Vanløse

Ground: Vanløse Idrætspark

Visits: 1

Date: 29th September 2018

Mach: Vanløse - Slagelse 3-3 (2. Division , pulje 2)

Attendance: 488

Vanløse is one of 10 official districts of Copenhagen and with the M2 metro line running from the airport to Vanløse it is quite easy for me to go to Vanløse. Rail works in Sweden meant I decided to go by car to Malmö and from there cross the Öresund by train. After 20 minutes of driving I had to stop though. An accident blocked the motorway and when ambulances started to show up I realized this could take some time. Luckily for me (and others) it was possible to cross to the other side of the motorway and I then used my knowledge of the local roads and made a detour to pass the site of accident. Once in Malmö the train was 10 minutes late but I eventually made it to the airport and from there it took me 25 minutes to reach Vanløse. Upon arrival I was asked where I was from and the turnstile operator was very surprised to hear I had come all the way from Kristianstad in Sweden for this game! Vanløse Idrætspark is for this level quite big and the official capacity is around 5 000. The main stand has around 2 500 seats making this one of the biggest stand at this level in Denmark. The big game of the season for Vanløse was a few weeks ago when Brønshøj visited. 1 500 showed up then but the was a (very) local derby and the clubs hadn´t played each other for several years. Vanløse and Slagelse were both promoted from Danmarksserien and with both teams doing well I was hoping for a decent attendance today as well.

The glory days for Vanløse were in the early 70s and in 1974 the club managed to win the Danish Cup. In the 60s Finn Laudrup, the father of Michael and Brian, played six seasons for Vanløse and another famous former player for the club is Preben Elkjær. I have no idea if any of the players in the home team in today´s game will ever make it to the national team but who knows. This turned out to be a very entertaining football game. Vanløse made it 1-0 early on but at half-time it was 2-1 to the visitors from Slagelse. A deserved lead by then but in the second half it was the home team dominating and in the 60th minute they equalized from the penalty spot. 10 minutes later it was 2-3 and despite several really good chances Vanløse couldn´t find the equalizer. A string of good saves by the Slagelse goalkeeper made sure of that and I was convinced it would end 2-3. In the 93rd minute Vanløse finally managed to equalize and a few seconds later the final whistle was blown. 3-3 and a good day game for me and the 488 present at Vanløse Idrætspark. Once back at the airport the train to Sweden was 25 minutes delayed but that is unfortunately routine nowadays. I have now visited every ground in 2. Division east of Store Bælt and next time I go to Denmark it will be for one of my remaining grounds in the top two divisions.