Damallsvenskan 2010 preview 3

... and the rest...

The four teams previously profiled (Linköpings FC, Umeå IK, LdB FC Malmö, and Kopparbergs/Göteborg) are the favorites to finish in the top four. The top two finishers in the 12-team league will be in the UEFA Women's Champions League; at the other end, the bottom two teams will be relegated to a lower division.

Let's now check out the two teams that were newly promoted this year, Jitex BK and Tyresö FF. Jitex is headquartered in the town of Mölndal on Sweden's west coast, and games against K/Göteborg will be considered derbies. They have a tough start to the season against last year's second place Umeå. Notable players include goalkeeper Stephanie Öhrström, who was the second keeper last year for LdB FC, and Finnish international Annica Sjöland, who played last year for AIK.

Tyresö is just to the southeast of Stockholm, and its football team seems to have high ambitions. Player recruited in the off-season include goalkeeper Carola Söberg from Umeå, who played in last year's WPS All-Star game for Umeå. Another WPS connection is defender Johanna Frisk, who played last year for the (now defunct) LA Sol, and before that for Umeå. Forward Elin Ekblom Bak, who nominally played last for AIK, returns from maternity leave to greatly strengthen the side. Of the two newly-promoted teams, Tyresö probably has the far better chance to remain in the top league next year.

If Tyresö FF does manage to stay up top, it will probably come at the expense of Kristianstads DFF, who had a very bad start to the 2009 season, but who rallied to finish a strong 10th. Kristianstad has two players for the Icelandic nation team, Gudny Björk Odinsdottir (Guðný Björk Óðinsdóttir), who played last for Valur in Iceland, and Margret Lara Vidarsdottir (Margrét Lára Viðarsdóttir), who had a rather good season with winners Linköping last year.

And now finally we come to the difficult five teams in the middle, including the Stockholm teams AIK, Djurgårdens IF, and Hammarby IF DFF; Karlslunds IF Örebro (from the city of Örebro), and Sunnanå (from Skellefteå). Of these, Örebro is almost certainly the strongest, having not been hurt by retirements and/or transfers as much as some of the others. They return Finnish stars Sanna Talanen and Sanna Valkonen and Sweden's 2nd keeper Kirsten Hammarström. Just as importantly, perhaps, they have coach Richard Holmlund, who was successful at Umeå for many years.

Hammarby IF DFF has lost stalwart Kicki Bengtsson to retirement and sometimes national team defender Karin Lissel to Tyresö, but otherwise keeps most of its squad from 2009, including standouts Nazanin Vaseghpanah and Annica Svensson. Hammarby has also swapped defenders with Djurgården, acquiring Therese Brogårde while losing Elin Sölveskog.

Djurgården retains the services of its Icelanders goalkeeper Gudbjörg Gunnarsdottir (Guðbjörg Gunnarsdóttir) and defender Gudrun Gunnarsdottir (Guðrún Gunnarsdóttir). Victoria Sandell Svensson returns in an administrative capacity. But they lose most of the rest of last year's starters, and it will be a tough season for them; I have not seen any local predictions that they will finish as well as last year's sixth place.

Sunnanå keeps its international stars Brazilian keeper Bárbara Micheline do Monte Barbosa and Nigerian Perpetua Nkwocha; they lost Hanna Marklund to retirement and Kathryn Gill to LdB FC. Sunnanå plays surprisingly well against its southerly neighbors Umeå, quite often shocking them with a tie or win; this year, winning this ersatz derby will be more difficult for them.

AIK returns some strength in the defense with defender Linda Sembrant and goalkeeper Maja Åström, and they have promoted some of their developmental players. On paper though they have lost some offensive capability with the defections of Louise Fors and Annica Sjölund; of the players remaining, Sembrant is tied with another defensive player, Sofia Simonsson, for the most goals last year.

Damallsvenskan 2009: The Midway Point

By: Jocasta -- Damallsvenskan Soapbox

At this point, the top team (Umeå) and bottom teams (last year's newcomers Kristianstad and this year's newly-promoted Piteå and Stattena) come as no surprise. The order of teams in the middle, however, is a little unexpected, with for instance none of the Stockholm teams (AIK, Djurgården, and Hammarby) in the top half of the table. Every team, even Umeå, has lost a game at this point.

Let's start at the top. The facts that coach Andree Jeglertz was lured away to Allsvenskan (Djurgården's men's side), and that some player named Marta was lured away to WPS (Los Angeles Sol) does not seem to have slowed the team down much—perhaps they win by fewer goals than last year, but the outcome is the same. Umeå's single defeat came at the hands of Sunnanå, a team that Umeå historically has had trouble with, for some reason; they also tied Piteå, in the last game of the last round. Umeå now has 28 points, leading the field by 2 points.

The first small surprise of the 2009 season is the team currently in second place with 26 points, Kopparbergs/Göteborg. K/G opened the season by defeating LdB, and then went on to defeat Linköping in their second game. They've looked quite good in the games I've been able to see, and two of its young forwards are at (Linnea Liljegärd) or near (Sara Lindén) the top of the league for goals and assists.

Third-place Linköping FC (23 points) lost a couple key players from last year, including Daniela (WPS's St Louis Athletica). They are quite a strong team, but have had a little trouble playing at that high level consistently.

The second surprise in the table comes in the 4th place, KIF Örebro(22 points). Örebro is a team without any really well-known Swedish players, but they are solid throughout, and have some top players from Finland. They are also well-coached by Richard Holmlund, who used to be at Umeå.

LdB Malmö (19 points) are probably this year's under-performers, if comparing pre-season hype to mid-season place in the table. They currently sit 5th, with 1 ties and 4 losses. LdB did give Umeå a bit of a fight, in a well-played game that was televised. They can score a lot against weaker teams, scoring 25 goals in three weeks against Kristianstad, Piteå, and Stattena, and Djurgården.

Sixth-place Sunnanå (19 points) has the other sleeper team this year, along with Örebro. The return of former national team defender Hannah Marklund heralded what has been a quite good season for them. Any year in which they defeat Umeå has to be considered already a success, and being in the top half of the table is a nice bonus.

The bottom half of the table starts with all the teams from Stockholm,with Djurgården, Hammarby, and AIK in 7th, 8th, and 9th place. Djurgården and AIK both lost key players from last year and have been struggling. Djurgården lost both of its German internationals, keeper Nadine Angerer and midfielder/defender Ariane Hingst, who went back to Germany and now play for 1. FFC Frankfurt. AIK's Australian internationals Lisa DeVanna and Kathryn Gill went in quite different directions, with Gill heading up north to play for Sunnanå, and DeVanna heading west for WPS (Washington Freedom). The third Stockholm team, Hammarby, has much the same team and is faring much as they always do.

At the very bottom of the table, there are currently three teams vying for 10th place in the league, which is a big deal because the last two teams are relegated to a lower division. Of the three, Piteå (10th) is probably feeling the best about itself, as they have just come off a shock draw against Umeå, in a game that they were winning until the last five minutes. The bad performance of Kristianstad (11th) is probably the most surprising of the three, as they managed to stay in the top league last year, starting their season with a shock 2-1 defeat of Djurgården. Twelfth-place Stattena has had just an awful time, with a goal differential of -40.

Games are scheduled to continue through early July, with Round 16 being played at the end of July, then the league goes on hiatus forthe European Championships in August and September. The season will then resume in late September, and end in early November.

Go to the Swedish FA's site (http://svenskfotboll.se/damallsvenskan/) to see the complete table.

Damallsvenskan Round 11: The Weirdness Continues

By: Jocasta -- Damallsvenskan Soapbox

The 11th round of Damallsvenskan is now completed, which means the season is half over. My thoughts on the season so far to will follow...

On 13 June, Kristianstads DFF took their first points of the season, beating newly-promoted visitors Stattena IF 4-0. The two teams are now tied on total points for the season (3), but Stattena's really terrible goal differential (-40) and the fact that they have three ties but no wins puts them in last place at the moment. In Stockholm, AIK hosted second place- Kopparbergs/Göteborg, and lost 0-1 on a goal in the 86th minute by Sara Lindén.

On 14 June, on what *should* have been the shock of the week, LdB lost badly to Sunnanå at home 0-4, and the two teams are now tied on points but LdB has the edge in goal differential. In a Stockholm derby goalfest, Djurgården defeated Hammarby 5-2. Linköping and KIF Örebro were in 4th and 3rd places respectively, but today they played each other and Linköping's 4-0 win means that the two teams swap places in the table.

Shock of the Week: On 15 June, in the last game of the round, league-leaders Umeå did something that they don't do too often—they traveled *north* for an away game, against tenth place Piteå. And here's another thing they don't do too often: they came away with only one point. Yes, that's right, Piteå played Umeå to a 1-1 draw, and so have reduced Umeå's lead on Göteborg to two points.

At the halfway point, then, here are the rankings (go to svenskfotboll.se for more details):

Umeå IK
Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC
Linköpings FC
KIF Örebro DFF
LdB FC Malmö
Sunnanå SK
Djurgårdens IF
Hammarby IF DFF
AIK
Piteå IF
Kristianstads IF DFF
Stattena IF

Check Out Damallsvenskan Soapbox

Jocasta of Damallsvenskan Soapbox, a blog about women's soccer in Sweden, recently wrote a post about the Hammarby vs. Sunnanå match. Here is an exert from the post...

"I'm a little later than usual, so I sit in the middle of the stands rather than the top as I usually prefer to do, as the top row is already filled with some older guys. The weather on this holiday weekend has been gorgeous, sunny and warm, but today there are clouds and just as the game is about to start, I feel some drops from the sky hitting my neck and head. Sigh. Too bad, it's starting to rain. Then, as sometimes happens, I start to think about that. My mind plays the last ten seconds of my life over again, and I hear a tremendous sneeze as the overture. My mind freezes in horror, and rewinds again. This time the conclusion is inevitable. I have been sneezed on. I'll say that again, because I think it bears repeating. I have been sneezed on so hard that I thought it was raining. My inner microbiologist starts screaming. Mercifully, the game starts so that I can concentrate on something else."

Action from the Hammarby vs. Sunnanå match
Photo Credit: Jocasta at Damallsvenskan Soapbox
To read the entire post -- read on -- Prosit

And here is a link to her blog -- Damallsvenskan Soapbox

Women's Soccer Weekly will be profiling Jocasta's blog posts from time-to-time. Check back often to see what is happening in Sweden.

And if you want your blog/website on women's soccer to be featured, let us know by emailing WSW at -- contactwsw @ womens-soccerweekly.com