The club were formed with the intent of giving Danish students a sporting outlet back in 1889. But they proved they weren’t all brains by winning the Danish title on no less than 9 (nine!) occasions, only bettered by the current foes Brondby IF and FC Copenhagen. Oh, and KB who of course were part of the merger back in 1991 to create FC Copenhagen. So they have a fair pedigree although their last title was back in the days when Mrs Robinson was the original MILF, Sergeant Pepper decided Match.com wasn’t for him and formed a band and Che Guevara made a fatal mistake by holidaying in Bolivia (that’s 1967 for those who can’t be bothered to look up those events!). They did of course win the 1999 Danish Super Cup on penalties, beating AaB in the most confusing titled game ever, as if you needed reminding.
More recently times have been tough for the Academics. In 2007 the AB board announced that AB would be back in the Superliga by 2010 and to help with that they built a decent squad to grace the very decent 13,800 capacity Gladsaxe Stadium which would put many top flight teams across Europe to shame. They built it, but nobody really came, with crowds falling to below the 1,000 mark. In June 2012 the football club was saved from bankruptcy by the majority vote of the city council. Hard times indeed.
Of course I wasn’t making this pilgrimage alone. The thought of it! Ben and FCK Ivar would be my guides – Ben for his ability to sniff out a sausage or two, and Ivar for his fine array of Danish-cum-English swear words. What better company could a man wish for on such an auspicious occasion…well, apart from a beer or two but that would come I am sure.
AB 0 Lyngby BK 3 – Gladsaxe Stadion – Wednesday 21st August 2013
My claim to fame for the evening is spotting Kim Milton Nielsen, the referee that sent Beckham off in the World Cup finals in 1998. Well, when I say, spotted, I meant Ivar spotted him after quite a few beers. It could have been another tall Dane simply having a quiet night out watching the magic of the Danish Cup but I like to believe the romance of such a key figure in our national footballing history being one of the few hundred watching this game.
But back to the game. Four Carlsberg specials, two bread rolls and a rather large sausage accompanied three Lyngby goals, two of which were top drawer, scored by Andreas Granskov with a great lobbed volley and Patrick Mortensen with a sweet side-foot (Pat scored a third to wrap things up a few minutes later) summed up the action quite well. The hundred or so away fans tried to whip up an atmosphere but in truth everyone was happy to sit back and relax, including the AB defence who tried as hard as they could to gift Lyngby a goal in the opening twenty minutes.
The final whistle was greeted with muted disapproval for the result. The few hundred AB fans knew they were never in the races and that a cup dream would stay just that for another season. Lyngby, on the other, would prepare for the trip into Brondby territory next week to face BGA. And for us, hungry, thirsty Brits (and Expats), the night was young which can only mean a serious headache and a serious dent in the finances in the morning. Copenhagen – I bloody love you.