Damallsvenskan Newsblog

I was a bit off my calendar here, and wasn't aware that Hammarby and Örebro would start ahead of the rest. I should have posted this earlier in that case.

Anyway, this is what the half-time table looked like:

Umeå	11	10	0	1	40-9	+31	30
Djurgården	11	8	2	1	23-9	+14	26
Malmö	11	7	2	2	29-7	+22	23
Göteborg	11	7	1	3	27-20	+7	22
Bälinge	11	4	3	4	21-22	-1	15
Sunnanå	11	3	5	3	16-12	+4	14
Linköping	11	4	2	5	21-18	+3	14
Kif Örebro	11	4	2	5	13-18	-5	14
Hammarby	11	2	2	7	14-30	-16	8
Falköping	11	2	1	8	9-37	-28	7
AIK	11	1	3	7	3-16	-13	6
Qbik	11	1	3	7	9-27	-18	6

There are three clearly separated groups; four teams in the top, four in the middle and four at the bottom. And we can see pretty much the predicted teams in these groups, even if the first half had at least some unexpected results.

Falköping started the season by defeating Örebro and Linköping at home but has since shown their vulnerability, particularly in defence. Their big signing Cynthia Uwak has yet to make any visible contribution while their home-grown attackers Linnea Liljegärd and Sandra Krantz are some of the few players in the team that has shown Damallsvenskan qualities. I still doubt they will be able to repeat their relative success from the first half of the season.

AIK and Linköping have been the big under performers. I think AIK shows that team-building is hard but important. It isn't just good players that are needed. Falköping has not at all as good players, but the team has been playing together for ages while AIK has been having problems getting the numerous new players to gel with the old ones. And if you look at the stats, you can see that AIK has a quality defence (Lundgren, Valkonen, Höglund and Julin makes up a quality centre line, defensively speaking), but can't score for the love of god. Naza Vaseghpanah scored loads of goals last year in the 1st division, but nothing this year. She (as well as Kalmari) has been troubled by injuries, but I think this mostly shows that Damallsvenskan is a much tougher environment for a striker than the 1st division. I really hope they hang on, though. Such a dedicated effort from one of the major football clubs should be rewarded.

Linköping was very highly touted before the season and I too had expected a little more, even if I never saw them as championship material. They were in my opinion the weakest of the Djurgården/Malmö/Linköping trio last year and didn't manage to find any serious reinforcements. The Mmadu/Ikidi signings were a bit of last minute desperation when Rantanen got injured and while they are by no means bad players, they are not the top quality Linköping were looking for and would have needed. They really should advance a couple of steps in the second half, but this will be the first time they do worse than the previous season.

Örebro's loss of coach Pia Sundhage could have been much worse for the team and there was a lot of anger and feeling of betrayal among the players when she left for China. Team captain Stina Segerström said that if they had just known that she would be replaced by Rikard Holmlund, it had been much easier to cope. Still, Holmlund's positive effect remains to be seen. They did just as well without a head coach as they have done with him.

Sunnanå has been much more consistent than I thought they would. They have problems in the attack (maybe the new signing Nkwocha might better that), but have a great defense and are really strong at home, drawing both Djurgården and Malmö. Still, they will not leave the mid-table group.

Bälinge made a lot of high profile signings, Anne Mäkinen topping the list, keeping very few players from last year's starting eleven. It took some time for them to get the team to work and are still mixing highs with lows. The loss of Finnish striker Sanna Talonen (to college in Florida) who has been essential to their attack, can be tangible, but I still can't see them anywhere else than mid table when the season is finished.

Göteborg has big aspirations, but still have some way to go. The loss of Ingvild Stensland to injury already in the second match hurt a lot and they are extremely dependant on Lotta Schelin. When things work out for Schelin, they can defeat Djurgården and when not, they draw Qbik. They will probably finish closer to the mid table than to the top, if not Stensland's return manages to stabilize the team.

Malmö was, strangely enough, mostly predicted on a 5th or 6th place in the pre season talk. I was more with Malmö's coach Pettersson, who boldly claimed it was him or maybe Umeå's Jeglertz who had the strongest squad. Nine Malmö players have played national team matches this year, another five has played U21. Their centre midfield is Sweden's centre midfield. Players like Jenny Engwall and Linda Blom, who left because they didn't even make the bench, are now regulars with Göteborg and Bälinge. And Emma Herbring and Lollo Östman, who were regulars with Jitex and Örebro last year, have problems making the bench. In spite of the lack of well-known names and big stars, this is a really strong team. I still have them as number three, not so much for narrow losses against Umeå and Djurgården as for their proven ability to lose or draw against just about any bottom dweller, which this first half season was AIK.

That leaves Djurgården as the only real contender to Umeå. Their last round win over Umeå was crucial, the importance psychological as much as points in the table. The psychological effect of the Umeå match is important. Djurgården have a history of completely dropping out of games when they feel there isn't anything to fight for anymore but they can do wonders when they're motivated. Djurgården has a quality first eleven, but is a bit thin behind that. A Bente Nordby or Victoria Svensson injury would be devastating. Barring that, second place with an option for first.

Umeå will win again, not undefeated and not with a 21 points margin, but they will win. Andrée Jeglertz explains it best himself: "we can keep high quality and edge even against the bottom teams and our will to win is so strong that it decides close matches in our favour. Both Djurgården and Malmö have lost points against teams they are much better than and I believe they will continue to do that." The only weak point I can see is Umeå's thin squad. They are all high quality players, but they only had 15 outfield players available when the season started and with a few injuries (Frisk already lost for the season, making it 14), they can be in trouble. They should go shopping in July if Jeglertz shall be able to sleep well at nights.