Five points for each Bohmann from Hammarby – Kalmar at Tele2 Arena.
1. Redstrom Nightmare Circuit
Victories in this European final will clinch third place. It seemed like a given that the teams finished the season against Giffarna and Helsingborg respectively. As a cross was enough for Bagen after all, this was a challenge for the away team in the first place. Kalmar in general and Henrik Rydström in particular. As a coach, he hasn’t won here in seven attempts. He scored only a trivial point out of a possible 21 in Tele2 Arena.
2. The right plane – even if it flips over
Redstrom naturally respected the opponent, but entered the match with a wise desire.
We want to force Hammarby to play defense.
Thus: dramatically thwart Tele2 packed with possession of the ball, increase the pressure on the home team and create an impatient and possibly violent atmosphere. Reasonable, of course, but a lot of that flipped right from the start. After 30 seconds, Naher Basara hit a shot from a free position in the penalty area. Two minutes later, Bajen won the ball several times in the offensive half of the field. Three minutes later, Gustav Ludwigson scored 1-0 from a corner kick. Ricardo Friedrich pitifully defended a free kick, but Mads Wenger’s little display of the goalkeeper was more subtle than ugly.
However, Kalmar did not back down. The wonderful dynamic Nahum Netabai had two good chances. Smålanders quickly won the control they wanted.
3. Rugby chess over
Hammarby, like many other teams in the past two years, had to accept the battle for possession as a loser. Instinctively it might seem like a chore for players like Darijan Pojanic and Nahir Besara, but being right and chasing the ball in the lead is something very different than being at a disadvantage. Not crazy fun, but acceptable. Here, Bagen’s big audience also matured and there he understood the picture of the match to be fickle. In addition, the home team managed the low defensive match in a disciplined manner.
The first half featured football that was more closely related to chess than rugby. There was magic in pursuing tactical moves, taking care of the ball, and reluctance to tread lightly, but it didn’t ignite hearts.
4. The Incomparable Folk Champion Gustav Ludwigson
So the match got what it desperately needed: a Kalmar goal. When we talked about new acquisitions like Kevin Jensen and Simon Skrap that didn’t live up to expectations, Kalmar had to act over the summer. Sebastian Nanase was loaned from Malmö and was really the offensive x factor that was wanted. When the winger picked up the ball and nodded at Oliver Berg’s corner after the break, everything was alive: the match, the fight for European places, the excitement. For… six minutes.
Then Ludwigson received the ball in the attacking half, led it forward and Mikel Rigaard passed it into the far corner. Gothenburger’s side has been a bit underperformed mid-season but still serves up 12 goals and four assists. It is the third year in a row that he has handed over fifteen points. Humble and incomparably productive, Ludwigson cemented his place as a living legend and folk hero in Bavaria.
5. The season clearly approved, Bagn
The second half was a violent reaction to the warning before the end of the first half. It was wide open. I scored five goals and the final score 4-2 against Hammarby was reasonable. And so Hammarby took third place and the European Games in 2023. There is a clear disappointment and must be there about not being able to threaten in every way in the battle for gold, but the position of the table is of course clearly agreed upon. Marti Cifuentes did a solid job in his first season. There is an excellent tactical foundation to stand on, a sense of forward movement, and something we hope to build upon. Europe is very important to an ambitious, hard-working association like Hammarby.
Kalmar?
KFF’s dream in Europe died on Tele2. Just getting them involved in the fight is an achievement big enough that Henrik Rydström should once again be considered one of the Allsvenskan’s Coach of the Year.