Damallsvenskan title stays in Malmo

A rose is a rose by any other name, and so is the women's football team in Malmo. 

  • The FC Rosengård players and coaches celebrating the win. Ludvig Thunman/Bildbyrån

  • A rose is a rose by any other name, and so is the women’s football team in Malmö.
    FC Rosengård, formerly LdB FC Malmö and Malmö FF Dam, won its second-straight Damallsvenskan championship October 18 with a 4-0 win over AIK. Rosengård finished wiith 54 points. KIF Örebro finished in second, its highest-ever place in the league. Örebro clinched the silver medal with a 2-0 win over Eskiltuna.
    Rosengård features an international lineup that includes Swiss star Ramona Bachmann, Iceland star Manon Melis, German scoring machine Anja Mitag and three-time FIFA Women’s Player of the Year Marta of Brazil.
    The question now is whether Rosengård can survive being champion. Marta has been part of a championship team in every club season in which she has played in Sweden and the United States. Unfortunately, every team for which she has played has either folded outright or had to completely restructure financially. Marta led Umeå to greatness in the early 2000s, but her high salary eventually forced the club to dump many of its big-name stars and essentially start over.
    Marta moved to the U.S., where she signed with the Los Angeles Sol of the WSA. She led the Sol to the league title, but her reported $500,000 salary wiped out the team, which went dormant after winning the title. The same thing happened when Marta moved first to the Western New York Flash and the Sky Blues. Back in Sweden, she signed with Tyresö, which won the title in 2012 but could not sustain its finances. Tyresö folded at the start of this season.
    Rosengård led the 2014 Damallsvenskan from start, losing just twice all season, Mitag finished the season with 21 goals while Bachmann chipped in 11.
    Against AIK, Kirsten van de Ven, Marta, Theresa Sjögran and Bachmann all scored.
    The league title gives Malmö a unique double as both the men’s and women’s teams won their respective championships. Malmö FF clinched the Allsvenskan title at the start of October.
    Meanwhile at Behrn Arena, Örebro celebrated its silver-medal season and a trip to the UEFA Women’s Champions League next season. An own goal and a Sanna Talonen strike ensured Örebro of its best-ever season in the Damallsvenskan.