Springtime here in Sweden means the return of football and especially the local leagues that I find myself increasingly attracted by as a welcome alternative to the billionnaire playground of the big leagues. Today's match is from the depths of the 7th tier, Division 5 South East Småland and features a merged club Torsås-Norra Tång. Mergers have become a necessity in the lower leagues as a lifeline for clubs that can no longer survive on their own. In this case the village team of Norra Tång merged with the club from the neighbouring small town of Torsås. They merged about 6 years ago and share the home matches between the two grounds and the season opener was scheduled for the tiny Norrvallen ground in Norra Tång rather than the larger ground in Torsås. Last season Torsås-Norra Tång fell a few points short of a promotion play-off place whilst Rockneby finished a few points clear of the relegation zone.
Since Torsås-Norra Tång can be abbreviated to TNT there are no prizes for guessing which ACDC song they play when the teams run onto the field!
The ground
Norra Tång is hardly a village, more of a hamlet, and the ground is set on the edge of a forest. Entry was 50 kronor (£3.90). A very basic but typical Swedish lower league ground with a nice clubhouse, a kiosk and not much else. Most people sit on the clubhouse side. The far side has the dugouts with corrugated iron roofs and there are ancient long benches on the top of an old railway embankment. I spent most of the match on that side since the evening sun was in the eyes of everyone on the clubhouse side. The kiosk offered the usual selection of hot dogs (grilled on the barbeque outside), coffee and sweets but unlike the big clubs they managed to get me a cup of tea so full marks for that. There was even a match programme - an A4 sheet folded in the middle but again, better than clubs in the higher leagues.
The match
A 1-1 draw was not really a fair reflection of the match. The home team should have won clearly after dominating the second half. TNT played in all black whilst the visitors from Rockneby (a few miles north of Kalmar) played in all green. The guests started very well and took an early lead when Ali Hussein easily stroked the ball into the net after some poor defending. I feared a rout but TNT held on thanks to a few nice saves from their very young keeper, Bertilsson. The hosts slowly began to push forward but didn't really threaten till after the break when they stepped up a gear and had lots of half chances but without anyone being able to get that final touch. The after 75 minutes Filip Johansson pushed through the defence and slotted the ball home for the equaliser. The finale was tense with plenty chances but no goals, though Rockneby thought they'd got the winner with a break away only to see the linesman's flag in the air.
Final score: Torsås-Norra Tång 1 Rockneby IK 1
Crowd count:80.
No comments:
Post a Comment