Road Trip #1 (2021): Back Like We Never Left
After first being bitten by the Danish football bug I came to a game in Copenhagen with a friend back in 2019. It was a Champions League qualifier in July that pitted FCK against Welsh minnows TNS (showing my age by continually thinking of them as Total Network Solutions). The game itself was pretty humdrum, notable only for the home debut of Victor Nelsson (now of Galatasaray), the eye-catching dynamic dribbling of a fresh-faced Mo Daramy and a long-range thunderbolt from Zeca. But more than just the game, the trip gave me my first taste of Copenhagen, a city with a seemingly endless appeal.
Copenhagen in the winter sunshine (Photo: FootballinDK)
Between that first trip and this one, not a lot happened. I mean, I became a father for the second time and a global pandemic changed life as we know it for almost two years, but apart from that, not a lot happened. So it was with a mixture of fear (that the ever-changing Covid rules would change again, scuppering the trip) and excitement (of the first trip abroad to watch football since July 2019, with two friends I had not seen since pre-pandemic) that I boarded a plane in London on a Saturday morning bound for Copenhagen and a weekend of football.
Almost as soon as we touched down we were racing to our hotel to dump our things ahead of the first item on the weekend’s agenda: a second division (i.e. third tier) match featuring a cult Copenhagen team, B.93, taking on Thisted. It’s a good job I wrote on Twitter that we were heading there as it turns out the match had been re-located from the iconic Østerbro Stadion, slap bang next to Parken, to the B.93 training ground and had some kindly souls not tipped us off about this we’d have been knocking on the door of an empty stadium. Regardless, we were very much game and headed off in the direction Google Maps pointed us.
We arrived and it all looked a little deserted. An impressive, badge-adorned entrance told us we were in the right place but we couldn’t hear a single person, let alone a crowd. We picked our way through the complex, across a number of empty astroturfs before finding what looked like it must be the main event.
The main entrance to the B.93 training ground (Photo: FootballinDK)
On the opposite side to us the hardcore B.93 support got into full voice as the match kicked off and we managed to jostle for a spot about a metre from the side of the pitch. Østerbro Stadion this was not. In fact it felt more Sunday league in terms of setting, but the pace and quality of the football quickly dispelled any notions of Powerleague and we settled in for a feisty opening 45.
B.93 take on Thisted at their training ground (Photo: FootballinDK)
Half-time offered the opportunity to run to the nearest shop to grab the coldest beer they had before returning to our place on the touchline to watch B.93 ease their way to a 2-0 victory, with goals from Erenbjerg and Rasmussen and the mercurial number 7 Souheib Dhaflaoui, who has played Superliga football with FC Nordsjælland, pulling all the strings. In the end, standing with friends on the side of a training pitch on a freezing cold Saturday afternoon, clutching a can of beer, turned out to be the perfect antidote to the previous 18 months of socially distanced friendships.
The next day, nursing our heads after a late night spent in a dark basement bar, the main order of the day was FC København’s clash with Jylland rivals Aarhus. Hostilities between the clubs were ignited with the transfer of AGF’s Jens Stage to the capital in 2019 and as two of the best supported teams in the country this was going to be a clash well worth the visit.
FCK’s Sekton 12 with an amazing choreography display ahead of kick off (Photo: FootballinDK)
Sitting in the A-Tribune we were perfectly placed to soak up the atmosphere, with the choreography from FCK’s Sektion 12 to our left and the pyro-laden effort from AGF’s travelling contingent on our right.
AGF’s travelling support light up the stand as the players come out of the tunnel (Photo: FootballinDK)
There was some talk going into this fixture that Roony Bardghji may feature as he was now eligible for first-team football having turned 16 the previous week. But it was still with seemingly universal surprise that when the teams were announced Roony was not just on the bench but in the starting lineup, adding an extra element of intrigue to an already hotly anticipated matchup.
Often the greater the hype of a player yet to play at the highest level, the greater the letdown when they finally do, but as the game kicked off it quickly became obvious that Roony was every bit worthy of the fanfare, demanding the ball and taking on defenders with speed and precision. He almost made it onto the scoresheet in the first half, only to be denied by a lunging block by an AGF defender. FCK took the game to AGF in the first half and went ahead just before the break through a remarkable long range effort from Lukas Lerager that must have come from 35 yards+.
The second half played out without a great deal of incident, until a handball in the 93rd minute handed AGF a chance to equalise from the spot. The big number 9, Patrick Mortensen, stepped up and with a panenka so cool the ball practically had icicles forming on it by the time it went over the line, AGF snatched a point at the death (match highlights here). A handful of AGF fans in the A-Tribune who until this point had managed to keep their allegiances under their hats, broke cover to celebrate wildly as the crowd around us let out exasperated sighs.
As we headed out of the stadium we saw Roony had marked his senior debut with a man of the match award, a fitting tribute for his fine work down the right hand side and we left in no doubt that we’d just witnessed the debut of a very special player. And after so long watching football behind closed doors, the experience of a game being played in front of a full house, with choreography, pyro and drama to boot was an experience we all very much needed.
2021’s road trip will live long in the memory and I’m now eagerly awaiting the 2022 fixtures to get planning the next one. Skål!
