Thursday, May 17, 2012

Denmark May 2012


Three Superliga games in Denmark including seeing a couple of the less prominent teams in Copenhagen.

Horsens 2 Midtjylland 1 12th May 4,869

4th and 3rd in the Superliga played at the Horsens Arena on a cool day with a bitter wind.

The stadium’s characteristic features are its unusual curved roofs at the ends and some impressive floodlight pylons.

The visitors brought 400 or so fans but they would go home disappointed despite Midtjylland passing it around quite well.
In the end their defence proved unable to stop some clinical home finishing.

Midtjyland did go ahead early on when Igboun sped down the right and his cross was put in by Hassan.
But the Horsens equaliser came from substitute Lodberg and on 36 minutes man of the match Faberberg drove home the winner after the visitors failed to clear their lines.

Back in the centre of town I enjoyed a couple of Paulaner beers followed by a good value Chinese buffet.

Lyngby 3 Aab Aalborg 2 13th May 1,344

I took the train from Horsens on Sunday to Copenhagen (less than 2.5 hours) and had enough time to check-in to my hotel before getting the S-Tog to Lyngby, a northern suburb of the capital.

The Lyngby stadium has some attractive hedges around the small curved terracing.
Even though it has a track it has a definite old style charm.

Obviously not the best supported team in Copenhagen Lyngby only had a few ultras and they were outnumbered by the away fans’ version.

It was a watchable game with left winger Bech prominent at times for home side.
Lyngby belied their low position (2nd bottom) by going ahead twice with a nice finish from Christianse and a penalty.
AaB equalised each time , the second after the home goalie should have cut out a cross.

But Mortensen headed the winner in the last few minutes to get the win.

Viewing was a lot more pleasant in the sunshine at this one after the chill of Horsens.

I took the S-Tog back to central station to watch the epic last twenty minutes of Manchester City v QPR.

A meal in an Australian restaurant (near to one of L Ron Hubbard’s offices) included some surf and chips, Little Creatures beer and a dessert.
It was well presented, quality food if somewhat minimalist.
(I decided against the more exotic options of kangaroo and crocodile)

Nordsjaelland 0 OB Odense 0 14th May 8,677

Played in Farum another, more distant, suburb of Copenhagen at the end of one of the S-Tog lines.

Farum seemed pleasant enough with its bicycle shops and tulips on the grass verges.
The smallish stadium, low level seating all around plus some terrace for the ultras at either end, is a fifteen minute walk from the station.

Though they don’t have the tradition or the fan base of the bigger clubs in the capital area FC N could win the Danish Superliga.

This draw won’t help but as it stands they are still only one point behind FC Copenhagen with two games remaining.

OB had much less possession and were second best in most areas but they defended well.
Each time the home side got close goalkeeper Stefan Wessels saved or one of his defenders got in a block.
American man of the match Michael Parkhurst had one of the best chances in the last few minutes but his shot clipped the bar.

Young Ghanaian Enock Adu generally had the better of the midfield duels with Djemba-Djemba and Traore as FC N built their attacks.

But finally, despite the best efforts of Mikkel Beckmann and co. they had to settle for a draw.

It got cooler later as I joined the numerous cyclists on the train back to the centre.

more pictures at http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/1271095969

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