Welcome to our blog!

The reason we started this blog was the big adventure of 2008. Azalea BK girls -93 took part in one of the world's major soccer cups: Schwan’s USA Cup in Minneapolis. 24 girls and 9 adults took off for an adventure they will all forever remember.

Our two teams "Passion" and "Joy" played two tournaments. We won the Medal flight trophy and got fifth in the Trophy flight. We didn't loose one game! The girls stayed in families of local soccer teams in Blaine and Chicago. We had a lot to tell. And as the team still plays, we'll keep the blog, even if we don't update as frequent.

Find links to Azalea football club, how to support the team, listen to our single CD "Football in my heart", USA CUP, sponsors and more to the right.

Follow the team below and see earlier posts for more background. As in blogs the time line reads backwards. The adventure begun long time ago and we'll keep on blogging!

(earlier posts in Swedish only, sorry)

National goal keeper training!

This weekend Hedvig Lindahl, goal keeper in the Swedish National team, played against Brasil here in Göteborg and won 3-1. A few days earlier she was in action at Karl Johans torg, our training field. She held a special training for eight goal keepers in Azalea girls -93 and -94!

Hedvig recently moved to Göteborg and Majorna, our part of town, and will function here as an ambassador for her team Göteborg FC. So last Monday Agnes, Elvira, Nathalie, Linnea, Erika, Nicolina, Emmeli och Emilia worked with goal keeper acrobatics and other useful stuff when keeping the penalty area clear (as you can see on the pictures). A supernice soccer night in the best spring weather you can imagine! Hedvig was impressed by our girls good technic skills and gave a small goal keeers homework. Hopefully she can come back later this spring and check us.

Until then we wish to thank her so much for the great lesson!
www.hedviglindahl.se

Let the series begin!

This year the 93 girls will play two series. We'll team together with the younger -94 girls in the series of Halland, and by ourselves in the highest Göteborg junior series. Name of this team is Azalea/GFF, the series table is HERE...

We will play ten games in this series:
The first on Tuesday 14.4, 18.30 Jitex-Azalea (Frejaplan, konstgräs)
21.4, 19.30 Azalea-Eriksberg (Apelsinplan, konstgräs)
23.4, 19.30 Azalea-Kungälv (Apelsinplan, konstgräs)
3.5, 18.00 Qviding-Azalea (Överåsvallen, konstgräs)
Azalea-Säve (Apelsinplan) - OBS! Flyttas till annan dag!
13.5, 19.00 Ytterby-Azalea (Yttern IP, gräs)
19.5, 19.30 Azalea-Qviding (Heden 3, konstgräs)
28.5, 19.30 Eriksberg-Azalea (Krokängsplan, konstgräs)
8.5, 19.30 Azalea-Jitex (Påvelund, konstgräs)
Kungälv-Azalea (Kongevi) - OBS! Flyttas till annan dag!

Spring, finally

Still there is a little snow left in the corners but today spring arrived when we met the Alingsås KIK F 93 girls at Valhalla. They played well and won 2-3 but at times we had a good game. Supported by the Azalea -94 girls we've won five out of seven friendly games over the last month. We are getting ready for the series.

cold start

There is a winter season also for football. Last Tuesday was -8° C (18° F) when we played a friendly game with Säve, at Backavallen. That is really cold and the artificial grass was slippery from the frost. But it was great fun! And we won the game, 4-3. Our goalkeeper did well!

Now the spring season starts with some indoor weekend cups and more friendly games. This year we'll play one series together with the -94 girls.

end of season

Foto: Per Schillander

This blog has been lazy for a while, sorry. That doesn't mean nothing happened:

The fantastic football year of 2008 is almost over. When we summon up it's the best ever, seen to results. We've won two big cup trophes, USA Cup in Minneapolis and GT Cup in Göteborg. In the Göteborg series we've won over brave and technically skilled teams and was finally in second place in both series, girls 15 and girls 16 years (in the 16-series we won 9 of 12 matches and in the 15-series 12 of 16). And most important of all; we've had so much fun together!

The photos above are from one of the last games in the series, an early autumn game at Öckerö, one of the islands in the archipelago just outside the city. We won and celabrated with a pizza picnic in the sun.

Still a few training sessions left before 2009, see you!

Guld i GT-cupen!

For the second time this year Azalea -93 girls brought home the gold medal in a big tournament, GT-cupen. The Sunday afternoon final result against Eriksberg was 4-1. That proved that latest result 3-0 certainly was not just a lucky accident.






Totto was chosen the game's best player, cool!







Read an interview with Agnes, captain and goal keeper here.



Irma's mom Lena served awsome chocolate cake for celebration.





Photo: Bibbi Forsman

Read all cup results here.

finally!

Photo: Bibbi Forsman

To win over Eriksberg seemed for a long time impossible, like a jinx. That changed totally on Tuesday, we scored 3 goals the first 20 minutes, the final result of the game. Parents were equally happy.

Majvallen is a nice field, centrally located in Göteborg on the edge of the huge park Slottskogen. This is also the new address for Azalea since the old club house was sold earlier this year.

Improved results

Photo: Bibbi Forsman

Results improved after the slow season start, for the latest three games 6-0, 18-0 and 5-0. To follow results in the series, girls 16 click here and and girls 15 here. Right now we are leading and in third place, but there are still many games to e played.

This was a nice late summer evening at Slottskogsvallen, last Wednesday.

celebrating ullevi

Photo: Cornelia F.

The sports arena Ullevi celebrates 50 years this year. Last Wednesday the Swedish and French National men's teams played a friendly game as part of the jubilee. Azalea BK was invited to manifest youth soccer along with other clubs. It was well worth a little rain and even if Sweden lost 2-3 it was a fun match to watch.

Azalea player in the Swedish National Team!

Photo: Per Schillander

Our very own Sofia H. will attend the next training camp for the girls 15 Swedish National team in September. She will be the only Göteborg player. Sofia has been an Azalea player since 2000 and we are so very, very proud of her!

F-93 jubilee

August 16 was a day to celebrate, exactly eight years since the first F-93 training. This is one of the earliest photos in the web archive. 2001, match against Mossen.

A new season started

We played our first series game for the season last week. Qviding beat us. Maybe we were more like happy house cats than hungry lions, after the successful USA CUP adventure. We had better focus the second half and there will be other chances to fight.



Clever spectators created a nice shelter from the soft rain.



Photo Bibbi Forsman

Great cookies is some comfort after a lost game (and bananas). All parents take turns keeping the "fikabord" filled for the home games. "Apelsinplan" has been our home field this season. The grass is as green as it can be here, perfect.

Norwegian/Swedish jokes

Click here to read about how our dear neighbours make fun of us (USA Cup blog post). Exactly the same jokes are told the other way around :)

E.R. special

Here are the photos we didn't dare show moms and dads at home before they could see for themselves all girls are fine:



We happened to be the USA Cup's medical center's most treated team 2008. The staff at the center were incredibly caring and helpful. They took care of knees, feet, stomachs and heads as well as heat stroke, an infected spider bite and an asthma attack. We are all fine now!






This is the board used to keep track of and direct the ambulance cars to different fields. Field L2 "the Swedish field" had visits twice.







Photo: Bibbi Forsman and Pia Dybeck

Record for one day: three pair of crutches for one knee and two feet.

Record for one match: team Passion's quarter final with four players from our team and three from the other. Hope they are all fine too!

Being treated was free, but x-ray, crutches and medicines we had to pay for. Nearest pharmacy most conveniently located at Super Target, where we hang out for lunch anyway.