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Episode 12: Superliga Road Trip 2023 and Round 18 & 19 roundup
413 Plays2 years ago
Reflecting on an amazing road trip around Jylland to see Silkeborg v FC København and Viborg v FC Midtjylland, as well as reviewing the action from Rounds 18 & 19 of the Superliga season as the action resumes after the winter break.
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Transcript
Introduction and Solo Format Announcement
00:00:08
Speaker
This is Danish dynamite, the super leaguer podcast brought to you by football in Denmark.com. Hello and welcome to Danish dynamite. We're back after a long winter break to finish off the season. We're about halfway through and figured it was a good time to put out another podcast. Unlike any of the podcasts I've done before, don't actually have a guest today. So you're just going to be listening to me and I have no idea whether that's going to be good, bad success, failure.
00:00:37
Speaker
But I'd love to know what you think of the episode and whether me just rambling into a microphone is of any interest whatsoever.
Travel Plans and Storm Otto's Impact
00:00:45
Speaker
But I thought what I'd start with is talking a little bit about the trip that I did last week. So with the resumption of the season in mind, I had planned to head over to Denmark for the kind of first round of fixtures back. And they look like some tasty fixtures amongst there, including V-Borg versus Michelin, which is
00:01:06
Speaker
probably one of the biggest Darby's in Danish football. After the Copenhagen Darby, it's really up there. And so that grabbed my attention instantly. And then also, Silkeborg versus FC Copenhagen, two teams towards the top of the table, both playing nice, exciting, attacking football that looked like a good game. And I'd heard great things about Silkeborg and the stadium there in particular.
00:01:28
Speaker
Then I also saw that there was an interesting game up in Northern Ulland AGF heading over to Alborg to play Albee. And that looked like another great one to go in. As they were initially scheduled, it looked like there was a game on Saturday, a game on Sunday, a game on Monday. So I thought, perfect. I managed to get a pass for three days away, which is no mean feat, believe me.
00:01:52
Speaker
and booked up the trip with a friend of mine, Alex, who is based in Copenhagen. So I thought, great, we can head over to Uland, a place where I've never watched football before. I went there once for work, but I felt it was a place with a lot of historic clubs and a lot of great stadiums. And so it felt like the obvious next trip for me.
00:02:12
Speaker
had that planned. The game that was due to be on the Saturday moved to the Friday and that kind of took it out of the equation. But as the Friday arrived and I was sort of getting ready to pack my bags, I saw that Storm Otto was closing in and that looked like
00:02:27
Speaker
Alborg and Northern Jutland was almost the epicentre of the storm. So there were strong feelings that that game might get cancelled or might get moved but flights were being cancelled in Denmark and perhaps glad that I wasn't heading over there on the Friday just because it looked like there might be some quite serious disruption.
Exploring Aarhus and Silkeborg's Stadium
00:02:50
Speaker
On footballindenmark.com there's a full write-up of the trip that includes everything, not just the football but all of the
00:02:57
Speaker
other stuff around it so I would urge you to go and read that if you've got any interest in it whatsoever but for the sake of today's podcast I'm going to focus mainly on the football and as I mentioned the focus was very much on Uland. I flew to Copenhagen and the next day Alex and I met up and took the train over to Aarhus and
00:03:17
Speaker
You know, Denmark is quite a small country, so going across the entire country practically only took about three hours. And we arrived in Aarhus, a place that is really well situated for lots of football in Yuland. They obviously are home to Egyev, but from there you can get to Viborg, you can get to Herning, you can get to
00:03:38
Speaker
Ranners, you can get to Horsons. So it felt like a really good place to base. And it's also the second biggest city in Denmark. Really cool, vibrant place with lots of great bars, restaurants, places to hang out. So it was a lot of fun just exploring the city a bit before we jumped in a car with Jakob. Shout out Jakob. I know that he's a listener of the podcast and a Patreon. And he very kindly took us to the Silk World game where he was going to support FC Copenhagen in the away end.
00:04:08
Speaker
first impression of the stadium was that it's a really peculiar design. It's sort of got this wrap around it that looks like corrugated iron with these big, very kind of iconic floodlights sticking out of the top. And on the inside, it's got multicolored seats so that it doesn't, you know, if there's any gaps in the crowd and there weren't many gaps when we went
00:04:30
Speaker
But if there are gaps, you can't spot them as readily. And the way that the stadium is designed, it's got a very small lower tier and then a much bigger upper tier. And the reason for that is when you're on the lower tier buying your beers, buying your hot dogs, whatever it is, you can still see the pitch perfectly from there. So it's a really nice stadium design and with an artificial turf as well.
00:04:53
Speaker
That's something that we'll maybe get into later. But the game itself had a fantastic atmosphere before the game.
FC Copenhagen's Victory and Player Insights
00:05:01
Speaker
Nicholas Hellenius, who was obviously the Golden Boot winner, star striker last season in Silkerborg's fantastic bronze medal effort, he returned. He was obviously sold in January to Alborg and he returned and got a really nice reception from the crowd.
00:05:17
Speaker
and the away fans packed out their section were very noisy had you know drums flares banners all the all the usual stuff and so the atmosphere was great. The match itself FC Copenhagen went ahead through a Christian Sorensen free kick that he sort of curled over the
00:05:33
Speaker
the top of the wall and in and I spoke to him afterwards actually and he said that he was having a conversation just before the free kick with a new signing Diogo Goncalves and those two are the sort of the free kick takers and he said look I think the keepers a little bit far off his line like let me have this one I think I can if I can get it over the wall I think we've got a good chance of scoring and sure enough it went in so he had done his homework there
00:05:57
Speaker
And that was the opening goal. And then in the second half, Mohammed Darami combined with a fantastic one too and slotted it in the bottom corner. And that's something that I feel that was a big part of his game in his first spell at Copenhagen. And when he came back, it looked like he'd been shorn of that confidence and wasn't able to finish in the same way. And so seeing him produce such a high quality goal was
00:06:25
Speaker
was definitely pleasing for his long-term prospects and then the third goal was a bit of a disaster from Joel Felix, the the Silkerborg central defender. He tried to head it back to the keeper, misjudged the header, put far too little power on it and that left the ball sort of in no man's land. Lucas Luria jumped in, surrounded the keeper, slotted at home and at 3-0 that was pretty much game over.
00:06:47
Speaker
So the game played out, finished 3-0, FC Copenhagen were buoyed by that result. They are very much in the title race. I think just the depth of their squad and the quality they have and the fact that they don't have any European competitions now for the rest of the season gives them real impetus to go and push for that.
00:07:05
Speaker
So this result was a real shot in the arm for them. And afterwards, we made our way down the tunnel and spoke to some of the players, Kamil Grabara, who did his interview in English, which was kind of helpful, given he's Polish. That was the sort of
00:07:21
Speaker
the common language there. And he was just absolutely exuded confidence. It was quite funny. He came out, shook everyone's hand very politely beforehand and then sort of took to answering questions. And you get the impression that footballers answer the same question a lot of the time or similar questions a lot of the time. And he doesn't seem like someone who has got time for platitudes. So he gave very straight answers. He was asked things like, does this result put Copenhagen in the title race? And he said, what's changed since last week?
00:07:50
Speaker
Someone asked him, do you have a message for FC Nordsland? And he simply said, why would I have a message for them? I asked him about whether playing on the artificial turf was something that he prepares for especially. And he said, no, why would I prepare for a game that only happens a few times a season? So I thought, OK.
00:08:10
Speaker
That's told me. But no, it was cool to speak to him and be part of that interview process. I also spoke to Christian Sorensen and I asked him about the turf and he gave me a bit more of an in-depth answer. And he was saying that, you know, the ball moves so quickly, you have to be quite careful not to put as much zip on your passes because they water the surface as well before the game. So the ball really does move on it. He said he much prefers playing on a hybrid, but that you can adapt your game fairly easily to
00:08:39
Speaker
to the Astro so it's great to speak to him and and also I asked him about the winter break and you know what it means for for a player who has to stay so kind of physically and mentally sharp over such a long period you know the winter break is over 90 days I worked it out as 26% of the year
00:08:59
Speaker
It's the winter break. So for a professional athlete, that must be quite difficult. And I said to him, what do you do? And he said, look, it was so necessary to have a break from the game and physically, mentally. And I think that one thing that I perhaps hadn't realized was his move to Copenhagen happened quite quickly. And he was very quickly thrust into one of the biggest teams anywhere in the region. He was playing Champions League football.
00:09:27
Speaker
He was fighting for a place in the starting 11 and meanwhile presumably moving his family halfway across the country. He's had a second baby over this winter period so he was obviously preparing for that as well.
00:09:46
Speaker
For him, he said it was a really useful reset. He didn't watch any football, didn't watch the World Cup, didn't watch a single minute of the World Cup. And he said when he leaves the clubhouse, he leaves football behind him and he's a family man. And his focus as soon as he leaves the clubhouse is about being a dad. And then as soon as he comes into the clubhouse, he's fully focused on being a footballer. And
00:10:09
Speaker
I quite like that separation of work at home and I think that it's quite important in life in general but especially so for a footballer when it's so high pressure. So that was great speaking to him and then I also spoke to Kent Nielsen who always gives such warm answers and
00:10:28
Speaker
he was very reflective and sanguine on the result and said look you know when you're playing against the team with so much individual quality you get punished for every little error and you know that's kind of what happened today. I think he said there were
00:10:44
Speaker
stretches of the game where he felt they were they played very positively and you know that they they continued what they normally do in terms of dominating possession, dominating passing and playing their style of football so they didn't bend on that but I think just in terms of the individual quality it really showed.
00:11:00
Speaker
We went back to Aarhus that evening and the next day I went for a wander around town with Patrick, a massive AGF fan out there and he took me to the stadium. We found an open door and wandered through and were virtually on the pitch. I mean we didn't step on the grass obviously but we were wandering around the athletics track looking in the stands and it was really great to see such a big stadium up close and personal.
00:11:30
Speaker
Unfortunately wasn't able to catch a game there obviously but it is a really iconic stadium i know it's one that divides opinion a lot amongst fans i think that the fact that it's got that big running track.
00:11:42
Speaker
does take away from the experience that fans get. And they are planning to build a new stadium on the same site. So the stadium in its current iteration isn't going to be there for long. So it was certainly good to see it before it goes. I would still like to go and see a game there, obviously. But it was cool to wander around Arus and see the stadium. And yeah, that evening, I jumped on another train and headed to Wieburg, which is about
00:12:12
Speaker
about 40 minutes or an hour away west of Aarhus. And yeah, it was a really beautiful town, fairly quiet because it was a Monday. And I met up with Glenn and his brother, Michael, to the V-Borg fans who showed me around the city and told me about some of the history.
00:12:32
Speaker
We then joined the fan march to the stadium, which is something that I experienced up in Manchester with the FC Copenhagen fans. All the fans meet at a designated place and then march through the streets to the stadium, singing songs, holding up banners. And it's a really cool pre-match ritual. So we did that, made it to the stadium. And the stadium is quite an
Michelin vs. V-Borg Recap
00:12:53
Speaker
interesting design. It's sort of housed in this much bigger complex that has
00:12:57
Speaker
I don't know, shops, offices, all sorts of other bits and bobs. And they've got a fan zone in place outside. I think that was one of the first times they did that. And the fans seem really excited. It's impossible to buy a V-Borg shirt anywhere at the moment. They've sold out completely. They brought out a third shirt that sold out within about an hour. So people are buzzing for football in V-Borg at the moment. And this was a Derby game, so you can imagine.
00:13:24
Speaker
The fans were really up for this. There were no away fans. There was some trouble with the away fans. The last time this fixture was played in V-Borg and so they were banned. And that was a shame. I think that a Derby game is always made by the fact that there's both sets of fans in the stadium. And so not having one half of that is definitely... It takes away from the experience, but I don't think that it affected the players because on the pitch, Michelin absolutely blew V-Borg away.
00:13:52
Speaker
it was a 4-0 victory. Ashur scored in the first half a new signing from Egypt and I think people didn't necessarily know much what to expect from him but two goals in his first two games and he looks very bright and very interesting. His first goal actually midweek before was a lovely long-range effort and that's part of his game that he has and also something they lost
00:14:18
Speaker
when Evander left because he loved the long range effort. So I think bringing that skill set in fills an obvious gap for me. But really the story of the game was in the second half when in a 21 minute period, Gustav Isaksson scored a magnificent hat trick. The first goal was on the break, Christopher Olsen showed some great pace, cut the ball back and Isaksson hit it into the top corner with his side foot and it was a really, really nice finish.
00:14:46
Speaker
Second goal, he cut it on his left trademark, finished, curled it into the far corner, a really delightful goal. And the third goal was just something special. The ball dropped at the edge of the box and he smashed it, left footed on the volley. It crashed off the inside of the post and went in. And 4-0 was really slightly flattering, but it was a really emphatic victory. And I think that Isaacson is just showing people what he can do. He's had some real standout performances this season, in particular Europa League game against Lazio.
00:15:16
Speaker
That certainly turned a lot of heads and I think that the question for him is always, can he do this consistently? And I think that if he can keep up the sorts of performances like this one, he's going to get a big move in the summer unquestionably.
00:15:32
Speaker
Afterwards, I spoke to him briefly and asked him about the goal, about whether scoring that first goal kind of gave him the confidence to shoot in those other two situations, because he was quite far out both times. And he said, look, going into the game, he knew that he'd had many occasions recently where he'd perhaps dribbled when he could have shot. And so he made a conscious decision this game that he was going to shoot more. And it paid off in spades for him. Also spoke to Eric Zviachenko, who's
00:16:01
Speaker
a really interesting character. You know, he's a kind of larger than life captain figure.
00:16:07
Speaker
He had obviously played in Celtic before, so his English was really, really good. And yeah, he pulled up in the second half with a bit of a thigh strain, I think. And he said, look, you know, he was suspended for the first Europa League game, so he hadn't got those high intensity, real competitive game minutes in his legs yet. And so it was just sort of more of a precaution than anything. But both he and Isaacson actually were
00:16:34
Speaker
not getting ahead of themselves, not talking about the title, just talking about the need to get into the top six, the championship group, in order to give themselves the best chance to then kick on, because it would be an absolute disaster if they missed out on the championship group. So we left VBORG, and it was a great experience at both matches. Really, the kindness and generosity that everyone showed us was just really fantastic. And I think the overall experience at both of these games
00:17:04
Speaker
from a fan perspective, from a football perspective. I just wish more people would get into watching the Superleaguer and realize what a fantastic league it is, what a fantastic fan culture it has.
00:17:16
Speaker
and how exciting a league it can be. There were some other key results that weekend, that first weekend back, Lingby came back to rescue a point against league leaders FC Norjland. This was, you know, a top V bottom clash. Norjland went ahead through Fagir and it looked like they were going to hold on to a 1-0 victory and Lingby rescued a point. And I don't think they have any real chance of staying up, but it was really spirited performance to keep on knocking until the last minute and come away with a point.
00:17:46
Speaker
huge kudos to them. AGF on the Friday night played as you can imagine with Storm Otto hitting an incredibly windy game away from home at Alborg and they won 1-0. I think Storm Otto can probably credibly claim the goal. Mikkel Anderson floated in a corner and the wind essentially carried the
00:18:04
Speaker
the ball into the net and that was the only goal of the game. So AGF took the three points there and we're probably quite glad of the blustery conditions. I think if that was going to favour any team it would probably favour them. And the other really sort of interesting result from the weekend was Bwomby
00:18:19
Speaker
came from 2-1 down against Horsons to win 5-2, another big emphatic win on the weekend.
Brøndby's Comeback Against Horsons
00:18:26
Speaker
Valleys scored a hat-trick and looked like one of the signings of the of the season. I think that he was really Pompey's star performer in that first half of the season and he's hit the ground running where he left off really.
00:18:39
Speaker
So that kind of wrapped up round 18, but of course there's been another round of action since and it would be remiss of me not to talk about that on this one. So round 19 that has just gone had a number of standout results as well. You know, FC Nordsland bounced back from that draw and really put together a resounding victory on Friday night against the OB. It was 4-2 Faguer scored a brace and it's really encouraging to see him get back regularly on the scoring. For those who don't know, he came through the ranks at Viola.
00:19:09
Speaker
and was really sort of one of the biggest young talents in the league and at 17 got snapped up by Stuttgart last year and never really made much of an impact there. I don't think he got given much of a chance and so he came back in the summer to Nordsland on loan really to sort of rebuild his confidence, rebuild his reputation and he wasn't getting many chances before the winter break but
00:19:38
Speaker
since the winter break he's been thrown into the limelight and he's really come up spades, three goals in two games and he looks really really dangerous. The goal that he scored on on Friday, the first one, he received it on the outside of the box and it was just a beautiful turn and left-footed shot into the bottom corner so really good to see him back and then of course Marcóndez also scored his first
00:20:03
Speaker
league goal since returning. And Ernest Nwama, who is surely going to go in the summer, he scored as well. So they were firing on all cylinders and a really encouraging performance for their title prospects. I think that after their draw in round 18, people were thinking, maybe, you know, is the loss of Sheldrup going to be too significant for them to overcome? But they look like they are going to fight till the end for this title.
00:20:32
Speaker
there was some more last-minute heartbreak involving Lungbi, but this time they weren't on the protagonist end. They lost 1-0 to Ranas with a last-minute goal by Bundgaard. It was a nice finish, but again, painful for Lungbi, but Ranas just have that knack of being able to grind out results. They are in the mix for the championship group. I think there's a
00:21:01
Speaker
three or four teams who are vying for that final spot and they're very much up there. So that result will get them closer to that. FC Copenhagen managed a 1-0 victory against Alborg. I think they had something like 24, 25, 26 shots. So the result was perhaps a bit deceiving, but they got the job done in the end and they're the most informed team in the league at the moment. Unsurprisingly, Alborg are the worst-formed team in the league with five losses in their last five games.
00:21:29
Speaker
you wonder what's going to happen with Eric Cameron. He just hasn't seemed to get a tune from the team. In the first game back after the winter break, Sousa, Fossum, both missed out back-years, also weren't in the starting 11. There were some rumours that some senior players had complained to management about him. For this game in round 19, he brought them back and Sousa looked like the most dangerous player out there for Alborg.
00:21:58
Speaker
that they couldn't get it done. Tony Adamson also rescued a last-minute point for Silkeborg against AGF, a lovely near post header and again he's a player that I think I'm really big on for this second half of the season. I think in Hellenius' absence he's going to be really key. I actually asked Kent Nielsen how does he fit into the system given you know Hellenius was the the the linchpin of that attack
00:22:24
Speaker
And he said he's obviously shorter, so they can't use him in the same way as a target man. But he's got some skills that the Hellenius doesn't have necessarily. He's got searing pace. And so he can play off that last man in a different way and give Silkeburg a different threat. And his goal against AGF was a lovely header. So he's clearly got some aerial ability. But I think that what he can bring to the team is really exciting. So watch this space on Tony Adamson.
00:22:52
Speaker
Will he be the Golden Boot winner this season? Probably not, but I think that he is going to be very much in the Golden Boot equation next season. And the final result that was really worth shining a light on was Bronbe upsetting FC Michelin away from home in Herning. And they played superbly and at times, you know, when I was watching, I actually thought they were playing at home half the time because I was just like,
00:23:17
Speaker
The way they're playing is just like a home team which so calm in possession so controlled and they came away with a 1-0 win courtesy of a goal from Ohi after some great work by Evjen, the new signing that they brought in from AZ Altma, Norwegian guy.
00:23:35
Speaker
I don't know if it was deliberate or not. If it was deliberate, then it was an incredible piece of skill. But he sort of does this 360 pirouette and plays the ball through to Hedlund, who crosses it into Ohi. Ohi is just developing a knack for scoring those classic number nine goals, just being in the right place at the right time. And that was exactly what Bromby needed when they brought him in. So fair play. But yeah, a lovely skill by Evian. And I know people are very big on him. So he's a very interesting player to watch.
00:24:05
Speaker
So the table, kind of as it stands, has Nordsland still in first, Wieburg hanging on to second place, FC Ko in third, and then behind it, there's only six points separating fourth from tenth place. So I guess the interesting moves from this last weekend are that Brumbi are now up to fifth. So amazing what a win can do for you.
00:24:27
Speaker
So they're up to 5th, Rana's in 4th, and Michelin make up the 6th team in the championship group. So all to play for there. And meanwhile, Alborg are 8 points adrift from safety in 11th place with Loongby below them.
00:24:46
Speaker
Yeah, it's really, all eyes of this next weekend are going to be on what happens with our board and what happens with horses above them. And, you know, can that gap be extended or reduced? It remains to be seen. There's a couple of other big games happening this weekend that I think will be worth keeping an eye on. I think V-Borg Rounders is very interesting. Second, playing fourth,
00:25:09
Speaker
Two teams who are situated fairly close together Geographically, so I don't know if this one counts as a Derby or not. But yeah, that should be a fascinating encounter on the pitch And I'm looking forward to seeing some of V Borg's new striking options play especially Paulinho the Portuguese guy has come in with a
00:25:30
Speaker
Very nice record from the Portuguese second division, so it'd be interesting to see how he performs. And then, of course, we've got El Plástico, Silkeborg versus FC Nordsland, the two teams with synthetic pitches. There is a plastic trophy on offer for the winner, but more than that, this is going to be a tricky game for Nordsland, away from home.
00:25:52
Speaker
Silkeborg are in eighth but I think that underplays, you know, we all know what Silkeborg can do and they are of course only three points away from the top four so this is going to be a high stakes encounter. Nordsland of course have only lost twice this season so very very hard to beat
00:26:11
Speaker
They've got the best defensive record in the league and they've scored the most goals. So this isn't going to be easy for Silkeborg. But I think that watching them face off is going to be fascinating. So keep an eye on that game. And yeah, that wraps up what I'm sort of looking out for for round 20. I've got a special guest for the podcast next week. I don't want to reveal who it is just yet, because sometimes these things fall through last minute. But rest assured, you're not going to be just listening to me rambling on next week.
00:26:41
Speaker
But yeah, it was an interesting experiment just sort of talking into a mic for half an hour and about Danish football.
Conclusion and Audience Engagement
00:26:47
Speaker
I hope it was interesting. I hope you got something from it. I'd love to hear your feedback. And yeah, I will speak to you next week on Danish Dynamite with a special guest and look forward to reflecting on a great round of action. And just as a as a heads up, if you're watching or wanting to watch the Superleaguer from outside of
00:27:07
Speaker
Scandinavia. The OneFootball app has all the games streamed for free in HD. Gone are the days of having to find a betting website and watching the game on a screen the size of a postage stamp. So that's been a great addition. I also want to thank everyone who has become a Patreon. I'm really honored to have you guys as supporters. And if you want to join and become a Patreon and support what I'm doing on football in Denmark,
00:27:35
Speaker
please head to patreon.com forward slash football in Denmark and join. You can follow me on Twitter, of course, at football in DK and head over to the website footballindenmark.com and check out the long read about the trip that's just been. It was a lot of fun writing and reflecting on such an awesome trip. So yeah, thanks for listening and I will catch you all next week.