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The Allsvenskan 2020 is over for this time. A Corona year that goes down in history as the strangest year in history. The last round said it all and a bit more about it. The battle for last European place, second place and which team from Kalmar and Falkenberg would achieve a qualifying spot and come out was of course in focus.
And it turned out to be pretty exciting at the bottom. Falkenberg took the lead early against Mjällby, while Kalmar FF stayed close to BK Häcken and did not allow Andreas Alm’s European gang of post-chasers to have too many scoring opportunities.
When Mjällby tied and took the lead with half an hour to go, it clearly looked like Kalmar FF would qualify. But Falkenberg called and chased three points at the end. It was not enough and Kalmar scored a point at home in the Guldfågeln arena and now has to qualify against Jönköpings Södra. J-Södra by Andreas Brännström, which I have as a favorite in that classification. Brännström’s offensive playing style and pass-oriented football are likely to suit Nanne Bergstrand’s slightly more destructive tactics. It will be an exciting qualifying match to look forward to.
For Falkenberg, the season ended with a descent to the Superettan. Not immediately unexpected. Hans Eklund has conjured with small means before, but now he stopped. I am quite convinced that soon we will see Falkenberg again at the Allsvenskan.
So we know who trains IFK Norrköping
At the top, BK Häcken secured Europaplatsen after IFK Norrköping crashed completely and lost at home to already relegated Helsingborg. That defeat pretty much sums up IFK Norrköping’s season and it’s an almost historic race that we’ve seen on “The Comrades”. On the one hand, the team led the Allsvenskan with seven points this summer, lost everything and now had a good chance of saving the season.
Then Jens Gustafsson’s men put on an almost parodic effort against Helsingborg who are now ready for relegation and lost 4-3 at home in Östgötaporten. It seems to hurt even more because three points would have been enough for a third place. A real failure for Norrköping, who now has to choose the route. Ålborg mocks manager Jens Gustafsson, who has a contract that expires in December 2021. Starting a season as a manager with an expiring contract is not optimal. In the coming week, Gustafsson’s future will be decided as he sits down with President Peter Hunt, who has brought in outside help to walk the season piece by piece, assess and see what went wrong. In less than a week, we will know if Gustafsson will return to coach “Beijing” next year.
A coach who is also under scrutiny is Hammarby’s Stefan Billborn. Bajen would be fighting for the Swedish Championship gold this season, but ends with eight after losing to ÖSK in the last match.
A green and white flop. Not another word can be said about Hammarby’s 2020 season. Externally, sports director Jesper Jansson says Billborn will remain in 2021. He signed a new contract this spring and it will probably be a costly story to fire him. But expect Billborn to really get evaluated now, after the season, by both the sporting leadership and the board. And I don’t think I’m as sure as Jansson wants to say.
It has been a strange year, as I said, and many are probably happy that we are now leaving Allsvenskan year 2020 behind. The question is whether Hammarby is not happier that the year is over.
