The start of the Allsvenskan has not been kind to Djurgården. I’m sure many people had high expectations. Djurgården is moving into a new arena mid-season, plenty hoped that excitement would carry on to the pitch. Unfortunately it hasn’t really played out like that. Since the previous post, things have gotten a lot worse for the Stockholm club.

After the suspended match with Mjällby, Djurgården was away to BK Häcken who swept them aside comfortably winning 4-0. Their next game was at Stockholm Stadion against Brommapjokerna and I was on hand to photograph it.

For the most part I thought they played well, they created the bulk of the matches goal scoring opportunities. Yet they just couldn’t put their chances away. Their number 10 Erton Fejzullahu, who was bought for a hefty fee last season, just can’t seem to get it together. They took the lead in the first half, but they failed to extend it on numerous occasion they created.

In the end the visitors got an opportunity to equalize and buried it. The final result 1-1. After that draw came the next match and Djurgården was away to the reigning Swedish champions Elfsborg. Djurgården would lose again, this time 2-0. And so they closed out the 5th match day last in the table with just one point.

In the lead up to the next game against Syrianska FC things got even more chaotic. Djurgårdens head coach Magnus Pehrsson and their club president Tommy Jacobson both resigned claiming to have received threats from a violent faction of Djurgårdens fan base. Djurgårdens two assistant coaches would take over the managerial duties and new president still hasn’t been selected.

At the start of the match there was a great deal of tension as club representatives tried to make a speech addressing the situation. Strong whistling from certain supporter groups, and a large banner was unveiled which accused the club of distorting the facts

“After all the tears we want the truth. It’s easy to judge without all the facts”

The match didn’t do anything to put situation back on a positive course. Djurgården created the bulk of goal scoring opportunities but struggled to convert them. And when they finally did score, the referee went and added his own to the situation by not giving the goal. Syrianska’s keeper cleared the ball after it has completely crossed into the goal, but for the referee it wasn’t a goal.

Once that happened I think everyone in the stadium had a pretty clear idea of what was bound to happen. Syrianska found themselves with an opportunity, converted it, and walked out of Stockholm Stadium with the 3 points. Meanwhile Djurgården remains last in the league with 1 point after 6 matches played.

It’s interesting to note that after the match, after all the replays, and after all the newspaper articles, the referee is quoted as saying he is extremely happy he did not award the goal. Rather than admitting he made a mistake and that he’s human he would rather close his eyes and pretend it didn’t happen.

So after the loss to Syrianska we arrived at yesterdays Swedish Cup semi-final match against second division Örgryte. While the league has been a complete failure, in the cup Djurgården seemed to have snuck their way into the last stages.

The match got under way, it was a gorgeous day, but it seemed to be the same old Djurgården. Creating a lot, but not able to actually find the goal. The meager opponent wasn’t doing much but you couldn’t help wonder if they too would find that one moment to put the ball in the net. Late in the first half Djurgården received a penalty, which Erton Fejzullahu failed to convert. His goal scoring drought destined to continue.

The second half got started and Erton’s misfortune continued as he went out in a stretcher because of an injury. No more than a few minutes passed that Nahir Oyal also went out injured. There was certainly a sense of impeding doom at that point in time.

Lady luck would finally arrive and Andreas Johansson headed in a goal to give Djurgården a lead which if maintained would bring the club into the final. The goal seemed to give them team a huge boost and they continued to create a ton of goal scoring opportunities. But their ability to convert them didn’t improve.

When the final whistle arrived one goal was all it took to bring home a victory. Djurgårdens IF will now meet IFK Göteborg in the final of the Swedish Cup, which will be played at Friends Arena on the 26th of May.

As of today there is only one question, has this team hit the bottom and is it ready to come back? Or was yesterdays win just a little spike on a much longer decline?

Time will tell.

Regretfully I didn’t get around to making this post earlier. Too often if I cover an event and don’t get around to making a blog post within the following days then I never do. Feeling that it’s old news I will just wait for the next event I cover and make a post out of that. However I really wanted to include some pictures from this years UFC card in Stockholm, Sweden. If nothing else only because of how it relates to the previous post: Friends & Pears.

This years UFC card in Sweden was a little more low key that last years. In the week leading up to the card the main event fighter and hometown hero Alexander Gustafsson got injured a was forced to drop off. With only days left before the event Ilir Latifi was selected as a replacement fighter to face Gegard Mousasi in the main event. The show would go on, but it lost a lot of hype. A lot of media and photographers dropped off and didn’t cover the event.

Ilir Latifi deserves nothing but praise. Called in the 25th hour he lost 12 kilos in 4 days in order to do the fight. Facing a world call opponent he held his own, staying on his feet for three rounds, and losing by decision.

More than a little contrast between football/soccer players and UFC/MMA fighters, wouldn’t you say?

These pictures and more available via Pic-Agency.

After shooting the UFC on Saturday night I had two days of shooting football. Two Stockholm teams making their home debuts in this new season. Sunday was AIK meeting Syrianska FC and Monday was Djurgårdens IF meeting Mjällby AIF. Going into these matches there was a great deal of excitement. It’s a big season for Stockholm teams with 3 of team moving into new arenas.

In the case of AIK, Sunday was a big party. Their first real competitive match in their new arena. Sweden’s national arena, located in the Stockholm suburb of Solna, is their new home. For this debut match they sold over 43,000 thousand tickets which is an extremely high number for Swedish football.

The day a started with the team bus and fans meeting at Råsunda, their old grounds, and then a procession followed to the new arena. Everything was in place for a big party, but unfortunately it never erupted. AIK and Syrianska played a draw and the goal that 43,000 people were waiting on never arrived.

Then on Monday things got really interesting. I was on hand at Stockholm’s olympic stadium to photograph Djurgårdens IF against Mjällby AIF. Djurgården is also moving into a new venue this season, but unlike AIK they will move into the newly constructed Tele2 arena halfway through the season.

With this being the final home premiere in Stokcholm’s olympic stadium there was a really strong atmosphere. The arena was more of less filled, and people were hoping for a strong showing.

As the game got underway Djurgården seemed to have the best of the first half, but then after about 35 minutes Mjällby scored a goal and the ridiculous happened. In the build up to Mjällby scoring a Djurgården player had gone down. The referee decided play should continue, but the fans didn’t seem to agree. As Mjällby celebrated their goal several fans began hurling objects on to the pitch.

Mjällby’s number 3 Gbenga Arokoyo went down in considerable pain and rolled around in agony. The medical staff came out to take care of him. I started scrubbing through my pictures and found the shot bellow of a beer bottle coming at him. Excited that I might have had the shot which defined this game I pulled out my laptop and proceeded to submit the image.

During this moment of chaos the referee decided to withdraw the teams from the pitch and a have a meeting with security authorities to decide if the match should continue. For about 45 minutes they deliberated in a back room, while the public grew restless and waited. Eventually they announced that the game would not proceed and that everyone should go home.

At that point I went to the press area and started submitting more images. I then got the most ridiculous news of the evening:

“They say he was hit be a pear. You have any pictures with the pear?”

I didn’t even have to look, I new right away that I never saw or photographed any freaking pears.

Crap!

I did the rest of my work and the packed it up for the night. Luckily for me, pear or no pear, I had images used by both of Sweden’s leading papers. My picture of a bottle flying at Gbenga Arokoyo was used by Aftonbladet, and a separate image of Djurgården’s captain Andreas Johansson speaking with the referee was used by Expressen.

So all things considered not bad for half an evening of football.

Obviously the discussion has been focused completely on the pear thrower. Finding the pear thrower. How to prevent future incidents of possible pear throwing. Rightly so. The people responsible should definately be punished. It’s inexcusable to throw pears or any other objects.

However I just can get away from the fact that this guy rolled around on the ground for 5 minutes from being hit in the stomach with a pear. Maybe I was still under the influence of the UFC fights I photographed on Saturday.

If it was a coconut to the head I could understand, a pear not so much.

These images and more available via Pic-Agency.

After having seen two international friendlies, the newly constructed Friends Arena in Stockholm, Sweden saw it’s first competitive football match when Sweden met Ireland in a World Cup qualification match.

Unfortunately, past that, there is really very little to say about this game. It was an dull affair that not only finished 0-0 but produced very little in terms of goal scoring opportunities. On one side of the pitch, a team that is completely dependent on their captain and star player. On the other side, a team who’s only mission is not to lose.

These images and more available via Pic-Agency.

Regardless of whether or not you appreciate Italian football there are certain things you can’t take away from it. One of them is the success of their managers. Few nations have produced as many winning managers. Managers who have not only won a lot, but have also shown the ability to travel outside their local stomping ground and continue to win. At the head of the pack is Giovanni Trapattoni.

Trapattoni is a manager who’s record speaks for itself. He has won the Italian Serie A over seven times. He’s won the Italian Cup twice along with the Italian Supercup. He’s won the UEFA European Cup (now known as the Champions League). He’s won the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, the European Super Cup, the Intercontinental Cup, and one three occasions he won the UEFA Cup. And that’s only counting his record in Italy. Abroad he has won the German League, the German Cup, and the German League Cup with Bayern Munich. He’s also won the Portuguese League and the Austrian League along with winning the Nations Cup in 2011 as the coach of Ireland’s national football team. He is the most decorated coach in Italy and the only coach to have won all UEFA competitions.

With Sweden preparing to face of against Ireland in a World Cup qualification match I couldn’t miss the opportunity to see Trapattoni and snap some shots of his and Ireland captain Robbie Keane’s press conference and of Ireland’s training session at Friends Arena.

Naturally tomorrow I will be on hand for the match itself. It’s the first competitive football match in Stockholm’s newly build national arena. Stay tuned for pictures from the match. These pictures and more available via Pic-Agency.

The start of the Swedish football season is right around the corner, this past Sunday on a chilly afternoon I went and photographed the first of many Djurgården football games that I will cover for Pic-Agency this year.

It was a match in the Swedish cup, Svenska Cupen, between Djurgårdens IF and Umeå FC. The Swedish Cup can probably only be described as a lackluster affair. Djurgården, who normally play in Stockholm Stadion, played this match at a small ground about 20 minutes outside of town. Perhaps due to the lack of interest or perhaps because Stockholm Stadion is not yet prepared for the coming season in April.

The opponent, Umeå FC, which plays in the third division, didn’t really provide much of a fight. Then spent more or less the entire match pinned in their own half. They lost the game 3-0 but it probably would have been much worse if not for their goal keeper, Vladimir Sudar, who made a number of great saves.

I’m really excited over this coming season, it should be a great year for the teams in Stockholm with all three of them moving into new arenas. AIK will play the entire season in the newly constructed national arena, Friends Arena, out in Solna. Meanwhile Djurgårdens IF and Hammarby IF will play half the season in their perspective arenas and then move into the new Tele2 arena around the end of July.

This images and more available via Pic-Agency.

Thursday I was at Hovet photographing a match between Djurgården and Karlskrona. This was the 2nd to last match of the season and seemingly the pieces have fallen into place. Djurgården are sitting in 5th place with 92 points. Three points behind 3rd place Västerås.

The most likely scenario for Djurgården is to go into a playoff with the teams currently ranked fourth to seventh in HockeyAllsvenskan. The winner of these playoffs joining teams ranked 1-3 in meeting the last two teams from Elitserien in another playoff. The first and second placed teams at the end of this playoff are promoted into Elitserien and the remainder go on play in HockeyAllsvenskan next season.

These images and more available via Pic-Agency.

I haven’t photographed much basketball this season, especially in comparison to last season where I covered at least a dozen or so matches. This was only the second basketball match I’ve covered in 2013 and it had been well over a month since the last time I shoot basketball.

The match, between 08 Stockholm and KFUM Nässjö was a pretty low key affair. There seemed to be less people in attendance than usual. I don’t know if this has anything to do with the current scandal regarding basketball players in Sweden who sold matches and bet on them. Maybe it was just because it’s a midseason match again an average opponent.

Game wise 08 Stockholm started out a little sloppily and let their opponent trail them closely up until the end of the 2nd quarter. Then they seemed to come together and extend their lead and go on to win comfortably.

These images and more available via Pic Agency.

Congratulations to Swedish photographer Paul Hansen. Paul won World Press Photo’s Photo of the Year with his amazing image of two Palestinian children killed in an Israeli missile strike being carried to their funeral.

Paul’s image is really breath taking and striking. Conveying both anger and sorrow as well the innocence of the two children. It’s just so incredibly powerful, and absolutely deserving of the recognition.

Huge congratulations to Paul, well done.

Last night I was again at Hovet photographing a Djurgården hockey game. This time they meet Västerås, who was only one point behind them in the table. After Monday’s display in Unpredictability, where Djurgården trailed 1-4 only to comeback and win after I switched sides in the third, I opted to stay put regardless of what instinct told me.

The evening played out much like a recurring theme. The visitors took the lead. Then extended their lead, this time with a smaller margin. Then like clockwork in the third period Djurgården finally scored. Then they go and tie the game. I’m standing there thinking this might just play out like it did on Monday with a victory on penalties.

The match goes into sudden death and I remain on Djurgårdens’ side trying not to repeat my mistake from Monday. But then the visitors go and do something unexpected and sneak in a third goal to clinch a huge victory and move into fourth place.

These images and more available via Pic-Agency.