Marked for Marcus Quaison
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match14 Apr 2029
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Falkenberg spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Squad16 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IFK Goteborg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Apr 2029
David Kruse 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.
The terraces16 Apr 2029
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match14 Apr 2029
Falkenberg made IFK Goteborg work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
A defender's afternoon for Noah Tolf
Defensive actions: 19. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Filip Ottosson has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at IFK Goteborg will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Alexander Jallow dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Nov 2027
Alexander Jallow: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” IFK Goteborg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Jacob Rinne in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IFK Goteborg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match23 Oct 2027
The run at home goes on for IFK Goteborg
19 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match23 Oct 2027
Kevin Filling had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Hammarby were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match23 Oct 2027
5 matches without a win for IFK Goteborg
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around IFK Goteborg are no longer polite ones.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Tomás Belmonte 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.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
A mark of 7.98, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Loan watch25 Oct 2027
“I watch every IFK Goteborg game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at AIK runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match23 Oct 2027
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Sep 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jacob Rinne and IFK Goteborg agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Tomás Belmonte 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at IFK Goteborg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Kruse 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.
Match25 Sep 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Max Fenger runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.