It’s a Tuesday night at the end of August and I am in the Swedish coastal town of Helsingborg, on the country’s south western tip. The reason that I am sitting in this stadium whilst the rain pours down is to watch Helsingborg’s 15th domestic league fixture of the Allsvenskan season against the current league leaders, IF Hammarby and to see Henrik Larsson.
The Swedish season started back on 4th April. Helsingborg went into the season with the knowledge that after the World Cup, local hero Henrik Larsson would be returning to play for the club where he started. The opening 9 games, the side had collected 10 points to leave them with concerns of survival. Larsson’s arrival was in a Swedish cup match against Hammarby, which was duly won in Stockholm, 3-1. A further 5 points had been picked up in the 5 games since.
Tuesday 22nd August was a night when Helsingborg needed to start winning points to ensure Larsson’s home coming was not destined to turn sour.
Helsingborg’s stadium is situation up the hill away from the town centre in a complex known as Olympia. It is a nice easy walk that takes about 15 minutes, it was a walk that I had done 6 hours earlier that day to collect my match ticket and to buy the necessary Henrik merchandise. So with my number 17 Larsson shirt on underneath my jacket and with the club scarf wrapped around my face, I made my way up the hill to Olympia with a light drizzle blowing into my face.
The stadium is regarded as one of the finest in the league and has a capacity of 17200. Of this capacity 9673 are seated in the two stands that run the length of both touchlines. At the back of both of the goals are two standing areas, where the noisier elements of the homes fans are located along with the away support opposite them. Both of these stands are uncovered but the light rain is not dampening the vocal performance of either set of fans. My ticket finds me in the top tier of the stand across from the dugouts, my seat was padded with a good view and importantly there was a roof over me.
With the evening sky starting to turn dark the four tall floodlight pylons in each of the corners are switched on and the pitch is suitably illuminated for our upcoming entertainment.
The Hammarby support was in a vocal mood, much more so than the home fans, and their good start to the league season must have contributed to their confidence. Both sets of players finished the warm up and returned to the dressing rooms, they were quickly replaced by 22 youngsters who quickly took up positions on the pitch. Unsure if we were to be treated a very quick kid’s match on a full size pitch, the youngsters were then gone again. It turned out that these were the match mascots coming out to get their share of applause.
Minutes later out came the sides, Hammarby were greeted by a bouncing sea of green and white support in the far corner of the stadium with streamers flying onto the pitch as a green haze of smoke drifted from flares over the pitch.
Prior to kick off we observed the Swedish national anthem, which is played before all games and then the whistle went and we were off.
The visiting side started brightly looking like league leaders, whilst their support banged their drums encouraging them to push at Helsingborg from the start.
After 17 minutes Hammarby’s good start was sealed. A quick counter attacking move up field had resulted in the ball going out for a corner. The ball was swung in from the right side into the edge of the six yard box, where their captain, von Schlebrugge was waiting unmarked.
He was able to get into position totally alone in acres of space, and then was able to thump a header down to the goalkeeper’s right, where it was fumbled into the back of the net. 1-0, to Hammarby and as their support cracked up the noise level a few more notches, the rain started to fall much heavier than before, and I started to question my decision to make this trip.
The game continued on with Helsingborg slowly getting back into the match but the amount of rain falling had taken the sting out of the match and both sides looked to be yearning to be back in their dressing room.
But as the clock moved into the 45th minute, Larsson sprung into life.
A hopeful through ball was played into the box from the right hand side, Larsson allowed it to drift over his head whilst two defenders remained static and in a flash a left foot shot was swept across the body of the Hammarby goalkeeper and in off the far post, 1-1.
The whistle went for half time and the home support and I continued to cheer Henrik’s strike.
The rain continued through the half time break and the state of the pitch was becoming worse by the minute. The second half kicked off and within seconds the referee had fallen over in a puddle of lying water as play continued around him.
Moments later the ball was knocked out to the Helsingborg left for Larsson and with a drop of his shoulder he had left his marker as he made his way to goal. With a quick look up he played a perfectly weighted ball across the edge of the box where a team mate was instantly upended as soon as he entered the box, penalty.
Larsson placed the ball and with little fuss he powered his kick into the top right hand corner of the goal, 2-1.
The game was now controlled by the home side, with Hammarby content to sit back and wait to attack on the break but they were being given little chance to do so.
After 68 minutes the game was effectively settled by Fredrik Svanback of Helsingborg. The small number 8 made a burst inside from the left wing and jinked his frame between 3 defenders into the penalty box and then drilled the ball low to the keeper’s right where it crashed into the net, 3-1. It was a quality goal that would grace any stage.
With a 2 goal lead and the rain still falling heavily the game began to turn farcical for the final 20 minutes as players began to slip and fall on the soaked pitch, with the ball now sticking to the turf.
With 5 minutes remaining the hat trick opportunity came to Larsson after an intelligent run left him one on one against the goal keeper.
The slight shoulder drop that has left so many helpless was performed as he attempted to drag the ball with his movement, only to find that the ball had been sucked to a standstill by the pitch. Larsson try to salvage the opportunity but to find the goalkeeper was down at his feet to snatch the ball, the chance had gone.
The remainder of the game was finally played out and the final whistle was greeted with delight by the home support.
We shuffled away from the stadium happy with a 3-1 victory and a man of the match performance by Henrik Larsson. At the age of 34 and after some serious injuries his footballing powers have seemingly not yet dimmed and Helsingborg are now all the better for his return.
For many years Henrik had stated his desire to finish his playing career at Helsingborg. He had been offered a new contract at European Champions, Barcelona or a return to Glasgow with Celtic but he remained true to his word to return home.
With Helsingborg continuing to move up the table Henrik and the club can now start to aim for European football next season.
