The rulebook says this:
“It is an offence if a player scores a goal into the opposing team’s goal immediately after the ball has touched the player’s hand/arm, even unintentionally.”
Hammarby's 1-0 goal probably shouldn't have been allowed. It was fair anyway.
When Paulos Abraham broke the deadlock in the 42nd minute, after getting his own rebound with his arm, it was after a first half in which Hammarby dominated greatly and where Mjällby had enormous problems with the home team's high pressure from the start.
"It's a very weak performance from us. We lose all the second balls and we have poor intensity. It's sad that it's like that," said Mjällby coach Karl Marius Aksum to TV4 Play after the first half.
"We're not there either offensively or defensively," added the team's midfielder Viktor Gustafsson.
Points record last year
Then the same Abraham scored another goal two minutes after the first, after a one-two with Nahir Besara, and sent "Bajen" to the break with a 2-0 lead in front of a boiling, packed arena.
"We're having a really good half, it's nice to get a payoff too. It can happen that you don't get a payoff and that changes the match. So it was nice that we were able to score two goals late," the two-goal scorer told TV4 Play during the break.
Mjällby won a historic Swedish Championship title last year after breaking a points record and losing only one match all year. They conceded 18 goals in 30 matches.
This season they have already conceded three.
The only Swedish Championship gold medal in 2001
Immediately after the break, Paulos Abraham completed his hat trick when he received a Besara pass and rolled the ball into the far corner.
"I said he would win the scoring league, so it's great that he lives up to it," said Nasir Besara to TV4 Play.
Hammarby's team captain enjoyed the home debut.
"We showed how good we can be. A really fun match, well executed on our part," said Besara and continued:
"There was an electric vibe in the air. It felt like the arena was in sync today."
Hammarby dreams of a new Swedish Championship gold medal – the only one so far came 25 years ago – and in the pursuit of that, new coach Kalle Karlsson could hardly have wished for a better premiere than this.
Mjällby's Karl Marius Aksum, a former assistant who took over the main responsibility from Anders Torstensson last fall, has a little more to think about.
