After advancing to SSL, former coach Micke Öhman chose to become coach of the Swiss Ad Astra Sarnen. Then an old Swedish Championship gold hero stepped in.
The new coach for the Stockholm team was Roger Östergren, who in the 90s took two Swedish Championship golds with Fornudden. He knew it would be a challenge and now Djurgården has got a nightmare start.
– There is no team that has been as defeated as Djurgården. We know what we got into with SSL. The conditions to stay will not get better with this start.
The tough start Roger Östergren explains that they could not prepare for SSL to the extent they wanted. Several defections and injuries put sticks in the wheel.
– We are so far behind in the construction. If the squad was thin before, it did not get better when we got four dropouts during the pre-season. When you can only train with 14 people, the quality is then.
In addition to having zero points, Djurgården has only scored 20 goals and has a goal difference of minus 33 – it is the worst in the league.
– We have not had our own game in the attacking zone, above all we have a hard time even getting the ball up there. It will be very easy for the opponents then.
There is no reason to look back, it can not get worse.
Roger Östergren thinks that the tempo in SSL is something completely different and that the players may have been a little shocked. Partly because they have not faced this type of resistance before – not even during the pre-season.
– The players probably knew that it would go fast but not this fast. We have simply not felt this level of floorball.
– This will be a bit of a learning period. We took the match against Storvreta a bit like a training match, that we lost against them is no surprise.
When the results do not goes the way it is easy for it to settle down mentally. Both as a player and coach. Roger Östergren says that it is frustrating when he as a coach does not get what he wants, but points out that it is at least as difficult for the players.
– But now there is no reason to look back, it can not get worse. It is only in the heat of battle that the boys think they are pissed off, we have a great morale and do not get too depressed.
– Team captain Patrik Kareliusson says that nothing is impossible.
Photo: Per Wiklund / Bildbyrån
Patrik Kareliusson is the team captain for Djurgården and the team’s best scorer. He says that the transition from a lot of attacking play last year to defensive play this year has been difficult.
– It was no news that it would be tough but we just lie and “def” and wait for counterattack, he says to DN.
He continues:
– We have many older players who played SSL before but there is quite a big difference today. Then we have a lot of new guys too who I do not even know if they can go to Systembolaget yet.
Patrik Kareliusson says that the squad may not be good enough to beat teams like Storvreta away. However, he wants to pay tribute to the younger players and says that the team has a lot to learn from them.
– They run on everything and the rest of us have to follow that.
The goal for the season is to stay in SSL and to do that he wants the team to see the season as a cup game. There are more teams that are struggling and these are the matches you have to win.
– It is not possible to cry over the introduction, no one will lose to us for being nice. Nothing is impossible.
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