Gamla Ullevi, Superettan, 18/10/24
Me 323 , Wee Man 189
Örgryte Idrottsällskap
Founded – 1892 (the sports club in 1887)
Nickname -Sällskapet (The Society), Skottelaget (the Scottish team)
Honours – Svenska Mästerskapet – 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1902, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1909, 1913 and 1925. Allsvenskan – 1925–26 and 1927–28 and playoff winners 1985. Svenska Serien -1910, 1911–12, 1920–21 and 1923–24. Superettan – 2008. Division 1 Södra – 1994 and 2012. Svenska Cupen -1999/2000. – 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1911, 1912 and 1913. Svenska Fotbollspokalen – 1903 and 1903 (played twice in the season in 1903 , Once in Spring and once in Autumn)
Random Fact – The foundation of the club owes a lot to Ayrshire side Newmilns FC, or the Lacemakers as they were known. It was lace that brought football to the Örgryte Sports Club and Sweden as a whole when some of the Ayrshire players/lace makers were sent to work in a factory in Gothenburg. One such worker John Lawson set up the football branch of the sports club in 1892 . This eventually leading to the first ever game of football in Sweden in 1892 when Örgryte took on I.S. Lyckans Soldater. The O.I.S side featured seven Scots
With the summer holidays being bollocksed up by me starting a new job, any holiday was put on hold, but luckily with the way my rota landed the October holidays fell into my downtime. Perfect. In summer 2023 we nipped over to Norway for a couple of games and during which the Wee Man said “can we go to Sweden next?”. I never forgot his words and as I looked for a decent deal for us this year, Sweden jumped out at me and with pretty much only myself needing paid for to get and stay there it was a done deal and his wish was my command. On a personal note Gothenburg has always been a place I have fancied due to the glaring obvious link to Aberdeen Football Club. But on top of that Sweden as a whole has a huge place in my music collection. Due to my heavy metal and rock leanings the more extreme Entombed, Dismember, Grave, Meshuggah, Unleashed, At the Gates and The Haunted (the latter two from Gothenburg)to name a few annoy my neighbours frequently. As do the mellower Europe, The Hellacopters(one of the greatest bands ever to exist), The Hives, Backyard Babies and Hardcore Superstar(also from the locale). There is a huge Swedish influence on my musical tastes and for that the pre-match shenanigans saw us allow me to get my nerd on and head to the Hard Rock Cafe for a pint, feed and look at the gear on display. I have mentioned before I visit a HRC in every city I head to and geekishly get a badge and Gothenburg was no different. After some affa expensive beers, a look at all the gear on show and no death metal, it was the short walk to the Gamla Ullevi for game one of the tour. The Ullevi is a familiar name to the North East of Scotland but not the one we were heading to. But earlier in the day we managed to get into the holy land. The Nya Ullevi which is as good as next door to the Gamla Ullevi. After wondering how the hell we were going to get in and almost giving up for the day, a woman walked out of the stadium and in an don’t ask don’t get nature we asked if we could get see the stadium, she then told us to follow her. This into a restaurant where in Swedish she asked another lady who whipped out a set of keys. A door was opened and we were told to take our time. Behind the door was the location of the greatest night in the history of Aberdeen Football Club and the fact it was raining made it even better. Bucket list stuff.
But I digress massively, this is about Sweden’s “Scottish team” and the first game of four across four tiers. I am usually neutral in these scenarios but tonight given the Scottish links I wanted a home win. Second tier Swedish fitba is not something I know much of so I came in not knowing what to expect. One thing that I didn’t expect was the lack of numbers inside the stadium. OIS are a famous old club but the place was empty when we turned up in during the warm up.We almost had the whole wing stand to ourselves with Wee Man choosing the furthest extremity to sit, which t be fair was a good view. It also gave us a good view of the OIS ultras who were great throughout. Armed with the usual drum you would expect at the fitba, but also a snare giving funky beats to some of their songs. I can safely say I had not come across this in my travels before. The ground although empty seemed like it could be a cauldron of noise when full as the Ultras noise was loud and seemed to be trapped. It also gives off the impression of being a lot bigger than the round about 16000 capacity. We will find out what a full house is like on Monday night. On the pitch the first half possession count must have been stacked in Sandvikens favour. They seemed to always be on the ball. Thius aided by constant unforced errors from the home side. But the visitors could not make it count. To be fair to both sides though and it was noticed by Wee man too, the football they both tried to play was good and all played on the deck. I cant think of any instace where the ball was punted in the first half. The first chance was for Sandvikens when defender Smajlovic cut in from the right to smash an effort off the crossbar, it deserved a goal as the power and bend he put on the hit was incredible. Despite the lack of possession OIS took the lead in very similar circumstances as the Smajlovic effort when Isak Dahlqvist cut in from the right and smacked an effort at goal but he managed to get it just under the bar and into the top corner. A stunning hit on the quarter hour. The running of the game did not really change after the goal and again OIS scored against the run of play again with a truly superb team goal which started in their own half. After a multi pass move Noah Christofferson was off on his bike up the wing where he beat his opponents sending a pass to Tobias Sana who layed in perfect ball back to Christofferson who had bust a gut and cutting in and couldn’t miss from inside the box. The away team couldn’t believe what was happening after dominating the ball for such large parts of the game. It looked like a robbery was unfolding.
HT 2 v 0
Half time gave us the chance to visit what could possibly be the most revoltingly smelling toilets. Enough to make your eyes water and hold your breath for the entirety of having a stoor. They were gross, and after catching our breaths once back at our remote seats we were treated to a far better performance from OIS. But Sandviken chucked an early cat in amongst the pigeons as they haled the deficit via Smajlovic. But no sooner had he done that Örgryte had a third and it was another good goal to the collection and another for Dahlqvist when he drilled an effort across the box into the bottom corner leaving Jakobsson in the SIF goal no chance. The half was entirely difeerent and the home side were the better team, the were playing the better football and had a will to get forward ASAP. But Sandviken were not out of it and in the 65th minute reduced the arrears again when Hope Calvin Kabuye struck home from inside the box after some great work from John Junior prior(JJ is a player and a half for the record). Then came the highlight of the match, after a ball into the Örgryte box into a host of players a Sandviken player got a touch sending the ball into the bottom right corner but step forward keeper Fredrik Gustafsson who leapt across to claw the ball from behind himself, up and away to safety. Words cant describe this. Possibly the best double save I have seen in person. Think Gordon Banks v Brazil followed with a David Seaman v Sheffield United. Absolutely stunning stuff and his team were soon to kill the game when Trpcevski burst into the box to cross to Sana at the back post to head into the top corner and that was that. 6 goals and the best save I have ever seen. What’s not to like. Come on the “Scottish team”.
Three games to go on our Swedish adventure.
Entrance – Me 195 SEK(£14.20), Wee Man 75 SEK (£5.45)
Attendance – 1757 (Official)
Pie – 30 SEK Marabou (£2.20)
Pint – 70 SEK (£5.10)
Score Predictions – Me 2 v 0 , Wee Man 1 v 2
Season Score Predictions Total – Me 0 v 0 Wee Man
FITBAWBAG 