With up to ten Australians competing in top-level domestic Nordic competitions in 2020, Beyond 90 will be keeping readers up to date with how our players and the teams they are playing in are faring.
In this week’s edition, Norwegian Toppserien relegation playoffs were recently held. The Toppserien season as a whole has now finished following the completion of the remaining Round 18 fixtures.
The first leg of the UEFA Women’s Champions League Round of 32 also kicked off, with Aussies in two different Nordic countries – Norway and Denmark – there for the action.
Nikola Orgill was once again not on the teamsheet for Kolbotn as they went down 2-1 away to First Division second placegetter Medkila. However, Kolbotn comfortably won the relegation playoffs 6-2 on aggregate for the right to continue playing in the Toppserien in 2021.
Orgill is now quarantining back in Australia before joining Western Sydney Wanderers for Season 13 of the W-League.
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The final Toppserien round was played on the weekend. Vålerenga were crowned as premiers for the first time in the women’s competition, “claiming gold” (as the Norwegians say) on goal difference from undefeated Rosenborg.
Clare Polkinghorne played a full game as Avaldsnes lost 4-0 away to Sandviken; that’s successive 4-0 losses since fellow Matilda Katrina Gorry returned to Australia.
In the other game involving an Aussie, Karly Roestbakken was an unused substitute in LSK Kvinner‘s 0-1 home loss to Lyn, who have finished the season strongly. Lillestrøm may have had an eye to their Champions League game on Wednesday, subbing off their captain at half time.
The results mean that Avaldsnes held their position to finish the season third, while LSK Kvinner dropped to 5th after being passed by Sandviken in the final round.
Roestbakken was in attendance but watched on from the sidelines as LSK Kvinner accounted for Belarusian side FC Minsk, in a 0-2 UEFA Women’s Champions League away win played in chilly conditions on Wednesday night. The result sets the Lillestrøm side up perfectly for the home leg on December 17th, and a crack at the Round of 16.
The Lillestrøm Sports Klub action doesn’t stop there, with this forthcoming weekend seeing them taking a shot at the only domestic trophy left on offer in season 2020, the NM (Norway) Cup, against premiers Vålerenga on December 12th.
A Cup final victory will be a hard ask for LSK; while both Cup finalists are taking part this week in the Champions League Round of 32, Vålerenga played a home leg against Denmark’s Brøndby, whereas LSK had to travel to Belarus. LSK Kvinner were however able to play their tie one day earlier than their Cup final opponents.
Round 18 results completion
(teams with Australian players in the squad are shown in bold)
| RØA | 2 – 0 (earlier) | Kolbotn |
| Klepp | 1 – 2 | Rosenborg |
| LSK Kvinner | 0 – 1 | Lyn |
| Sandviken | 4 – 0 | Avaldsnes |
| Vålerenga | 4 – 0 | Arna-Bjørnar |
Ladder
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | For | Against | GD | Pts |
| 1 | Vålerenga (premiers) | 18 | 11 | 5 | 2 | 39 | 14 | 25 | 38 |
| 2 | Rosenborg | 18 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 34 | 16 | 18 | 38 |
| 3 | Avaldsnes | 18 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 31 | 21 | 10 | 34 |
| 4 | Sandviken | 18 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 29 | 23 | 6 | 30 |
| 5 | LSK Kvinner | 18 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 29 | 23 | 6 | 29 |
| 6 | Lyn | 18 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 24 | 30 | -6 | 21 |
| 7 | Klepp | 18 | 5 | 3 | 10 | 19 | 33 | -14 | 18 |
| 8 | Arna-Bjørnar | 18 | 5 | 2 | 11 | 13 | 29 | -16 | 17 |
| 9 | Kolbotn | 18 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 18 | 29 | -11 | 13 |
| 10 | RØA (relegated) | 18 | 3 | 3 | 12 | 15 | 33 | -18 | 12 |
The 2020 Swedish Damallsvenskan season has been completed.
Emily Gielnik‘s Vittsjö GIK finished the season in fifth place. It was a season to remember for Gielnik, scoring 8 goals in 16 games.
Elise Kellond-Knight may have succumbed early in the season to an ACL injury, but her Kristianstads team finished the league in third place.
Ladder
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | For | Against | GD | Pts |
| 1 | Göteborg | 22 | 17 | 3 | 2 | 55 | 10 | 45 | 54 |
| 2 | Rosengard | 22 | 14 | 5 | 3 | 57 | 14 | 43 | 47 |
| 3 | Kristianstads | 22 | 14 | 3 | 5 | 48 | 29 | 19 | 45 |
| 4 | Linköping | 22 | 12 | 3 | 7 | 32 | 34 | -2 | 39 |
| 5 | Vittsjö | 22 | 9 | 4 | 9 | 33 | 35 | -2 | 31 |
| 6 | Växjö DFF | 22 | 8 | 3 | 11 | 18 | 32 | -14 | 27 |
| 7 | Örebro | 22 | 7 | 5 | 10 | 26 | 36 | -10 | 26 |
| 8 | Pitea | 22 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 21 | 33 | -12 | 25 |
| 9 | Djurgarden | 22 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 20 | 31 | -11 | 24 |
| 10 | Eskilstuna United | 22 | 7 | 2 | 13 | 31 | 35 | -4 | 23 |
| 11 | Umeå IK | 22 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 21 | 40 | -19 | 23 |
| 12 | Uppsala | 22 | 3 | 1 | 18 | 21 | 54 | -33 | 10 |
The Úrvalsdeild Kvenna 2020 season was abandoned due to COVID-19 concerns with two rounds to play. Final standings as at the last played round have been used to determine premiers, Champions League places, and the relegated teams.
Laura Hughes‘ newly-promoted Thróttur Reykjavik finished in fifth place and retain their place in the league.
Angie Beard‘s KR Reykjavik finished bottom of the league and are one of two teams relegated. Even though they had played two games less than some other teams, they would not have been able to lift themselves out of the bottom two, no matter the results in the two games not played.
Ladder
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | For | Against | GD | Pts |
| 1 | Breiðablik | 15 | 14 | 0 | 1 | 66 | 3 | 63 | 42 |
| 2 | Valur R | 16 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 43 | 11 | 32 | 40 |
| 3 | UMF Selfoss | 16 | 7 | 1 | 8 | 24 | 20 | 4 | 22 |
| 4 | Fylkir | 16 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 22 | 29 | -7 | 21 |
| 5 | Thróttur | 16 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 28 | 34 | -6 | 18 |
| 6 | Stjarnan | 16 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 25 | 34 | -9 | 18 |
| 7 | Þór/KA | 16 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 20 | 37 | -17 | 18 |
| 8 | ÍBV | 16 | 5 | 2 | 9 | 16 | 39 | -23 | 17 |
| 9 | FH Hafnarfjörður | 16 | 5 | 1 | 10 | 19 | 35 | -16 | 16 |
| 10 | KR Reykjavik | 14 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 15 | 36 | -21 | 10 |
Indiah-Paige Riley‘s Fortuna Hjørring commenced their Round of 32 Champions League home-and-away games against Slovenian club WFC Pomurje in style, winning 3-0 away in challenging snowy conditions.
3-0 for @FortunaHjorring with Indiah Riley facing extremely tough conditions and a physical game for her debut in the @UWCL Women’s Champions League! The return leg will be played on the 17th of December at 5am AEST (weather permitting!) 📸 Brous pic.twitter.com/uNG8cSOMvT
— FNX Network Sports (@FNXsports) December 9, 2020
Riley started for Fortuna and was substituted in the 58th minute.
Indiah Riley is in the starting lineup for her debut in the @UWCL Women’s Champions League as @FortunaHjorring take on Pomurje live from Stadion Gornja Radgona Slovenia! Let’s go Indi! pic.twitter.com/aGfkJDuFVa
— FNX Network Sports (@FNXsports) December 9, 2020
Similarly to Iceland, all remaining games in the Danish Elitedivisionen are marked as cancelled for now due to coronavirus concerns.
The official site reads (translated):
Women’s football on a break.
We play again for the Spring of 2021.
As stated on the official Fortuna Hjørring site, the league’s last two rounds will be held at the beginning of spring 2021. Fortuna sits third in the league.
Hannah Bacon‘s AGF Aarhus are currently second last in their Elitedivisionen campaign.
Ladder
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | For | Against | GD | Pts |
| 1 | HB Køge | 12 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 32 | 14 | 18 | 26 |
| 2 | Brøndby IF | 12 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 23 | 15 | 8 | 26 |
| 3 | Fortuna Hjørring | 12 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 31 | 12 | 19 | 25 |
| 4 | Kolding BK | 12 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 28 | 17 | 11 | 19 |
| 5 | Nordsjælland | 12 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 19 | 20 | -1 | 18 |
| 6 | Thy – Thistedq | 12 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 14 | 20 | -6 | 13 |
| 7 | AGF Aarhus | 12 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 12 | 30 | -18 | 9 |
| 8 | AaB | 12 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 5 | 36 | -31 | 1 |
Follow all our coverage of Aussies and Ferns Abroad here, and Aussies in Nordic football here.
