With surprises at every turn the second week of Damallsvenskan played out this weekend, with Hammarby and Piteå the only two teams with two wins after both won on the road, Bajen in Göteborg and Piteå in Eskilstuna. Elsewhere, Växjö, Vittsjö and Rosengård all opened their accounts of the season with wins over Djurgården, Linköping and Kalmar as LB07 and KDFF played out a high-scoring draw.
Växjö 1-0 Djurgården
The last team to score this season, Jennie Nordin got Växjö up and running 150 minutes into their Damallsvenskan campaign, the lone goal enough to decide the match and give the hosts all three points. With little to separate the two, a corner on the hour broke the deadlock, Nordin’s near-post header enough to get the better of Guðbjörg Gunnarsdóttir, the ball adjudged to have crossed despite Ingrid Ryland’s best clearance on the line.
Kopparbergs/Göteborg 1-3 Hammarby
With the ball passed directly to her feet, Elin Rubensson sent Christen Press on her way, the American taking the ball to the by-line with ease before curling it past Emma Holmgren and home via the upright.
A goal down for 40 minutes, Hammarby came out in the second half revitalised and turned the match on it’s head after the break. Cathrine Dahlström’s whipped cross at the start of the second half brought about parity when Taylor Leach nodded it back and over Loes Geurts, the defender guilty of her second own goal in as many matches. A fine strike from Olga Ekblom gave the visitors the lead on the hour, the captain bringing the ball down just inside of the box before lashing it beyond Geurts’ reach. The lone outlet for KG, Press continued to come close but found herself centimetres away from a second goal more than once before Hanna Lundqvist wrapped the game up in stoppage time. The attacker fresh at the death to knock the ball past the scattered defence and fire it into the bottom right corner to keep Bajen comfortably top of the table.
Kalmar 0-4 Rosengård
Far more clinical this time out, title favourites Rosengård got off of the mark for the season with a dominant win over promoted Kalmar. Needing a touch of luck and tenacity, the visitors opened the scoring up less than 15 minutes in when Tove Enblom failed to hold onto Sanne Troelsgaard’s low effort. Either side of their ‘keeper, neither Elsa Karlsson nor Elin Bergkvist could clear the ball or prevent Anja Mittag from sliding in a prodding the ball home.
Troelsgaard was involved again just after the half hour when her pinpoint cross found Lisa-Marie Utland, the Norwegian striker rising well in the box to nod home before doubling her tally with a low finish after being found by the Dane once more. The third goal, in first half stoppage time gave the hosts no room for a return, struggling all the way through, their lot didn’t improve after the break and they saw the match out without a shot. The final nail hammered into the coffin by Troelsgaard when she pinged Ali Riley’s cross home, getting a much-deserved goal before the hour.
Limhamn Bunkeflo 3-3 Kristianstad
Therese Ivarsson’s opening goal sent the ball rolling in the highest scoring match of the weekend, the attacker razor sharp to chase into the box and flick Ogonna Chukwudi’s low cross between Emma Lind and the upright. The goalkeeper left red-faced seven minutes later when she failed to stop a dribbly effort from Rita Chikwelu from the edge of the box.
The two-goal lead was short-lived however and captain Mia Persson brought LB07 back within one minutes later when she brought Sofia Wännerdahl’s looped ball down before cutting it into the bottom corner. Having last scored a league brace in 2011 (for Södra Sandby in the Elitettan) Ivarsson ended a long, long run of matches without two goals when she nibbled the ball home at a corner early in the second half. Staunchly refusing to go down without a fight, the hosts reduced the deficit once more, Anna Welin’s free kick perfectly weighted to circumvent the wall and land just inside of the near post.
Still digging in, Limhamn found their late equaliser when Elisa Nilsson swept the ball home on the volley two minutes from time for their first point of the season.
Vittsjö 3-2 Linköping
A well-worked short corner saw Linköping take the lead fifteen minutes in when Frida Maanum played the ball short to Marija Banušić for the attacker to carry it forward before whipping it home with style. Banušić able to send Shannon Lynn the wrong way from the spot eight minutes later after Natasha Dowie was felled in the area.
Two goals down but looking bright, the hosts brought themselves back within one just three minutes later when Linda Sällström slipped behind Maja Kildemoes and nodded Clara Markstedt’s flick-on over Hilda Carlén. One of the in-form strikers from last season, Sällström claimed her first brace of the season early in the second half. Striding through the defence, the Finn outmuscled Janni Arnth and slipped the ball low, Carlén on her heels and forced to watch the ball trickle just inside of the post behind her.
Having set up Sällström for her second, Hannah Wilkinson grabbed the headlines when she dug out the winner 13 minutes from time, her effort from 25-yards floating through the box before crashing into the back of the net.
Eskilstuna United 1-2 Piteå
Joining Hammarby at the top of the table, the only other team to have won both of their opening fixtures, Piteå have showed little signs of being affected by off-the-pitch matters. Cecilia Edlund did well on the stretch to slip the ball around her marker and just over Emelie Lundberg two minutes before the break, to leave United trailing at the half. Having clipped the bar from a freekick moments previously, June Pedersen grabbed her second goal of the season from the spot, calmly converting after Cajsa Åkerberg and Edlund had come together in the box.
Just as they had last week, Eskilstuna found a late conciliation, Felicia Karlsson’s stoppage time effort swept under Cajsa Andersson to deny the goalkeeper a clean sheet but all too late for any real impact.
