Sunday the local soccer team ‘Avarta’ secured advancement to Division 2 after winning the game against Birkeroed. The advancement is secured with four games left of the season.

They could have secured advancement Wednesday but the game ended with a tie game which was not enough. I spent two hours on the side line waiting for the goal that would bring them to Division 2 and the jubilation shots following the game but that didn’t happen.

It was appropriate that they won the game at home in front of their home crowd.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 300mm, f/3.2 1/2000sec, ISO100. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

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Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 300mm, f/3.2 1/2000sec, ISO100. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

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Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 17-40 f/4L USM @ 36mm, f/4 1/800sec, ISO100. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

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Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 17-40 f/4L USM @ 17mm, f/4 1/1600sec, ISO100. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

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Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 17-40 f/4L USM @ 17mm, f/4 1/1600sec, ISO100. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

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Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 17-40 f/4L USM @ 24mm, f/4 1/1600sec, ISO100. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

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Sometimes I can’t help but think what impact we have as a newspaper. Do we make a difference? I’d like to think so. Last week my thoughts were strongly proved.

An Iraqi family here in Denmark was about to be homeless. They could no longer stay in the house they rented. And with a father mentally ill due to torture from their time in Iraq wasn’t able to do anything about the situation. The family’s 15 year old daughter was basically who ran the show at home while attending school.

We brought the story about the family in our paper and within a day or two the Iraqi family was saved from a life in the gutter. Somebody called us telling that they could offer the family to stay at their house. There was plenty of room for the family. It’s so nice to see that some people are still concerned about others.

Here’s a photo of the daughter I shot for the story.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 27mm, f/4 1/1000sec, ISO125. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

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Around Monday last week I received a phone call.
Voice says: “Hey Brian, our photographer is on vacation. Would you be able to cover the Cup Final thursday?”

Without much hesitation I replied with a “Yes of course!”

The Cup Final is a nation wide soccer tournament where lower tier teams compete with the top division teams. It’s not the National Championship, but the winner gets a ticket to the European UEFA Cup next year. Brondby the local soccer team where I live is so far down the standing they looked to not make it to the European tournaments for the second straight year which is not satisfying what so ever.

Not only did I get to shoot top level soccer (The final was between two top division teams), I got to shoot the local soccer team where I live. And it was played in the National stadium where the Danish National team plays their home games.

Brondby won the game 3-2 after being ahead 1-0, 2-1 and scoring their last goal to make it 3-2 with about five minutes to go.
The fans got so excited. I was sitting in the same end as the Brondby fans and when they scored their second goal to make it 2-1 I almost got bombed with beer. A container hit the dirt right next to me and a spray of beer flew up and soaked my sock and left side of my pants. Why would anybody toss an almost full cup of beer? I’d empty it up instead!!

Anyway here’s a slideshow with sound and photos from the very exciting game! Click the image to launch.