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Although the victory was “clear” long before referee Sandra Almkvist put her pipe in her mouth for the last time in the game, still with a redeeming cheer and arms outstretched against the dark sky the Kopparberg / Gothenburg players were able to affirm that they were finally Swedish champions in American football.
– There are many emotions. It’s just relief and joy. A dream come true. A wish that has come true, sums up striker Rebecka Blomqvist with a wide smile on her lips and a golden helmet on her head.
The scoreboard reads 0-7. An almost sensational crafting by one of the most prominent Damallsvenskan teams in the last decade has just taken place at Linköping Arena.
Despite playing and a Kopparbergs / Gothenburg who were not entirely satisfied with their performance in the first half, the visiting team went to halftime in the lead 2-0. Two performances by Blomqvist and effective finishes by Pauline Hammarlund and Filippa Angeldal put the guests in the driver’s seat, but seeing and playing the lead in the second half was out of the question.
– No, then we’re not okay. We fixed a few little things and then Linköping had almost nothing in the second half. It was just to keep rolling and go out and have fun, says coach Mats Gren.
And enough was It was fun for the Gothenburg players who hammered LFC like a steamroller for the remaining 45 minutes. Norway’s Vilde Bøe Risa scored 3-0 and 4-0 before Natalia Kiukka increased to 5-0. Substitutes Emma Koivisto and Stina Blackstenius also had to hang up their bags before the match ended.
– It was an ice break, most of it was in our favor, says team captain Emma Berglund and continues:
– I don’t think Linköping will stop playing, they are fighting, but it has also been like that in previous years. When it is released, it is released and then you just have to enjoy.
Then the west coast club leaving Landvetter and changing shape in 2004, Kopparbergs / Göteborg sniffed first place multiple times and took silver two years in a row. But that it was precisely 2020 when everything would fall into place, there were actually many reasons for that. no believe when the season started.
Faithful maid Beata Kollmats pulled her cruciate ligament this spring and hasn’t played a minute in this year’s damallsvenska. The team has also managed without national team star Elin Rubensson, who announced before the summer that she would become a mother.
And the situation barely improved when Mats Gren, previously fired as IFK Gothenburg’s sporting director, as new to the coaching position just days before the series premiere opened on the Linkedin social network, applied for a coaching position at a club from the United Arab Emirates.
But the turbulence was felt not off the field where Gothenburg scored victories with their offensive play and faced the first loss of the season only in the twelfth round, when reigning champion Rosengård became too difficult.
– You didn’t even know if it would be a season, says Emma Berglund and refers to the beginning of the series launched by the crown.
– And then to top it all came all those other things. It may not all have happened on the same day, but there are still things we have had to go through. Not everything has moved on. We have had it in our own hands, we have lost it and we have recovered it.
Despite heavy player losses prior to the season, there has been no shortage of points at home at Valhalla IP. Stina Blackstenius was recruited in noticeable and sensitive ways from Linköping and at the last national team meeting, Kopparbergs / Gothenburg was represented by up to seven players.
One of them was Pauline Hammarlund who with his twelve hits is the team’s shooting queen and was the one who paved the way at Linköping Arena.
– It’s a great feeling. Above all, the first goal, which I managed to do, then they felt that we started well. Today we play fantastic football, says Hammarlund
– It’s just joy. There has been so much talk that we would not support the press and so forth. But there are probably many who are now silent. We play a fantastic game.
Who are the ones who doubted you?
– There was a lot of talk in the media, if we had to deal with the press. We had been second two years in a row, but it is a great strength to go out and play a game like this when it comes to the majority. I felt that today we had decided that we would go home with the gold.
Mats Gren has a clear picture to himself of what makes Kopparbergs / Gothenburg the best damallsvenskan team in 2020.
– In fact, I think we’ve always had a fantastic game. We have dominated more or less all the games. A lot of teams come and park the bus, but we can take them apart anyway.
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