First Division. The formula of the championship was slightly changed this season: it was still two-phased championship, but instead of the top 8 going to the second phase, only the top 4 were going ahead this year. Of course, there are old and unsolvable problems with many-phased championships: a small league, like the Swedish, needs a way for playing more games, especially for the leading clubs. But second phase makes the regular part of the season quite meaningless: it is enough for a team to qualify. A smart, but otherwise limited team can do just that, saving strength for what really counts. They don’t need to finish first or second – 8th place would be enough and such a team can go all the way to the title after the first phase. In a league of just 12 teams a tactic like that means that pretty much one of the outsiders may end up champion. Even in honest countries like Sweden scheming can be used – it is not corruption after all, just a tactical matter. Of course, the case is largely theoretical – weak teams hardly ever can go very far – but the real problem remained anyway: the regular part of the championship was almost playing for nothing and it was even stupid to put much effort in it, risking tiredness and injuries. So, it was just the top 4 from the regular championship going ahead this year, opening immediately the other problem: most teams of the league had nothing to play for at all, once getting enough points for survival. Short season and long vacation. In a way, 8 of the 12 teams had to play a bit just to avoid relegation. And if there were weak outsiders, it was just playing the motions for good number of clubs.
There was such outsider this championship:
Trelleborgs FF had no bite and was at the bottom the whole time – 12th with 12 points.
Two other teams battled between themselves for survival.
Mjallby AIF lost the battle – 11th with 15 points. Along with Trelleborgs, they were relegated.
IFK Norrkoping survived – 10th with 17 points. Lucky boys.
IK Brage celebrated its 60th birthday with keeping place in the top division. Nothing more to brag about, though – looked like they managed managed to earn enough points for survival early and the rest was pretty much a vacation. 9th with 19 points.
Similar to Brage were Osters IF – taking it easy at the championship, but concentrating on the Cup tournament. 8th with 20 points.
Halmstads BK was satisfied with easy season too – 7th with 21 points.
Hammarby IF was perhaps more ambitious, but not strong enough: 6th with 24 points.
AIK was unlucky – they fought for top place and going ahead, but lost the battle on goal-difference – three teams ended with 26 points; AIK had the worse goal-difference and took 5th place.
The top four at the end of the regular part of the championship went ahead: IFK Goteborg – 4th with 26 points; Orgryte IS – 3rd with 26 points; Kalmar FF – 2nd with 28 points; and Malmo FF – 1st with 30 points.
On the surface, Malmo FF seemed like prime candidate for the title – strong in the first phase, outplaying all. But then again… IFK Goteborg, arguably the strongest Swedish squad at this time, played just enough, barely enough, to reach the second stage. And Malmo FF had to face them in the semi-final.
Face to face, the leading Swedish teams had nothing to hold back. Fresher IFK Goteborg won both legs – 2-1 at home and 2-0 in Malmo.
Malmo FF was out, seemingly, just to prove how stupid was to win meaningless phase of a championship. May be even to prove how stupid is to have English coach, for the English played seriously and without tactical schemes from start to end. Thus, the team was tired when it really mattered and the opponent – fresher.
Kalmar FF proved the same as Malmo FF – whatever strength they had, they spent in the first phase. Second best then, but so what? Orgryte IS was in high gear now and beat them twice – 4-2 and 3-1.
There was no small final for the bronze medals – Malmo FF and Kalmar FF had to sulk and lick their wounds without any chance for consolatory victory.
IFK Goteborg and Orgryte IS met to decide the championship – a final between 3th and 4th in the opening phase, both teams barely qualifying for the semi-finals, but once they achieved that, they were in top form. Or may be not… at least, IFK Goteborg was liable to misstep. They lost the first leg of the final at home 2-4. They lost badly and, seemingly, everything was over. But they came back in the second leg and won it 3-2. It was high drama, but it was not enough for the best Swedish team: Orgryte still prevailed by a goal.
Title lost, but it was not so bad after all: the team was wonderful – so far, the bigger loss was the coach, who made this squad – Sven Goran Eriksson. But he had good replacement – Lennart Johansson. The top players were not sold yet, so it was just a matter of slight adjustment, perhaps a bit of fine tuning of form. That was Sweden after all – no big tragedy because the team finished second.
Orgryte IS played their cards right and truimphed. A good example of timing and sober evaluation of priorities – the team struggled a bit at first, but once they reached the final stages, they were just fine and fought with great spirit to the very end. The 1985 champions of Sweden, third row from left: Raymond Carlsson (lagledare), Anders Carlsson, Conny Karlsson, Åke Johansson, Henrik Svartborn, Anders Holmvén, Sören Börjesson,Agne Simonsson (Tränare)
Middle row: Dennis Olsson, Jan Gidebratt, Jan Hellström, Glenn Martindahl, Piter Esberg, Tony Ohlsson, Gunnar Samuelsson, Anders Andersson
Sitting: Hans Prytz, Peter Rodin, Sonny Åberg, Sven Andersson, Lars Andersson, Göran Ramstedt, Dennis Skånberg (ass,tränare).
Playing their cards right was the whole secret – this is a modest squad, especially compared to IFK Goteborg and Malmo FF. Conny Carlsson was more or less the only familiar name. There was some good talent, but nobody with a name yet. Sturdy team, depending on collective effort and good timing, but nothing special. It was nice to see them win, though – Orgryte was the underdog. It was the 14th title for Orgryte, but their first after 1928! A 15th title was unlikely in the visible future, though, so it was truly a big moment to be cherished. Even more than that: Orgryte IS was still the most successful Swedish club – Malmo FF had 12 titles at the moment, IFK Norrkoping – 11, and IFK Goteborg – 10.