By Siddique Farooqi

Three defenders converge. No daylight. No problem.

A streak of white emerges from a crowd of dark blue outfits, the ball carrier with the number ’20’ patched on his back spins away from the ensuing pack of defenders, managing to pull the ball back and juke the goal-tender – ultimately depositing the ball into the back of the net to send the elated crowd of over 500 at the Hofstra soccer stadium into a frenzy.

“He has great know-how,” said Hofstra Pride men’s soccer coach Richard Nuttall. “His positioning and skill set is excellent.”

Johannes Grahn, the prolific freshman forward has worked his magic to a tune of a team-leading four goals on the season.

“It’s a team sport, I was lucky to score some goals,” he explained in a modest tone. “If it wasn’t me, it would have been someone else – we have a great team.”

His story starts in a small town named Tibro, in the Scandinavian nation of Sweden.

Tibro, with a population of fewer than 11,000 – is best known as the furniture capital of the largest furniture-producing country in the world. Nicknamed “Mellansjo” – or – “land between the lakes”, the town tasted the global spotlight when Tibro’s very own Robin Soderling hooked up with Spain’s Rafael Nadal to produce an epic five-set thriller before falling in the round of 32 at Wimbledon this past summer. It is in this small town in the Western part of Sweden, that Grahn would begin to practice his trade at the raw age of 15 with AIK Tibro of the Swedish 3rd Division.

His play at the hometown club team quickly garnered the attention of national team coaches – and would soon open the door to his entry onto the Swedish Under-16 team. It was during his spell with the U-16 side that Grahn would experience his most momentous occasion, scoring a goal against the English U-16 national team – a memory he was sure to relay to his four new teammates (Chris Cox, Rory McCrea, Rob Youhill, and Brian Gundich) who hail from the island nation.

“They know,” he said with a sly chuckle. “I’ve told them about it a few times.”

Grahn would go on to eventually play for the Swedish U-18 national team, where he would tally a goal and two assists.

Despite the success at the club and international level, however, Grahn, like many other young Swedish soccer players – or footballers – were faced with limited prospects as far as careers (outside of soccer) were concerned. The young Swede, working as a warehouse forklift operator, dreamt of better.

“It’s tough to get into college in Sweden,” he explained. “It’s not like here (in the U.S.), where there are scholarships if you’re good at a certain sport.”

Upon receiving a tip from a scout close to the Hofstra coaching staff, Associate Head Coach Brian Suskiewicz was deployed to Scandinavia to take a look at the budding Swede as well as a handful of other talented prospects in the region. Meanwhile, Grahn was entertaining the interest of a plethora of American universities including Big Ten powerhouse Ohio State. It didn’t take long, however, for Grahn to decide that Hofstra would be the best fit for him.

“They showed me that they were the most interested,” he said. “Whereas other schools would just tell me to send them a videotape of me, it meant a lot that Brian (Suskiewicz) came to Sweden to see me play and meet with my family to answer any and all of our questions.”

As for the determining factor was for the talented forward to make his decision, it was as simple as a reassuring phone call.

“Coach Nuttall called me and told me that they’ve considered their options and that I’m the player that they want,” he retorted. “From that point on, I knew exactly where I wanted to go.”

The commitment, however, wasn’t the only reason that Grahn found Hofstra to be a good fit.

“I knew they had a good reputation,” he mentioned with a gesture of approval. “They play in a tough conference and have been able to win so many championships of late.”

The small town Swede, oozing with excitement at the prospect of playing soccer and attending college in America, speaks about another big perk of coming to Hempstead.

“It’s New York,” he exclaimed exuberantly. “You can’t help but be excited to come to a city that you know so much about.

The wide-eyed Grahn spoke glowingly of his first day in New York, citing the Statue of Liberty as the “first thing” he recognized along with the New York City sky line – mentioning sheepishly that he had to “look up the entire time” while walking around Manhattan.

The well-spoken son of Tibro – who expressed a desire to study business or international business – describes his brief time at Hofstra as “nothing but great,” and has no shortage of praise for his new team.

“They’re athletic, very athletic,” he positively mentioned. “They have this great fighting spirit to win.”

Grahn describes the biggest contrast between the American game and the Swedish game, from what he has seen, as the pace and form of play.

“There (in Sweden) the teams are very zone-oriented, it’s a very systematic game,” he said. “Here it is more of a run and gun game, the coaches give the players a lot more freedom to use their individual skills and athleticism.”

As for what adjustments Grahn can make to his game to settle in to the American style of play, Coach Nuttall eludes to the differentiating factor between the Swedish and American brands of soccer.

“He needs to get stronger,” he mentioned. “He’s extremely coach able, he listens well, has a great attitude, and his English is great – but he has to work on his physicality.”

Grahn’s jaw-dropping skill set, however, has drawn praise from more members of the team then just the coaching staff.

“He’s got great skill, great vision for the game, always in the right place at the right time,” gushed senior goalkeeper Tom Johansen – adding that he’s a great guy off the field that took “only a day” to fit right in with everyone.

Despite the praise, however, the soft-spoken Swede deflects his adulation to sophomore defender Jamal Neptune, who he believes is the most talented player on the squad, citing “problems” getting past him during practice drills.

The Pride are off to a rough stretch, winning only one game in their first seven contests – although much of that can be attributed to playing a harsh early season schedule against the likes of 4th ranked UConn, University of Michigan, and then undefeated Loyola. However, Grahn feels there were other reasons behind the team’s slow start – and how they can turn the ship around in a hurry.

“I feel like we just weren’t having fun early on,” he said authoritatively. “We had fun playing together against UConn and against San Diego, and, our good play was a direct result of that – we’re a talented team, if we can just loosen up a little, the wins will come.”

Johannes Grahn emerged as the new offensive threat for the Pride this year. His efforts will be key if the team hopes to make a run toward another CAA title. (Kyle Martel)