Epic comeback

Last season AGF became Danish champions for the first time in 40 years, and as such, they entered the CL qualification second round. AGF does not have a very glorious trajectory in Europe over the last 30 years, so trying to qualify for the CL would be a true test for the side from Denmark´s second city. In the first match it appeared to be a quick exit when the lost 1-4 at home to the Polish champions Lech Poznan, so I guess expectations were not high as AGF went to Poland to reverse a three-goal home defeat, something that had never been done in Champions league qualification.

AGF did the impossible. They won 0-3, forcing the match into extra time (note that with the away-goal rule that existed before, AGF would in fact have been eliminated at full time). Both sides scored in extra time, forcing the match into penalties, where the Jutes emerged as victorious.

This was an epic comeback, but AGF will have to keep their heads cool if they want to make it to the Champions League. Next round they are facing the Azerbaijani champions Sabah FK, who eliminated the Finnish champions of KuPS, and are, as AGF, trying to enter their first Champions League group stage.

Good luck to both sides.

AGF Champions

The first time I went to watch a football match was in 1986 in Ikast, when now foregone Ikast FS was playing AGF. AGF won the league that season, and today, 40 years later, AGF have again won the League.

AGF won deservedly as FC Midtjylland, the usual favourites (and who incidentally used to be Ikast), could not keep up with the team from Århus. They had tied to FC Nordsjælland which meant that if AGF defeated Brøndby, they would effectively be champions with one match left.

AGF did what they had to do and won 0-2; surely next week a big celebration in Århus as they get their medals in an unimportant match against Viborg. 

Some Brøndby fans, including myself, may have thought back to the sad day in 2024 when Brøndby just needed to defeat AGF at home to win the league, but AGF won and FC Midtjylland instead became champions, and thought of revenge against AGF. 

Don't mistake me: I am not an AGF fan, but revenge is so old-fashioned and pointless. Instead, I find it refreshing that finally the championship goes to a club that is not a recent money-creation (FC Midtjylland and FC Copenhagen), but is instead one of the old traditional Danish clubs, and comes from the otherwise lovely second city of Denmark, Århus.

So congratulations to AGF, but most of all to all Århusianere, who today have every reason to smile! 

Superligaen

 It is not that I get to watch much Danish football here in Mexico, and yesterday I enjoyed Cruz Azul defeating Monterrey 0-2 in a great match in the Mexican league, where Toluca continues on top.

But today the first phase of the Danish superliga was ending with the top six going to play for the title; the first historical thing that happened was that FC Copenhagen, the traditionally dominating team in Denmark over the last couple of decades, did not make the top-six for the first time since it was founded. As a Brøndby fan I am not crying (Brøndby ended in fourth place)...

The top team is AGF, from the second city in Denmark, Århus. They are one of the few traditional traditional clubs left, founded in 1880, but have not won a title since 1986, but appear now as realistic candidates. The number 2 side is the other fusion team, FC Midtjylland, who with FC Copenhagen has been dominating the league for more than 10 years (Since 2015 either side has won the league, except for 2021, when Brøndby won).

I sympathize more with FC Midtjylland, but for the variety and history in Danish football, it would be good to get a title back to one of the oldest clubs in the Superliga, meaning AGF.

But the title race will be without FCK. 

Cruel to the hopeful one

This weekend was full of hope. After watching the FA Cup final I went to the beach. El Tunco is a surf town with not so nice beach, but a good laid-back atmosphere and plenty of drinks, and I was in a good mood as I enjoyed watching people, reading and cold beers. In the evening I watched the final of the Salvadoran Championship, where my adopted Salvadoran side of Alianza destroyed Municipal Limeño 5-0 to take the Salvadoran title.

For me this was buildup for what I really wanted to celebrate: Brøndby taking the Danish League title! 

The Danish league has been awfully close, but with last day, all Brøndby had to do was win at home against AGF, and they would be champions. In the meantime, FC Midtjylland were playing their rivals of Silkeborg (recent winners of the Danish Cup), and had to win, and hope that Brøndby did not win.

I was perhaps too optimistic, but I felt that Brøndby could not lose this at home, with the support of the best fans in Denmark, and having played a great season.

9 AM I sat in a restaurant by the beach, ordered breakfast, and started watching the match live on the "OneFootball" app.

And it all started so well...

Brøndby went ahead 1-0 on a header by the defender Rasmus Lauritsen, and in the meantime Silkeborg went up 0-2 against FC Midtjylland. The title felt so close!

But then things started falling apart.

The same Rasmus Lauritsen missed a clearing and scored an own goal, making it 1-1, which was the score at halftime. "Ok", I thought optimistically, "FC Midtjylland losing, and second half to score a second, things cannot go wrong!".

But they did.

 Within 8 minutes of the second half, FC Midtjylland had scored 3 goals and were ahead 3-2. The title was now with them if Brøndby failed to score! We were all nervous as the unthinkable happened, and Tobias Bech brought AGF ahead 1-2, and suddenly the title was two goals away.

We were all hoping when Sebastian Sebulonsen equalised for Brøndby with 25 minutes left. 3-2 would give Brøndby the title, and we all pushed the team forward. 

But football is like life: cruel to the hopeful one. Instead of 3-2 for Brøndby, AGF scored a third by Patrick Mortensen. At this point I lost hope, but kept watching, and Brøndby received a penny of hope when Silkeborg equalised for 3-3 in Midtjylland. This meant that if Brøndby managed to get 3-3, they would be champions!

I never really believed in it, even though there were some chances. And as the match ended, thousands upon thousands of Brøndby fans all over the world had our hearts broken. 

What do you do when hope is destroyed? When darkness descends over your life, and you feel there is no way forward? 

There is no shame in crying and expressing your disappointment. Just remember to raise your head, be proud of your team, and look forward to the next season where we will again stand together behind the team!

Forza Brøndby!

And to console myself in this deep pain, I will have beer (gravøl), and make a steak on my bbq.

Keep Attacking

 Last time Brøndby won the Danish title was in 2005 under Michael Laudrup as manager. Since then things have not been good as the club barely avoided a bankruptcy as other clubs, most notably FC Copenhagen and FC Midtjylland became the best clubs in the country.

The last couple of years Brøndby has been a title contender, but without luck for the club or the passionate fans.  This season the title race is proving particularly close, but it has always seemed that FC Midtjylland were one bit ahead in the title race. With one match left that has changed: ironically, the arch-rivals of FC Copenhagen gave Brøndby an opportunity to take first place by defeating FC Midtjylland. Brøndby "only" had to win away to AGF, from Aarhus.

Although Brøndby went ahead early, they suffered a red card and an equalizer by AGF, and things suddenly looked bleak. But deep into the second half Mikael Uhre scored a winner for Brøndby punishing a dreadful but fortunate mistake by an AGF defender. 

I did not watch the match. I am in El Salvador; I was at work, but put on the radio in the office, and must admit that I could hardly even pretend to work as the nervous second half advanced.

On Monday, Brøndby faces FC Nordsjælland at home. A victory will give them the title. So nothing is decided yet, although anything but the title would be heartbreaking for Brøndby fans all over the world, even in El Salvador...

Agurketid in Århus

In Danish "Agurketid" means "cucumber time", to denote a period with almost nothing in the news. I guess these days are football-agurketid for me. Sure there are matches in the Libertadores, first round CL qualifiers, the gold cup, as well as numerous rumours about transfers (although most are about Real Madrid), but without some of my favourite leagues there is not much to talk about. Of course, this has been good for making some research on some lists I plan to do: top-10 beers to drink while watching football, top-50 World Cup goals, top-20 greatest World Cup matches.
As I am spending some days in Århus, and today I ran by Århus Stadium, I thought I would look a bit into the major football team of Århus, AGF. Although they have traditionally been one of the major teams in Danish football with five Danish Championships and nine Danish Cup titles, as well as the record of 65 seasons in the Danish top league. In spite of this, the club has had disappointingly bad results ever since 1996, when they finished second in the league and won the Cup.
This is of course hardly satifactory for a team with strong traditions and the second city of Denmark, and there have been investments in new players as well as in the new coach Erik Rasmussen, who had a succesful run as coach in FC Midtjylland. Although ending only 6th last season, I think most observers of Danish football would rank them as outsiders to do well, with players such as Jakob Poulsen, Peter Graulund, Ulrik Lindkvist, as well as some foreigners, including Englishman Mark Howard, the US national team player Benny Feilhaber.
However, personally I think their team is too narrow, I hardly believe they will make it beyond 6th place next season.
Anyway, I must have been really bored to start looking up things about AGF!

Great weekend!

It was a great football-weekend: Brøndby IF won 5-1 against FC Sønderjylland, and with FC Copenhagen losing 0-1 to Aarhus GF, Brøndby and FC Copenhagen are now tied at the top of the Danish league.
In Spain, Valencia defeated 3rd ranked Sevilla by 3-1, and is now more firmly on fourth place, heading towards CL participation next season!
Great weekend!

Being a Brøndby fan....

I am a Brøndby supporter, and I consider Brøndby the best team in Denmark. That said, there are some bad things about supporting Brøndby, primarily the "fans"/hooligans who give the rest of us Brøndby supporters the following reputation:

• We have never read anything but the label of a beer
  
• Our diet is composed of pizza, burgers and cheap beer
• We have never talked to any woman besides our mothers and the woman selling beer at Aldi
  
• If we ever have children, we will name them all Kim Vilfort, even the girls
  
• Our geographical abilities are limited to knowing the bus number to the stadium
  
• We cut each others hair, and that is why we're all bald skinheads
  
• None of us have ever held a job for any longer than until the next match
• More than a Brøndby victory, we like beating up people
• Burp, fart, shit, puke...
  
• None of us actually know the rules in football...

Sadly for the real Brøndby fans, the vast majority of supporters who dearly love the blue-yellow team, who love football and who know how to behave, there is a small group of Brøndby supporters who for some reason keeps following our team, giving us the above reputation and making trouble like they did yesterday in Århus, after Brøndby lost 2-1 to AGF. Therefore the loss is doubly sad.

Go Brøndby!

Spanish pre-season

I must admit that I know next to nothing about Japanese football. But last night I got introduced to a team from the Japanese capital: Tokyo Verdy. They are apparently second last in the J-League, but that is not the reason they came to prominence. Last night they defeated Real Madrid 3-0. And not that Real Madrid was not in its strongest: Zidane, Beckham, Raul, Roberto Carlos, Michael Owen, Ronaldo... They were all made to look ridiculous, once again. Admittedly, the team came from many tiring hours of travelling, but that also shows the strange disposition of the Real Madrid leadership, putting marketing and promotion above the sporting qualities of their players. And that is certainly also part of having a good team.

In another context, FC Barcelona is looking much better. On their tour to Denmark, the Catalonians defeated Aarhus GF 4-0. While AGF were not looking that bad, Barcelona's striking force is looking at least as awesome as last year.