February 2011 Round-Up:
25 February, 2011
2011 kick off is getting closer
As mentioned elsewhere on the site previously, the Vodafone Division commences on 9 April. You can see the full fixture list here or from a link from the Faroese Football main page. – The last round will be played on 22 October. It’s a late end to the season once again, and can easily run into problems because of the weather in the last couple of rounds. Last season there was a "lucky escape" in the penultimate round. Keep fingers crossed so that the weather will behave again this season.
The Cup
The cup is set to start with preliminary round of the cup on 26 March. The first round proper, where the Vodafone Division teams enter the competition, starts on 2 April. Quarter finals are on 4 May while the semi finals will be played on 19 May and 14 June. The final will be played on 8 August, most probably in Klaksvík. (The F.A. has announced, though, that the final may possibly be moved – they probably refer to the date).
Super Cup
The super cup match between champions HB Tórshavn and cup winners EB/Streymur will be played on 27 March.
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Gunnar Nielsen suffers suspected leg fracture
On Thursday evening the Daly Mail Online writes that:
"Manchester City’s goalkeeping crisis has worsened after Gunnar Nielsen suffered a suspected broken leg against Bolton's reserves on Wednesday.
The Faroe Islands keeper, 24, needed 15 minutes of treatment and was taken off with his leg in a protective cast and taking oxygen".
The accident happened when Nielsen collided with Bolton’s Tom Evans (which earned Bolton a penalty).
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Súni Olsen returns to B36 Tórshavn for a second spell
B36 Tórshavn and midfielder Súni Olsen have put ink on paper on a one year deal. Olsen is one of the very best midfielders in the country when in form – and sometimes when he’s not – but last year, the second half of his season was ruined through injury.
Olsen, who turns 30 in a few days, played in the Danish top division for Aalborg and Viborg from 2005 to 2008, although he spent most of his time on the bench or playing for the reserves, but at the halfway stage of the Faroese league in 2008 he returned to the Faroe Islands where he joined B36. But B36 had little joy of Olsen as he for the most was kept sidelined through injury, and later B36 terminated the contract whit Olsen “because of improper conduct during a night out”; without going into any details.
Olsen then went to Víkingur where he has been for the last two seasons. Olsen’s youth club was GÍ Gøta, who merged with LÍF Leirvík to form Víkingur a few years ago.
Olsen has won 41 caps for the Faroe Islands and scored 4 goals.
Keep an eye on his free kicks during the coming season as he is a free kick specialist.
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AB Argir sign Serbian goalkeeper predrag Markovic
AB Argir in the 1st division, who were relegated from the Vodafone Division at the end of last season, have signed Serbian goalkeeper Predrag Markovic who played the last couple of seasons for B71 Sandoy. Before that, he spent two years with Skála and another two years with TB Tvøroyri before that.
AB have been doing very well in the training matches, beating both B71 and 07 Vestur from the Vodafone Division in addition to a couple of more wins against other 1st division clubs. So, although AB have lost a whole host of players from last season, it looks like AB, together with FC Suðuroy, will be the team to beat.
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More African strength to B71 Sandoy
B71 have acquired the 21-year old Ghanaian striker Tijani Mohammed. Mohammed arrived in the Faroes on Monday.
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Rógvi Poulsen to Crewe Alexandra
Rógvi Poulsen, who was on trial with Crewe Alexandra before Christmass, has in recent weeks been back for another spell at the club where he impressed enough with the result that he has made a deal with the club until the summer.
But because the papers are not in order yet, Poulsen can’t play competitive matches.
The 21-year old winger is originally from AB Argir, but joined HB Tórshavn in 2008 and has been a major contributor to HB’s league titles in the last couple of seasons and he won’t be easy to replace. Poulsen has won 3 caps for the Faroe Islands.
Crewe Alexandra plays sin the English League Two (4th level).
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National team on training camp in Spain in March
As mentioned earlier, the Faroe Islands will play a friendly match against Gibraltar. It’s part of a training camp in Malaga, Spain in early March. The Faroes will play two more matches in addition to the one against Gibraltar, but it’s not clear yet who the opponents will be.
The selected squad for the training camp is:
Jóhan Troest Davidsen, Einar T. Hansen, Jann Ingi Petersen, Jústinus R. Hansen, Bogi Løkin from NSÍ Runavík.
Meinhardt Joensen from B36 Tórshavn.
Jónas Tór Næs, Christian R. Mouritsen, Pól Johannus Justinussen from Valur Reykjavík.
Fróði Benjaminsen, Símun Samuelsen, Rógvi Poulsen from HB Tórshavn (Poulsen now Crewe Alexandra).
Arnbjørn Hansen, Daniel Udsen from EB/Streymur.
Atli Gregersen, Erling Jacobsen from Víkingur.
Øssur Dalbúð from ÍF Fuglafjørður.
Hjalgrím Elttør from KÍ Klaksvík.
Gunnar Nielsen from Manchester City.
Jóan Símun Edmundsson from Newcastle United.
Danjál Davidsen from Aarhus Fremad.
Rógvi Baldvinsson from Ålgård Stavanger.
Øssur Dalbúð, the striker from ÍF, has never been in the squad before. Dánjal Davidsen, Rógvi Baldvinson and Pól Jóhannus Justinussen have been in the squad before, but have not made an appearance for the Faroe Islands yet.
Correction: Pól Jóhannus Justinussen has actually made an appearance for the Faroes. He did that in a friendly against Scotland last year.
And speaking of Øssur Dalbúð, he will not play for ÍF this season, as he has moved to Denmark to study.
As you can see further up the page, it looks unlikely that goalkeeper Gunnar Nielsen will be part of this squad. Brian Kerr will now probably draft in either René Tórgarð of EB/Streymur or Tórður Thomsen of B68 Tofti. If injury-free, Tórgarð should already have been selected in the first place, but maybe national coach Brian Kerr hasn’t seen Tórgarð in top shape yet, as he suffered from injuries last season.
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Bjarni Jørgensen joins Danish 1st division club FC Fyn
26 year old winger Bjarni Jørgensen has signed a 6-month contract with Danish 1st division (2nd level)club FC Fyn. Jørgensen had moved to Denmark after the end of last season and had as such not planned to play serious football in Denmark when the opportunity suddenly arose.
Last season Jørgensen played for EB/Streymur, but made only 7 appearances in the Vodafone division as he was plagued with injuries. Jørgensen has won one cap for the Faroe Islands and had his best season in 2009 when playing for HB Tórshavn, his youth club. In recent years he has also played for KÍ Klaksvík, AB Argir and Skála.
FC Fyn are placed 2nd from bottom in the table where three teams are relegated.Fellow countryman Viljormur Davidsen, who playes for the Faroese U-21, team also plays for Fyn.
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ÍF Fuglafjørður pre-season tournament
ÍF Fuglafjørður will like last year arrange a friendly preseason tournament. The competing teams in addition to the host will be EB/Streymur, NSÍ Runavík and Víkingur. The tournament will be held 3-5 March. ÍF-Víkingur meet in one semi-final while ÍF and NSÍ contest the other one.
11 February, 2011
Prolific Brazilian striker Clayton Soares back in the Faroes
Newly promoted 07 Vestur have announced that they have signed with Brazilian striker Clayton Soares who was a prolific goal scorer in the Faroese league from 2002 to 2009. He originally came to FS Vágar (which later became 07 Vestur) in 2002 and played two seasons for the club before he switched to B71 Sandoy in 2004 where stayed to the end of the 2009 season when he moved back to Brazil.
Clayton was 23 when he joined FS Vágar (07 Vestur) in 2002, so he should have turned 32 now. In his 183 league and cup games for 07 Vestur and B71, he has scored an impressive 125 goals, FaroeSoccer.com reveals.
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Yet another Senegalese on trial at B68 Toftir
B68 already have 3 Senegalese in their team, but that tally might be increased to 4, if their newest trialist, 25-year old Abdoul Aziz Diene will make an impact in the pre-season. He will have until 10 March on midnight to prove himself as the transfer window closes then..
Diene plays both as a central defender and midfielder.
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FC Suðuroy sign Danish striker
1st division favourites for promotion, FC Suðuroy, have signed Danish striker Nicklas Paulsen, who has scored a lot of goals for his club Svebølle in the “Danmarkserien” which is at 4th level.
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B68 Toftir and Víkingur to Iceland
Both B68 and Víkingur will be having a training camp in Iceland in March.
B68 will be there from 4 – 7 march where they will also play a couple of matches training matches. The opposition has not been found yet.
Víkingur will travel to Iceland a few days later and will also play a couple of training matches. On 18 March they will take on Icelandic champions Breiðablik in the Kórinn indoor hall (this is not an official Atlantic Cup match, which was an annual meeting between the champions of the Faroes and Iceland from 2002 to 2008). The following day Víkingur will also play against IA Akranes from the Icelandic second tier.
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Training matches
The teams have now started playing training matches and we will as usual add the results of the matches we are able to trace down. You can see the link to the matches on the Faroese Footbal main-page under miscellaneous: "Pre-season Friendlies 2011".
06 February, 2011
Gibraltar vs. Faroe Islands 11 March
The Gibraltar Football Association has announced that they will take on the Faroe Islands in a friendly international on 11 March. The Gibraltar F.A. describes the Faroes as “the toughest opponents our national team have faced so far”.
Gibraltar coach Allen Bula has picked a provisional 20-man training squad for the fixture. - Looks really scary: J. Perez, P.Reyes, J.Borg, R. Casciaro, B. Perez, R. Chipolina, M.Reoch, D. Hammond, S. Mascarenhas, Y. Santos, A. Payas, D. Duarte, W. Asquez, R. Guilling, K. Casciaro, S. Garro, E. Green, A. Hernandez, B. Perez, J. Chipol, A. Greene, L. Casciaro, G. Lopez, M. Yome, L. Muscatt, P.Podesta, T. Charay, K. Chipolina.
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Draw for the 2013 under-21 European Championship Qualification
The draw for the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying was made on Thursday 3 February and the Faroe Islands were pitted against Serbia, Denmark, Northern Ireland and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The Faroes get their campaign underway on 31 Mai when they take on Northern Ireland at home. The full program for the Faroe Islands looks like this:
31 05 2011 Faroe Islands – Northern Ireland
10 08 2011 Northern Ireland – Faroe Islands
06 09 2011 Serbia – Faroe Islands
07 10 2011 Denmark – Faroe Islands
11 11 2011 FYR Macedonia – Faroe Islands
01 06 2012 Faroe Islands – FYR Macedonia
05 06 2012 Faroe Islands – Serbia
18 08 2010 Faroe Islands – Denmark
The Faroes have never met any of the opposition previously at Under-21 level.
The last U-21 qualifying tournament was a smashing success for the Faroe Islands where they reached 11 points and famously beat Russia 1-0 at home.
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Rubeksen brothers back in the Faroe Islands
It's now clear that the Rubeksen brothers will return to Faroese football again after their “Tour of Norway” this winter. Hendrik will return to HB Tórshavn while Thomas Hans will return to B71 Sandoy.
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Daniel Udsen one more year at EB/Streymur
It had been unclear whether the Danish midfielder Daniel Udsen would return to EB/Streymur for yet another season, but it has now been announced that he will indeed play for EB/Streymur again in 2011. Udsen came to EB/Streymur from Danish 3rd level club Vanløse IF last season, but injury kept him from playing for several months, but when he finally recovered, he proved to be amongst the best players in the league.
However, Udsen is not more Dane than his grandmother is Faroese which makes him eligible to play for the Faroe Islands. – And so far he has done that 5 times!
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Klaksvík Tournament 29-30 March
KÍ Klaksvík have announced that the annual pre-season Klaksvík Tournament will be staged 29 and 30 March. In addition to the hosts KÍ and champions HB Tórshavn, also no. 2 and 3 from last season, EB/Streymur and NSÍ Runavík, respectively, will participate.
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Helgi L. Petersen plans comeback for NSÍ Runavík
32 year old attacking midfielder Helgi L. Petersen, who hasn’t player seriously for some years now (his last full season was in 2006), is planning a comeback for NSÍ. For most of his career he has played for NSÍ, but in 2000 and 2001 he played for GÍ Gøta where he became league top scorer in his latter season. He has also had short spells at B36 and ÍF as well as Fram and FC Hoyvík.
As a curiosity, it can be mentioned that in 2004 his younger brother Sonni L. Petersen was league top scorer while playing for EB/Streymur.
Faroe Islands Football News
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