Wolfman's Danish Soccer Roundup

The last round in the Danish Superliga answered a few questions and opened up a few more as well. Lets start with the answered ones.

Before the second part of the season started Brondby were points down to archrivals FC Copenhagen . Now after two played games, they are three points up on them which shows how fast you can lose a title. Okay surely the season isn’t over yet as there is still fourteen games to be played, however the way Brøndby has started doesn’t look too promising. They have a new manager now (Kent Nielsen) instead of the first part of the season when it was Tom Køhlert. One of the first things Kent Nielsen said as Brøndby manager was that "Brøndby wont be as offensive as the first part of the season" so far that is true, sadly.

Brøndby haven’t been looking like a side who was challenging for the title, not even close to it. The team is way to defensive and doesn’t try enough offensively. Brøndby have been squaring up in a 4-5-1 formation or a 4-4-1-1 if you like, with Morten "Duncan" Rasmussen alone upfront and Alexander Farnerud right behind him. That just isn’t enough. Brøndby just doesn’t look like a team who believe they can win the title. They could challenge pretty well if they just tried but Kent Nielsen’s tactics are not worthy of a top team. It looks like Brøndby are trying to do what Kent Nielsen had success with at Horsens and that is to be safe at the back at all costs, then try to beat the opponent with that odd chance you get once or twice a game. That just isn’t good nor worthy enough for a top Danish side like Brøndby. The only real time Brøndby tries is on set pieces, other then that they haven’t really created any chances so far in the first two games.

FC Copenhagen have looked as solid as ever. They simply outplayed Brøndby away from home, where they kept them from having a single chance throughout the whole game. That away win made them top of the league. At the weekend they had a tough away game to Randers, but also here they showed they are the best team in Denmark, when they crushed them 3-0.

We can conclude three things after the first two games.

1: FC Copenhagen look rock solid at the back
2: FC Copenhagen are now top the league with three points back to Brøndby and five to Odense.
3: Brøndby wont be a genuine title contender unless they change tactics

Danish SAS-Ligaen Table

			| Home					| Away
	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	FC Copenhagen	19	8	1	0	21	5	5	3	2	15	7	24	43
2	Brondby	19	7	0	2	16	10	5	4	1	15	5	16	40
3	Odense BK	19	7	1	2	19	8	5	1	3	16	12	15	38
4	FC Midtjylland	19	7	3	1	20	9	2	3	3	8	12	7	33
5	AaB	19	2	4	4	10	14	5	2	2	15	12	-1	27
6	AGF Aarhus	19	6	2	2	15	12	1	2	6	7	13	-3	25
7	Randers FC	19	2	5	3	13	15	3	4	2	16	11	3	24
8	FC Nordsjaelland	19	2	3	3	8	11	2	3	6	13	18	-8	18
9	Sonderjyske	19	1	4	3	8	17	2	3	6	6	14	-17	16
10	Esbjerg	19	2	4	3	6	7	0	5	5	10	17	-8	15
11	AC Horsens	19	2	4	5	9	13	1	1	6	10	19	-13	14
12	Vejle	19	1	4	4	8	16	1	4	5	6	13	-15	14

At the other end of the table it is much more open. The bottom four teams all got points this week. Esbjerg hosted Sønderjyske were Esbjerg should have won, but were not good enough to score that single goal that would have give them the win and three much needed points. Instead it all ended in a boring 0-0 draw. However you could also see that the fear of losing was bigger then the happiness at winning. With mentality like that, you will hardly ever get a good match.

Bottom team Horsens were in a very difficult position when they had to play Odense. Pretty much everybody expected Odense to win this game easily, but Horsens and Besart Berisha had a completely different plan and a very surprising one. So when the ninety minutes were over, it was Horsens who grabbed the three points and NOT Odense as expected. A very surprising result and not expected before the match. Also Vejle got a much-needed point when they got a draw out of the away game in Aarhus. Vejle went in front just before halftime but Aarhus came back and should have won it, especially after some big chances late in the game.

So the dogfight for relegation is still wide open. A few questions pop up now.

1: Are Horsens on their way back or was it just luck?
2: Will Nordsjælland now also fall into the dogfight with only four points down to the other teams
3: Will Esbjerg raise their level or continue to underachieve at home ?
4: Can Sønderjyske do the impossible and stay up against all expectations?

A few things that’s for sure is, the fight for relegation won’t be as boring as the fight for the title it seems. Hopefully the title race will open up as well.

Next weeks games look like this:

Odense v Midtjylland
FC Copenhagen v Esbjerg
Nordsjælland v Horsens
Sønderjyske v AAB
Brøndby v AGF
Vejle v Randers

Without looking too much into them so far. It look like another three pointer for Copenhagen. With some more offensive minded strategy it could end with three points for Brøndby also. However the most interesting game is Nordsjælland against Horsens. Nordsjælland can with a win say goodbye to relegation at least for some weeks. Horsens on the other hand, can take a big step away from relegation and furthermore drag Nordsjælland in a bit closer if they win.

Wolfman