Swedish season kicks off....

[david in sweden]

The Swedish season made a chilly start at the weekend. The Swedes play April - November, and a few of the clubs had to clear snow from their pitches before the kick-off.

 

In truly Swedish-democratic style, three of the opening matches ended in " bore-draws ", but two games attracted the most attention.

 

Elfsborg started their campaign to defend their 2012 title with a match against AIK (from Stockholm area) and the game ended in an " honourable draw " with former Pompey junior James Keene weighing in with 2 goals for the champions. It seems like Keene has been in Sweden forever (since 2006 anyway)... but he is still only 27.

Unlike his club captain ..Anders Svensson (37 in July) who is doing his own " David Beckham-style " career extension, and is now (just short of the all-time record (143) Swedish international appearances).

 

The other game of interest was between two newly-promoted sides; Stockholm's Brommapojkarna and Öster from the western part of Sweden. Although outplayed by some of the Öster veterans, BP managed to salvage a 2-2 draw in the last 10 minutes. We hope to see some more attractive games in the coming months when players can leave off their gloves and long johns - (against the cold), but it's good to have some football to look at - even though many of the games are scarcely better than Championship standard at best.

Edited 3 April, 2013 by david in sweden