I’ve been doing some consultancy work for a project in Sweden and was due to fly on to there the next day for some meetings. Jen was heading back to the UK and so we parted company at a metro station. She went in the direction of the airport and I took two trains to Brondby for the first of the afternoon’s games.
It was raining fairly heavily and I had a fifteen minute walk from the station to the Langbjergskolen ground. I could see the pitch from a couple of hundred yards down the road, as well as a clubhouse with a small viewing area at the front.
Some early arrivals had nabbed spots under the roof overhang of a building behind the goal, whilst those who didn’t mind getting wet stood pitch side opposite the clubhouse.
It was free to attend and there were around a hundred people there to watch the seventh-tier fixture between Brondby Strand and Vallensbaek. It’s games like this that make me grateful for the Futbology App, which has made groundhopping so much easier. In the not-so-distant past it would have been difficult to discover that a seventh tier foreign league actually existed, never mind having accurate fixture details and ground location easily accessible.
Unfortunately, the technology can’t help with the standard of play, which was English Sunday League level at best. The visitors took the lead early on with a lofted shot that deceived the goalie. Brondby equalized just before the break with a decent effort that was curled inside the far post, beyond the reach of an unsighted keeper. Both efforts were celebrated with an air horn blast from the same guy who was stood three feet away from me.
At half-time I bought a tray of chips from the café, then mistakenly dusted them with what I’d thought was salt but turned out to be powdered milk. I wondered how many of the people simply assumed that English blokes routinely added powdered milk to their chips. Perhaps one or two of them might be tempted to adventurously try it in future.
The second half was all Vallenbaek. They went ahead on the hour when a goalmouth scramble ended with a Brondby defender diverting the ball into his own net. They soon added a third from a quick break and then another two before the end for a decisive five-one away win. It was still raining as I made my way back to the station.
Tags: air horn hearing damage, Brondby, Swedish seventh-tier football, unusual condiments
Trail of the Lion King 
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