurgården suffered their biggest defeat in the history of Damallsvenskan. Their 17-year-old goalkeeper Tove Enblom was humiliated by Linköping that finally has found its way. But Tove Enblom was deserted by her fellow teammates who played like a third division squad. The performance of the defense is not acceptable in first division soccer, but unfortunately there are few alternatives to the players who totally collapsed and showed a lack of engagement that is seldom to be seen in women’s soccer. Something is entirely wrong and we will surely see Djurgården in 2nd division next year unless a miracle happens. See all the goals of this match:

We were a little behind the events in Sweden, but we summarize all the events of last week for you. Before round 8 started, Tyresö FF:s coach Stefan Fredriksson stepped down and left his job immediately. Fredriksson told the club and the players that he is feeling very tired and that he was afraid of getting sick. He stated that he felt that he could not longer manage the club and at the same time being a father of small children. Assistant coach Leif Edeborg takes over until the club announces a new head coach.

Even in Linköping there were some changes after the team did not fulfill the great expectations. LFC’s managing director Jörgen Pettersson went down from the stands and back on the bench to coach the team in their match against Piteå while both coaches Christian Andersson and Denise Reddy were not even present in the arena at Folkungavallen last Sunday. Club director Anders Mäki said that LFC wants to continue working with Andersson, but that they offered Reddy a new job inside the organization.

Denmark’s maybe most talented player in years, 19-year-old striker Pernille Harder, will join Linköping August 1. She signed a 2.5 year contract with Linköping. In 28 internationals, Harder scored 15 goals for Denmark. Round 8 saw otherwise the leading three advance from 15 to 18 points and leading goal scorers Anja Mittag and Christen Press met each other in Malmö where both ladies scored once.

KIF Örebro vs Vittsjö GIK 3-4
Attendance: 429
KIF Örebro: Linda Fransson (Sarah Michael) 45’, Linda Fransson (Elin Magnusson) 86’, Sarah Michael (Hanna Ågren) 89’
Vittsjö: Sandra Adolfsson (Emma Sjödahl) 6’, Danesha Adams (Viora Bajraktaraj) 34’, Kirsty Yallop 69’, Sandra Adolfsson (Viora Bajraktaraj) 73’

Tyresö FF vs Djurgården 2-0
Attendance: 721
Tyresö: Madelaine Edlund (Lisa Dahklvist) 55’, Lisa Dahlkvist 87’

LdB FC Malmö vs Kopparberg/Göteborgs FC 2-1
Attendance: 828
Malmö: Anja Mittag (Ramona Bachmann) 26’, Ramona Bachmann (Sara Björk Gunnarsdottir) 73’
Göteborg: Christen Press 40’
Notable that Jessica Landström has joined Djurgården now after departing from Frankfurt and that she played her first match in two years in Damallsvenskan. Another remarkable fact that Stockholm and Tyresö had its coldest June day in 84 years when the teams met.

Kristianstads DFF vs Umeå IK 0-1
Attendance: 1398
Umeå: Linda Molin (Emma Berglund) 67’

Linköpings FC vs Piteå IF 4-1
Attendance: 419
Linköping: Lisa DeVanna 40’, Lisa DeVanna 61’, Lisa DeVanna (Jonna Andersson) 76’, Manon Melis 90’
Piteå: Victoria Forsmark 53’

Jitex BK vs AIK 2-0
Attendance: 204
Jitex: Amelie Rybäck 6’, Kathlene Fernström 15’

Rainer Fussgänger, of Germany, lives in Sweden and speed Followed the Damallsvenskan for eight years now.Living in Stockholm with three clubs (Djurgården, Hammarby, and Tyresö) around the corner, he is lucky to see a lot of games. You-can follow Rainer on Twitter  @ ffschweden  and check out his website at http://ffschweden.wordpress.com .