...so why don't you kill me?

Season over för Örebro SK.  We're in hell right now, gentlemen. Believe me. And, we can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light.

The final game was a succint, cruel, summary of this anno horribilis.

I am not thinking of the pre-game injury of Valdet Rama. And not on the tentative goalkeeping on the opening goal.

Three things in the second half really exposed what kind of team Örebro SK is 2011.

• The neat passing game that made us dominate the game up until the penalty box, where no one seemed interested to make runs, to shoot, to do anything put keep on passing the ball.
• The inevitable counterattack where Alvbåge slips and the ball bounces off the shin of Haginge and into the goal.
• The beautiful, speedy, one-two and the lethal finish from Paulinho at a moment when the game was already lost.

I am sure you have all noticed that a team on a losing streak seems to have less luck. Freak goals conceded on stoppish time, strange penalty decisions against them, badly timed injuries, and more than anything what seems to be an invisible force preventing the ball from finiding the back of the net.

It's not supernatural. A ball gets deflected many times during a football game. A player with a mind set to win does not question a deflection: he acts upon the opportunity, or, if he is a defender in the penalty box, he gets rid of the ball.  On the contrary: when Haginge saw Alvbåge slip on Saturday, and the ball bouncing towards his shin, I bet he had time to think: "Oh no, he is slipping, what if the ball slips through now and I can't control it. I can't score an owngoal now, then  the season is over". I'm sure he would not admit it, he may not have any noticed it, but he did.  Patrik, it's your cowardice that holds you frozen, not the Gorgon's power.

The ÖSK attacking game showed the same lack of killer instrinct, the same sort of loser mentality.  I want to see an ÖSK team where every player when attacking is confident that his team will score.  Therefore, he runs, he looks for positions from which to shoot, he feels creative.

Örebro SK under Sixten Boström, let's face it, has learnt how to pass and control the ball, but always had a tendency of becoming static around the penalty box.  But this season, they are not only static.  They are undetermined.  The fear of missing overwins the hunger to score.

It is only where there is nothing to play for that Paulinho suddenly mixes cool with creativity and scores one of the best goals of the season.

Because when this team can relax and play with confidence, there is no team in Sweden that is naturally a better team.  This years squad was one of the best we ever had, and certainly a squad strong enough to challenge for the title.

Our fans are currently ranging against everything and everyone.  The players are crap, the coach is crap, the club management is crap.

I'm sure there is some merit in lots of the criticism but before the kickstart the chainsaw, let's try and analyze the situation.  Let's try not to forget that essentially these players, this coach and this management is what brought Örebro from the dungeons of the second division and into a Europa League spot in 5 years or so.

Likewise, the way the club tries to blame everything on injuries and two sold players is nonsense.  Of course it would have been easier if we had all our players available, but that does not explain how we lost nine leads in 30 games.  It does not explain why Marcus Astvald, last year an Under 21 international, on the year he should have his big break through, looks like the football pitch is the last place he wants to be.

So what is it? How do we fight our way back into the light?

There are technical aspects we need to work on, for sure (movement, lads!) and with two players sold and two retired we need to do a bit of squad rebuilding, in particular in midfield.

But there is only one key aspect.

We have been lacking inspired leadership this season.  Coach Boström, whatever you think of him, will not make his team eat nails in the dressing room.  He is more of a technical director than a match coach.  Either he needs an assistant coach that can make the players walk the extra mile, and do so with confidence, or he needs to find leadership on the pitch.  I think the latter option is the right way to go.

If we look at the team today, the key players can be split in three groups:

• The mercenaries: sold Bedoya, sold Almebäck, deserted Alvbåge, and those who are still there - Rama, Paulinho).  They will never really care about us.  But they want to win.
• The loyal soldiers: Wikström, Kihlberg, Antonnen, Hagine, Astvald, Nordback, Wowoah.  They are locals, they do care, but lack the charisma to be the leader of men
• The bohemian: Nordin Gerzic.

It is in him, Nordin, that Boström should find his deputy.  If I were Sixten, I would sit down with Nordin this week and say: "you are our best player, you are our most important player, and no player has a heart that pounds stronger for this club.  Next season, we are taking you to the next level, and that means that you take Örebro SK to the next level.  You will be the captain, and I want you to really encapsulate everything what a captain should be.  If Valdet Rama is sloppy in the defensive press, if Astvald is hanging with his head, if Berger is hesitant in a tackle, if anyone is seen out drinkning beer to often, I want you to feel that that is your responsibility and I want you to let them know what you think of it.  I want you to let them know that this is Örebro SK, and 2012 is the year we get our revenge."

If we see that kind of Nordin next year, we will not squander nine opening goals.  We will not feel the game is lost if we concede that opening goal.  In a league like Allsvenskan, that can take you a long way.

Yo soy un perdedor...

I am about to reveal some pretty disturbing facts for Örebro SK fans.

First: this is not the post-season wrap up.  That would be premature.  We have a chance to save our faces and our dignity starting with the cup semifinal tomorrow.  All focus on that.

But I need to refer back to my August post 1-0 and we f* it up 0-1 and we f* it up.  It looked bad then. It looks worse now.  I took the liberty to recalculate Allsvenskan 2011 according to the golden goal rule: first goal wins; 0-0 draws are counted as draws.

The figures speak for themselves.

First, the real Allsvenskan final standings:

1	Helsingborg	63
2	AIK	58
3	Elfsborg	57
4	Malmö	54
5	Gais	51
5	Häcken	49
7	IFK Göteborg	45
8	Kalmar	44
9	Gefle	41
10	Mjällby	40
11	Djurgården	36
12	Örebro SK	36
13	IFK Norrköping	34
14	Syrianska	28
15	Trelleborg	25
16	Halmstad	14

Then, the Golden Goal league (golden goal rule points, allsvenskan points, difference):

Örebro SK	61	36	-25
Helsingborg	55	63	8
AIK	55	58	3
Häcken	55	49	-6
Gais	51	51	0
Elfsborg	46	57	11
Malmö	43	54	11
Kalmar	43	44	1
Djurgården	43	36	-7
IFK Göteborg	41	45	4
Mjällby	41	40	-1
IFK Norrköping	36	34	-2
Trelleborg	36	25	-11
Gefle	35	41	6
Syrianska	33	28	-5
Halmstad	30	14	-16

Not much happens in the table, except that Örebro jumps from 12th to 1st position! With a 6-point margin!

How can it be?

In number terms, it is because out of 30 games:

• In 9 games, we conceded the first goal.  We lost them all.
• one game ended 0-0.
• In 20 games, we scored the opening goal.  We won 11, drew 2 and lost 7.

25 points lost, 0 points won.  Those are loser team stats.  Top teams win points in comparison to the opening goal, as is clear from the table.

I raised the question to the Örebro coach during a chat this autumn.   His response was laconic and uninspired.  To me, this is serious.  I still feel that in terms of quality, we had a team that could have been contenders.  Instead of bums, which is what we are, let's face it.  Unless we win the cup.

Elmander! And Elm! And all of them.

Getting some distance to the epic win, the beauty, the joy.  We are qualified after a qualification campaign where we played well at home but struggled away.

So as qualification campaigns go, not one of our best, but the ending was one of the most beautiful.  The Swedish national team in my life time are perhaps most known for memorable draws when it comes to the top teams: a bunch of them against England (1988, 1989, 1999, 2002, 2006), West Germany in 1985, France in 1992 and 1993, Brazil in 1994, Argentina in 2002, Italy in 2004.

When it comes to big wins in competitive games, there are not that many.  Excluding the days before I was born (beating Italy and Spain in the 1950 world cup, Germany in 1958 and so on), and discounting wins that were big because of their importance but not against the really big footballing nations (Poland 1989, Denmark 1992, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Romania and Bulgaria 1994, a bunch of more qualifier and tournament wins against Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary, Turkey 2001, Nigeria 2002, Paraguay 2006, we are left with a pretty short list: wins I have experienced against the big teams in competitive games.  Here they are, in chronological order:

29 May, 1983: Sweden-Italy 2-0. You may think that opening goal header from Håkan Sandberg was not very impressive.  But for being a PE teacher in Örebro, he was pretty accurate.  And then Glenn Strömberg, of course Glenn, took advantage of a pretty terrible Italian defensive header.

15 October 1983: Italy-Sweden 0-3. That Glenn again, securing a second win against the world champions.  How did we not qualify for Euro '84 after that? By losing twice to Romania, that's how.  I'm still upset.

3 June, 1987: Sweden-Italy 1-0. The absence of the clear goal opportunity red card at the time, a magnificent penalty save from Ravelli and a the longest 1-2 combination in history brilliantly set up and executed by He-Man cheeked central defender Peter Larsson made us believe in Euro '88 qualification.  Three on the trot against Italy.  But it went downhill after that.

17 June, 1992: Sweden-England 2-1.  Efter a period of dominating Italy, Engeland became our next victim.  Efter Sweden Glenn Hysén held England at Wembley in 1988 and then Terry Butcher stealing the show in 1989, Brolin decided to take the 1-2 to yet another level and securing a semifinal in our home championship in Euro 1992.

5 September 1998: Sweden-England 2-1.  Maybe more thanks to David Seaman than anyone else.  But a fantastic start to our most impressive qualification campaign ever, I think.

8 October 2006: Sweden-Spain 2-0. Up until last week, the last time Sweden looked really impressive.  The only game I could not watch.

And, then, the unforgettable 11 October 2011.

What ranks highest? The 1992 game is a championship game and secured qualification to the Euro semifinal.  That is hard to beat.  Beating Italy 3-0 away is near impossible, but these were world champions that were already out of qualification.

The game against Spain was against a Spain that had already lost points and that could not really afford losing many more.  It was against a team that was about to develop to be the best team in the world.

But for us, for Sweden, the Holland game is special as it secured qualifcation.  Similar to Turkey in 2001, there we were head to head against our rivals but here we played against a team with one of the most impressive winning streaks in history, save for the world cup final. 

You can make a case for any of those for as the biggest win under the belt in my lifetime.  So yes, 11 October was a big day.

Elm and... er...? II

Tomorrow.  Holland.  Not a must-win this time. But a very much wanna-win as a win means a ticket to Euro 2012 as best runner-up and with a draw we have a chance although my bet goes to Denmarl (kick-off changed, someone read my "No academic quarter" post).

How do we beat Holland? My previous line-up is obsolete given the suspension of Zlatan.  But I stick to my guns even if we will not have a strong but static target forward to aim for but rather a scared moose (hunting season, Zlatan knows): we should really play three central midfielders, with one of them operating higher up on the pitch, which in my world should be Källström as he is more prone to making passing errors.  Although we need speed, starting with two strikers (Elmander and Hysen) as many propose is not a good idea.  And Toivonen, nope,we cannot afford the luxury of a pure number 10 against Holland. So my line-up is:

Isaksson
Lustig, Mellberg, Majstorovic, M.Olsson
Svensson, Elm
Larsson, Källström, Wilhelmsson (or Bajrami, whoever is in best shape)
Elmander

Bench: Wilandh, J.Olsson, Bengtsson, Wernblom, Toivonen, Wilhemsson/Bajrami, Hysen.

But still, my feeling is we will need to start preparing for a play-off on Wednesday so I start already now.  Likely pairings as runners up right now are as follows (assuming that Denmark or Portugal claim the best runner-up spot; If not, it will be Sweden or Croatia, all of which as it seems would be seeded if they have to go into play-off):

Seeded (Ranking coefficient - not yet final):
Croatia (6) (the alternative, Greece, would also be seeded)
Sweden (10)
Serbia (13) (the alternative, Estonia, would be most unseeded)
Czech Republic (14) (the alternative, Scotland, would most likely be unseeded)

Unseeded:
Turkey (17) (the alternative, Belgium, is further down and not close to seeding)
Ireland (19) (could still be Russia who would be seeded, or Armenia who would not be)
Bosnia (20) (or France, that would be seeded)
Montenegro (30)

So from a purely Swedish perspective I should route for Estonia (38), the Scots (27), Belgium (33) and Armenia (37).

An unseeded bunch consisting of Scotland, Estonia, Mopntenegro and Armenia may not be easy but a whole lot easier than for example if Sweden drops in the rankings and face Russia, Croatia, France and Serbia on the other side.

Elm and... er...?

Tonight: Finland-Sweden.  Must win game. Nervous.

Coach Hamrén continues to play 4-4-2 against Finland (although of course it is called 4-2-3-1). I'm ok with that, I am in agreement to play Rasmus Elm although I am not sure at all that it was a good decision not to play Anders Svensson.  Elm called Svensson a fossile, or  actually the fossile, earlier this week.   Jokingly, but still. Anders and I are the same age, ready for a life on the bench.

But against Holland on Tuesday I would like to see a real 4-2-3-1.  I would like Svensson to come back on the starting XI, at the expense of Elmander.  I want us to play with three central midfielders, and I want to keep Elmander on the bench to come on if we need speed in the second half.

The Sorrow Gondola

Although a good Swede of course should quote Tranströmer on a day like this (and drink to the reawoken old Swedish custom of awarding ourselves), today is a day of lost man love.  At 4pm IFK Göteborg will announce that they have poached our goalie Alvbåge.  The day he came back in 2008  is the day we started looking up the table, the day our team started to be mentioned with respect again, not with impertinence or pity. So Tranströmer gets the header, Auden the main text:

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Just a Walker and a Parker

Just a very short "hat" as the French say to Walker for proving to be a really good fullback and for Parker for taking runs no one else could be bothered to take despite obvious cramps in both legs.  Two very welcome additions to the team, yesterday a whole lot more welcome than the lazy Adebayor although he provided an assist.  Four straight wins for Spurs and given the game in hand and the bizarrely difficult opening programme (six games played so far include Utd, City, Pool and the Gunners), we're in a good position.