Danish Cup final in Copenhagen

This week Aalborg B qualified for the Danish Cup final, where the northern Juts will be facing FC Copenhagen. FC Copenhagen is Denmark's richest and strongest club, effectively in the way of making Denmark a one-club country.
The Danish cup final is always played in Parken, Denmark's national stadium, which, incidentally, is also the home-turf of FC Copenhagen. This will undoubtfully give the Copenhagen side another added advantage in the cup final, which Allan Kuhn (AaB's reserve coach) has also been out criticizing. Just because of this, the cup is already close to being in the hands of FC Copenhagen.

I find it a pity that they don't do a variation of venues for the final each year, kind of like they do with the UEFA Cup or the champions league. The Danish Cup final is only a Danish event, but it should belong to the entire country, not only to Copenhagen, and I think there would be many potential venues for a final, like Odense, Århus, Herning, Brøndby, and yes, even Aalborg.

Aalborg out of the UEFA

The did well Aalborg B: they played wonderful matches in the Champions League and after two stunning victories against Deportivo la Coruña (who as all Spanish teams nevertheless always underestimates any team from any other country but England and Italy) they faced Manchester City. The Danes put up a great fight, and after winning 2-0 in the second leg forced a penalty shoot-out that the English came out of victorious.
Still, for a small irrelevant league like the Danish, the northern Juts' achievement is quite extraordinary, and they certainly have the best record of any Danish team in Europe. I think this achievement is due to hard work, modesty and knowledge of own limitations and forces, some things that the bigger and arrogant Danish teams from FC Copenhagen and Brøndby IF know nothing about.

So congratulations and thank you to AaB although I must add that as a football fan, I would any time prefer to see Manchester City progress to the next round, with its big stars, than the charming but unknown second-rate players from some unknown faraway corner of northern Europe.

The funeral in Aalborg

Last night the Danish champions Aalborg Boldklub (AaB) took a big step towards qualifying to the Champions League by defeating FBK Kaunas 2-0 in Aalborg. AaB has played in the Champions League once before, but back then qualified because Dynamo Kiev was suspended because of a bribery scandal.
Now, they have the chance of qualifying for the first time, and become the first Danish team to have played in the Champions League twice. This is very important, to say the least, but could you see it on the spectators...?
They were playing at home, on such an important match, but the little stadium wasn't full. And as the match progressed, support was only available from some 20 fans. In fact, this looked much more like a funeral than then home-team winning a qualifier for the Champions League.
I guess AaB fans are poor supporters, and boring fans, but it will be a pity for Champions League to have big teams go play in Aalborg and there being barely any atmosphere at the stadium! If that would be the case, I'd prefer Kaunas.
Get yourselves together AaB fans!

Pathetic Glasgow Rangers

In last seasons' UEFA Cup final the Russians of Zenit St. Petersburg were far superior to a poor Glasgow Rangers side.
With a new Champions League season starting, Glasgow Rangers had the opportunity to get a qualifier against the Danish champions AaB - all they had to do was defeat the Lithuanian champions, FBK Kaunas. One would expect that for a team like Glasgow Rangers this should not even be an issue, but in one of the first surprises of this seasons Champions League, the Lithuanians eliminated the UEFA Cup finalists.
On the one hand it is positive that we will have a team in the Champions League from such puny leagues as the Danish or Lithuanian, on the other hand it is pathetic that Glasgow Rangers can't manage to go through (all due respect to the Lithuanians).

End of season

Today Brøndby defeated FC Copenhagen 2-1 in Brøndby stadium. There isn't much to play for: AaB already won the league, and Brøndby is trailing in 9th place in the league. But FC Copenhagen are Brøndby´s arch-rivals, and a victory at least puts a bit of sweet taste into an otherwise bitter season.
I am back - and I have a good influence on these teams ;-)

Aalborg Boldklub

With a 2-0 victory at home against Brøndby IF, Aalborg BK just became Danish champions for the third time in their history. This happens with style, as there are still two rounds left in the league, but they can not be reached by their nearest rivals, last years champions, FC Copenhagen.

I have been away, but was very surprised to see AaB (as they are usually called) be leading the league as I returned; but apparently, the team from northern Jutland has been a surprise throughout the season, showing stability and commitment, something the defending champions of money-spending Copenhagen hadn´t.

As a Brøndby fan, I am happy FC Copenhagen didn´t win the title, and well, happy to see the AaB fans party their asses off: they are great fans, a great town (Aalborg), and deserve to be champions.

I know they will celebrate it with massive amounts of beer: Cheers!

Danish football in trouble

Mr. Olsen, the excellent Danish national coach, has for long been complaining about the lack of technical skills of players in the Danish league.
When looking at most games in the Danish "Superliga", Mr. Olsen is absolutely right. Danish clubs are presently in such a crisis, making the Danish leagues into one of the worse in Europe.
For a proud Dane this is hard to accept, but all the more obvious when looking at the realities: the defending Danish Champions from FC Copenhagen (FCK) were humilliated by Gorica from Slovenia in the second round qualifier for the Champions League: after winning 1-2 away, they lost 0-5 in Copenhagen. This was even more humilliating when Gorica was eliminated 0-9 by AS Monaco in the next round...
One of the traditionally best Danish teams Brondby, was also eliminated from the UEFA Cup by the little known Lithuanian team Ventspils. The result is that Lithuania has more teams in the first round of the UEFA Cup than Denmark.
The only Danish team left in Europe is Aalborg B, which is up against a well-playing Auxerre.

Looking at the Danish league, things also look strange: FCK is 9th in the league. Yesterday they lost 1-3 at home to Brondby, and played horribly. The team leading in Denmark is a team with the internationally difficult name FC Midtjylland. They are primarily leading because of the greatest star in Denmark right now, the Egyptian player Mohamed Zidan. His technical skills are so far above the average Danish player, that he will probably leave Denmark soon.

Now, I should be a little optimistic on behalf of Danish football: there are many new young players. Particularly Brondby, with the legendary Michael Laudrup as coach, is giving wide possibility for young talented players in the Danish League. These were the ones who defeated FCK yesterday, and hopefully will help improve the Danish league in the future.

But Danish clubs will continue to be of the 4th division of Europe for many years...