Laul: Let Malmö take the trophy, but close the descent

Of: Robert Laul

Published: October 25, 2020 at 7:23 PM
Updated: October 25, 2020 at 7:53 p.m.

Soccer in the midst of a global pandemic may be a necessity to keep the wheels turning.

But it is not reasonable that teams have to leave the Allsvenskan this year.

May Malmö take the trophy, close the descent.

This is not the first nor the last time this has happened. A player tests positive for COVID-19 and is allowed to stay home. In this case, the important IFK Gothenburg midfielder Mattias Bjärsmyr.

Whether the games are played anyway is a matter of course when the decision is made to start the series. The league association has a protocol that has worked satisfactorily. Soccer is the profession of the players and the broadcasting companies want money to buy their rights. The wheels should turn.

But running a soccer series during a global pandemic will never be business as usual. And it certainly hasn’t been a normal season. Express yourself with caution.

I’ve never seen worse football

I have followed Allsvenskan for more than 20 years and have never seen such uneven football before. Without an audience, it won’t be real. Players lose focus and perform roughly 20 to 30 percent below their top level. It’s not 30 rounds of Allsvenskan, it’s 30 training matches. The results are then scattered in all possible directions.

The full impact of the Corona pandemic on associations, troops and parties is too monumental for the year of football 2020 to be taken seriously. In such circumstances, it is not reasonable to degrade the law.

Of course Malmö FF may well get the 21st title, they deserve it with an asterisk after (* gold crown), but neither Kalmar, Falkenberg, Helsingborg or IFK Gothenburg really deserve to play for Superettan next year (it would be Kalmar in cases that were basically just as lousy last year).

No, rather that the series is expanded to 18 teams next year or that the promotion is paused at all stages. It is simply too big a difference in soccer 2020 compared to a normal year. The conditions are essentially different.

A day at work

When Malmö and Blåvitt met at Eleda Stadium tonight, they had to deal with a touch of criminal self-deception to call it a big match, a giant match, a classic match and everything that they were saying now on television.

It was a working day for Malmö, absolutely nothing more.

It is true that on paper it is this team that has won the most titles in the history of the Allsvenskan, but since 2015 the distance has been growing and growing. The ravine between the associations is today so abysmal that the Hell Gap remains smooth.

I can’t shake the poison from the feeling of the players in the locker room before kick-off, but I suspect that for the first time since the 1970s IFK Gothenburg felt that “we don’t have a chance against Malmö right now.”

And rightly so, within two minutes he was 1-0, Anders Christiansen from a penalty after Blåvitt had no time for a quick attack, which is what modern football is all about: speed, physics and efficiency. That and a well-organized defense game. Blåvitt has been doing the opposite for almost three seasons. Three seasons in which the association has lagged behind the times, encouraged by a wrong hobby that only wanted to support.

Five years in different directions

In 2015 IFK Gothenburg could still challenge Malmö FF – 2020, they are so behind that it will be many, many years before they catch up. If they ever compete again.

It’s easy to explain why this has happened: Malmö FF has had a management that has done a lot of things well in the last ten years, while IFK Gothenburg’s management has not had a single sporting idea in five years that has advanced the association.

Almost every decision made in recent years has made IFK Gothenburg worse. It may sound harsh, but it is true nonetheless. The old phrase “give up all” has rarely been more justified. Except for Roland Nilsson, who I still think has done what can be asked of him thus far.

Give up everything

Sporting director Pontus Farnerud can also stay, but then he must be able to recruit a forward who improves the team. Right now IFK Gothenburg is playing football without a striker on the field. Then there will be no speed ahead.

For Pontus Wernbloom to score today, goalkeeper Marko Johansson was first required to slide out of his own penalty area, then Anel Ahmedhodzic turned around when Pontus shot the ball between his legs. Wernbloom had the last word in that duel, for once without speaking. But the next time he appeared on the field was when he was replaced in the 68th minute.

At that moment, order was restored. Alexander Jallow was responsible for this year’s decidedly less successful offside trap, Ola Toivonen missed at 2-1 and if it weren’t for the pouring rain, they might have kept the jerseys until the next game. It is very easy for Malmö FF to defeat IFK Gothenburg 2020. 3-1 was just below.

It is a great responsibility of the IFK Gothenburg members before the annual meeting to start doing something about this development.

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Published: October 25, 2020 at 7:23 PM

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