Sollentuna

Ground: Sollentunavallen

Visits: 1

Date: 13th June 2015

Match: Sollentuna - Syrianska Kerburan 5-1 (Division 2 Norra Svealand)

Attendance: 123

I haven´t been to a Sweden match at Friends Arena since March 2013. Nowadays international matches are played Thursdays to Tuesdays and for me that means it is difficult to attend matches. Sweden vs Montenegro was scheduled for Sunday 14 June and with me being able to take Monday off I decided to go to Stockholm this weekend. Two matches in Division 2 Norra Sveland for me as well over the weekend and first up was Sollentuna vs Syrianska Kerburan. Kick-off in that game was 16.00 on Saturday. At 07.02 on Saturday morning my journey started as I boarded the train in Kristianstad. After changing trains in Hässlehom I arrived in Stockholm 11.40. 20 minutes later I was in Liljeholmen where I, at a friend´s place, was staying over the weekend. I haven´t seen Håkan since last summer so we had plenty of catching up to do. May have been quite cold in Sweden but in recent days temperatures have been around 25 °C. In the very nice weather Håkan and I went to Marievik where we had something to eat. We tried the "Burger boat" who had anchored in Marievik this Saturday. Tasty but not worth the price was my verdict. Anyway, at 14.15 I left Liljeholmen and an hour later I was at Sollentunavallen. As I was taking pictures of the ground I heard someone saying my name. That was Halmia supporter Lars who, like myself, was in Stockholm for the upcoming Sweden game. We met in Podgorica in November and hopefully we will witness a Swedish victory this time around.

Sollentunavallen is mainly used as an athletics ground. Turebergs IK are based at Sollentunavallen and their biggest star is Kajsa Bergqvist who has won gold in the European- as well as Wold Championships in high jump. A new indoor arena for athletics is currently being built behind the north end of te ground. There are two stands at Sollentunavallen. The east stand is seated and covered but with the sun being out this Saturday afternoon most of the 123 spectators (free entrance) were sitting in the west stand. There is a big hill in the west side of Sollentunavallen and from the top row in the stand you have a great view of the ground.

After only seven minutes today´s visitors, Syrianska Kerburan, had a player sent off but they still scored the first goal, 0-1 after nine minutes. Sollentuna were by far the better team though and at half-time it was 2-1 to the home team. In the second half Sollentuna dominated but had problems with the goal-scoring. One home fan, Adnan, was upset and shouted "He should be a ball boy and not a player", when one of Sollentuna´s striker yet again missed a good chance. In the end Sollentuna actually scored three more goals and the final score was 5-1. During the second half I noticed Anders Limpar was sitting to my right (there were three empty seats between us). He played 58 times for Sweden but is probably most famous for winning the league title with Arsenal in 1991. He also won the FA-Cup with both Arsenal and Everton. He is involved with the (Sollentuna) football club but I am not sure what his role is. After the match Lars and I went back to Sollentuna train station and at 18.45 I was back at Hornstull (the stop before to Liljeholmen). At Hornstull Håkan as well as my friends Daniel and Romina waited for me. The four of us then went to an Indian restaurant. A nice ending to a nice day.

edsbergs slott