Wednesday marked another fabulous day for the ASA Sweden/Denmark contingent.
The day began with a 30 minute walk to old Malmö Stadium to watch FC Rosengård train.
FC Rosengård, one of the women’s elite pro teams in Sweden, plays on the same field where many teams played during 1958 World Cup (notably the year Brazil beat Sweden in the final match 5–2; setting the stage for then 17 year old Pele to make his worldwide debut).
Upon arrival, the girls were met by Therese Sjögran, the most capped player for Sweden’s women’s national team, and now Group Director for FC Rosengård. The girls were able to ask her questions and she described her rise thru youth and club soccer to her ultimate pro career.
Watching their training session was awesome and afterwards, two players — Fiona Brown from Scotland and Nellie Nilja from Malmö — joined the girls to chat about their futbol experiences, answer questions, and take a team photo.
After a great visit, the team lunched in a nearby park enjoying traditional Swedish meatballs, potatoes and lingonberries, and then moved on to Stadion, home of Malmö Fotbollförening.
Formed in 1910 and commonly known as Malmo FF, they are the most successful futbol club in Sweden (in terms of trophies won) and the only club from a Nordic country to have ever reached the European Cup. The girls had the unique opportunity to listen to Malmö FF’s head of Corporate Social Responsibility talk about the importance of the team’s outreach to the community to support social and racial integration issues in Sweden as well as create a platform to bring employers and citizens together to combat the youth unemployment rate of 17%.
In the evening, the girls took on Copenhagen’s top U15 team, B93, where after a hard-fought game they fell 4–0. Despite the score, the girls played hard, had lots of pass strings and battled to the end, but Copenhagen B93 was very skilled, quick on the ball, physical, and able to finish in the net. It was awesome to play against such a competitive team and the girls rallied for a team photo and lots of smiles following the match.
On to day 7!
