Damallsvenskan Newsblog

This round, nominally the 11th but that is true only for half of the teams, saw the return of several key players. Göteborg's Lotta Schelin played the first half against Hammarby, Umeå's Hanna Ljungberg got a few minutes at the end of their Kristianstad match and AIK's Laura Kalmari made a stellar comeback from maternity leave (she gave birth to a girl March 8), scoring the winner for her team. Unfortunately, this round was also (I'm just presuming here, but it looked like I have good reasons for it) the end of the season for Malmö's Malin Levenstad who was stretchered off the field in great pain. Knee ligaments is my guess and from the looks of it a severe injury.
Attendance was overall pitiful, perhaps somewhat depending on the scheduling. Normal kick-off for weekend games is 4 pm. But since Sweden's men played Spain in the Euros (bummer, btw) at 6 pm, all games had earlier starts. Most of them at 1 pm with plenty of time to get to a TV set after the match, Bälinge curiously enough at 2, while the cocky Kristianstad club set kick-of for 3 pm, probably arguing that you really don't want to watch TV4's annoying pre-game show anyway, do you? Since they had Umeå guesting, they had the only match that managed to attract any kind of attendance, even if it was a bit smaller than they had for their match against Malmö.

AIK -LDB FC Malmö 2 - 1 (0-0)
AIK: Sofia Lundgren - Sofia Simonsson, Frida Höglund, Linda Sembrant, Linmda Lekander - Anne Mäkinen, Elin Ekblom Bak, Jessica Julin - Louise Fors, Annica Sjölund (63 Laura Kalmari), Emma Lundh (Emelie Karlsson Wedin)
Malmö: Stephanie Öhrström - Emelie Öhlander (87 Maria Aronsson), Malin Levenstad (75 Therese Jönsson), Emma Wilhelmsson, Lina Nilsson - Frida Nordin (70 Pavlina Scasna), Dora Stefansdottir, Nilla Fischer, Therese Lundin, Therese Sjögran - Manon Melis
Goals: 1-0 Annica Sjölund (37), 1-1 Therese Sjögran (39), 2-1 Laura Kalmari (82)
Attendance: 412
AIK, without their Australians de Vanna and Gill (on national team duty in Korea), relied on a strong midfield, a tough defense and a couple of chips over Malmö's reserve keeper Stephanie Öhrström. The match was not particulary well played, but AIK managed to destroy Malmö's midfield game with Mäkinen and Ekblom often winning over Lundin and Stefansdottir. They had more problems in the attack, with Sjölund's goal - a long shot that caught Malmö's keeper too far from the goalline - as their only real scoring opportunity in the first half. Malmö equalised almost immediately with a nice Sjögran finish from a Melis assist, but had problems creating much more. Particulary so in the second half, where AIK began to dominate. After Malin Levenstad's very unfortunate knee injury 15 minutes from end, Malmö seemed distressed and unfocused and Laura Kalmari could show that she still remembers where the goal is.
Kalmari, who had a few minutes against Djurgården in the Swedish Cup-match last Wednesday, said that she only came to the match to fill out the bench. She has only been training with the team for three weeks and hadn't planned to be ready for real matches until after the Olympics.
Aftonbladet: Kalmari gav Malmö första förlusten
Sydsvenskan: Här går knäet sönder på Malin Levenstad


Linköping - Sunnanå 3 - 1 (1-1)
Linköping: Hedvid Lindahl - Maja Krantz, Marie-Louise Skålberg, Charlotte Rohlin (32 Petra Larsson), Anna-Kaisa Rantanen - Josefine Öqvist, Caroline Seger, Daniela, Maria Karlsson - Jessica Landström (87 Lisa Nilsson), Cristiane
Sunnanå: Åsa Berglund - Sandra Berggren, Sanna Frostevall, Alexandra Nilsson, Carina Holmberg - Kristina Wiklund (76 Erika Karlsson), Anna Bodén, Josefine Johansson, Magdalena Esseryd (75 Johanna Lindahl) - Perpetua Nkwocha, Lina Johansson (81 Lisa Renberg)
Goals: 0-1 Perpetua Nkwocha (8), 1-1 Jessica Landström (17), 2-1 Kosovare Asllani (79), 3-1 Josefine Öqvist (86)
Attendance: 637
Relegation line-dancer Sunnanå almost got a valuable point witrh them from Linköping, first taking the lead and then keeping the game tied until only ten minutes remained. Linköping kept possession, but were mostly slow and too complicated in their attacks until in-form Kosovare Asllani came on after 60 minutes and shaked things up.
Linköping started without national team defender Sara Larsson, who stayed at home with a fever, and after half an hour their other Sweden defender Lotta Rohlin had to leave the field with a light concussion. Sunnanå were missing Rebecca Smith, on national team duty for New Zealand in Korea.
Corren: Knapp vinst för LFC mot Sunnanå


Hammarby -Göteborg 3 - 1 (3-0)
Hammarby: Kathrin Lehmann - Matilda Agné, Elin Sölveskog, Karin Lissel, Anna Lindblom (71 Lisa Björkvik) - madeleine Tegström, Jennie Jonsson - Andrea Comaneci (83 Hodan Siid-Ahmed), Nazanin Vasegpanah, Kristin Bengtsson - Sara Johansson
Göteborg: Sandra Bjurteg - Marlene Sjöberg, Jane Törnqvist, Jenny Hallstensson, Amelie Rybeck - Lisa Ek (74 Catrine Johansson), Ingvild Stensland, Maria Karlsson, Johanna Almgren (66 Sofia Karlsson) - Lotta Schelin (45 Linnea Liljegärd), Sara Lindén
Goals: 1-0 Sara Johansson (30), 2-0 Nazanin Vaseghpanah (32), 3-0 Sara Johansson (44), 3-1 Sara Lindén (65)
Attendance: 350
A strange match. Göteborg had most of the possession and played really good looking football in the first half. But Hammarby scored on every single one of their first half chances. Lotta Schelin played, as planned, the first 45 but it was visible that she hasn't been on the field for several months and only been in full training for less than two weeks. In the second half Göteborg also managed to create real scoring opportunities, but only Sara Lindén managed to convert, thus staying at the top of the goalscorers league.
SVT: Lotta Schelin nöjd med comebacken (video interview)
Göteborgsposten: Comeback för Schelin


Bälinge IF - Djurgården 1 - 1 (0-1)
Bälinge: Veronica Svensson - Karolina Mats, Natalie Spilger, Lina Andersson, Emma Lindqvist - Linda Blom (78 Emma Jonsson), Emilia Appleqvist, Lisa Lantz (53 Julia Lyckberg) - Sarah Storck (59 Katri Nokso-Koivisto), Noelle Keselica, Alexandra Höglund
Djurgården: Nadine Angerer - Anna Hall, Anne-Marie Norlin, Therese Brogårde, Sara Thunebro - Mia Jalkerud (46 Anna Lagerberth), Linda Forsberg, Ariane Hingst (70 Caroline Frånberg), Rebecca Johnson (62 Jennifer Meier) - Victoria Svensson, Linda Sällström
Goals: 1-0 Alexandra Höglund (39), 1-1 Linda Sällström (72)
Attendance: 187
With only three draws to show for themseklves in 9 matches, Bälinge were of course big underdogs in this match. But they were standing up well against Djurgården and in the first half even showed signs of a decent attack. Djurgården dominated of course, but Alexandra Höglund took her team to the lead after scoring on a rebound from an Emma Lindqvist free-kick. The longer the match went, the more the guests took over, but Bälinge were rather successful in pushing Djurgården's attacks to the wings, having Spilger and Andersson heading away the high crosses. Bälinge finally had to give up an equaliser, but were still satisfied with the match.
You can most probably get a more in-depth (and of course totally unbiased) report at damallsoapbox.blogspot.com.
Upsala Nya Tidning: Bälinge reste sig på nio


Kristianstad - Umeå IK 0 - 2 (0-1)
Kristianstad: Maria Edman - Johanna Jönsson, Efioma Dieke, Kia McNiel, Therese Persson - Therese Björk, Sofie Persson, Erla Arnadottir, Johanna Rosén (53 Pernilla Falk) - Susanne Moberg, Frida Pettersson (81 Elin Bjerre)
Umeå: Ulla-Karin Rönnlund - Anna Paulsson, Karolina Westberg, Emma Berglund, Frida Östberg - Emma Åberg Zingmark (58 June Pedersen), Mami Yamaguchi, Lisa Dahlkvist (84 Hanna Ljungberg) - Ramona Bachmann (72 Sofia Jakobsson), Madeleine Edlund, Johanna Rasmussen
Goals: 0-1 Madeleine Edlund (30), 0-2 Madeleine Edlund (61)
Attendance: 2,764
"I don't like to say that it was just another day at the job", said Umeå's coach Andrée Jeglertz, "but today we were just doing what we had to. Nothing more". The team seemed a bit slow and uninspired and didn't manage to challenge Kristianstad's goal as often as expected. But Maeleine Edlund was, unlike earlier in the season, faultless in front of goal and Kristianstad only managed fairly few and short attacks.
Kristianstadsbladet: Förlust för KDFF mot Umeå