Season-review 09/10: Champions again!

17/05 2010 20:26

Three rounds before the end of the season, F.C. Copenhagen definitely secured yet another Danish championship, making it a remarkable 7 out of 10 since 2001! After a rather uneven opening of the season back in July/August 2009, F.C. Copenhagen managed to stay close behind Odense, who were top of the table during the fall season.

While Odense missed the group stages of the Europa League, Copenhagen qualified for the third consecutive time, but that proved to be an advantage for the Lions, who became better and better throughout the fall. In the last league-game of the season, Copenhagen grabbed a convincing – and very important - 2-0-victory in Odense, reducing the gap between the two teams from 4 to 1 point before the winter break. A few weeks later, Copenhagen pulled out an even more impressive performance, when they visited Prague and defeated Sparta with 3-0 and took the 2nd place of the group behind PSV Eindhoven, which meant qualification for the round of 32 in February.

Here, the later French champions from Olympique Marseille proved too strong, but Copenhagen went high-flying into national Superleague and soon overtook the 1st place from Odense, who struggled to find the same flow in their game as earlier in the season. When Copenhagen beat Odense 2-0 in PARKEN in the beginning of April, it looked like an early matchpoint, but Copenhagen themselves had some difficulties in a couple of away games.

However, Odense failed to take advantage of these slips, so when Copenhagen defeated their rivals from Brøndby with 2-0 in the beginning of May, the champagne bottles were ready for the following game in PARKEN against HB Køge. 20.000 fans showed up on a lovely evening in Copenhagen, and their heroes rewarded them with a crushing 4-0-victory and yet another championship.

Notes from the season:

• The biggest win of the season was 7-1 against newcomers against HB Køge. It is also the biggest win ever for Copenhagen, as the earlier record was 7-2.

• F.C. Copenhagen-captain Hjalte Nørregaard grabbed the club record, when in Prague against Sparta he played his game number 285 for the club. During his youth, Hjalte played for KB (one of the two mother clubs of F.C. Copenhagen), before joining F.C. Copenhagen as a professional, and apart from one year in Heerenveen, the 29 year-old central midfielder has always played for Copenhagen.

• During the season, Copenhagen won 6 games in the Superleague without conceding a goal themselves.

• Kenneth Zohore became the youngest rookie ever in the Danish Superleague, when he – at the age of 16 years and 35 days – was substituted against AGF Aarhus on March 7th. Kenneth regularly trained with the first team squad during the spring, and the big striker (188 cm and 96 kilo) is now a full member of the squad.

• Atiba Hutchinson played his last game for F.C. Copenhagen in May, before joining PSV Eindhoven in the Dutch Eresdivisie. “Hutch” joined Copenhagen in January 2006 and was actually one of Ståle Solbakkens two first signings, after he was appointed head coach of the club. The other, Brede Hangeland, joined Fulham two years ago, with whom he reached the Europe League-finals this year.

• Over 26.000 showed up to the last game of the season, when Copenhagen took on SønderjyskE in PARKEN and ended the season with a comfortable 3-1-win. The average crowd for Copenhagens homegames in the league was 19.338.

• F.C. Copenhagen also won the national Fair Play-league.