Womens Football - A New Dawn

For a long time womens football has had the reputation of beeing less skillful, slower and above all less agressive than mens football. And, well it has to be said, rightfully so.

But I guess you should keep in mind that while men have played football for soon two hundred years, womens football is still in it's infancy. It is young, and have to develop like everything else that hopes to grow big.

For example there is a huge difference between now and ten-fifteen years ago. And when Marta ruthlessly kicked a already horizontal Emma Wilhelmsson in the guts we all quietly cheered. Women were coming into their own as footballers.

Now comes the next generation, and in the forefront a new Vinnie Jones-ish star rises.
Her name is Elizabeth Lambert and this is how she does it:



/TSO

My Games

The correct results for my games this week.

Now it's up to the rest of you lot...

/TSO

Tifo pt. 2

And just to make my point I post an example of a real chaos tifo...
Would you ever miss a game if you had this to look forward to? Not that you miss games now, but by "you" I mean all thoose idiots that don't go to games. You know who you are :P




/TSO

Tifo

I have always been a fan of the chaos tifo, mainly since GAIS never had any kind of organization... But here I have proof, black on white, that you can take organized tifo way too far. It's cool, sure. But it has no heart. You can't script emotion.

So here it is, the proof that chaos tifos reign supreme:


/TSO

EPL minus two weeks and counting

It is now two weeks until the premier league start again in England. About time to dream about the golden moments come and gone. And to check out the status of one team in particular. The team where such modern legends as Limpar, Schwarz, Bergkamp, Ian Wright, Adams....the list goes on when listing cool players.

It is, off course, Arsenal Football Club. Est 1886.

But what have they been up to in the silly season? Let's take a look.
What they needed from last year was a reliable goalscorer, a solid defender and perhaps someone evil in midfield to intimidate the opposition. Have they filled the gaps?

Players out:
Emmanuel Adebayor

Kolo Toure

Players in:

Thomas Vermaelen

So on paper, no they haven't done enough. I for one am glad money-crazy City bought Adebayor but we need to replace him with someone better. That Kolo Toure followed him there is worse, but hopefully Vermaelen will fill that gap. Other than that not much has happened. Arsenal never splash out much for players but maybe they should bring in some new talent to Emirate Stadium soon.

Still, it's not too late yet and there is talk of a old favourite returning. It is the man with some of the most evil tackles ever awarded, not punished with, a red card. It is Patrick Vieira. He would be welcome.

And up front english papers link Marouane Chamakh with a move to the Gunners. The Bordeaux striker scored 13 goals last season for his french club and has been targeted by a number of clubs. Maybe he will finally get Arsenal some glory? No pressure though...

To round things off, and because I know l'pool fans read this, I'll leave you with this golden moment in english football history:

/TSO

Half time

The swedish football season just hit the half time mark and now goes into the last half of the games. And this is the same when it comes to summer. So here comes a resumé as well as a look at things to come.

First, off course, is GAIS. We have played good football and Wandersson has been fenomenal. This is good. But we don't win games because we concede way too many goals. That sucks.
So from GAIS I demand a lot more from the last half of the season. Maybe Calum and Romarinho will give us the wins we desperatly need?

When it comes to general festivities I have held a low profile this summer. But still some great parties, not least the hat-party that you can see in the picture here. Apart from that me and IA have gotten a little tipsy at Rockbaren, some good nights as well!

More to come here as well I'm sure, but nothing is set in stone just yet. Probably a hippie party in august to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Woodstock.


When it comes to travels me, IA went to Rüdesheim am Rhein to check out wine country. With us we had "the finnish femme" to add some female beauty and rather sharp wit. Here beers were drunk, meat was devoured and Shitguy was played. A great trip that feels even better now with some distance to it. More trips will come, that much is certain already and will be dicussed further down.



So that was how it's been so far. Now for the future.


One of the major events will be the day when I finally get that licence. Lots of grown-up points there. About time, yes I know...

Then there is some loose plans to fish for mackerel further up on the west coast. Kalvö in september is the plan. Earlier if oppertunity presents itself. And fishing in general needs to be more frequent from now on!


Another idéa is to go to Malmö and it's summer festival. A visit down to Majk and then further down to Malmö is the idéa. This is in august if it works out. I know, Malmö... but I have it on good athority that it might be fun.



But the big trip will be Chicago and a visit to the Chicago Riot Fest, with Cock Sparrer headlining it all. If you know who Cock Sparrer is then enough said. But if you don't then you better hit YouTube and check it out. It's proper music. But it's not just music, we'll try to fit in some baseball, waterfalls and some rollercoasters as well. If you have any ideas about what to do there, let us know!

/TSO

Save Us Jeebus!

This season GAIS has scored goals. But that is not the defining aspect of GAIS transformation from last season. Regretably.
No, what has been GAIS main transformation is the shaky defence. Two games in a row we have conceded goals in the very last minute and lost very important points.

We need a defender, a fighter and a general.


Can it be that we have found the man for the job?

This is Calum Angus.

Originally from Portsmouth he has most recently played football in the US. Was able to google the following fact, cut/pasted straight to the blog for your convinience:

"Angus Named All-American. Voted to first team by NCAA Division I head coaches. -Calum is obviously a great player and extremely deserving of this honor, Billiken head coach Dan Donigan said.

Angus, who also earned first-team All-Region plaudits from the NSCAA, is widely considered one of the best defenders in the country."

Welcome to the fight Calum!

/TSO

The furure of football. Today.

The Euro Under 21 championship is underway at the moment in sweden. So Legion sent one of their sports writers to the Germany-Spain game to check out what the future holds.

And it seems it holds more of the same...

Spain showed us how to play pretty football in midfield and dominate possession without creating any chances.

Germany showed us how to get shots on goal and create dangerous attacks without having any possession at all in midfield.

Noone showed us how to score goals.

Good thing that Sweden came along and showed us some superb finishing by demolishing Belarus with five goals to one then. A special thank you to Berg who scored three goals.

He's the future star of swedish football, and he need to be if he is to make up for his dark past as a player for IFK Göteborg, aka DSS.

/TSO

Derby Classico - 6 days

For the first time before the derby I felt some nerve today. I was watching a YouTube video of Gårdakvarnar och skit and got that anxious restless feeling you get before a big game. We still have Örebro to play before the derby but, important though that game is, I still look towards the derby as the next big thing.

So I thought I'd do a little countdown here on the blog. Today is dedicated to Hédinsson and his winning goal from the last derby. It's unlikely that he will play this time around but I for one would not regret seeing him come on to score yet another winning derby-goal.

I know some readers of the blog, and writers even, support another team. But that's their problem.
Because "here we go, we go! We got the champagne on ice! 'Cause here comes our GAIS! Here we go, we go!"

/TSO

Monday evening coming down

Picture from GAIS.se

So it finally happened. New season. New stadium. New striker.

We were promised better atmosphere. We were promised tighter stands closer to the action. We were promised more attacking football. We were promised more goals.

GAIS delivered. The stadium delivered.

ÖIS 1-5 GAIS.

Thanks for a historic premiere.

'Nough said.

/TSO

HERE WE GO!

Today's the day. Derby against ÖIS and three points to get us going in this years league. That's the plan at least. At this precise moment in time I have a hard time getting into gear though after last night's party that was, in a word, hawaii.

Got to bed at five and woke up at nine. Time to open the first beer soon enough and bravely walk forward into the light. I wonder how my head will react to two hours of singing and shouting and more beer though. It feels rather frail...

But enough self-pity. It's finally game-day and that wich I have been waiting on for several month will finally happen. GAIS will walk onto the green grass of Gamla Ullevi and kick some backslick-mongo ass!

Here we go, we go! We've got the champagne on ice, 'cause here comes our GAIS! Here we go we go...

TSO

Misstake

Caught sight of this video just now. It's from a game back in 17th of january this year. What the hell is the goalie thinking?
Talk about depth perception...

It's the inside that counts

Here are pictures from the arenas, as they will look inside. By demand from IA who quite rightly demanded this info before forming an opinion about the stadiums.

Spartak Moscow inside:

Portsmouth inside:

Valencia inside:

/TSO

Trading soul for comfort?

Across the world new stadiums pop up at an incredible pace. Just here in little sweden pretty much all the top clubs have new stadiums on the way, or at the very least serious reconstruction and modernisation of the old. Göteborg has it's new Gamla Ullevi and I must say that while I will miss the old stadium I realize that it's pure nostalgia. It was a rotten stadium and not fit for GAIS. But is new always the way to go?

Did not Arsenal loose a huge part of it's identity when they left Highbury?
Or am I just stuck in my ways and unwilling to accept change?

I think the answer lies in the fact that I love all the new stadiums that are beeing built as long as it's not my team that's affected. Surfed around on World Stadiums today and picked out some of my favourite projects. Here is what we have to look forward to in the coming years:

Here is Spartak Moscow's new stadium:

Portsmouth has this fantastic creation to look forward to:

But my favourite is Valencia's new masterpiece:

/TSO

Football is dead, all hail the traitors!

This post isn't news. It's not written to educate you as I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here.
It is written out of pure bitterness. Or as IA would have said:
"I am not angry. I'm just sad and dissapointed..."

Pehrsson, GAIS manager, said this in an interview when he got the following question:

-Can you guarantee that you will coach GAIS next season?
-I have a contract for another two years and I am fully set on completing that contract

About a week later he takes the boat over to Denmark, without saying anything to the GAIS board, and negotiates a contract with another club. This after he handpicked all the players and spent all GAIS transfer money for the next season...

Now I understand that today beeing a manager is just a job like any other and like any of us a manager will move to a new club/company if the money is much better. I accept, if not like, that.

But when did it become O.K. to decive and lie and treat the fans and board like fools in order to further your own cause? When did a promise or a given word stop mean anything more than temporary wind?

Pehrsson is not the first, James Keene for one comes to mind..., nor will he be the last. But I will always hate the lying bastards and hope they forever fail miserably in everything they do.

In retrospect Wiltons acting when he left the club was positively a beacon of straightforwardness and honesty. Don't get me wrong, he's a cunt and will never be allowed inside the holy city (Göteborg) again. But still better than Keene and Pehrsson I'd say.

All hail amature football, that's all I have to say.

Do you have a flag?

Well it's another nightshift. It's friday. It's payday.
But we have a couple of things going for us. It's the good x-ray team and as of yet no über-idiots causing trouble. So I have enough time to write down my latest idea. I think it might be time to break out of this Reinfeldt-abused country and start my very own abused country.

A couple of problems arise when you plan to do this. First off is the flag. It should symbolize unity and strength and strike fear into thoose that look upon it. I think I will leave it to you, the readers to create this. The winner will have the flag shown on the blog as well as an honorary citizenship in Totalitaria. The name is a work in progress as well...

Second is the currency, but that is easy. Just put the face of the glorious leader (me) on there and start printing. Name of the currency might be 1 Kalash = 100 Nikov.

But all this is minor things beside the question of how the country will be run.
It will be a dictatorship with me the supreme leader, given my power from the Gods. That's right, plural. I'm bringing back the norse religion. Only now Loke is in charge...
And you can only become a citizen by sponsorship from a minister of the state. The rest will be slaves. Because as they say: "Slavery: It get's shit done".

Second most important post... I was going to reveal a defence minister. But hey who am I kidding? We will start off a small country without any natural resources. What we need is an offensive minister. We will be like locust swarming the countryside picking up more men and land as we go. They will join our forces of die refusing. And at the front of the never ending assult I hope to find IA. Will you accept this call to arms? You will have complete strategic freedom as long as you bring Norway to heel first of all.

Financial minister now... I am thinking Miss Wonkyness. Mainly because she is the only one that has seen three zeros on a bill without the word monopoly written beside it.

The posts of education and propaganda will be appointed to the same person, SD. Not that there is any connection between the two posts mind you...

Sports minister is the other important post to be appointed. As of yet undecided but any successful applicant will have as a single goal to further the sport of football and qualify us for the world cup. No other sports will exist. Syncronized swimming will be a punishable offence. Anyone caught doing gymnastics will be sentanced to life as a practice-wall when our worst shots pratice free kicks.

More ministers will be appointed as we go along. If you feel you have a role to play in this endeavour then do not hesitate to sign up. What do you have to loose? Except your life, should you dissappoint me.

Your Glorious and Divine Leader
TSO

Something is rotten in the football of Sweden

And it it rotten down to it's core.


Sweden falls further and further from the top of the game as it is played in the world.


Swedish clubs strive and fight for a chance to shine in europe and play with the other teams out there. But swedish football closes in around itself and it's own little world tighter and tighter.
The same managers play the same system and the only thing that changes is which clubs they get paid by. And the clubs pay them. Willingly. How many teams must Jingblad, for example, abuse before clubs wake up and realizes that a new name is needed?
But no, once he is done with IFK Norrköping, his current victim, he will undoubtly find new employment with a premier division side or possibly a top first division team.


Well I wrote victim, but they are the ones that choose him off course. You can't blame rubbish managers for the fact that clubs are willing to pay them money. If some club suddenly told me I'd get paid to play premier division football you can bet your ass that I'd do it. And they can't blame anyone but themselves when I suck.

And that touches on another subject that I hate about football in sweden.
It's the fact that although I am absolutely rubbish, I have one thing going for me in my hunt for a spot in the first eleven. I am just the right age for a swedish manager to want to select me.
In the land where a player aged 24 is considered a promising prospect for the future my 29 years on this here earth puts me among thoose considered just ripe to be among the selected few.


When Arsenal, one of the greatest teams of the world, played today they fielded a starting midfield with the average age of 20 only to substitue two of them later in the game to give playing time to a 17 year old and a 16 year old!


Swedish coaches are reluctant to let a 21 year old time as a sub because "he is still young and has lots to learn. We must'nt rush his development"... How exactly will he learn if he never gets to play? Are swedish youths so much worse than the rest of the worlds? Off course not.


BP sells one of their youths to Juventus. This is a player that, had he been bought by a swedish club in the premier division, would have had many years of loan deals to smaller clubs and b-side action to look forward to before his first chance as a sub for his premier side team. What happens in Juventus? Another of the greats of the world, full of superstars? They immidiatly play him in the first eleven, giving him pleny of taste of first team action.
That is how players learn. That is how they grow. That is how stars are born. Now I'm not saying that he is destined to become a star because they play him a few games, but he has the chance to become one because of it. Noone ever became a star on loan to Jönköping Södra.


And this is where I mean that swedish football is rotten to the core. The swedish FA are the ones that ultimately push for a development like the one we have now. They are behind it all.

This is most obvious in the choice of national coach selection. A man so boring and predictable that even Albania has no problem organizing a draw agains us. A man that chooses to play Daniel Andersson, MFF, before Kim Källström, Lyon. A man that, having a choice between a Rosenberg that has started delivering goals for Bundesliga club Werder Bremen and up and coming starlet Berg in holland, manages to find yet a third and oh so swedish option. Let's give Larsson, Helsingborg IF, a call and see if the old fart has one more championship in him... Now don't get me wrong. That man has done wonders for swedish football and I'll always love him for it. But his time has come and gone. The young must take over.

Furthermore people complain that Ibrahimovic etc don't perform in the national team when they are so good at their clubs. They talk of a lack of heart and will to sacrifice... But how can Ibra possibly be as good in Sweden, the way Lagerbäck has us playing, as he is in Inter with the quality and freedom he has there? Mould the tactics around the players and not vice versa!

And ultimately the swedish referees. They do love their wissles and they prevent any game form building any momentum. This could be laid at the FA's feet as well possibly. If it's them giving out the orders that the ref's are following. But I fear that that is at best only part of the problem. Swedish ref's are just not good enough. That they have idiotic guides about how to interpet the rules don't help off course.
I watched Man Utd-Liverpool earlier today. Had a standard swedish ref been in charge of that game he would probably have called the whole game off after showing his 5th red card in the 20th minute. In england there had been what? One yellow card?

I'm fed up. so here is my quick fix for swedish football:

1. New referees, preferably from england/scotland

1. Sack everyone in the FA. Everyone

1. Bring in new managers, with new ideas. Noone that, at this point, has coached a premier side team over 5 years should be allowed to coach ever again.

1. Give the young players time on the pitch. You can't decide if he has what it take until ha has played at least 5-10 games.

Follow this list and Sweden will be gunning for the WC in no time! ;)

/TSO

Thursday morning coming down

So it's two days since Sweden demolished Greece, as I right here on the blog predicted they would do, in the Euro's. 2-0 and greece didn't create one decent chance. (They did have one, but it was Daniel Andersson that created that for them)



The rest of that night is a bit of a blur, but it ended around four, half past four, in the morning. That was after a bit of a hawaii-night at the Rockbar. And off course walking across Göteborg home to majorna with the mandatory stop at 7s Fastfood (loose translation, 7ans Gatukök) where mashed potatoes and meatballs were devoured much like the ancient T-Rex would devour an unlucky, and five minutes later extremely extinct, creature.

And since yesterday was spent beeing severly hung over and at work it didn't leave much time to reflect over the win here on the blog. Now I feel alittle better and it's time to make my entry.

Just in time to start getting exiced about the Spain game on saturday. I will also get a visit from Majk, an exile stockholmer living in Lund. Beers will be drunk and all will be well. And even if Sweden do not beat Spain we still have a good chance of going through by beating Russia in the last game so the nerves will be under control hopefully.

I would also like the thank Australia for the support and faith that surley helped Sweden in their win agains Greece. And also I'd like to say that off course there would be a 3a.m. text. If Sweden plays well the whole world should know it right away. :)

Also, I give myself a pat on the back for completing the longest entry in the history of the blog. And also thank you, for reading all the ramblings.

/The Scabrous One

GO SWEDEN!!

Today is the day!
And we all know from the previous videos what to expect of the team. But what of us the fans? All who were at the game in berlin will remember this, and get goosebumps!
Everyone else will hopefully feel the atmosphere and find inspiraton there!

And if the greeks hope to have the wieght of history at their back (300 free greeks did after all hold of 200000 persians...) then they are severley misstaken as 11 vikings easily would have cut right through their defence. Much like they will later today.

Only today the names of the vikings will be Ibrahimovic, Bakirciuglü and what not. It's a brave new world, but one thing remains the same. All around the world people still pray silently as they once did in england:
"Save Us O' Lord From The Wrath Of The Norsemen!"

/TSO