Falkenberg Arena, Ettan, 20/10/24
Me 325, Wee Man 191
Falkenbergs Fotbollsförening
Founded – 1928
Nickname – FFF
Honours – Superettan 2013
Random Fact – The club are not adverse to promotion and relegations,with two spells in the top flight, two spells in the second tier and two spells in the third tier all in this century.
Our only venture out of Gothenburg took us down the coast to the third tier in Falkenberg. With four games to go the home side were top of the table by a point going into this meaning a win was imperative. With Ariana down near but just avoiding the relegation places and what could be a potential automatic promotion for FFF we expected a solid home win. Oh how we were wrong on the the edge of the North Sea. This game had nothing about it at all. Before we saw a ball kicked we had a walk from the station (nowhere near the town centre) through a large wooded area and along the river Atran. It was a very pleasant wander and showed the town to be a bonnie looking place. Very sleepy though but being a Scandinavian Sunday may have added to that. On the hunt for a munchery for our lunch Wee Man spotted a pizza joint on street corner. Not one for not eating local food when away places I reluctantly agreed but as we got closer I noticed a sign in the window saying pints were 25 SEK, that’s only a measly 1.82 in our money. The lack of local food was not to be missed with grog being priced like that. Here though I made a massive error of judgement which caused havoc with my day. As i was starving I ordered an XL pizza. Try fucking XXXXL as this thing was massive. A mexicana it was (with Swedish meatballs on it, so i did keep it local somewhat) and it was about 32 inch. It was bloody fine but Wee Man thought it would be amusing to challenge me to finish it. Which I did as I couldnt look like a wimp in front of him, which in turn made me uncomfortable and feeling like utter shite for hours. To the fitba I waddled not before hearing Van Halen blasting out a bar en route, It would have been rude not to have grabbed a pint and juice in the Downtown Rockbar. A few good tunes and a forced down pint later we were off. As mentioned earlier, the train staion is nowhere near the centre, turns out neither is the ground as the floodlights were visible but a good distance away, not needed when you are fit to exploded in a “Meaning of Life” manner. Eventually the brilliant proper floodlight pylons were across the road. We had made it to a breezy Falcon Alcoholfrei Arena which from the outside looked a tidy place. Turns out it is exactly that and even better is not Alcohol free (Sweden do not allow alcohol sponsors and to get around this the local company stuck the booze free version down as a sponsor)
I wont try and polish any turds here. The game was not hugely entertaining or entertaining in the slightest and the highlight was watching the FFF man Rasmus Andersson hitting shots in the warm up. By christ this guy could scud a fitba. With laser accuracy too. He was absolutely howitzering efforts into the top corner. It was really quite incredible to watch him. Then once the game started he was guilty of two big misses. Both almost identical when he dragged efforts off of crosses from the right wide. Falkenbergs should have been cruising with only ten on the clock. Watching the game and it could be argued that Ariana were the better footballing team as the knocked the ball about tidily for good spells. But barring that the game lacked anything at all. Especially visiting fans as only three had made the trip from Malmo. But there was a hugely contentious moment at the end of the half when home forward Godwin Aguda had the ball in the net. The players celebrated as did the fans oblivious to the fact the lino had called the ref over. We noticed but for what we did not have a clue and as the goalscorer was celebrating with a prayer the goal was kyboshed.
HT 0 v 0
Wee Man wanted chips at HT and I honestly felt sick at the smell of food given how shite and bloated I felt after my pizza stupidity earlier, but being the gannet he is they were knocked back with ease despite a 15″ pizza earlier. As he ate them the “i bet this is a 0 v 0” conversation happened as going by what was in all honesty a boredom laden first half it could not be ruled out. The second half was not much better. Ariana’s front man Jabar Sharza headed over when he should have been scoring and was immediately hooked. Rocket shot man Andersson was denied by some fine defending from Albin Bjurnemark before the deadlock was finally broken. This time Aguda was given his goal when he ran in at the back post to tap in a free kick which had been lofted in. Goalkeeper Azizi got a hand to it but it wasn’t strong enough to which Jake said, “there’s no way that should be going in” to which I have to agree. Ariana continued to play some decent fitba and should have equalised when vertically massive substitute Adam Ingemarson half volleyed an effort with venom off the bar. I cant help feel going for the World Cup finish was to his detriment. That was it. The final whistle went and the cheers erupted. Nearest challengers Lund had also won so this title race looks set to go to the wire(second is a playoff). Really not any sort of spectacle, but a nice wee ground, scarves obtained and a lovely wee town. It was not too shabby of a day all in all despite the dirge on the green stuff
The main event awaits tomorrow night
Entrance – Me 150SEK (£10.90), Wee Man 100SEK (£7.30)
Attendance – 1198 (Official)
Pie – Chips 45SEK (£3.28)
Pint – 60SEK (£4.35), Falcon Extra Brew, Stadium Bar
Score Prediction – Me 3 v 0, Wee Man 2 v 1
Season Score Prediction Totals – Me 0 v 0 Wee Man
FITBAWBAG 