Damallsvenskan Round 16

by Rainer Fussgänger

Vittsjö GIK vs Umeå IK 2-3
Attendance: 628
Vittsjö: Emma Sjödahl 26′, Sandra Adolfsson 35′
Umeå: Maria Nordbrandt 14′, Rita Chikwelu 29′, Emma Berglund 57′

The fairy tale seems to slowly come to an end. Vittsjö lost their first home game in almost two years to Umeå. Three times the former champions from Northern Sweden took the lead and Vittsjö could equalize, but when Emma Berglund scored 3-2 to Umeå with a header after a corner off assist queen Tuija Hyyrynen Vittsjö could not rise up again. Vittsjö remains in third position – no one had expected them to be there after 16 games played.

LdB FC Malmö vs Jitex BK 2-0
Attendance: 836
Malmö: Sofia Anker-Kofoed 29′, Ramona Bachmann 90+4′

The champions are still in 1st place in 2012. However, the 2-0 win against Jitex was everything but a convincing performance for LdB FC Malmö. Jitex plays a very physical game and Malmö had respect for that while missing midfielders Katrine Veje and Elin Rubensson. Only once Malmö showed their class – Al Riley reached a ball on the left side and her cross was met perfectly well by Sofia Anker-Kofoed and the 17-year-old who played for Katrine Veje scored a perfect goal. Jitex had opportunities to equalize, the best one by Leena Puranen who hit the cross bar. Malmö though could have scored a second goal during overtime when everybody had settled for a 1-0 win. Ramona Bachmann’s shot went through Minna Meriluoto’s gloves and the Finnish goalkeeper was pretty unhappy, but she had saved her side miraculously before when she put away a Lisa Ek header.

Piteå IF vs AIK 3-0
Attendance: 1015
June Pedersen 9′, Jennifer Nobis 80′, Hanna Pettersson 88′

Sunday was not a good day for the Stockholm teams. First out was AIK in Piteå and they didn’t have a g chance against Piteå which took three very important points in order to secure play in the Damallsvenskan in 2013. AIK had very few shots and Piteå was the better side.

Djurgården vs Kopparberg/Göteborgs FC 0-2
Attendance: 285
Göteborg: Christen Press 44′, Yael Averbuch 61′

Two American goals brought three more points for Göteborg which has no more but only 15 players left for the rest of the season since striker Linnéa Liljegärd left for Russian side Rossiyanka, a club that Yael Averbuch played for earlier this year.
Djurgården cannot score again with a sick Jessica Landström (fever) on the bench. Christen Press was very much invisible, but suddenly appeared scoring one minute before halftime. And that is surely what a forward is supposed to do. Averbuch who has convinced in every single match since she came to Swedenm scored her first goal and secured the victory for Göteborg and made Djurgårdens situation a little more hopeless as it was last week.

Linköpings FC vs Kristianstads DFF 1-1
Attendance: 542′
Linköping: Emma Lundh 79′
Kristianstad: Kosovare Asllani 40′

The first half was Kristianstad’s and they used only one of their opportunities to take the lead. But by high pressing, they were using a lot of energy and in the last 30 minutes it was all Linköping which could equalize through Lundh. Lisa DeVanna sat on the bench during the last two games, because she and Manon Melis do not harmonize too well on the pitch, but when the Australian came in in this game she had some very impressive action.

KIF Örebro vs Tyresö FF 0-5
Attendance: 2012
Tyresö: Caroline Seger 43′, Marta 47′, Madelaine Edlund 68′, Meghan Klingenberg 77′, Marta 81′

Another impressive win for Tyresö. The second half was marvellous and Marta gets better and better. The first half though was maybe the worst that Tyresö has played after the Olympic break. Örebro which lies ahead of only AIK and Djurgården created a couple of good chances and after 36 minutes everybody was shocked when Sarah Michael was taken down by Emilia Appelquist in a 1:1 situation on her way to the goal. The referee consulted her linesman and after a long discussion she showed yellow to Appelquist where dark red had been her only choice if she had followed the rules. That situation was decisive for the first half and Seger scored the first Tyresö goal after Marta’s assist. The second half was only Tyresö’s.