March 2010 Round-Up:
21 March, 2010
The 2010 Vodafone division commences on Wednesday 31 March
Time has come. The league opener will be played this evening between NSÍ Runavík and ÍF Fuglafjørður. The rest of the 1st round matches will be played tomorrow, on Maundy Thursday. The fixtures are these:
Víkingur - AB Argir
HB Tórshavn – FC Suðuroy
EB/Streymur – B36 Tórshavn
B68 Toftir – B71 Sandoy
The second round is just 4 days later, on Easter Monday, with these games:
Víkingur – HB Tórshavn
B36 Tórshavn – B68 Toftir
FC Suðuroy – NSÍ Runavík
AB Argir – B71 Sandoy
The 5th match is on Tuesday 6 April between ÍF Fuglafjørður – EB/Streymur.
Traditionally we have published a preview-piece before the start of the league, but there hasn’t been time for that this time. There is a slim chance it will be written on Wednesday evening, but don’t count on it.
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Player news:
Amessan to AB Argir
Looking through AB Argir’s squad-list there is a certain midfield player with the name of Fabrice Amessan whom they have managed to keep under the radar as he hasn’t been mentioned in the media. On the Football Association’s website, he is registered under the name of Beugre Amessan and has a French citizenship. He could still be from the Ivory Coast, however, just like Tehe Aristide and Evrard Blé.
Ibrahima Camara no contract with B68 Toftir
During March, B68 had the Senegalese forward Ibrahima Camara on trial. He scored several goals in the training matches, but as he was not in the squad in the cup games against 07 Vestur on Saturday and does not seem to be registered on the F.A.’s website, he has apparently not been offered a contract.
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Cup final moved to 1 August
The Cup final which was scheduled to be played on 29 July - on Ólavsøka, Faroese national day – has been postponed to 1st August instead because of some financial disagreements between the Football Associations and the Tórhavn city council, who owns the football pitch in Gundadalur. The F.A. doesn’t want to pay the rent which the city council demands, as they deem it to be to high.
It’s a crazy decision – whoever is to blame -, as large parts of the whole country gathers in the capital to celebrate the national day on Ólavsøka and many of them attend the cup final as well to make it a festive arrangement.
The rescheduling of the final also means that round 16 of the Vodafone Division has been put forward to 27 July instead of the original date of 1 August.
Also B68 Toftir vs NSÍ Runavík in round 20, originally scheduled for 27 August has been postponed to the day after, on 28 August.
Semi-conformation about the Luxembourg friendly international?
The F.A. also announces that “because of the national team”, as they put it, the second leg of the cup semi-final has been moved to 8 June 2010. As there is not qualifier in that period, that must surely be a semi-confirmation that the Faroe Islands will indeed visit Luxembourg on 4 June as we so often have mentioned now. But why on earth is that a secret?
31 March, 2010
Gunnar be tough on Mum
A year ago, Mancester City based goalkeeper Gunnar Nielsen made his debut for the Faroe Islands senior team when they for the first time ever managed to beat Iceland. Nielsen played superbly in goal then.
Here's a link to a short interview with him on Manchester City's website 10 days ago:
http://www.mcfc.co.uk/News/Reserves-news/2010/March/Gunnar-be-tough-on-Mum
20 March, 2010
Four withdrawals from the national team
4 players have withdrawn from the national team that is playing against Iceland on Sunday 20 March. Those players are Rógvi Jacobsen (ÍF Fuglafjørður), Jákup á Borg (B36 Tórshavn), Andreas Lava Olsen (Frem BK) and Johan Troest Davidsen (NSÍ Runavík). Davidsen is a defender while the others are forwards/midfielders.
To replace them, Brian Kerr has selected Bárður Olsen (B36 Tórshavn) , Rógvi Poulsen (HB Tórshavn), Andrew av Fløtum (HB Tórshavn) and 21 year old EB/Streymur defender Dánjal Davidsen.
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Luxembourg friendly international real?
On 10 March we used the headline “Breaking News” to announce that the Luxembourgian Football Association had written on their website that they were going to play a friendly against the Faroe Islands on 4 June this year.
The bulletin can still be read on the Luxembourgian website here, but it’s in French, so if you ne parlent pas le français, here’s a Google translation (scroll down to 10 March).
But if it’s real or not is maybe questionable, because the Faroese Football Association has still not mentioned this match with one word and neither have other Faroese media. And the Luxembourgian Football Association does not answer e-mail enquiries from Soccerandequipment.com
10 March, 2010
Breaking news: Luxembourg - Faroe Islands friendly in June.
One of our eager Polish readers, Marcin Michalski, sent us at tip today that the Luxembourgian Football Association has announced on their website that they will take on the Faroe Islands in a friendly international on 4 June 2010.
So far there has been no news of this in the Faroe Islands, neither in the media nor on the Football Association's website, but we assume that the Luxembourgian F.A. doesn't write untrue news on their website.
08 March, 2010
Cup draw
The draw for the cup tournament was made on Monday.
First, the draw for the preliminary round was made with teams from the second and third division. However, 1 team from the 1st division was also drawn into this group “to make the system work”, so to speak, as there are 5 teams in the 2nd and 3rd division.
The outcome was this:
Royn Hvalba (3rd div) – FC Hoyvík (1st div)
MB Miðvágur (2nd div) – Skála (2nd div)
FF Giza Tórshavn (3rd div) – Undri Tórshavn (3rd div)
The preliminary round will be played on 20 March.
Afterwards, the draw for the first round proper, where the rest of the teams enter the tournament, was made:
HB Tórshavn (Vodaf.) – B36 Tórshavn (Vodaf.)
FF Giza or Undri – ÍF Fuglafjørður (Vodaf.)
AB Argir (Vodaf.) – KÍ Klaksvík (1st div.)
B71 Sandoy (Vodaf.) – Víkingur (Vodaf.)
EB/Streymur (Vodaf.) – NSÍ Runavík (Vodaf.)
B68 Toftir (Vodaf.) – 07 Vestur (1st div)
Royn Hvalba or FC Hoyvík – TB Tvøroyri (1st div.)
FC Suðuroy (Vodaf.) – MB Miðvágur or Skála
The first round (which is the same as the 1/8 finals) will be played on 27 March.
As always, the draw was made in a very unprofessional manner and would in any other country have created “fixed-draw” allegations as the balls with the team-names in it weren’t mixed before they were picked. The F.A. should have learned it by now.
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2012 European Championships qualifying campaign
The match program for the qualifying campaign for the 2012 European Championships was announced today. The Faroe Islands’ fixture list looks like this:
11 August 2010: Estonia - Faroe Islands
03 September 2010: Faroe Islands - Serbia
07 September 2010: Italy - Faroe Islands
08 October 2010: Slovenia - Faroe Islands
12 October 2010: Faroe Islands - Northern Ireland
03 June 2011: Faroe Islands - Slovenia
07 June 2011: Faroe Islands - Estonia
10 August 2011: Northern Ireland - Faroe Islands
02 September 2011: Faroe Islands- Italy
06 September 2011: Serbia - Faroe Islands
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Kerr picks his team for the Iceland friendly
Faroe Islands coach Brian Kerr has picked a 20-man squad for the friendly international with Iceland on 21 March:
Meinhardt Joensen (goalkeeper), Jákup á Borg, Christian R. Mouritsen (B36 Tórshavn)
Fróði Benjaminsen, Símun Samuelsen, Vagnur Mohr Mortensen (HB Tórshavn)
Jóhan Troest Davidsen, Einar Hansen, Jan Ingi Petersen (NSÍ Runavík)
Rógvi Jacobsen, Høgni Zachariasen (ÍF Fuglafjørður)
Atli Gregersen, Súni Olsen (Víkingur)
Egil á Bø (EB/Streymur)
Bogi Løkin, Jónas Tór Næs, Andreas Lava Olsen (Frem BK, Denmark)
Atli Danielsen (Roskilde, Denmark)
Jóan Símun Edmundsson (Newcastle United)
Gunnar Nielsen (Goalkeeper) (Manchester City)
The Icelandic team is missing all of their big guns and are fielding a rather inexperienced team. Two players are playing abroad (AZ Alkmaar), but the rest is based in Iceland. Only two players have some experience with 21 and 24 caps, but none of the others have played more that 4 internationals.
This was the same story last year when the Faroes for the first time ever managed to beat Iceland. – Maybe the background was a bit cheap…
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Atli Danielsen now with FC Roskilde – not available in Iceland?
As you can see from the list above, Atli Danielsen who has played for Frem in the Danish 1st division (played for KÍ Klaksvík in the second half of 2009) has moved to FC Roskilde, likewise in the Danish 1st division.
But according to Roskilde’s website, Danielsen will only play in Iceland if the Danish 1st division does not commence as scheduled in the same weekend. Freezing conditions in Denmark might postpone the start of the Danish league, however.
Christian Lamhauge Holst on club duty
Christian Lamhauge Holst, who plays for Silkeborg IF in the Danish top division, is not available for the Faroe Isalnds because of club duty.
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Top scorer Finnur Justinussen back home at Víkingur
Last month we had some paragraphs about Finnur Justinussen’s trial at Swedish club Ørebro and that he was reportedly going to play a second training match before Ørebro made up their mind. But Justinussen didn’t appear in Ørebro’s squad in their next training match, and as he was back in the Faroe Islands scoring a goal for Víkingur against ÍF Fuglafjørður on Saturday (as well as missing a penalty), his trial assumedly didn’t materialize into a contract in Sweden.
05 March, 2010
Weather report
The temperatures are slowly rising again and the snow is losing its stronghold it has had on the pitches since mid February. The newspaper Sosialurin wrote yesterday that January’s average temperature had been 1.8 compared to 3.7 over the last 30 years.
The predicted temperature for the next days is around 5 degrees.
Should the snow return next week, at least EB/Streymur won’t be affected by it as they are off to Turkey on a training camp from 6-14 March. They probably wish that they had already gone a week or two ago, so that they would have been in Turkey’s heat while the pitches in the Faroes were covered with snow.
Cup draw
The draw for the cup competition, the “Prime Minister’s” cup, or Løgmanssteypið in Faroese, will be made on Monday.
Six red cards in added time!
In the U21 match between Andorra and Moldova on Wednesday (they are in Faroe Islands’ group), no less than 6 red cards were given in the 96th minute of the match. - 3 for each team.
But why is that part of Faroese football news?
Well, as Andorra’s next match is against the Faroe Islands (11 August 2010), three of Andorra’s players will be suspended. Those three are midfielder Samir Bousenine el Mourabit and forwards Alejandro Izquierdo Mangas and Josep Vall Casamiquela. Both of the forwards had come on in the second half.
The result of the match was 3-1 for Moldova who thereby climb above the Faroe Islands and Latvia with their 10 points in total. Latvia have 9 points while the Faroes have 8 points. Unfortunately, the Faroe Islands only managed a draw against Andorra last year. The two "dropped" points would have taken the Faroes level with Latvia who have a game in hand, however.
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