THURSDAY MAY 24th
Boca
got a point last night with a late equaliser, FC Dallas lost 2-1and
were very unfortunate not to claim a win, let alone a point, they led in
the 41st minute with a goal which came from a corner, with FCD winning
two headers in the box, one uncontested and defending these crosses is
clearly a problem for Fire at the moment, something we discussed
yesterday. Dallas were unable to hold on till the break, which would
have been key , conceding a wonder goal a few minutes later. Early in
the second period Dallas had a penalty, which the home keeper saved
well, 15 minutes later Fire were also awarded a spot kick, also saved ,
but the rebound was put in by Marco Pappa, who was not only inside the
box when the kick was taken, but virtually level with the penalty taker !
Everyone on the pitch and in the stadium saw this infringement except
for the two officials ! Dallas then came within a inch of equalising as
normal time expired. If you want to watch the highlights, all the sordid
details can be viewed on this high quality, albeit painful LINK .
I was very pleased with the Fire- FCD preview and how the summer leagues have started for us in general.
For
today, we already have the bet given yesterday
at circa 3.0 and which is reproduced at the foot of the email and I have one further
selection for today's football .
But we can start with a few basic stats and notes about tonight's matches in Allsvenskan, Malmo FF make the long trip north to Sundsvall to face GIF, but seem to have most of the advantages.
The hosts have had a quick turnaround after being given a bit of a
lesson by Elfsborg on Monday. losing 3-0 on home soil, they ended the
match with ten men after the dismissal of Robert Lundstrom, but were
already three down at the time and have now failed to score in four of
their last five starts. Now they have to take on another top two side
and one who is not only fresher, having not played since last Thursday, but also hungry to
keep in touch with Elfsborg at the top of the table and in good
goalscoring form, with two or more goals in their last four road games.
Domestic football closes down for five weeks after today, so MFF will be
very motivated to finish on a high note and close that gap at the top.
We could, of course, argue the same about GIF, but whilst they started
well on Monday, their heads dropped a little after failing behind and I
feel they will be looking forward to the break, they have a bit
of a boost with the return of Myrestam on the left, which is handy with
Lundstrom out and also Ari Skúlason to the midfield, but they look up
against it. Traditionally MFF struggle here, but have not visited
Sundsvall for four years.
GIF
: 1. Oscar Berglund,2. Christian Brink,3. David Myrestam,4. Stefan
Ålander,5. Roger Risholt,6. Patrik Rikama-Hinnenberg,7. Daniel Sliper,8.
Fredric Jonson,9. Johan Eklund,11. Ari Skúlason,12. Fredrik Holster,14.
Pa Dibba, 16. Simon Helg,20. Niclas Larsson,21. Michel Pires,22. Marcus Danielsson,23. Kevin Walker,25. Nuri Mustafi.
MFF:
Johan Dahlin, Viktor Noring, Daniel Andersson, Filip Helander, Jasmin
Sudic, Pontus Jansson, Filip Stenström, Markus Halsti, Ulrich Vinzents,
Simon Thern, Jimmy Durmaz, Jiloan Hamad, Erik Friberg, Ivo
Pekalski,
Simon Kroon, Alex Nilsson, Daniel Larsson, Dardan Rexhepi, Mathias
Ranégie.
Much further South (and West) IFK host a favourite opponent in Kalmar FF,
the visitors have not won here inside 90 minutes in eight visits and
the hosts have scored two or more goals in each of those starts, three
plus in five of them. KFF have kept just one cleansheet since the
opening day of the campaign and that came against winless and woeful
basement club Orebro. IFK entered the season with big dreams but have
yet to really fire, they are without a win in four, but those games
included fixtures against the top two and the derby game with GAIS, they
normally score, having registered in nine of their last ten starts,
only coming up short in the Boras Arena, where the leaders are almost
unbeatable. I see this as a big game for the home side if they are to
achieve anything this season, they cannot enter the break more than ten
points adrift
of top spot and simply have to win today. The visitors arrive without
Mats Solheim, Tobias Carlsson, Rasmus Sjöstedt and Daniel Mendes , the
first three have hardly played a game, but they are missing the hugely
experienced Carlsson at the back and the loss of second top scorer
Mendes ,one of only two players with more than a single goal this season
is.....
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Good Luck.
Contact: gowi8@btinternet.com
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