Malmö FF Dam 3–2 AIK, and third place is nearly theirs
Larkin Russell after seven minutes, Izzy D'Aquila on 21, Amy Sayer on 34. Malmö FF's women's team led AIK 3–2 by the time the first half was done at Eleda Stadion on Saturday, and that was the score at the end too (16). Daniella Famili pulled one back on 11 and Matilda Plan made it nervous on 48, but the points stayed in Skåne. Zecira Musovic called them "extremely important," and she is right: this was third against fourth in the Damallsvenskan, and Malmö FF Dam now have a firm grip on the European ticket (5)(14).
Jonas Valfridsson had refused to look past it beforehand, calling it "a very tough match for us that we have to handle" (12). Afterwards his line was better: sometimes you have to suffer your way to three points (14). One of the three came gift-wrapped, an AIK goalkeeping error that had the Viaplay studio calling it baffling (10)(11). Take the gift. A team chasing Europe should.
The first team is winning without convincing anyone
Malmö FF beat Kalmar FF 1–0 on Monday and sit sixth on 36 points from 23 games, with a goal difference of plus five. Read the form line: W D W L W. It looks fine. It is not fine. The 2–0 loss at Västerås SK on September 19 showed how quickly this side can be walked over, and a single-goal home win against Kalmar is the sort of result that flatters a performance rather than describing it.
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Gaute Helstrup has said there is no defined points target for the autumn while also saying, plainly, that they want Europe (6). Sixth place and plus five do not get you there by themselves. The squad is getting younger, 24.3 average among players with minutes, fifth youngest in the league, with 16-year-old Amir Osman now training with the seniors (4). Omar Krajina, signed in the winter, is a full A-team member (2). That is a rebuild in progress, and rebuilds produce weeks like this one.
Haksabanovic is defending a drought with a good argument
Sead Haksabanovic has not posted the numbers, and he knows it. His answer was the best line of the week: if hockey assists existed in football, he would have "very many" of them (3). He is a creator in a team whose attacking structure is still being built around Helstrup's ideas. Judge him when the forwards start converting the passes he is already making.
The availability picture is quietly improving. Stian Gregersen is back, Diego García is close, Mayckel Lahdo and Jovan Milosavljevic are doubts, Andrej Djuric is suspended (9). Warren Kamanzi has broken his silence on the injury that has kept him from playing a single minute since arriving in July, a form of "sportsman's groin," and is working back (13)(22).
What to watch: Elfsborg away on Friday
IF Elfsborg at Borås Arena on Friday, October 23, 19:00. It is the kind of away game that separates a team with a nice form line from a team actually pushing for Europe, and Malmö FF have lost one of their last five on the road in the league already. García's return gives Helstrup an option off the bench he has not had. Djuric's suspension does not. Then Halmstads BK away on October 28 and Hammarby at home on November 1.
One more thing worth the walk to the stadium. Malmö FF were denied leave to appeal in the police safety-conditions case, and there will be no net over the standing section against Häcken on October 18. If objects fly again, the club's own argument, that measures should hit the individuals responsible rather than whole sections, gets harder to make (8).
