Promotion checklist: Vasby – Done. Next up – Ljungskile away.

By: Luka | October 5th, 2009

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Hi Vasby United, thanks for coming. It’s very unfortunate that our paths had to cross at this this time. You know, us being in such supreme form, with bucket loads of desire and motivation finally reflecting the club’s lofty ambitions. Good luck with that battle for relegation by the way.

For the last few months it’s been like Christmas for opposition teams against Assyriska – they’ve all left with one or two presents courtesy of our generous defense and listless attack. However, under the aegis of master Conny Karlsson, we’ve completely shed this friendly and giving mood. One of the salient features of this turnaround has been the return to form of club captain Goran Marklund. Khayit General.

Sure, our new coach has only been around for about 2 weeks now, and only 2 weeks ago I was writing the obituary to our season, but I’m a supporter and it’s my God-given right to get carried away after a routine win dammit.

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If you’ve followed this blog, you’d have noticed that I rarely ever actually put up the highlights to the games. Well, that’s because C Sports decided to stop releasing their highlights packages around about the same time they began offering Assyriska games live and online for a pretty hefty price – coincidence? Meh, I’ve had enough coincidences for one week. As such, other than pretty pictures, this is all we get to see from the game (I should add that I didn’t order/watch the game, a sad fact). However, here’s a treat – the highlights package of the first encounter between Assyriska and Vasby United (when C Sports weren’t a greedy and evil organisation….I kid, C Sports is doing a tremendous job, sort of):

Just pretend that’s in Sodertalje, and imagine Assyriska scoring two more goals.

In my excitement, I have already written a summary of the match. Klicka här (as the Swedes would say).

So, having already summarised the match, coupled with having not actually seen the match myself, and devoid of any highlights, what else can I really say about a 4-0 home win to a struggling team? I’ll break my usual trend of prolixity and provide a new (non-regular) feature – player ratings – which I have kindly borrowed from the Assyriska forum somewhere in Swedish cyberspace (translated by google translate and edited by yours truly for coherency of course):

Berglund: 4, Great as usual. Important rescue (save) in the first half.

Fredde: 3, Goes from strength to strength. Stresses no longer and operates safely in defence. Good to offensively even if the contributions do not always have the correct result.

Bengtsson: 3, Strong and safe. Made one error, but was otherwise always right.

Bergman: 3+, Really good game by Philip giving a calm to the back line. Good in the air and had several fine plays.

Lorentzon: 4, A really good game by Martin, which was almost totally faultless defensively. He is the key to our offensive game on the right side. An invaluable wide-player who will be difficult to replace.

Batan: 2, Was not a successful day on the edge. Maybe Stefan was hampered by his injury? Over worked situations often and became far too easy to read. Fine assist for the 1-0 goal, however.

Östlundh: 3+, Worked hard in the middle and it shows that Dennis has risen since the change of coaches. Owned the middle with Nahir Besara.

Besara: 4+, Best player. Extremely good eye for the game and always playable. Nahir offers wonderful passes and through-passing and a highly variable position game. Today he also has shown his aggression and strength that maybe he had been lacking in the past. It becomes a completely different dimension in the game compared with Andi.

Furuseth: 3+, Petter shows at times the class player he is. Secure with the ball and constantly makes smart runs. Cooperation with Lorentzon worked really well today and was the key to victory. Contributed with a goal and an assist.

Tiago: 1, Worst in the AFF today. Sluggish both on and off the ball. Does not work at all with Marklund and spends more time whining and filming than trying to play football. A great opportunity in the first half but missed pretty rough.

Marklund: 3+, Was not really in the game in the very beginning because the interaction with Tiago did not work at all. Still had much of the ball and tried to play fast and challenging but lacks speed. Lifts others however and creates much room for other players with his clever game. Attentive at the 1-0-goal and a little too unselfish at 2-0. Marklund does much on the field that is not always visible, and relieves the rest of the team by always making himself playable.

Näver: 2, Came in and made an improved performance. Often felt uncomfortable with ball but made no mistake this time when he gets the ball served at 3-0.

Genc: 3, Not much playing time but showed tremendous willingness and heart. Springer constant and really tried to show that he wants a place in the team. Has a shot before making it 4-0 after fine play from Furuseth. Genc deserves a chance from the start of the next game.

All I can add is that it’s very satisfying when your substitutes score (Nafver and Genc). It just is.

Post-match reactions:

Väsby United coach Thomas Lagerlof was disappointed but took the loss like a man (as per the Assyriska site)

“We lost against a better team today.
I am disappointed with the first half when we are vague in our standby games. We give the ball back to Assyriska almost every time we try to build an attack. This makes it difficult to play football.
When we come out to the second half, it feels like we are taking hold of the match again. And then …. ‘bang-bang’, it’s 2-0. After that, we are not really in the match.”

The Conny Effect Persists
The match seemed to be panning out in the usual frustrating manner – with Assyriska dominating most of the play, but with everything breaking down in front of goal. Despite a ton of shots in the first half, it was only 0-0 at the break. However, new coach Conny Karlsson’s been here before. At half time, he had a few choice words for the second half:

The message at the break was that we must have patience. We can not go out and become frustrated and stress just because it remains at 0-0.
“We wanted to be aggressive today.
We are making a solid effort and had good control of the match in 90 minutes. Väsby had a great chance in the first half, but Oscar (Berglund) made a huge save. We were the better team today.”

Hurrah’s for Goran Marklund

“Goran is a very intelligent player who also is good at keeping the ball. On top of it so he makes a lot of goals, so of course he is important to us”, exclaimed coach Conny Karlsson.

“Supporters call him Goran of Ashur, the king then, and when he is injury-free he is Ashur. He is cruel.” Nahir Besara vividly illustrates.

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Some more optimistic post-match triumphant talk from Swedish youth international, and future legend, Nahir Besara (pictured wearing white boots, an obvious sign of a great player):

“Right now it feels really good, we aim to win the matches we have left and take second place.”
On new the new coach: “He is really good, Robban [former coach Roberth Johansson] was also good, but Conny really feels like he knows what he is doing. But we players have also raised, and we want extra now.”

Now, all we need is a draw in this game…

Tihe Assyriska.