Wolfman's Danish Soccer Roundup

Week 21 of the Danish Superliga was a round where FC Copenhagen with a win over Odense could leave Odense further behind in third, and of course they did. Despite Odense leading 1-0, Copenhagen didn't have too many problems with winning the game 2-1 after a late goal by Morten Nordstrand in the 83rd minute. So now much like I expected, Odense are five points from Copenhagen and Brøndby. As I mentioned last week, Odense might also have sold the chance of the title when they sold their best player (Djiby Fall) too Russian football. Without Djiby Fall, Odense don’t look as frightening as with him. He was maybe the best striker in the league and you just don’t replace that. The fans around Odense have also showed their disproval with the sale, but there is nothing they really can do, is there?

Brøndby also managed to win despite getting a red card to their top scorer Morten Rasmussen in the middle of the first half, with the score 0-0 at the time. I don’t think many would have believed that Brøndby would end up winning the game 2-0 away to Randers but they did, so gladly there is still some excitement left at the top. That being said, I’m still confident that FC Copenhagen will end up winning the title when the last of the season's games have been played.

Danish SAS-Ligaen Table

			| Home					| Away
	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	FC Copenhagen	21	9	1	1	23	8	5	3	2	15	7	23	46
2	Brondby	21	8	0	2	18	10	6	4	1	17	5	20	46
3	Odense BK	21	8	1	2	21	9	5	1	4	17	14	15	41
4	FC Midtjylland	21	7	3	1	20	9	2	3	5	11	17	5	33
5	AaB	21	3	4	4	13	16	5	3	2	16	13	0	31
6	Randers FC	21	2	5	4	13	17	3	5	2	17	12	1	25
7	AGF Aarhus	21	6	2	2	15	12	1	2	8	7	16	-6	25
8	Esbjerg	21	3	4	3	7	7	1	5	5	12	17	-5	21
9	FC Nordsjaelland	21	2	3	4	9	13	3	3	6	16	19	-7	21
10	AC Horsens	21	2	5	5	9	13	2	1	6	12	20	-12	18
11	Sonderjyske	21	1	5	4	10	21	2	3	6	6	14	-19	17
12	Vejle	21	1	5	4	9	17	1	5	5	6	13	-15	16

Moving further down the table, the close and exciting dogfight for relegation might have seen the fight change from a five team battle to being only a three team battle now. Esbjerg continue to impress or maybe not to be honest, because as mentioned before, Esbjerg are too good a team to fight for relegation. When they beat AGF 1-0 on Sunday afternoon they moved four points clear of Sønderjyske and continued their winning streak to two games in a row. We have to remember the highly impressive win away to FC Copenhagen last week also, Copenhagen’s only loss at home this season.

The other team who put themselves a bit further away from the dogfight was Nordsjælland who played a good and solid game when they won in Sønderjyske 1-3. So now along with Esbjerg they have four points down to Sønderjyske, but there is no time to settle back and relax because points still needs to be put into their account.

One of the most exciting and nervous games this week was of course Horsens against Vejle. A real six pointer of a game where the loser wouldn’t be in a good position after the game. You could see from the start that it was an important match for both teams; the game never really started and was boring and too nervous from both sides. It was easy to see that the fear of losing was bigger than the happiness of winning = A bad and a boring game.

			| Home					| Away
	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
10	AC Horsens	21	2	5	5	9	13	2	1	6	12	20	-12	18
11	Sonderjyske	21	1	5	4	10	21	2	3	6	6	14	-19	17
12	Vejle	21	1	5	4	9	17	1	5	5	6	13	-15	16

So the bottom three looks like this, Vejle (16pts) Sønderjyske (17pts) and Horsens (18pts). Very close and very exciting.

Week 22 brings a few good games as well. The program looks like this:

Saturday: Nordsjælland v FC Copenhagen
Sunday: AGF v Aalborg
Sunday: Vejle v Sønderjyske
Sunday: Midtjylland v Horsens
Sunday: Brøndby v Esbjerg
Monday: Odense v Randers

Of course the main game of this round is Vejle-Sønderjyske. A really really important game for both teams, not only a six pointer game but maybe even a seven point game, it’s that important. It’s early to predict an outcome already because of the international week next weekend, so the games will first be played 4th-5th-6th April. However I’m tempted to already make a small bet on Vejle to win the game. They aren’t a quality side, BUT unlike Sønderjyske, Vejle have some players with experience in this league, starting in goal with Jimmy Nielsen (Old Aalborg) to Allan Garde (Aalborg and Viking) but also former Danish international Brian Priske (Anderlecht). That’s a group of players Sønderjyske are nowhere near to having. So I do expekt Vejle to go out and prove a point.
The other games doesn’t look too exciting and are hard to predict in my opinion.

Until next week, be lucky…

Wolfman