So I just came home from my first live game this season, which ended in a 2-1 victory to AIK!
In a typical preseason game with lots of mistakes but also a few individual shows, Linus Videll got to score his first goal in the AIK shirt. Very fittingly that it came against his old team, Linus himself was extra pleased by this while interviewed after the game. Stefan Johansson scored AIK's second goal. Given that we had 8 players away in various illnesses, injuries and tax evading schemes, I'm very pleased with the result.
It was great to once again be back at Hovet and see the team I love play hockey again. Although I have to say the atmosphere wasn't what in was used to, given only 1500 people came to see the game. I can't wait to hear 8042 people singing our anthem on the 15th of September.
I also got a look at the new jerseys for the year, they looked very nice! It is now much easier to see which name and number it says on the shirt. Which was a problem last year, especially for the media.
The season passes for this season are selling very good, AIK has sold about 40% more than this time last year, and they expect a rise in the average audience by 20 %. I myself think this is too low, after a good start to the season that number will be closer to 40%, I reckon.
The next game is played against Almtuna at Hovet this Friday (the 4th of september), I'm not yet sure if I'll be able to attend or not, but either way I'll give you a report on how it went!
Wednesday 31 August 2011
Tuesday 30 August 2011
Bye Bye Mohammed
A few hours ago Mohammed Bangura, the star of our football team, was sold to the Scottish team Celtic. Mohammed was recruited from a division 1 team in Sweden in the summer 2010 as a hope for the future. Instead, he was a success right away and the biggest reason AIK is still playing in the highest series in 2011.
For this season AIK also recruited Mohammeds best friend, Ibrahim Tetteh Bangura (They share last name by coincidence), from the same division 1 team as Mohammed. Tetteh, as he is called, scored 15 goals in 17 games before he was sold to the Turkish team Bursaspor in the biggest deal ever for AIK. Tetteh would never have had the success he had in AIK, if it hadn't been for Mohammed, who set him up for most of the goals he scored.
Mohammed is a fantastic offensive player who I am sure will grow to be one of the best, good luck to him in the future. And congratulations to Celtic on a great player!
My concern now is if AIK will be able to stay in third place with our best player gone. We have 5 points down to fourth place, with 7 games left. All i can say is that it's going to be a VERY exciting fall, probably to exciting for my taste...
For this season AIK also recruited Mohammeds best friend, Ibrahim Tetteh Bangura (They share last name by coincidence), from the same division 1 team as Mohammed. Tetteh, as he is called, scored 15 goals in 17 games before he was sold to the Turkish team Bursaspor in the biggest deal ever for AIK. Tetteh would never have had the success he had in AIK, if it hadn't been for Mohammed, who set him up for most of the goals he scored.
Mohammed is a fantastic offensive player who I am sure will grow to be one of the best, good luck to him in the future. And congratulations to Celtic on a great player!
My concern now is if AIK will be able to stay in third place with our best player gone. We have 5 points down to fourth place, with 7 games left. All i can say is that it's going to be a VERY exciting fall, probably to exciting for my taste...
Monday 29 August 2011
Preseason 29/08
Just because I forgot to mention it yesterday, AIK are from Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.
The other major team from Stockholm is Djurgårdens IF, also founded in 1891, they are by far the team AIK hates the most. The Stockholm derby played between these two teams is probably the most emotional game in the world. With two shortsides filled with crazy supporters from each team both trying their best to sing louder than the others. It is a fantastic game with an atmosphere you can't find anywhere else. If you ever get the chance to see this game, I strongly, strongly recommend you to do so. You will not regret it. Last year former NHL player Georges Laraque (who by the way is an AIK fan) flew over from Canada just to see the final derby, on the same day AIK was celebrating 120 years.
So back to AIK, the team just returned from a session in Finland, playing Ilves and HPK. The game against Ilves resulted in a narrow loss, but the last game against HPK resulted in a 4-3 win. A player who really showed quality in both games, actually during thenwhole preseason, is Joakim Nordström, a young player born 1992 who is going to play his first year in the first squad. He is showing much promise and I think he might develop to be a key player this year, together with the new recruit Linus Videll who came from SSK. SSK were relegated last year, still Linus managed to score 47 points, not too bad coming from the team who finished last.
What AIK didn't have last year was a "star". There weren't any players showing extreme individual skill and excelling from the others, everything was a team effort and to be honest there wasn't much difference between our first chain and our fourth chain. Linus and Jocke could be just what AIK need to win even more games and hopefully go for the gold (although we shouldn't get our hopes up yet). The power play, which we did have some trouble with last year will hopefully also improve, with the new recruit Robert Rosén, who is a power play expert. With the two-way back Josh MacNevin fully recovered after breaking his leg against Timrå last year (after a horrible tackle by Ikka Pikkarainen) our power play will hopefully be over or at least around 20%. Ikka Pikkarainen is forever hated at Hovet (our arena) after what he did, and Patrick Blomdahl (the closest we've got to an enforcer) showed him that last year to the crowds enjoyment!
The next game is against SSK this Wednesday (31/08) at Hovet. This will be the first game I see live this season, and hopefully it will result in a well played game and a win!
I'll be back with a report from the game as soon as possible, hopefully wednesday evening.
The other major team from Stockholm is Djurgårdens IF, also founded in 1891, they are by far the team AIK hates the most. The Stockholm derby played between these two teams is probably the most emotional game in the world. With two shortsides filled with crazy supporters from each team both trying their best to sing louder than the others. It is a fantastic game with an atmosphere you can't find anywhere else. If you ever get the chance to see this game, I strongly, strongly recommend you to do so. You will not regret it. Last year former NHL player Georges Laraque (who by the way is an AIK fan) flew over from Canada just to see the final derby, on the same day AIK was celebrating 120 years.
So back to AIK, the team just returned from a session in Finland, playing Ilves and HPK. The game against Ilves resulted in a narrow loss, but the last game against HPK resulted in a 4-3 win. A player who really showed quality in both games, actually during thenwhole preseason, is Joakim Nordström, a young player born 1992 who is going to play his first year in the first squad. He is showing much promise and I think he might develop to be a key player this year, together with the new recruit Linus Videll who came from SSK. SSK were relegated last year, still Linus managed to score 47 points, not too bad coming from the team who finished last.
What AIK didn't have last year was a "star". There weren't any players showing extreme individual skill and excelling from the others, everything was a team effort and to be honest there wasn't much difference between our first chain and our fourth chain. Linus and Jocke could be just what AIK need to win even more games and hopefully go for the gold (although we shouldn't get our hopes up yet). The power play, which we did have some trouble with last year will hopefully also improve, with the new recruit Robert Rosén, who is a power play expert. With the two-way back Josh MacNevin fully recovered after breaking his leg against Timrå last year (after a horrible tackle by Ikka Pikkarainen) our power play will hopefully be over or at least around 20%. Ikka Pikkarainen is forever hated at Hovet (our arena) after what he did, and Patrick Blomdahl (the closest we've got to an enforcer) showed him that last year to the crowds enjoyment!
The next game is against SSK this Wednesday (31/08) at Hovet. This will be the first game I see live this season, and hopefully it will result in a well played game and a win!
I'll be back with a report from the game as soon as possible, hopefully wednesday evening.
Sunday 28 August 2011
First post
So I thought I'd start a blog... Why not?
I'll be focusing on the Swedish team AIK, primarily their hockey section, but also the football section to some extent.
To give you some information on the club, AIK was founded in 1891 and is short for "Allmänna Idrottsklubben" (in English: The general sports club). We have had success in many different areas, just a week ago AIK golf won the Swedish championship, and if I'm not mistaken we also won an "SM-gold" in bowling a while ago.
The two main sections are the football team and the ice hockey team, AIK football won the premier Swedish league (Allsvenskan) in 2009. With seven games left of 2011 years season we are in the third place, hoping to stay there and get the chance to play the Europa league next year.
The hockey team advanced to the highest league in Sweden (Elitserien) in the season 2009/2010. In the season 2010/2011 we were enormous underdogs, and every expert tipped us loosing every game of the season. Shortly said, the experts were wrong. AIK became the best new team in Swedens history, reaching the playoffs and there beating last years champions with 4-0 in games. Unfortunately the dream stopped there and we were beaten in the semi's by Färjestad.
The main focus on the blog will be ice hockey, as I mentioned. I found my season pass in the mailbox a few weeks ago, I won't be missing a game! And for the away games I don't have time to go to i this year have every tv-channel showing ice hockey, to make sure I don't miss a game.
The premier match is roughly two weeks away, and will be played against Timrå on the 15th of September. AIK have managed to keep most of last years troop, and especially our outstanding goalie Viktor Fasth, who was named the world cup's MVP. Even though there were a lot of NHL contract offers available to him, he chose to stay in AIK. I reckon we'll have a good chance getting high up in the league this year even though the experts don't (the showed last year how competent they were anyway...).
To finsih off I came home from Råsunda, the football team's stadium, a few hours ago. In the 91st minute Robert Åhman Persson scored 1-0 for AIK giving us 3 very important points.
I'll be back soon to give you an update on how the preseason is going!
I'll be focusing on the Swedish team AIK, primarily their hockey section, but also the football section to some extent.
To give you some information on the club, AIK was founded in 1891 and is short for "Allmänna Idrottsklubben" (in English: The general sports club). We have had success in many different areas, just a week ago AIK golf won the Swedish championship, and if I'm not mistaken we also won an "SM-gold" in bowling a while ago.
The two main sections are the football team and the ice hockey team, AIK football won the premier Swedish league (Allsvenskan) in 2009. With seven games left of 2011 years season we are in the third place, hoping to stay there and get the chance to play the Europa league next year.
The hockey team advanced to the highest league in Sweden (Elitserien) in the season 2009/2010. In the season 2010/2011 we were enormous underdogs, and every expert tipped us loosing every game of the season. Shortly said, the experts were wrong. AIK became the best new team in Swedens history, reaching the playoffs and there beating last years champions with 4-0 in games. Unfortunately the dream stopped there and we were beaten in the semi's by Färjestad.
The main focus on the blog will be ice hockey, as I mentioned. I found my season pass in the mailbox a few weeks ago, I won't be missing a game! And for the away games I don't have time to go to i this year have every tv-channel showing ice hockey, to make sure I don't miss a game.
The premier match is roughly two weeks away, and will be played against Timrå on the 15th of September. AIK have managed to keep most of last years troop, and especially our outstanding goalie Viktor Fasth, who was named the world cup's MVP. Even though there were a lot of NHL contract offers available to him, he chose to stay in AIK. I reckon we'll have a good chance getting high up in the league this year even though the experts don't (the showed last year how competent they were anyway...).
To finsih off I came home from Råsunda, the football team's stadium, a few hours ago. In the 91st minute Robert Åhman Persson scored 1-0 for AIK giving us 3 very important points.
I'll be back soon to give you an update on how the preseason is going!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)