Elitserien starts this weekend
14 May 2009 at 15:01 | Published by: Hans | Views: 6639 | News search
The highest Swedish Team League, Elitseriens starts again this weekend. Elitserien is played a bit different than most other European leagues since it's focused on match play. Each weekend all 8 team meets all the other seven in a match of 5-man playing one round. Winners get 2 points and equal matches get 1 point each. Each team can also change one player in the middle of the match and bring in a substitute that starts playing where the substituted player ended. This way of playing is really popular in Sweden and therefore the Swedish league system consists of 4 levels of leagues with 86 teams playing.
Elitserien has the last 4 years been won by Uppsala. In 2007 it was really close that BGK Jönköping took the title ending up in the same points as Uppsala but was beaten on worse average than Uppsala. Also 2009 Uppsala is the favorite for the title. In the Swedish discussion forum bangolfsnack there has been some unofficial bets about the result of this years Elitserien with the following result (average position in voting):
1. Uppsala (1,82)
2. Jönköping (2,18)
3. Tantogården (3,00)
4. Södertälje (4,82)
5. Kungälv (5,09)
6. Skoghall (5,91)
7. Örebro (6,27)
8. Gullbergsbro (6,91)
Many state also that this year will be closer than ever, with many tight games and an end table looking quite compact. The teams are in general quite much the same as last year with some interesting changes.
Uppsala has most of their strong team intact but has lost one of their best players Fredrik Persson.
Jönköping have the same team as last year. At the first round this weekend in Örebro at felt they will be missing Peter Eisenschmidt, but will foresee a interesting comeback of Martin Sjöberg.
Tantogården is the club in Sweden making the most spectacular recruiting the last year with international top player Kosti Salonen of Finland and Markus Berger of Austria. It will be interesting to see how they will perform in Elitserien and maybe especially of the felt weekend to come.
Södertälje has a young an interesting team and can look forward to an interesting comeback in Marcus Johansson, playing for Sweden in Timisoara in 2004.
Kungälv has also a young team and will be able to use Hans Olofsson who will make a serious go for the national team this year.
Skoghall will probably have to cope without Jesper Andersson most of the season and Stefan Björk the whole season. This is a serious cutback, but the club has probably the most talented junior team in Sweden that will now have to show its true colors.
Örebro will rely on the same stable material as the last years.
Gullbergsbro have a broad player material but maybe without the cutting edge. The first weekend they will play with a full oldtimers team which is probably unique in the Elitserien history.
» Online Results
|