Final Round – The Zelge Invasion of Jönköping

By: Luka | October 24th, 2009

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An estimated 1,000 (or more, or less given our propensity to exaggerate things) Zelge fans will have made the journey from Sodertalje, Gothenburg and other nearby areas to Stadsparksvallen, Jönköpings to witness Assyriska attain the right to battle an Allsvenskan team over two legs for promotion into the top flight. The situation is simple – regardless of the results around us, all we need is a draw. Our opposition – a team in mid table with nothing particularly tangible to play for, and a side which boasts one of the worst home records in the division. Of course, a win would be grand and would go some way to preventing an outbreak of asphyxia across Sodertalje and beyond, but aside from coach Conny Karlsson and his lofty standards, I don’t think anyone cares how we do. As long as we do. It.

Taking a simple glance at the table, you’ll notice there are a number of possible (but to us, unthinkable) permutations that may arise. However, they are all made superfluous if we draw or win.

We have a full squad to choose from, which just leads me to imagine how easily we would have qualified had our best players avoided the temptation to suspend themselves and stayed out of the treatment room. As such, it isn’t totally unfair to blame former coach Roberth Johansson for almost blowing our chance for promotion this season. Who knows, if we had sacked him and appointed master Kalrsson 5 games earlier, then we probably wouldn’t have been in this mess in the first place, and we could have been planning massive-epic-unforgettable home and away matches against AIK, Djurgardens and Hammarby. Hey Djurgardens, remember us?

It is also very possible for us to eventually come up against our old foes Djurgardens in the subsequent playoff, but at the moment it looks like it will be Orgryte, who are probably the least preferred opponents Assyriska would like to face.

[Random note: here's an inspirational video to get the blood running through our veins just that little bit faster]

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Our opposition:
Now is not the time for taking anyone easily. At first glance one would conclude that Jönköpings Södra IF have nothing really to play for. However according to their coach Olle Nordin, 8th place was the objective for their season so they have an incentive to not roll over and submit to the mighty red and white of Assyriska. Digging deeper, we can find a number of factors to keep Jönköpings motivated and hence making them very dangerous opponents – they are chasing a record points tally in the Superettan, and something like an extra 200,000 Swedish Krones (yeah, not so much when you convert it to the more stronger currencies, but just take it on face value). Nothing is ever so easy and straight-forward when it comes to Assyriska.

Us:
Like I said, we have essentially a full-strength team to call upon, so coach Conny will most likely select the following team in a 4-4-2:
Berglund – Lorentzon, Bergman, Bengtsson, Samuelsson – Furuseth, Ostlundh, Toompuu, Batan – Marklund, Moussa*

*Llumnica is a strong possibility after recovering from injury. He hasn’t started since his man of the match performance in the derby a month ago.

Waiting to make a difference off the bench will be the likes of Besara, Nafver, Tiago and (shudders) Conateh.
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The following are three things I would change from our season if I ever had the opportunity to go back in time:
(1) Replace coach Roberth Johansson with Conny Karlsson.
(2) Replace Lamine Conateh with a cactus tree (or any similar flora).
(3) Wrap General Marklund in cotton wool before and after each game.

Other than the above, but in particular 1 & 2, I think it has been an otherwise stellar season which could have actually been much worse than it is now.

Finally, let this not be my last match preview of the season. I hope to be writing one up before the 7th of November, the date for the first leg of the promotion playoff. Do us proud Assyriska!