Imagine finishing a complete league season unbeaten with out conceding a objective and nonetheless not being topped champions. These are the blended feelings dealing with the fourth-tier Swedish girls’s membership Ängelholm however, as their coach, Ulf Johansson, says, a screenshot of the league desk going viral has helped his gamers begin to admire the magnitude of what they achieved.
They received 15 of their 18 league matches however three goalless attracts meant they missed out on the title by a degree. His overwhelming emotion, nonetheless, is pleasure. “In the previous couple of video games, all of the groups simply wished to attain towards us, so that they have been utilizing 5 – 6 attackers within the final 25 minutes,” he says.
“They knew they’d misplaced the sport however they only wished to burst the bubble for us. However we nonetheless managed it. The women have been actually joyful, there was simply a variety of shouting and screaming once we did it.
“It’s been actually loopy. Everybody has seen the social media and newspapers everywhere in the world have been calling. It’s given the ladies an vitality increase. It’s been a protracted season however you’ll be able to see they’re joyful and so they lastly perceive what they’ve achieved.”
Their season will not be over but as they’re competing for promotion through the playoffs and have already come by means of the primary spherical – successful 8-2 on combination, lastly conceding – and they’re midway by means of a two-leg promotion/relegation decider towards Strövelstorps GoIF/IF Salamis, a workforce from the third tier. The primary leg ended 1-1 and the second leg takes place on Sunday.
Johansson says: “We’re too good for division 4, we’ve confirmed it, so we have to go to division three to develop the gamers. That’s crucial.
“However we had a two-year plan: the primary 12 months to determine the workforce at senior degree after which subsequent 12 months to go as much as division three. We received’t die if we don’t go up, however now when we’ve the possibility we’re actually going for it.”
That’s one other uncommon side to Ängelholm’s achievementsThey are of their first season after rebuilding within the backside tier with a brand new squad, having beforehand performed at the next degree earlier than dropping gamers to different golf equipment. “It’s a younger workforce,” Johansson says. “They’re solely 15-17 years previous and it’s the primary senior season. I’m actually stunned that we did this properly. I couldn’t dream of it. They’ve had a tremendous journey.”
These children embrace the 17-year-old goalkeeper Nellie Bengtsson, who performed your entire league marketing campaign with out conceding. She advised Helsingborgs Dagblad: “It’s fairly tough to absorb what is occurring proper now. It’s loopy that we’ve obtained a lot consideration. That’s not one thing we thought would occur.
“It began with somebody seeing a video on TikTok that she put in our group chat. Then we’ve seen posts on Instagram and different locations. It’s nice that we managed to undergo the season with out letting in a objective. If you concentrate on it it’s fairly simple to concede. One mistake is sufficient and the ball goes in.”
Bengtsson has been studying from the membership’s goalkeeper coach, Matt Pyzdrowski, who performed for the American golf equipment Chicago Hearth Premier and Portland Timbers, in addition to for Ängelholm’s males’s workforce. Bengtsson saved a penalty within the marketing campaign and Johansson remembers her tipping one effort on to the crossbar when he had been sure their clear streak was about to finish. “Nellie has achieved some unimaginable saves. She’ll become a very good goalkeeper.”
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All of it provokes one query, although: how did they not win the league? Ljungbyheds IF let in 14 objectives however scored considerably greater than Ängelholm, to complete with +107 objective distinction, and the one time they dropped factors was of their video games towards Ängelholm, who additionally drew 0-0 twice with third-placed Västra Karups FK.
“It was a wierd feeling, I’ve to confess,” Johansson says, on not successful the league. “We beat them [Ljungbyheds IF] 1-0 after which we performed away [in August] and so they parked the bus. We dominated however we couldn’t get the objective.
“After that sport we have been dissatisfied as a result of we knew they have been most likely going to win the remainder of their video games, however then I mentioned: ‘Hey, let’s go for retaining the zero intact and never dropping’. The women actually favored that concept and after that we simply fought like hell.”
The membership’s males’s workforce are coached by the previous Wigan, Groningen and Sweden centre-back Andreas Granqvist, who Johansson says has been a giant assist to him, including of the ladies’s workforce’s taking part in model that has ensured all their shutouts: “The key is how we need to play soccer. We actually targeted on aggressive urgent, excessive up on the sphere, and retaining the ball underneath stress on the opponents’ facet. That’s the important thing this season.
“They actually labored onerous. After we misplaced the ball, they received it again straight. So it’s been actually onerous for groups to even get a goalscoring likelihood.”
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