In case you do not know the song: When the Danish men’s national team had their best days yet in the 1980’s they had a cheering song that went “We are red – we are white: We are Danish dynamite”.
That should explain the headline of this post about Tyresö FFs left and center back, 25-year-old Line Røddik Hansen Line was born and raised in the Danish capital Copenhagen and is currently playing her fourth season in Sweden. She is a regular member of the Danish national team, has 80 caps until today and will most likely have an important role when Denmark takes on hosts Sweden, Finland and Italy in group A of the EURO 2013 that will start on the 10th of July.
The first three seasons in Tyresö she played left back and was in my eyes the best defender in the Damallsvenskan for two years now. Playing very offensive, she added a lot to Tyresö’s attacking game, often cooperating with Brazilian superstar Marta on the left.
After eight games played Tyresö leads the Damallsvenskan as expected. However, the first six matches showed that the champions were still struggling to establish their goal factory – missing way too many chances. That has changed now. After beating Sunnanå 10-2 at home, Tyresö followed up that enormous win with another incredible result last Saturday: 7-0 away against Jitex.
Line Røddik Hansen has moved inside from her left back position. The club has signed 34-year-old Swedish WNT player Sara Thunebro who plays left back and Line is now acting center back as she does in the Danish national team.
After the game against Jitex I caught up with her for an interview.
How does it feel after the last two matches?
– Of course it is a real good feeling after the last two games against Sunnanå and Jitex. It is not that often that your team scores 17 goals in only two matches, so right now it feels like we should just keep on going. Especially for us in the backline it feels good to finish the game on Saturday with a clean sheet. Difficult to say what kind of impact those two games have, but it is obvious that they give us self-confidence. We did not score so many goals in the first games, but hopefully we continue like this now. We’ve got three games left before the summer break and it is important that we do our job good now.
Line, you used to play left back for Tyresö the last three years and you were very successful doing so. Now, that Sara Thunebro came into the team coming back from Frankfurt/Germany, you have to play center back. How do you cope with that situation?
– I feel pretty much at “home” in the center. Before I came to Tyresö I had only played center back and never left. Actually a lot of people ask me where I would prefer to play, but I am not able to answer, because I see good things with both positions. As a center back you are a part of the central game and can take part in building up the game which is definitely something I like. As a left back you have more opportunities to take part in the offensive game and sometimes even score goals and that is something I sometimes miss now. But in the national team I play center back and of course this is something good that I now play the same position in my club, especially before the EURO.
Stockholm has been your home for far more than three years. How’s life here?
– I like very much living in Stockholm and feel pretty much at home here. Of course, I miss my family and my friends at home in Denmark, but I also know that I will move back home when I stop playing soccer one day. Besides my playing soccer, I study to be a coach at the Swedish School of Sports and Health Sciences (GIH) and I will actually graduate in one week from now. This was really a lucky combination, to be able to play soccer 100% and even get me a degree for the future.
There is a lot of soccer in Line’s life in other words. What other things are you doing when you have spare time?
– If I do not play soccer or study I spend time with my boyfriend or friends. I like to go to different cafés and really use the piossibilities you have when living in Stockholm, especially now when it finally gets warmer. My favorite part of town must be Söder(malm). I like those little cafés there, they have a little different shops here and it is really calm and peaceful.
Do you have any book, music or film that you would recommend us?
– Talking about books, I mostly read books for my studies the last three years. I am really looking forward to be able to read some novels again soon.
Short news from Sweden
- Pia Sundhage has named her roster for the game against Norway on June 1 in the new arena in Linköping. Some surprises: Goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl is back after her ACL injury last year, young Malmö center back Amanda Ilestedt gets one more chance. KIF Örebro midfielder Elin Magnusson gets her first call to the WNT, almost 31 years old.
- Two forward talents have really rocked the league so far: Umeås 17-year-old Lina Hurtig has already scored six goals and Kristianstads 17-year-old striker Marija Banusic has established herself as a starting player. International Josefine Öqvist told me some weeks ago that it is merely timing that separates Banusic from becoming a world class forward.
- Very important: The Swedish roof organisation for elite women soccer EFD now offers a video for every forthcoming round that gives you all the goals. See the first one here from Round 7:
http://vimeo.com/66685966.
Standings after 8 rounds: 1. Tyresö 20, 2. Malmö 17, 3. Göteborg 14, 4. Umeå 14, 5. Örebro 13, 6. Linköping 10, 7. Kristianstad 10, 8. Mallbacken 8, 9. Piteå 6, 10. Jitex 5, 11. Vittsjö 5, 12. Sunnanå 3.
Top scorers: 1. Christen Press (Tyresö) 9, 2. Jodie Taylor (Göteborg) 7, 3. Lina Hurtig (Umeå), Kirsten van de Ven (Tyresö), Marta (Tyresö) all 6.