It was a lack of goalscoring that ultimately cost Gregg Berhalter his job as head coach of Hammarby in the Swedish Superettan. But with new coach Thomas Dennerby in charge, it took just one game for Nik Ledgerwood and the his Hammarby teammates to find some form in front of goal.
In his first game back after Gold Cup duty, Ledgerwood played the entire game as Hammarby beat Orgryte 3-0 on Monday. It marked Hammarby’s first win in four league games but they’re unbeaten in six games and are in sixth place with 24 points, seven points back of the promotion positions.
Two games into Germany’s 2.Bundesliga and Olivier Occean’s FC Kaiserslautern are off to a perfect start. Occean came off the bench for the second week in a row as FCK beat Ingolstadt, 3-1, on Friday.
After losing their first game of the new season, Rob Friend’s 1860 Munich picked up their first win as they came back from behind to register a 2-1 win over FSV Frankfurt on Sunday. Friend started the first game of the season last week but came off the bench in the 63rd minute in Sunday’s win.
While Tosaint Ricketts was off at the Gold Cup, his club team Sadnes Ulf in Norway put together consecutive wins that got them out of the relegation zone. Ricketts was back on Saturday and came off the bench in the 86th minute as Sandnes won their third in a row, beating Aalesund 3-2 on Saturday. The winning streak has moved Sandnes into 12th place in the 16-team Eliteserien.
In Singapore, Jordan Webb’s Home United is through to the semifinal of the Singapore Cup after picking up a 5-2 aggregate win over Geylang International. With a two-goal lead after the first leg, Home sealed the tie with a 3-2 win over Geylang in the second leg on Monday.
Meanwhile, Jerome Baker’s Hougang United bowed out of the competition after their quarterfinal with Balestier Khalsa went to penalty kicks. Hougang held a two-goal lead after winning the first leg, but Balestier won the second leg 2-0 on Friday. After extra time settled nothing, Balestier won 4-1 on penalties.
