Skellefteå

Ground: Norrvalla Idrottsplats

Visits: 1

Date: 4th July 2014

Match: Skellefteå FF - IFK Luleå 2-2 (Division 1 Norra)

Attendance: 398

The city of Skellefteå is situated around 1 300 km from where I live. At the end of last season Skellefteå FF finished top of Division 2 Norrland. In my ambition to have attended a match at every ground in the top three divisions in Sweden I had another trip to northern Sweden looking forward to. The biggest match for Skellefteå is the Västerbotten derby with Umeå but that match is being played when I am back at work. Luleå is around 100 km north of Skellefteå and when the match between Skellefteå FF and IFK Luleå was moved to a Friday evening in July I decided to visit this match. My journey to Skellefteå started on Thursday afternoon when I went, by train, to Copenhagen airport. From Copenhagen I had a flight to Stockholm Arlanda in the evening. On Friday morning I then had a flight taking me to Skellefteå. At 12.30 I was in Skellefteå and 45 minutes later I was at my hotel in central Skellefteå. The weather forecast suggest sunshine but it was raining as I arrived in the city.

Skellefteå AIK have been crowned Swedish champions in ice-hockey the last two seasons and ice-hockey will always be the number one sport in the city. Skellefteå have a women's football team (Sunnanå) playing in Allsvenskan and Skellefteå FF share their ground with Sunnanå. Norrvalla is actually two grounds and not one. There is an athletics ground which used to be the football ground as well. 100 m north of the athletics ground there is an artificial football pitch. In 2011 a seated stand was built on the north side of the artificial pitch and since then the football matches have been played here. With nothing better to do I made the 15-20 minute walk to Norrvalla late in the afternoon and now the sun was out. After taking some pictures I had something to eat and drink before returning to my hotel for a short rest. Kick-off for Skellefteå FF vs IFK Luleå was at 19.00 meaning I would miss most of the France vs Germany World Cup quarter-final. Wifi at Norrvalla meant I could watch most of the first half though.

Luleå had around 25 fans (including 8 vocal fans) in Skellefteå this evening and in the first half they had every reason to be pleased. IFK Luleå played really well and were 1-0 up at half-time. It could/should have been 3-0 or so though and in the second half IFK Luleå were punished. Two quick goals and it was suddenly 2-1 to Skellefteå. Luleå continued to create chances and in the 89th minute they equalized. The match finished 2-2, hardly a fair result but you have to score from your chances. The attendance for the match between the two most northern teams in Division 1 Norra was 400. I had been hoping for more but this was a really entertaining match and I was pleased anyway. Tomorrow I fly back to Stockholm and then I travel, by ferry, to Mariehamn. Mariehamn is situated in the Åland Islands which belong to Finland. The people in Åland speaks Swedish though and this will be a nice trip for me. IFK Mariehamn vs Inter Turku on Sunday afternoon will then be my second match on this tour.

welcome