A cold weekend in Kristinehamn offered warming football when 16 P09 teams met in the Luxcupers Boys 2009 Invitational. Teams from Stockholm and Oslo made up the majority of the teams in the four groups. Gothenburg, Örebro, Eskilstuna and Falun were also represented. But few would succeed in beating the Norwegian teams.
Group stage
At 15.10 on Friday, the tournament kicked off and Group A was first out with a match between Karlslunds IF and Eskilstuna City. Eskilstuna got off to a dream start to the tournament, winning that match 3-0. Karlslund soon got their revenge with a 3-0 win against Älvsjö AIK. In the following match, the fourth team in the group, Nordstrand, presented itself with a 4-0 win against Eskilstuna. Scattered results as you can see and extremely even. The position in the group was decided on goal difference and number of goals scored as you see in the table below.
Group B. Also Even. IF Eker Örebro opened with a 2-1 win against Sörskogens IF. In the following match IL Heming defeated Falu BS with 3-1. When the group was completed on Saturday, three of the teams had six points, just like in Group A. Goal difference had to decide and then Heming was first, Falu BS second and IF Eker third. Bitter for Eker who went to bed as group leader on Friday night. But it shows that a lot can happen and a lot can turn around.
Group C was next and Stockholm v Gothenburg had to start, BP v GAIS. BP won that match 4-1 and a goal scorer that we will have reason to return to presented himself, Linus Christensen in BP. Oppsal Blå defeated Hammarby IF in the following match with 1-0. BP and Oppsal took first and second place in that group, fairly but not easily. GAIS, it should be added, came to the tournament with a younger team and stood up well, but the playing skills perhaps did not fully compensate for the physics.
Last out was Group D, which became a goal-rich group. Although the first match may not have shown it when Vasalunds IF won against Oppsal Hvit with 1-0. In the following match, however, there was a real rattle when Norwegian Ready took a 6-0 win against Rönninge Salem. In total, the six matches in the group offered 22 goals. Vasalund scored nine of them, while not conceding a single one.
This is what all the groups looked like when they had finished playing:
| # | LAG | M | V | O | F | GM | IM | +/- | P |
| 1 | Nordstrand IF | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 6 |
| 2 | Eskilstuna City FK | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| 3 | Karlslunds IF | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 6 |
| 4 | Älvsjö AIK | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 11 | -9 | 0 |
| # | LAG | M | V | O | F | GM | IM | +/- | P |
| 1 | IL Heming | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| 2 | Falu BS | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | IF Eker | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 6 |
| 4 | Sörskogens IF | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 7 | -5 | 0 |
| # | LAG | M | V | O | F | GM | IM | +/- | P |
| 1 | PO | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 9 |
| 2 | Oppsal Blue | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| 3 | Hammarby IF | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | -4 | 1 |
| 4 | GAIS | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 9 | -7 | 1 |
| # | LAG | M | V | O | F | GM | IM | +/- | P |
| 1 | Vasalunds IF | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 9 | 9 |
| 2 | Ready | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 6 |
| 3 | Rönninge Salem | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 13 | -10 | 3 |
| 4 | Oppsal White | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 4 | -4 | 0 |
The play-offs
It was Sweden vs Norway in the quarter-finals of the A play-offs, and Norway were the big winners. Nordstrand won against Falu BS, Heming against Eskilstuna, Ready against BP and Oppsal blå against Vasalund. All-Norwegian in the semi-finals, as we will return to.
The quarter-finals of the B play-off were more evenly matched and three of them needed to be decided on penalties. Only Karlslund managed to advance in regular time when they defeated Sörskogens IF 1-0. Otherwise it was penalties and from them Älvsjö, Oppsal Hvit and Rönninge Salem advanced in their respective quarter finals.
Back to the Norwegian the semi-finals of the A play-off where Nordstrand played against Ready and Heming against Oppsal Blå. Ready drew the longest straw against Nordstrand and won by the odd goal, 1-0. The match between Heming and Oppsal had to be decided on penalties and from the 11-metre point Heming was the coolest and thus became ready for the final.
In the match for third prize Nordstrand was then pitted against Oppsal Blå. The scoreboard showed 1-1 after 35 minutes and it took seven penalties each before Oppsal was finally declared third prize winner.
I B playoffs Karlslund continued to impress as they progressed to the final by beating Oppsal Hvit 3-0. The second semi-final had to be decided on penalties after regular time failed to separate Älvsjö AIK from Rönninge Salem. Rönninge Salem advanced to the final from that penalty drama and Älvsjö had to get ready for the third prize match against Oppsal. Once there, Älvsjö got their revenge and took home the third prize in the B playoff after defeating Oppsal with 3-2.
Once in the final of the B play-off Karlslund had decided and there was never any talk about it. 6-0 to Örebro against Rönninge Salem in the final where Axel Grafver and Karl Widmark scored two goals each. Malte Hammarbäck and Arion Demaku accounted for the other two goals.
So to The A final. Ready vs Heming. An "Olso-West derby" as Readys Mateo Aguilera Kohn put it before the match. Heming took the lead early in the first half through their Marius Hellebust who was played in on the right and placed the ball clinically into the far corner, post in and 1-0. Heming held the lead into half time but early in the second half Ready equalised to 1-1 through their Felix Skarsgård. Heming then went for the lead but the ball would not go in. Instead, Ready was able to set the final score to 2-1 in the final minutes of the match after a conversion where Markus Wiik Alfredsen pushed in a return from the Heming keeper. 2-1 to Ready showed the scoreboard when the final final signal of the weekend sounded.
Committees
The shooting league
Linus Christensen, BP
Scored in all but one of BP's matches. Crowned his scoring victory with a hat trick in BP's last match where they defeated Falu BS with an impressive 8-0. BP was one of the most dangerous teams in the tournament and they have Linus to thank for that, who accounted for 7 of their total 19 goals.
Goalkeeper of the Tournament
Oscar Lindquist, Ready
Strongly contributing to his Ready winning the final. Heming went for the lead but Oscar stood in the way more than once. Quick to react, secure in position and dominant in the air.
MVP
Lucas Lopes Patey, Heming
Owned his edge wherever he played and took a great job offensively as well as defensively. Never stopped running and extremely skilled in the one on one game. Lucas has every opportunity to run on edges in bigger arenas than Kristinehamns in the future.
Words about the cup
"It has been three fantastic days in Kristinehamn, with socialising and good matching" - Oppsal, P09
"We would like to thank Luxcuper for a fantastic cup and organisation" - Eskilstuna City, P09
"Thanks to Luxcuper for a fun weekend with lots of football in Kristinehamn" - Falu BS, P09
"Many thanks to Luxcuper for an excellent cup as usual" - Rönninge Salem, P09
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