Bank: Backers always have two teams
“You have a heel worse than Häcken”?
It’s time to put that rhyme on now.
No team in Allsvenskan has more supporters than Häcken.
A little over twelve years ago, I went to Helsingborg to watch HIF turn around and win 3-1 over Häcken. Eric Sundin scored two goals, Marcus Holguson decided to have a quarter left, but I read about it. I do not remember.
The only thing I remember about that day was before the match kicked off. I arrived at Olympia, and walked past the entrance to the far section when I saw a shaggy plank.
– Ah, bank. YOUR FI FUCKING **a.
This wasn’t unusual at the time, the special thing was that for once it got me hugely excited. I mean… hedging. They didn’t have legions of committed supporters, and they had someone who went out of their way to shout obscenities who were amused by the improbable. They were very few. A few years earlier, Gotteburgs-Posten drew a text about the Hacken Crisis with an unflattering picture of an old man in a hat hanging over a railing on the gorgeous old Rambergsvalen. He sighed until his cheeks fluttered, writing on the caption: “supporter of Luttrad Häcken.”
Sportbladet reveals: There was no supporter for Hahn. I know that because he was my father.
However, you can say a lot about dad BK Hacken He never burned for him.
So this was at a different time. In this club, a typical club from Hisingen will go to Stockholm to play the first ever SM gold. Häcken has an organization, they have a vision, they have an identity, they have a job in the community, and by 2022 it should be clear to everyone that they have a loyal following of supporters who are not ashamed of themselves.
Now they are close to Djurgården, two teams where three coaches have managed to handle the twists best ever in the series. This is exactly what sets this season apart. Malmö FF had a new coach who became three, and Hammarby had to start over with a new game idea under Martí Cifuentes who only had a quarter of an hour to implement it. And both Djurgården and Häcken had a great turnover of players to try and build something new and better with it.
Here we stand: Thomas Lagerlöf and Kim Bergstrand once again proved that they are the best in Sweden at quickly hearing their ideas in a group of players, and have managed to become so stable that they can show it outside Europe and in the Allsvenskan. And in Häcken, Per Mathias Høgmo has managed to assemble a team capable enough to play so that they can ignore the traditional midfield balance, conceding goals in every game, but are confident that they score more than their opponents.
If they do it tonight, on the fastest plastic lawn in the series, they’ve shown both Allsvenskan and Djurgården that they’re serious, along the way.
How far does Häcken dare to go?
They’re facing a team that was on a celebratory trip to Belgium, a shaky staff thing to deal with, that needs a recharge, and they’re doing it after half of the starting eleven had to train and do yoga through the two national teams. Breaks and comment. How will they play here? Djurgården has a midfield trio as he balances Rasmus Schuller and is joined by Magnus Ericsson and Humpus Wendel. At Häcken, Samuel Gustafsson usually plays a seated midfielder, with Brother Simon and Mikel Rigaard (now injured) in front of him, two players bigger than anything else.
How far does Häcken dare to go this time? As much as they can, I think. When Høgmo speaks, talk about boldness, confidence in the process, and a penchant for what they want to be rather than flirting with sarcasm.
It will be very interesting to see if they get out of this as well. Of course, I’m not the only one who thinks that.
If Hammarby, Djurgården, AEK or Malmö FF had to pick this season’s champion team not the same, who do you think they would refer to? A football fan always has two favorite teams: the one he supports, and the one that plays against his rivals. Many years ago I heard that there is a verb for this phenomenon in Brazilian football slang, an expression of rooting for the enemy of your enemy.
We don’t have such a word in Swedish yet.
Maybe we can start calling it “hedging”?