Two pre-season games, Friday 7pm and Sunday 4pm.
The Teal Army is back at The O2 this weekend, and the visitors are not a warm-up act.
Herlev Eagles are from Herlev, a town on the edge of Copenhagen. In Denmark they are Ørnene, the Eagles, and they play in yellow and black. Their league is Metal Ligaen, the Danish top flight. Last season they finished runners-up, then lost the final to champions Herning Blue Fox. That is a proper hockey club, with a smaller budget than some of the names they were knocking on the door of. If you are going to The O2 expecting a friendly kickabout, you have the wrong weekend.
Friday 28 August, 7pm. Sunday 30 August, 4pm. Both at The O2 Belfast. Both pre-season friendlies. Both not included in the 2026/27 season ticket, so you need a separate ticket via Ticketmaster.
Adam Keefe has been clear about what these two games are for. He wants to “benchmark where we’re at” against a side from another league, another country, another way of playing. The new-look Giants get their first home look in teal: Peter Bates, Logan Cockerill, Morten Jensen and the rest of the summer intake, beside the returning core of Jackson Whistle, Mike Lee, Josh Roach and J.J. Piccinich. After this it is the Warrior Cup in Germany, then Challenge Cup dates with Dundee and the Clan in September. This weekend is the first proper night back in the building.
So who do you watch in yellow and black?
Start with the captain. Matthias Asperup is a veteran Danish forward from Søborg, the sort of player who has been around this league long enough to organise a forecheck and still finish. After Herlev’s 5-2 pre-season win over Rungsted on 11 August, he talked about aggressive work in both ends, winning pucks, then moving. That is the tone new head coach Johan Åkerman is trying to set. Åkerman, a Swede, has the bench this season. Guillaume Doucet is the GM.
Oliver True is the one who will look big from the seats. Danish winger, 6ft 4, from Rungsted. Last season he put up 27 goals in 46 Metal Ligaen games. He also took an early bath in that Rungsted test after a cross-check, so the night will not necessarily be polite.
Gustav Green is the centre. Danish international, two titles from his years at Rungsted, 13 goals and 23 assists in 41 games for Herlev last season. He sat out the Rungsted test as a healthy scratch while Åkerman rotated the lineup. If he dresses here, he is one of theirs.
On the blue line, watch Karl Falk, a new Swedish defenceman signed from Lillehammer at the start of August. Size, a bit of puck-moving, and he already knows Åkerman from Norway.
The new forwards already have a mark on the scoresheet. Christopher Mulberg and Sebastian Holm-Pedersen both scored on debut in that 5-2 against Rungsted, first time in the yellow and black. In goal, young Swede Alexander Hellnemo made his Eagles debut in the same game and stopped 12 of 14.
None of this is the league. None of it counts in the table. It does count as the first time this Giants group is in front of this crowd, against a side that went to a national final four months ago.
Tickets: Ticketmaster. Not in the season ticket. Friday night, then a Sunday 4pm if you want the matinee. The ice is the same. The test is the point.
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