retired_srhrose17

We got through the week before our next league match injury-free, which meant the same team that ripped through Söderhamn could take on Boden-based club Heden when they came to visit us at Lombiavallen.

Sunday 20 April, Kiruna (5th) vs. Heden (6th)
A paid attendance of 868 saw Kiruna jump out to an attacking start, Heden’s goalie being forced into a double save from Jönsson’s shot and Lindmark’s follow. Kiruna kept up the pressure for most of the half, with captain Robert Kjellin looming large whenever Heden did mount an attack. Just before the halftime whistle, Björn Andersson took a free kick for us about 30 yards from goal; his chip into the area was headed in by Jonas Axeldal to give us a narrow lead going into the break. Frode Henriksen was forced into his only two saves of the game on the far side of halftime, and late in the game a Kjellin strike off of a free kick rebound sealed the victory for Kiruna. An otherwise good game was marred by our second red card in three games, this one picked up by Dagfinn Solbakken within mere seconds of making his debut for the club. Kiruna 2-0 Heden (J. Axeldal, R. Kjellin)

Solbakken’s foul hadn’t been of a violent nature and he was banned for only one match; from me he received an official warning for the sending-off, which he accepted with great maturity.

The match that followed had the potential to be a very tricky one. From the evidence of the last couple of games, we were hitting our form nicely, but a visit to league leaders Skellefteå had the potential to trip us up early in our quest for success. Aside from boasting one of the best goalkeepers in the Division, Skellefteå featured a strong attack. Our advance scout advised us to take advantage of the space that Skellefteå would leave behind at the back – easier said than done, perhaps? Our defense required a bit of a shake-up due to the injury that Björn Andersson sustained during the week’s training; Magnus Rønning took his spot in the lineup. With Dagfinn Solbakken suspended, Johan Stridsman took a place on the bench and Joon Karlsson replaced Niklas Svanelöv as a defensive substitute.

Sunday 27 April, Skellefteå (1st) vs. Kiruna (4th)
Marcus Jönsson and Robert Kjellin had early chances for us, but predictably it was Skellefteå who horizontally squished their goose-egg first, through dangerously-named striker Marcus Christoffersson in the 11th minute. Nils Johan Labba was next to sting the palms of the home goalie, and eventually the pressure that we were applying paid off when Joakim Gunillasson scored midway through the first half. There was barely time to draw breath after kickoff before Anders Grenholm put Skellefteå back in front. Frode Henriksen was having his first truly bad game in a Kiruna uniform. My boys fought back again, though, and Axeldal had us back on level terms before halftime. In the second half, a long run culminated in a fine goal from Skellefteå’s right-sided fullback, and for the rest of the half the home goalkeeper asserted himself, keeping out everything we could throw at him. Skellefteå 3-2 Kiruna (J. Gunillasson, J. Axeldal)

A decent month’s work saw us enter May in 6th place:

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Swedish Second Division NorthPos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Selånger 4 2 0 0 5 3 2 0 0 6 1 12 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2nd Skellefteå AIK 4 2 0 0 5 3 2 0 0 4 1 12 3rd Östersunds FK 4 2 0 0 9 1 1 0 1 5 4 9 4th Gefle 4 2 0 0 7 2 1 0 1 2 2 9 5th Boden 4 1 1 0 4 1 1 0 1 3 3 7 6th **Kiruna** 4 1 0 1 2 1 1 0 1 7 5 6 7th Luleå Fotboll 4 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 3 5 6 8th Heden 4 1 0 1 3 2 0 0 2 1 4 3 9th Anundsjö 4 1 0 1 1 2 0 0 2 1 8 3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10th Söderhamn 4 0 0 2 2 9 1 0 1 1 3 3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11th Luleå SK 4 0 0 2 2 5 0 1 1 1 2 1 12th Aspeboda 4 0 0 2 1 4 0 0 2 0 4 0 </pre>

retired_srhrose17

May sucked last year. O trend, wilt thou continue? – May 2003


May began with a good chance to recover our form, hosting last-placed Aspeboda to kick off the month. The scouting report described them as “patient and defensive�; I wanted us to shred that defense. It’d be a bit more difficult than usual with Nils Johan Labba out injured, so I welcomed Kenneth Haglund into the first-team squad for his Kiruna debut. He’d been playing as well for the reserves as he had during the friendlies; the start was earned.

Sunday 4 May, Kiruna (6th) vs. Aspeboda (12th)
Kiruna went quickly on the attack, although the first one was foiled. The second was not; Joakim Gunillasson scored after Aspeboda’s goalie failed to hold a shot from Super Jonas. Continued pressure on the visitors’ goal resulted in another score just before halftime, also from the boot of Gunillasson. Marcus Jönsson was credited with an assist. Punctuating the performance was Erik Lantto’s goal late in the second half. Aspeboda didn’t get a shot off all game. Kenneth Haglund played quite well. What a guy. Kiruna 3-0 Aspeboda (J. Gunillasson 2, E. Lantto)

Before our next league game, I got some fantastic news. One of our scout finds in Norway had been a wonderful defender playing for an amateur team by the name of Jevnaker IF. Frank Langseth was 23 years old and, if the reports were to be believed, nearly as good as Robert Kjellin. At any rate, his contract with the amateur team was to end in early November, and since his club was in Norway we didn’t have to pay them any compensation if he agreed to sign for us. On May 10, he did, and would come to Kiruna for free once his contract was out. The fact that he was going to join meant that difficult decisions would have to be made with regards to Stefan Harju and Magnus Rønning when their contracts ended, but those were matters for another day.

Björn Andersson was back in the fold for our game away to Luleå Fotboll, a dangerous game which could see us drop in the standings considerably with a loss. Luleå were described as a “strong� team featuring Magnus Barsk as their main dangerman.

Sunday 11 May, Luleå Fotboll (7th) vs. Kiruna (6th)
Of course, sometimes games are a lot easier than they should be. Ninth minute: Joakim Gunillasson from Marcus Jönsson. Twenty-fifth minute: Jonas Axeldal from Marcus Jönsson. Twenty-ninth: Axeldal from Lantto. First-half injury time: Lantto from Kjellin. Seventy-seventh: Kenneth Haglund, his first ever senior goal, off of a rebound. Frode Henriksen was forced into exactly zero saves. A completely one-sided, laugher of a match. Good for morale! Luleå Fotboll 0-5 Kiruna (J. Gunillasson, J. Axeldal 2, E. Lantto, K. Haglund

Okay, so I was pretty sure that I was addicted to signing players. Did we really need another left-back prospect? No, not really, but I signed one anyway, another recommendation from Norway:

Transfer in: D L Geir Teigen, NOR, 17, free transfer, 2100 SEK p/w. Last club: None

In my defense, Geir was a pretty good player. He wasn’t as fast or as skilled of a dribbler as Lars Larsen, but Geir was better defensively and was a good distributor of the ball. I justified the signing by assuring myself that now Larsen had some competition with regards to taking over for Stefan Sjöbom once the veteran left.

The last match of May forced us to travel the relatively short distance to Boden to face a team that always played us tough. Nils Johan Labba came back to the starting lineup for Kenneth Haglund…

Sunday 18 May, Boden (3rd) vs. Kiruna (5th)
…which proved not to be as good a thing as I’d hoped. Nils went 70 very average minutes and was replaced by Haglund, who shone for the last 20. At any rate, Boden jumped out to an 2-0 lead by the end of the first half. Marcus Lindmark pulled us one back soon after the break, but when that blasted Russian Peter Sedunov scored with an hour gone, I was pretty sure we were beaten. Erik Lantto earned us a penalty late in the game that Marcus Jönsson put away, and Kiruna had a few more chances before the game was over, but in the end Boden picked up a well-deserved win. No Kiruna player was at fault; we were just beaten by a better team. Boden 3-2 Kiruna (M. Lindmark, M. Jönsson pen)

May’s toils found us six points out of the top spot by the end of the month:

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Swedish Second Division NorthPos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Gefle 7 4 0 0 11 4 2 0 1 6 3 18 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2nd Boden 7 3 1 0 10 3 2 0 1 6 3 16 3rd Selånger 7 3 1 0 10 5 2 0 1 6 3 16 4th Skellefteå AIK 7 3 0 0 7 3 2 0 2 4 5 15 5th **Kiruna** 7 2 0 1 5 1 2 0 2 14 8 12 6th Östersunds FK 7 2 1 1 12 7 1 0 2 6 9 10 7th Söderhamn 7 1 0 2 7 10 2 1 1 5 3 10 8th Luleå Fotboll 7 1 0 2 1 6 2 0 2 5 7 9 9th Anundsjö 7 2 0 2 2 6 0 1 2 2 9 7 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10th Heden 7 1 1 1 4 3 0 2 2 5 8 6 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11th Luleå SK 7 0 1 3 2 6 0 1 2 2 4 2 12th Aspeboda 7 0 0 3 1 7 0 0 4 0 10 0 </pre>

retired_srhrose17

You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow… – June 2003

June climaxed early for us, our lone game taking place on the 8th. After a fine start to the season, Selånger had hit a spotty patch of form and with the game being held at Lombiavallen we were looking to squeeze the full three points out of the month.

Sunday 8 June, Kiruna (5th) vs. Selånger (3rd)
Kenny Haglund returned to the starting lineup for Nils Johan Labba and Juha Tuominen partnered Joakim Gunillasson to give us a great deal of pace in attack. I was made to look brilliant. Erik Lantto and Gunillasson wasted early chances before Marcus Jönsson slammed in a rebound to give us the lead with fifteen minutes gone. After twenty minutes more, it was Juha in the right place at the right time to hammer in a rebound from Lantto’s long shot. The young Finn scored his second of the game on the hour mark, meeting a cross from Stefan Sjöbom with his right foot. After precautionary substitutions late in the game for Marcus Lindmark and Haglund, Tuominen dribbled past a couple of Selånger defenders and finished off his hat-trick, with the assist credited to Labba. Over the course of the entire game, Selånger forced Frode Henriksen into only one save. Kiruna 4-0 Selånger (M. Jönsson, J. Tuominen 3)

The warm, fuzzy mood created by that victory lasted straight through until June 16. At that point, I was forcibly reminded that many of my players had contracts expiring in November. And that June is less than six months before November. And that, therefore, other teams could talk to my players. The team in question was FC Café Opera/Djursholms IF; the player was Jonas Axeldal. When he told me that they’d offered him a contract, I was quick to ask him what he wanted to stay on. It was… more than we were able to offer him, shall I say. We offered what we could, but it was no big surprise when he announced that he had accepted Café Opera’s offer and would be leaving on November 14. Disloyal bästard! I MADE YOU!

On the plus side, we’d be rid of his wages, which (while far from exorbitant) were among the highest in the team. In addition, the Division 1 club would owe us 240,000 SEK in compensation. Resigned to the loss of one of our best strikers, I admitted to myself that we maybe sort of needed the money. Kiruna FF was far from operating in the black at that point.

June ended on another bleak note when Robert Kjellin twisted his ankle in training, ruling him out of action for at least one league game plus our Swedish Cup first-round tie.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Swedish Second Division NorthPos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Gefle 8 4 0 0 11 4 2 1 1 7 4 19 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2nd Boden 8 3 1 0 10 3 2 0 2 8 6 16 3rd Selånger 8 3 1 0 10 5 2 0 2 6 7 16 4th **Kiruna** 8 3 0 1 9 1 2 0 2 14 8 15 5th Skellefteå AIK 8 3 0 1 7 4 2 0 2 4 5 15 6th Östersunds FK 8 2 1 1 12 7 2 0 2 7 9 13 7th Luleå Fotboll 8 2 0 2 4 8 2 0 2 5 7 12 8th Söderhamn 8 1 1 2 8 11 2 1 1 5 3 11 9th Anundsjö 8 2 0 2 2 6 0 2 2 3 10 8 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10th Heden 8 1 2 1 5 4 0 2 2 5 8 7 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11th Luleå SK 8 0 1 3 2 6 0 2 2 3 5 3 12th Aspeboda 8 0 1 3 2 8 0 0 4 0 10 1 </pre>

retired_spoonlawlor

Enjoying this

Nice to read a story from a country I know quite well.

retired_bgirl

Top job!

Don't you just hate those disloyal *******s who you 'made'...sometimes I wish I could see my players hidden 'loyalty' rating.

retired_srhrose17

Sunday 17 August, Gefle (1st) vs. Kiruna (2nd)
Gefle made their intentions clear from the opening whistle, forcing Frode Henriksen into a couple of early saves. It was Kiruna who struck first, though, thanks to a lovely solo effort in the 12th minute by Nils Johan Labba against the run of play. The 1-0 lead was tenuous at best and Gefle soon had the match back on level terms, which was no more than they deserved. They did not let up on the pressure and we only had one more opportunity to score in the first half, which was a shot by Axeldal that went well over the bar. Henriksen had done well to allow only one shot past him in the first half, but after the break Gefle snatched another through the deadly Daniel Ytterbom. There was little hope left for Kiruna, but we kept fighting and after a desperate triple substitution on 74 minutes we finally grabbed a vital goal to tie it at 2 apiece. Joakim Gunillasson scored it with less than ten minutes left to play, having come on for Juha Tuominen. Gefle had a couple more scary chances before the game was over, but it ended level and I was perfectly happy with that. Gefle 2-2 Kiruna (N. Labba, J. Gunillasson)

Last game, we got a point against a bad team and moved up a spot in the league. This one, we got a point against a very good one and moved back down one. Them’s the breaks, I suppose.

Seventh-placed Söderhamn came to Lombiavallen for the next game, and I’ve got to say that we were extremely confident of coming away with a win, having beaten them 5-2 in our previous meeting. Stefan Sjöbom had been injured in the game previous, though, and so it was time for über-prospect Geir Teigen to make his debut at left-back.

Sunday 24 August, Kiruna (3rd) vs. Söderhamn (7th)
Frode Henriksen was forced into only one save in the first half, while Söderhamn’s goalie was kept busy quite a lot and actually allowed Marcus Lindmark to put the ball in the net a half-hour into the game, but it was ruled out by a very, very questionable offside call. The non-goal was actually assisted by Teigen, too, so a double shame that it was called off. Anyway, shortly into the second half Lindmark had another shot on target that was pushed away right to Juha Tuominen. The Finn scored it easily. 1-0. We kept up the pressure and Joakim Gunillasson’s goal was the victim of the second ruling-out of the game. Alas! There were still more Kiruna opportunities, but Söderhamn got the next goal off of a penalty, which was also questionable. Very poorly-officiated game so far, and at 1-1 we would be getting far less than we deserved. It was therefore a huge blow when Söderhamn broke a counterattack in injury time and took a 2-1 lead. “Unacceptable,� said Erik Lantto, and took the ball all the way down to Söderhamn’s goal after the kickoff and scored just before that blasted ref could blow his whistle. Kiruna 2-2 Söderhamn (J. Tuominen, E. Lantto)

Well, we’d almost escaped August, but before we could we had to take on Heden on the 31st. In the intervening days, though, we signed on Kenny Haglund and Lars Larsen for an extra year and Geir Teigen for an additional two. That was close, I believed, to the last deals I would be giving to players with expiring contracts, but never say never.

Sunday August 31, Heden (9th) vs. Kiruna (4th)
With Haglund starting for the injured Erik Lantto, we set forth with high hopes for getting back to winning ways. Didn’t happen. Heden started it off with a goal less than ten minutes in, and though the incomparable Haglund notched a goal to tie it up, Heden always looked like getting a winner, and they did. We ended the month in fifth.
Heden 2-1 Kiruna (K. Haglund)

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Swedish Second Division NorthPos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Gefle 14 6 2 0 23 10 3 1 2 10 7 30 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2nd Boden 14 5 1 0 16 5 4 1 3 15 11 29 3rd Luleå Fotboll 14 6 0 2 14 12 3 0 3 9 10 27 4th Östersunds FK 14 5 1 1 21 10 3 0 4 12 14 25 5th Kiruna 14 4 1 1 13 4 3 2 3 21 14 24 6th Skellefteå AIK 14 5 0 2 11 7 2 2 3 5 7 23 7th Selånger 14 4 1 1 14 7 3 0 5 12 15 22 8th Söderhamn 14 2 2 4 10 16 3 2 1 8 5 19 9th Heden 14 2 3 2 7 6 1 3 3 9 13 15 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10th Luleå SK 14 0 5 3 5 9 1 2 3 4 9 10 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11th Anundsjö 14 2 0 5 4 13 0 3 4 4 16 9 12th Aspeboda 14 0 1 5 2 10 0 1 7 0 19 2 </pre>

retired_srhrose17

Thanks fellas! Yeah, I think we're going to miss Jonas when he's gone... he's still a ******* though

Twice the games for about 1.16 times the fun – July 2003

Unlike in June, July’s games – one in the league, one in the cup – took place at the end of the month, which left a lot of time during the beginning of it for training and catching up on little paperworky things. So there was plenty of time for panic once I realized that we were over 5 million SEK in the red and hemorrhaging money fast. Kiruna’s chairman, Christer Junglind, was a devout fan of the club and did everything he could for it, but he was not an extraordinarily wealthy man and the team’s financial problems had to be far more worrisome for him than he let on.

The monetary difficulties could in no way be blamed on my signings over the past year. They were all free transfers, and none of the wages we gave players were outrageous. Besides, with tiny the amount of money that was coming into the club from merchandising and gate receipts, Kiruna would be in the hole even if I hadn’t added a single player to the team… just not quite so deep.

At any rate, something had to be done right then to stem the flow of money away from the club. There was no way to stop us losing even more money, but I could maybe increase the second derivative of our “Finances vs. Time� graph; i.e. cut the wage bill. Several players were transfer listed – just about everyone who hadn’t gotten a game for us this year. With many of our players’ contracts expiring in November, I expected to release several of them and hopefully offload others onto different teams. I was willing to let most of the listed players go for free; the few thousand SEK we would get for them would not cut significantly into our debt, and it wasn’t worth the risk of negotiating our way out of a deal. It would take time for teams to assess our players and decide if they wanted them. The sooner they did, though, the sooner we could cut our losses.

Our first game after the mass transfer listings was a well-timed fixture away to Anundsjö, a poor team to say the least. Their home form was unspectacular, and there were few squads in the league that we’d have a better chance of beating to get back on track after the off-field turmoil.

Sunday 20 July, Anundsjö (9th) vs. Kiruna (4th)
An ugly start to the game saw us concede within five minutes of the opening whistle. Kenny Haglund made a good tackle to prevent an Anundsjö midfielder from getting a shot off, but unfortunately the ball rolled kindly for one of the home team’s strikers, and they were a goal up early on. It got worse before it got better. Erik Lantto was shown a red card for a shove before ten minutes had passed. With ten men and a goal down in front of a surprisingly raucous crowd of over 1000, few people, least of all me, held out hope for a result this day. Apparently I underestimated the character of the Kiruna side. With Lantto sent off, the 10 men remaining on the field in a lopsided 4-3-2 formation seized control of the game and throttled the life out of it. Joakim Gunillasson got us back on level terms on 26 minutes, heading in a cross from Haglund. Juha Tuominen notched a goal before halftime, volleying in a magnificent Marcus Jönsson cross. Gunillasson finished the scoring in the second half thanks to Haglund’s second assist of the day, a beautiful flick-on header. Anundsjö 1-3 Kiruna (J. Gunillasson 2, J. Tuominen)

All we had left of July was a cup game against Luleå SK, whom we had not yet played in the league. I am not a big fan of the Swedish Cup and was not looking forward to this match. But given that forfeiting wasn’t really an option, I traveled to Luleå bearing a somewhat slapped-together lineup and hoping we’d perform better than I was expecting us to. We didn’t. Mikko Vikeväinen was given the start in goal, mostly to give him a chance to ease my fears about Frode Henriksen ever getting injured, but he let in five goals and made only four saves, all of which I could have made myself. On the plus side, Dagfinn Solbakken scored his first senior goal on an 18th-minute penalty and Kenneth Haglund continued to rock my world, scoring the last goal of the game in injury time from a Solbakken cross. Swedish cup – Luleå SK 5-2 Kiruna (D. Solbakken, K. Haglund)

Nasty way to close out the month, but we had won our league game which bumped us up to third:

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Swedish Second Division NorthPos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Gefle 9 4 1 0 13 6 2 1 1 7 4 20 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2nd Boden 9 3 1 0 10 3 3 0 2 10 6 19 3rd **Kiruna** 9 3 0 1 9 1 3 0 2 17 9 18 4th Östersunds FK 9 3 1 1 15 7 2 0 2 7 9 16 5th Selånger 9 3 1 1 10 7 2 0 2 6 7 16 6th Skellefteå AIK 9 3 0 1 7 4 2 1 2 4 5 16 7th Luleå Fotboll 9 2 0 2 4 8 3 0 2 7 7 15 8th Söderhamn 9 1 1 3 8 13 2 1 1 5 3 11 9th Heden 9 1 2 1 5 4 0 3 2 7 10 8 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10th Anundsjö 9 2 0 3 3 9 0 2 2 3 10 8 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11th Luleå SK 9 0 2 3 2 6 0 2 2 3 5 4 12th Aspeboda 9 0 1 3 2 8 0 0 5 0 13 1 </pre>

retired_srhrose17

Even though we ain’t got money, I’m so in love with you honey… – August 2003

August is always a nice time of year for us, a time to get back into the swing of regular football games. Generally, once August is past, the contenders and the pretenders have been separated in the league table. In 2003, our August kicked off with a difficult game at home against Östersunds, who could pass us with a victory. With Erik Lantto out due to suspension, I could only hope that a Labba-Haglund combination in midfield could provide effective supply to the strikers.

Sunday 3 August, Kiruna (3rd) vs. Östersunds (4th)
The question of whether Nils Johan Labba and Kenneth Haglund could partner effectively in midfield became moot less than 15 minutes into the game when Haglund twisted his knee and had to be helped off the field. Dagfinn Solbakken came in to play wide left with Marcus Jönsson moved to the center. Both Jönsson and Labba created some fine opportunities for the forwards as well as themselves, but neither was involved in our first goal, which was a header from Juha created by Joakim. Östersunds, not a team without fight, leveled the scores before the break. As the game wore on, we were clearly the better team, but the visiting goalie was playing out of his skin and we feared that a draw would be the best result we could achieve. Fortunately, Providence intervened in the form of a silly, silly foul by that goalkeeper, which gave us a penalty and got him sent off. Jönsson dispatched the spot kick with ease and all of the points stayed in Kiruna. Kiruna 2-1 Östersunds (J. Tuominen, M. Jönsson)

With November just a few months away, it was high time that I locked up those players who I absolutely wanted to keep. To that end, I offered reasonable two-year contracts to Frode Henriksen and Juha Tuominen, both of whom I had faith in to keep up their fine performances of this season. Dagfinn Solbakken had shown great flashes of potential and was offered a one-year contract, as was the extremely easy-to-please Björn Andersson, whose wages were among the lowest on the team despite being a first-choice player. All four signed on relatively quickly, and none of them got much of a raise over what they’d been paid before. This pleased me immensely. I was especially happy to have Juha and Frode for another two years; I was confident that they were just scratching the surface of their potential.

For the second time in three games we traveled to Örnäsets IP in Luleå to take on Luleå SK. I felt much more certain about our ability to come away with a good result, which in this case could only be a win given that SK were languishing at 11th in the league. With Erik Lantto back, I had the cream of the crop available for this game.

Sunday 10 August, Luleå SK (11th) vs. Kiruna (3rd)
Oy. There’s just something about these guys, something indefinable that keeps us from beating them… oh wait, it’s definable. It’s called Sören Alm. An entirely average goalie on most days, he saves his best for games against Kiruna and was solely responsible for keeping us from running out with a lopsided victory, or any victory at all, for that matter. We did get the first goal, scored by Erik Lantto, and the pressure on Alm’s goal was pretty constant all game. It took until the second half for SK to tie it up, but they did. Several more opportunities for Kiruna, and a couple more for SK, but nobody scored again. Luleå SK 1-1 Kiruna (E. Lantto)

Maybe the single point was okay after all. It bumped us up into second place, four behind leaders Gefle who hosted us in the next match. After achieving a 1-0 reverse in the season opener, they had to be confident about another victory here, and I wasn’t sure that our team had enough quality to deny them full points. A win would be massive for us, though, pulling us within a point of them and making the title a very realistic goal.

retired_srhrose17

â€�’Your intensity is for shÃ*t! WIN! WIN! WIN!’â€� – September 2003

September kicked off with some slight relief for our mini-financial crisis when Bergsbyn offered 10,000 SEK for reserve player Patrik Strömberg. Far from being in a position to refuse such a thing, I accepted it and Patrik made the move posthaste. Shockingly, the transaction did not clear us of debt – our bank balance showed us being over 6 million in the hole.

Money took a backseat to action as we began September’s run of games with a key home match against Skellefteå. They could pass us with a victory, and if we lost we could drop as low as 7th, so at least a draw was important here.

Sunday 7 September, Kiruna (5th) vs. Skellefteå (6th)
Sure didn’t start out auspiciously. Skellefteå scored a nice goal twenty minutes in, and it wasn’t as if they didn’t deserve it. Not that we were being totally dominated, but they did look better. We didn’t appear to have much of a chance. It wasn’t until the second half that we began to assert ourselves. Thanks to Frode Henriksen, we were still down by only a goal at that point and Marcus Jönsson finally got us back even with a nice volley from a Johan Bergström cross on 71 minutes. It only got better as three minutes later Jonas Axeldal headed in a lob from Robert Kjellin to give us a one-goal lead, and just to make sure Axeldal scored another ten minutes later to make it 3-1. The improbable comeback was marred by Björn Andersson’s second yellow card just before time expired, but that was a small price to pay for the fine result. Kiruna 3-1 Skellefteå (M. Jönsson, J. Axeldal 2)

Our next game provided an opportunity to continue to build some momentum, as we would face pathetic Aspeboda away. Andersson was serving his one-game suspension due to the red card, so Magnus Rønning stepped into the void in defense.

Sunday 14 September, Aspeboda (12th) vs. Kiruna (5th)
Easy it was not, but that was due mostly to Aspeboda’s superhuman goalkeeper. It took Juha Tuominen 51 minutes to get us on the scoresheet, and once we’d picked up that goal we never looked like relinquishing the lead; Aspeboda did not manage a single shot on target. Not a spectacular game, but one that, had it ended any other way, would have been a severe blow to our confidence. Aspeboda 0-1 Kiruna

One more match, to try and make it a perfect month. This was an interesting one, against Luleå Fotboll. We’d beaten them 5-0 in our first meeting, and that was away, so it looked good for a win at Lombiavallen. They were three points ahead of us, though. Perhaps their poor performance against us the first time around was a fluke.

Sunday 21 September, Kiruna (4th) vs. Luleå Fotboll (3rd)
Or maybe we just had their number. Sure looked like it when Jonas Axeldal scored twice within the first ten minutes. As the game went on, though, those goals were looking increasingly like the flukes and Frode Henriksen had all he could do to keep the visitors from scoring. In fact, every shot for the rest of the game belonged to Fotboll, but Henriksen and a Herculean effort by Björn Andersson in defense somehow kept them off the scoreboard. Kiruna 2-0 Luleå Fotboll (J. Axeldal 2)

Nine points from three in September and five games to make up four points on the leaders. Doable… doable indeed…

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Swedish Second Division NorthPos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Gefle 17 6 3 0 24 11 5 1 2 17 9 37 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2nd Boden 17 7 1 0 21 5 4 2 3 16 12 36 3rd Kiruna 17 6 1 1 18 5 4 2 3 22 14 33 4th Luleå Fotboll 17 7 0 2 16 12 4 0 4 10 12 33 5th Östersunds FK 17 7 1 1 26 11 3 1 4 13 15 32 6th Selånger 17 5 2 1 16 7 4 0 5 13 15 29 7th Skellefteå AIK 17 5 1 2 12 8 2 3 4 6 10 25 8th Söderhamn 17 2 3 4 12 18 3 2 3 9 10 20 9th Heden 17 2 3 3 7 7 2 3 4 10 16 18 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10th Luleå SK 17 0 5 4 6 14 1 2 5 4 13 10 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11th Anundsjö 17 2 0 7 5 16 0 4 4 6 18 10 12th Pl Aspeboda 17 0 1 7 2 12 0 1 8 0 21 2 </pre>

retired_srhrose17

It ain’t over ‘til we sez it’s over, and we’re, well, still deciding – October 2003

We kicked off October with a second consecutive game against a team one place and three points above us in the league. Victory over Boden would do us wonders, but they’d beaten us handily in our first meeting and this one didn’t look easy either.

Sunday 5 October, Kiruna (3rd) vs. Boden (2nd)
It looked good for us at the outset. There were a couple of cracking shots early on that maybe could have gone in for us, but vexingly refused to do so. As the half went on, the game took on more of a back-and-forth nature, and climaxed with a brilliant diving save from Frode Henriksen just before the halftime whistle blew. Unfortunately, the stalemate didn’t last much beyond there, when Boden began decisively to control the flow of the game and scored before an hour had ticked over. We composed ourselves a bit after that and applied some pressure to the Boden goal’s abdominal region. Eventually, it (the pressure, that is) told, and Erik Lantto notched an equalizer. Each team had a couple of chances after that; theirs forced saves, and ours didn’t, but there were no more goals regardless. Kiruna 1-1 Boden (E. Lantto)

The draw dropped us into fourth place due to Östersunds’ victory. Gefle had been held to a draw, though, and so four points back we remained with four games to go. The first of those would take us away to Selånger. Having achieved easy victory over them in our first meeting and with a full, healthy squad to pick from, I looked forward to a solid effort. Overlooking them would be dangerous, though, because they were only two points behind us in the league and so could pass us with a win.

Sunday 19 October, Selånger (6th) vs. Kiruna (4th)
We took a deceptive 2-0 lead early on. Marcus Jönsson assisted on both of them, one a cross during open play to Jonas Axeldal and the second a corner kick that skipper Robert Kjellin headed in. I say deceptive because our two goals came in the midst of a flurry of Selånger shots that hit woodwork, shin guards, Frode Henriksen’s hands, and, in one memorable case, an errant streaker. But no balls felt the silky touch of the net, not during that period of pressure and not afterward. It was a fluky victory, but a victory nonetheless, and one that bumped us up to third place. Selånger 0-2 Kiruna (J. Axeldal, R. Kjellin)

There was one final game in October to try and make up points on Gefle, who irritatingly hadn’t lost and remained four points ahead of us. Fortunately, our coming match was a very easy one, at least on paper. Anundsjö would pay a visit to Lombiavallen. Scouting report: “Skip training, have a beer. They suck.�

Sunday 26 October, Kiruna (3rd) vs. Anundsjö (11th)
And suck they did. Didn’t manage to trouble Frode Henriksen all game, and though it did take us until the second half to break through, we always knew we were going to. Interestingly, our two goals were scored by the same scorers in the same order as the last game, although only one was assisted (Axeldal’s, by Johan Bergström). This was a fully-expected victory that went exactly to plan. Kiruna 2-0 Anundsjö (J. Axeldal, R. Kjellin)

Gefle again refused to take the fall. Damn them! So now we’ve gotta make up four points in two games.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Swedish Second Division NorthPos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Gefle 20 7 3 0 25 11 6 2 2 27 13 44 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2nd Boden 20 9 1 0 27 8 4 3 3 17 13 43 3rd Kiruna 20 7 2 1 21 6 5 2 3 24 14 40 4th Östersunds FK 20 7 1 2 27 15 5 1 4 17 16 38 5th Luleå Fotboll 20 8 1 2 22 16 4 0 5 11 14 37 6th Skellefteå AIK 20 7 1 2 15 8 3 3 4 10 11 34 7th Selånger 20 5 2 2 16 9 5 0 6 17 19 32 8th Söderhamn 20 3 3 4 14 19 3 2 5 9 13 23 9th Heden 20 2 3 5 8 15 2 3 5 10 18 18 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10th Luleå SK 20 1 5 4 8 14 1 2 7 5 17 13 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11th Pl Anundsjö 20 2 0 8 5 17 0 4 6 6 21 10 12th R Aspeboda 20 0 1 9 2 16 1 1 8 1 21 5 </pre>