When Jens Askous’s IFK Göteborg lost to Elfsborg two weeks ago, the Dane was as stunned as he was pissed off.
“It is completely unreal that we are losing,” he said after the match.
Elfsborg was pressed back for long periods, but managed to score two goals via two shots on goal. Curtain “Blue and white”.
At the same time, it is not the first time a similar scenario has played out this season. Because despite the fact that Elfsborg has not always dazzled the football crowd with its offensive play, the Borås team has defended skillfully – and been deadly effective once changes have occurred.
“Take fate into your own hands”
Malmö FF knows this all too well after traveling to Borås’ arena last spring and – at least in terms of results – being run over.
— We punished them severely. They had a lot of the ball but we win 3-0. The match picture this Sunday will probably be the same, says Niklas Hult.
— Malmö is a team with many skilled players, but we have been stable all season defensively. If we put that, we know we can be aggressive and win the ball in favorable situations like we did against them at home, he continues.
Niklas Hult was involved in winning the SM gold with Elfsborg in 2012. Now he wants to do it again.
The statistics site Fotmob reinforces the image of both teams. According to Fotmob, MFF has the most ball in the entire Allsvenskan (an average of 64.6 percent per match), hits the most passes to the right address (540.5 per match) and has the second most shots on goal (6.0 per match).
Elfsborg is tenth in ball possession (46.9 percent), but is, on the other hand, the best at hitting successful long balls (37.0 per game), the best at winning free kicks (16.7) and is the team that has conceded the least number of goals in the entire Allsvenskan (25) after 29 rounds.
— For me, it’s about you taking fate into your own hands. You can control a match without the ball as well, but then you very often have to react to what the opponent does, says Henrik Rydström about how he wants to play football.
25-30 cuts
Sunday’s gold match is not only a clash between the country’s two best clubs at the moment – it is also a battle between two of the country’s brightest coaching names: Henrik Rydström and Jimmy Thelin.
Both have been praised for their work in clubs such as Jönköpings södra and Elfsborg (Thelin) and Sirius, Kalmar and Malmö FF (Rydström). Both have also been mentioned in the national team’s search for a new national team captain.
Henrik Rydström as Malmö FF train on Wednesday for the last round of the Allsvenskan.
Henrik Rydström expects a match picture similar to the last time the teams met. A match where Elfsborg, according to Rydström, accounted for 25-30 interceptions to break the rhythm of the game.
— What I and Malmö believe in is to go out and try to have the ball as much as we can and attack as much as possible. If we did something different on Sunday, you could say that everything we’ve done during the year would be wasted, and we don’t want that, says Henrik Rydström.