Sweden U23 1-1 Mexico U23 Women's international friendly
Monday 8 June 2026, 19:00 kick-off
Fredriksskans, Kalmar
Crowd: 943
This was a perfect opportunity to pay a nostalgic visit to Kalmar FF's old stadium, Fredriksskans, with its scenic lakeside location close to the town centre. The Swedish women's under-23 team taking on their Mexican counterparts at a ground only used today for level 5 or lower football and assorted athletics events is an exotic event in the local football calender. They played a game here a few days ago against Norway, winning 2-0 so hopes were high for a repeat performance this evening. This was the first time a Swedish under-23 women's team had met Mexico and possibly the first time the Mexican national anthem had been played officially in Kalmar!
The atmosphere was definitely different from a men's match with most of the singing coming from enthusiastic groups of young girls. Many girls' teams and their trainers had come to cheer on the Swedish team. I even spotted about ten people in Mexican shirts. It was not a big crowd but we filled most of the stand. The main stand was only open to TV cameras and assorted officials and guests.
The ground
Fredriksskans was home to the town's football club, Kalmar FF, until 2010 when they moved to a new arena outside town (see posts about Kalmar FF here and here). In 2008 they surprised everyone when they became Swedish champions and I saw many of their games at this ground back then. Since KFF moved out the ground has been used for lower league matches with crowds of seldom more than 100 as well as athletics and summer concerts. There used to be several training pitches beside the ground but those have now become a desirable residential area.
Fredriksskans today has two similar covered stands opposite each other, one from the seventies and the other from the mid-nineties, and are still in fairly decent condition but are seldom full. The official capacity today is 8,973 and the record crowd here was 15,243 set in 1949 against Malmö FF. The lake end has the remnants of a small terracing and the other end had catering kiosks and an outside barbeque. There is a running track and all the other athletics facilities, meaning that you are always quite far from the action. One historical building is the former tennis and gymnastics hall, Gymnasten, built in 1928 (see right).
The match
I enjoyed the game and both teams played attractive football all the way. The first half hour belonged to the Mexicans who had some very skilful and fast players, in particular Lourdes who played right wing in the first half and switched to the left for the second. She was very fast and enjoyed dribbling around defenders. The two tall central defenders, Ruiz and Gonzalez, were also very effective. Sweden were quiet until the last phases of the first half when they put pressure on the visitors and probably should have scored with a shot from Nildén but the keeper made a fine save.
The second half followed a similar pattern with Mexico in charge for the first half hour or so and they finally got their reward after 61 minutes when Marcia Paola García Ramír headed home after the Swedish defence failed to clear a corner. Since this was a friendly there were a lot of substitutions in the second half. Both teams had a full team on the benches! Sweden began to put pressure on the visitor's defence and it paid off after 79 minutes when Svea Rehnberg fired home after some good build-up on the right. Both teams pressed for a winner but to no avail and a draw was a fair result.
At the end they had a symbolic penalty shoot-out that Mexico won. A good match in the summer evening sun.
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