Thursday afternoon FC Helsingør met Brøndby IF in a training match at Brøndby’s training ground. The match was played over three periods of 40 minutes, and it was a well-played and intense affair, which FCH had every reason to be proud of, despite it ending in a narrow Brøndby victory. The home team fielded a number of Superliga profiles such as Hedlund, Radocevic, Maxsø, Vigen, Slimane Jung and Frendrup, mixed with young players with slightly less familiar names, so this was certainly qualified opposition for FCH to be up against.
FC Helsingør played particularly well in the first period, where they had a lot of the ball and were successful in putting together a number of good passing sequences. In the first period most of FCH’s attacking contributions came from Carl Lange, Eli Just and Sebastian Czajkowski, who often succeeded in playing their way up through the middle, or in Czajkowski’s case winning aerial duels and flicking the ball on to a teammate. A strong Brøndby defender, however, kept FC Helsingør from scoring.
Philip Rejnhold made his first start in the FCH shirt and showed several signs of his talent from his position at right back, including a good shot on goal towards the end of the period that went just wide of the post. He was replaced by Anders Holst at the start of the second period.
The second period had barely begun before the home team took the lead. A Brøndby build-up down the right ended with the ball being played into a Brøndby player centrally. Brandon Onkony came out and got it closed down, tackling at the right moment. Unfortunately, the ball bounced straight back into the feet of the Brøndby player, who somewhat fortunately got the ball under control. One-on-one with Kevin Stuhr, he did not miss and was able to slot it safely past the FCH veteran.
1-0 Brøndby IF
After fifteen minutes of the second period, Brøndby changed most of their team in one go, but that did not show in the quality of the match. Both teams tackled hard and looked to build good, flowing attacks with plenty of passes, and they usually also succeeded in setting up the good play. But both teams’ defences were strong; Jonas Henriksen and Brandon Onkony stood firm and shut down most things centrally.
FCH followed suit with the substitutions and made four changes after 20 minutes in the second period; among others, Oliver Kjærgaard and Teddy Bergqvist came onto the pitch. Teddy had not been on the pitch long before Carl Lange got free of his marker in the middle, drove forward centrally, and sent the ball out to Teddy on the right side of the box. Teddy fired hard and low, and only a superb save with the feet from Brøndby’s goalkeeper prevented a goal. The save sent the ball out to Kjærgaard, who was lurking on the edge of the box, but under pressure from the BIF defence he could not keep his shot down and it sailed over the goal.
Shortly afterwards, Lucas Haren came on for his first match after the spring season ended, together with Jeppe Kjær. And it was Jeppe Kjær who, just before 2. period ended, quickly turned his opponent and drove towards goal. Slightly outside the box he played Teddy Bergqvist into space, but the Swede’s shot was too close to the goalkeeper.
From the start of the third period, several youth players came on, and especially U19s Emil Rasmussen, who came on on the right wing, impressed with a handful of really good raids up the right side during the period, and a couple of sharp crosses to follow. An exciting appearance from Emil Rasmussen.
But it was a couple of the “old hands” who made the breakthrough for FCH after 20 minutes of play. Jeppe Kjær was sent away on a counterattack, where he beat the offside trap with sheer speed. When he reached the edge of the box, he cut across the pitch and actually looked to be closed down by a couple of Brøndby defenders rushing back. But Kjær cleverly laid the ball back with his heel, and inside the box Anders Holst, as so many times before, sneaked into position, and alone with the goalkeeper Holst hammered the ball into the opposite corner.
1-1 FC Helsingør
Five minutes later Brøndby were close, when one of their attacking players broke through on a counterattack up the middle, but alone with substitute Christoffer Petersen, FCH’s goalkeeper kept his cool and saved the shot with a superb save using his feet. Excellent, excellent goalkeeping from the man they simply call “P”.
The third period was marked by many, many substitutions from both teams and became a little more disjointed than the first two periods. But it was from a set piece that Brøndby came back. After a corner, Brøndby’s Andreas Maxsø was higher than everyone else, and he headed powerfully down and into the goal, with no chance for Christoffer Petersen in the FCH goal.
2-1 Brøndby
Right at the end, substitute Valdemar Holse and Jeppe Kjær almost, together, could have forced the equaliser, which would not have been undeserved for FC Helsingør. In a lovely one-two move the pair brought the ball up into the Brøndby box, where Holse laid it off to Kjær, who tried to lob the ball over the Brøndby goalkeeper. But unfortunately for Kjær, the ball went just wide of the post after having fooled the goalkeeper.
The match did not offer any further chances, and FCH could go home with a really good feeling and lots of minutes in their legs, knowing that they had given one of the Superliga’s top teams a real game.
FC Helsingør’s starting-11: K. Ellegaard, D. Wilkins, B. Onkony, J. Henriksen, P. Rejnhold, C. Lange, F. Juul Christensen, D. Norouzi, Trial player, S. Czajkowski
Substitutions during the match: C. Petersen, T. Bergqvist, F. Bay, O. Kjærgaard, Trial player, J. Kjær, N. Hansen, M. “Mac” Christensen, L. Haren, E. Rasmussen, V. Holse, T. Christiansen
