Marked for Mateo Restrepo
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Viktor Bjarki Daðason provided it, and the 8.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” HB Køge may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match18 Sep 2027
HB Køge make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now HB Køge have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at HB Køge
Jacob Storevik and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at HB Køge training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. John Björkengren is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match18 Sep 2027
Viborg made HB Køge work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad20 Sep 2027
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad20 Sep 2027
7 new faces, and HB Køge are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mads Fischer on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jul 2027
Valdemar Møller was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market12 Jul 2027
Berkant Bayrak has left for Kolding IF in a $160.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market12 Jul 2027
Kolding IF pay $130.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Andreas Troelsen falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
HB Køge asked and Hobro said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Too much change too quickly at HB Køge
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad12 Jul 2027
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at HB Køge has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Match12 Jul 2027
Continental football is in reach for HB Køge
29 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Carlos Torres named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Carlos Torres is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market7 Sep 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. La Equidad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market7 Sep 2026
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Sebastián Bonilla arrives at La Equidad with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.