Faroe Play

Luxembourg's sensational 2-1 win in Switzerland last night made me remember the day that the Faroe Islands entered international football. Their first match was against an Austrian side who had qualified for the 1990 World Cup.

Turn up your sound and listen to the commentary on this:


The Faroese goalkeeper Jens Knudsen earned a lot of the post game headlines due to the white bobblehat he sported during matches. He won 65 caps for the Faroe Islands playing his last game for them in 2006, he also starred in goal for the Faroese handball side though it being an indoor sport his bobblehat probably wasn't required.

Summer Czech

It’s not long before “Western” Europe’s leagues swing back into action (the Czech league begins today!) so I felt it was about time I had another look at what’s happened in the world of Czech football over the summer.

Karel Bruckner left his job as Czech Republic coach after his side were knocked out in incredible fashion at Euro 2008. The Czech players were victims of a robbery in their own hotel (cash and three match tickets) and on the field as they were one of Turkey’s victims. 2-0 down with 15 minutes left Turkey somehow managed to score three! Despite the obvious defensive frailties you can’t help but feel that they really missed a player like Nedved (retired) and Rosicky (injured) to run the midfield.

Players that came out of the tournament with their reputations enhanced included the Czech’s right winger Sionko, who at 31 and playing in Copenhagen is unlikely to attract many bids from Europe’s elite. Sverkos, who scored the opening goal of Euro 2008 was linked to a move to the spectacularly excellently named Saturn. A fee was agreed with his club Banik Ostrava but the player opted against the move.

Bruckner has popped up as the new manager of Austria, who continue their trend of appointing ageing coaches. After considering the likes of Carlos Alberto, Klaus Toppmoller and Slavia manager Karel Jarolim the Czechs have opted for Petr Rada who will begin his international managerial career against Fabio Capello’s England.

A Czech player who is moving to Russia is giant striker Jan Koller who joins Jiri Jarosik at Krylia Sovetov Samara. Another famous Czech international Jiri Novotny, 38 has joined one of the most famous Czech sides Dukla Praha in the Druha Liga. As Novotny winds down his career, one of his former international teammates Radek Bejbl has called time on his. The former Slavia Praha and Atletico Madrid midfielder who starred for the Czechs in Euro 96 has announced his retirement
from football.

Czech U19 international Tomas Necid

Despite a disappointing Euro 2008 Czech fans did have something to cheer about as the European U19 Championships came to the Czech Republic. A difficult group containing Italy, England and Greece faced the Czechs but a win against England, a draw against Greece and an exciting 4-3 loss to Italy was enough to take them through to the semi finals where they eventually lost to Germany. Tall centre forward Tomas Necid of Jablonec (on loan from Slavia) caught the eye for the Czechs and ended the tournament as overall top scorer. I'm sure the Czechs will be hoping they have finally found a long term replacement for the almost irreplaceable Jan Koller.

Non-Europeans


Euro 2008 begins in a week time, oddly there are 42 players who were born outside of Europe who will be competing in the competition. Here's the list..

Portugal
Deco - Brazil
Boswinga - Congo
Pepe - Brazil
Nani - Cape Verde

Switzerland
Gelson - Cape Verde
Vonlanthen - Colombia
Djourou - Ivory Coast

Turkey - mostly eastern Turkey
Rustu Recber
Tuzluca
Mehmet Topal
Semih Senturk
Gokdeniz Karadeniz
Tumer Metin
Tolga Zengin
Ugur Boral
Emre Asik
Tuncay Sanli
Ayhan Akman
Sabri Sarioglu
Mehmet Aurelio - Brazil

Croatia
Josip Simunic - Australia

Germany
Kevin Kuryani - Brazil

Poland
Roger Guerreiro - Brazil

France
Patrice Evra - Senegal
Lilian Thuram - Guadeloupe
Claude Makalele -Congo
Patrik Vieira - Senegal
Jean-Alain Boumsong - Cameroon
Steve Mandanda - Congo

Italy
Mauro Camoranesi - Argentina

Russia - all three Eastern Russia
Sergei Semak
Dmitri Sychev
Dmitri Torbinski

Spain
Marcos Senna - Brazil

Mill No More

Awful news from Rotherham United today that confirms that they will not be playing at Millmoor next season. Instead the club will play their games in Sheffield at the Don Valley Stadium.

The Don Valley Stadium is normally used for athletics and rugby league. It has also been used for concerts and gameshows (Channel 4's "The Game") in the past as well. It looks totally unsuitable for Rotherham. Wrong city, not big enough and has an athletics track around it - which never helps the atmosphere as anyone who has been to the Withdean will tell you!

I have only ever visited Millmoor once. It was on the first day of the season in Cardiff City's first game back in the second flight about five years ago (the game ended 0-0). It was almost certainly the hottest game I have ever been at. Standing in the away end at Millmoor (it is seated but Cardiff fans aren't sitters) under a corrugated iron roof was akin to being in an oven.

Good luck to Rotherham United. Things can surely only get better now. Surely!

Big Yellow Bus

All hop on the NK Domzale bus, new Champions of Slovenia.


Slovenia is a young country and so has a young football league. NK Domzale's title win is the first in their history and they are only the third club to win the championship after NK Maribor and NK Gorica.

Other first time winners of their respective leagues are Llanelli of Wales and CFJ Cluj of Romania (who not content with winning the league for the first time also won the cup!).

To round off this shortish article on league title winners here's a list of all of the leagues that have been decided over the past few weeks. (Note - many of the ex-Soviet countries and Scandanavia & Ireland have league programmes that run over the summer so are not included in this list).

Albania: Dinamo Tirana
Austria: Rapid Veinna
Belguim: Standard Liege
Bosnia: FK Modrica Maksima
Bulgaria: CSKA Sofia
Croatia: Dinamo Zagreb
Czechia: Slavia Prague
England: Manchester United
France: Lyon
Georgia: Dinamo Tblisi
Germany: Bayern Munich
Hungary: Debrecen VSC
Italy: Inter
Luxembourg: F91 Dedelange
Macedonia: Rabotnicki Skopje
Malta: Valletta FC
Moldova: Sheriff Tiraspol
Montenegro: Buducnost Podgorica
Netherlands: PSV
Northern Ireland: Linfield
Poland: Wisla Krakow
Portugal: Porto
Romania: CFR Cluj
San Marino: SC Faetano
Scotland: Celtic
Serbia: Partizan Belgrade
Slovakia: Artmedia Bratislava
Slovenia: NK Domzale
Spain: Real Madrid
Switzerland: Basel
Turkey: Galatasaray
Ukraine: Shakhtar Donetsk
Wales: Llanelli

Swiss Super League

Continuing on from the article down the page on Austrian football I felt a piece on Swiss football would be appropriate as

FC Thun are probably known to most people in England as the side who played in the Champions League against Arsenal a few years ago (2005). They acquitted themselves well, only losing by the odd goal in both ties to Arsenal and finishing above Ajax in 3rd place. The current season has ended in relegation, they now have a mountain to climb to get back into the Swiss elite... The oldest club in the country and the second oldest on continental Europe is FC St Gallen. They are managed by Krassimir Balakov who was a member of the Bulgarian national team who made the semi finals of the World Cup in 1994. They finished 2nd bottom of the Super League this season and lost out to Bellinzona of the second flight in a two legged playoff. Incidentally Bellinoza qualified for the UEFA Cup as losing finalists.

Bellinoza's marvellous change kit.

The exotically named Neuchatal Xamax won the league twice during the 1980s. Blackburn Rovers defender Stephane Henchoz played almost 100 matches for the club at the beginning of his career. Their major recent success was winning the Swiss Cup in 2003. The club is quite a breeding ground for African players, Papa Bouba Diop, Henri Camara and Thimothee Atouba all played for the Neuchatal club before moving on to the Premier League.

A little known fact is that the ex-Crystal Palace striker Mark Bright spent a few months at FC Sion in Switzerland near the end of his career, he made very little impact in his short time there! Like many Swiss sides they were founded very early in the 20th Century (in 1909). They were one of the Swiss entrants to the UEFA Cup this season, falling at the first hurdle against Turkish side Galatasaray. An exceptional 3-2 victory at home was followed by a disappointing 5-1 result in Turkey.

One of the more famous names in Swiss football Ciriaco Sforza is now managing midtable side FC Luzern. He played for the national team on 79 ocassions and spent most of his career in Germany (winning the Champions League with Bayern Munich in 2001). [official site of Sforza here] "Supersub" David Fairclough played for FC Lu

zern during the mid-80s and scored a goal in the club's SRS Cup win in 1984 against Borussia Dortmund.



The first team in the dictionary: FC Aarau. They have a Wimbledon-esque badge. Last year they had a player by the name of Mark Fotheringham playing for them (he's currently at Norwich). He is famous for the "Fozzy Flick", it's not quite a Cruyff turn but is worth a look.


Probably the most famous Swiss club are Grasshoppers Zurich (their nickname apparently coming from the way their players celebrated in the early days of the club - but that's far from certain). They are also notable to many football fans in the UK as they shared a subbuteo side with Blackburn Rovers, or at least that's why they are notable to me.. They have won the Swiss title more than any other club (27). City rivals FC Zurich finished two points ahead of Grasshoppers, they ended the season in third and made the last 16 of the UEFA Cup this season where they lost to Hamburg.

The title was contested between FC Basel (who are managed by ex-Spurs boss Christian Gross - I believe this reference is obligatory when writing about Basel) and Young Boys of Berne (who really DO play at the Wankdorfstadion - or at least that's what it used to be called - it is also the largest solar power plant in the world incidentally).

FC Vaduz flying high

As mentioned earlier Bellinoza won the promotion playoff against St. Gallen and so will compete in the Swiss superleague next season. The team who won the second division were FC Vaduz of Liechtenstein. It's obviously quite odd for a team from a different country to play in the top flight of a league of a different country but there are examples ranging from Derry City, Monaco and Swansea City in the early 80s. What is less clear is European qualification. Vaduz currently enter the Liechtenstein cup and normally win it (as they are by far the strongest side in their country). It is likely that they wouldn't be allowed to represent Switzerland in European competition should they qualify. In 2006/2007 FC Vaduz were actually eliminated from the UEFA Cup by FC Basel (of Switzerland).

A Nicely Written Match Report

I'm currently reading Eddie Hapgood's autobiography (he captained Arsenal and England during the 1930s). It's a pretty good read. As you can imagine a lot has changed in the game since then.

Hapgood

This excerpt from a match report that Hapgood was involved in is included in the book. (Hapgood's Arsenal are playing Hapgood's previous club Kettering Town). See if you can work out what the reporter is moaning about before the end of the article...

"The next time I go to see a match on the Rockingham Road ground at Kettering, I shall insist on being accompanied by Sherlock Holmes, the 'Big Four' from Scotland Yard, and a leading member of the British Magical Society. Though I have no intention of causing any undue alarm in the camp of the faithful followers of the Poppies, I feel it incumbent upon me to warn them, at the close of a thrilling season, that the green patch which covers the playing area conceals a treacherous quicksand, wherein players disappear and are never seen again.

Kettering were entertaining the Arsenal in a friendly fixture, and, with the exception of a goal or two that happened along in the first half, all went well (though I believe the diminutive Mitchell had some difficulty with his shorts - they seemedto fit too tightly around his ankles). It was after the referee blew the whistle for the refreshment interval that the tragedy happened. Two strapping Arsenal players - David Jack and 'Happy' Hapgood - vanished into thin air. Presumably, the quicksands had swallowed them up, not even a tuft of hair could be traced, and the crowd stood aghast when the Arsenal re-started. No David Jack; no Happy-go-Lucky Hapgood.

In their places appeared two substitutes, mysteriously recruited from some sort of Arsenal 'pool' held in reserve (like a battalion in billets) somewhere behind the grandstand. People wondered; they whispered in queer undertones. What happend to Jack? Where was Hapgood?

If there had been anotehr adjournemount before the end of the match, I should not have been surprised to see the Arsenal team re-enter the arena with a brandnew forward line, three halves borrowed from the Scottish League, two backs from West Bromwich, and a goalkeeper on loan from Newcastle United.

I was beginning to wonder wheter the police had authorised the issue of the usual £500 Reward notices, when a powerful voice nearby informed the world that Jack andhis friend had merely dropped out to give two other Arsenal men a chance to kick the ball!"