Mjallby steal the points from Assyriska

By: Luka | August 10th, 2009

First Half
Nothing significant occurred until the 21st minute where Mjallby took the lead in a not too dissimilar way to Chelsea in the Community shield. In spite of Assyriska defender Philip Bergman appearing injured just outside the area, Mjallby kept possession and continued to attack, choosing to disregard the usual convention of putting the ball out of play when a player is seemingly injured. I must admit I didn’t see this (/Arsene Wenger persona) as I was busy frantically refreshing the page in abject manner as again my internet connection was failing me. In the end, Markus Ekenberg continued his scoring spree with a close range finish. The match really didn’t get going as a contest until the second half.

Second Half
Assyriska, much like my internet connection, emerged from the half-time break heroically brilliant. They began passing smoothly, movement off the ball was superb, and at times Mjallby’s midfield looked lost. Their defense was still solid however, making the outcome of any breach decisive upon the match result. Unfortunately, our final-third potency was again missing. Eddie Moussa contrived to miss a free header from 4 yards out, clipping the bar with the goal at his mercy. A real let-off for Mjallby.

Captain fantastic Goran Marklund began receiving the ball in between Mjallby’s defense and midfield, allowing him to switch play to the wings and make runs into the box. This tactic was abated by Eddie Moussa’s switch to the right wing (he was ineffective as a striker in the first half), almost turning the entire match into AFF’s favour. Moussa bamboozled Mjallby’s left side, and sent in some excellent crosses needing only the slightest touch to find the net. AFF finally managed to score when highly rated defender Martin Lorentzon somehow bundled the ball home when it appeared the goalkeeper had it in his grasp. It wasn’t Picasso, but unlike in the artsy world, all goals are of equal value!

Assyriska continued to attack, however Mjallby was able to resist the pressure and remained patient, always looking for a clinical sucker-punch to steal the match from AFF’s grasp. This heart-attack inducing, migraine exacerbating, violent expletive outburst encouraging moment duly arrived in the 86th minute, with some guy I wish not to bother mentioning scoring the winner for the runaway leaders of the Superettan. Yet again, we were all left heartbroken. When it seemed like the match was there for the taking, we were left to ponder the innate ability of teams to clinically punish us for being inefficient (Assyriska has more possession and had 10 shots on target to Mjallby’s 3).
Honourable mentions to Eddie Moussa and Nahir Besara for being two of the best players on the pitch.

Post-Match Reactions
Coach Robert Johansson (pictured) again stressed our inefficiency in front of goal while praising the team’s overall performance. He said that it is impossible to continue playing this well and losing (don’t tempt fate, man!). Mjallby’s Peter Svärdh also had some kind words to say for Assyriska, stating that they were clearly better than Mjallby today and have been one of the best sides to face this season. Of course…

Aftermath
AFF is now 5 points behind Atvidabergs in 2nd place (top 2 go automatically into the Allsvenskan) and 3 points behind GIF Sundsvall (3rd place gets you a play-off against an Allsvenskan team for promotion). Our next match is against the latter team mentioned, meaning it is of the highest importance.

Final Note
C-Sports, I urge you to significantly reduce the charge per match, or at least provide a package where we can order several games at once at a discount. A price of $15 per match is a ridiculous sum to be paying for streaming a single match on your computer. I’ll cope.