South Korea and Iran take plaudits in Groups C & D

16/01/2011 by leo.

Having kept my exploring to a minimum over the first couple of days, I finally got to walk part way down the Corniche on Monday morning. This is long curving bay is over three miles long, with my hotel and the new constructions at one end, while the older town is at the other. For the whole length, there is a dual carriageway road between the Corniche and any buildings, whereas on the seaside of the road, there is an expanse of grass, and a paved walkway next to the sea wall. Although the waters are very shallow, there is no access to the sea, or any beaches within the city.

At my end of the walk, where the gleaming new skyscrapers compete for attention, the effect can be quite spectacular, although at all times one can hear the steady noises of construction, reminding you that much of this area is incomplete. Once clear of this area, though, there is little around you, and no places to stop until the half way point, where there is some type of restaurant, and an Asian Cup sales booth.

At this point, we meet up (by chance) with Rob, who is fresh in from the airport, having not even checked into his hotel. He is picking up match tickets for eight games over a four day period. Paul and Kevin are trying to find their tickets for the rest of the tournament, and although the rigmarole of buying the tickets is long winded and slow, this is completed, with the exception that we are told the first game on the list – Australia v India at Al Sadd – is sold out.

This is a blow, as it is the only time we intended to go to this ground; and it is resolved to reach the stadium early in the hope tickets will become available.

The Stadium at Al-Sadd, seen from the outside

However, it is too early to be early, so we take a taxi to the Souq Waqif, further along the Corniche. Here we stop for a coffee and a snack from a Lebanese styled coffee shop. I think the person serving was from Bangladesh. We looked around the souk a little, but it had none of the hustle and bustle of say, its equivalent in Tunis. It does not appear to be greatly in use by the locals, and as a tourist trap, it would be better placed in a country that welcomes more tourists. It is in fact, the row of coffee shops and restaurants that runs down a wide street through the middle that brings the customers in.

Englishmen Abroad – from left, Rob, Kevin, John, Ratty and Paul

When we looked a little closer, we concluded that it was in fact a faux souq, recently renovated to look as visitors may expect a souq to look, but if the stall holders are not calling out for the custom of those passing by, (and indeed few are passing by), then it really does not have the feel to it.

The locals are more likely to be found in the mega shopping malls, which look the same here as any other city in the world, and with the same shops and fast food joints in most, they need some other feature to bring the consumer in. There is one near the main stadium and it is made to look like an old Italian town – with a reminder of Venice as “Gondolas” float down a central “Canal”. The ceilings are painted as blue sky with clouds, which gives a strange feeling when one steps inside after dark.

Inside the Mall, balloons stick to the painted ceiling

There is a lack of description here for games five and six, due to a computer fault, and the rather basic fact that they deserve little description. What does need to be mentioned is the Jassad bin Hamad Stadium, home of Al-Sadd.

This is a neat and very attractive modern stadium. All four sides are square to the pitch, and there is a single tier of seats which gives way only to the VIP areas on the main side. Well, to be accurate, VIP is now the highest price for tickets for ordinary mortals, the sponsors and invited guests here are promoted to be VVIPs. I am sure there is some special category for Sheiks and Sepp Blatter, more initials? Or just self proclaimed Gods?

The roof with covers all sides of the ground is glad in what appears to be metal, painted in metallic grey. The cladding is both under and over any superstructure, given the impression of a solid roof, that would be around half a meter thick!. The only support visible is cables hanging from four corner pillars, while the floodlights are on squat pylons coming out of the roof, and apparently trying to peer over the edge.

I must say I liked the ground, although for an international tournament, it is on the small side. Different sources place it at either 12,500 or 13,500 seats; which may mean it is the smallest of the stadia. Qatar Sports Club has been listed as between 12,500 and 15,000. [As they appear identical, I would assume Al Rayyan and Al Gharafa both hold the same number, around 25,000, whereas Khalifa supposedly held 50,000 for England, but a near capacity 25,000 for the opening game].

Al-Sadd’s ground is supposedly a cooled stadium. I am not sure exactly what this means, (it is not roofed), but I noticed some type of vent under every seat, so I assume cold air can be pumped through. This was entirely unnecessary in the cool January afternoon. When the ticketless arrived at the stadium, they were told that none were on sale, but there might be some available later. However, they managed to persuade the ticket office to call the stadium manager, and get tickets released. When the final figures were announced, it turned out that some 3000 seats (25% or more) were empty. The official figure was 9783.

In the following day’s paper, the AFC were appealing for more people to come to the games, but there was no explanation of how to achieve this when tickets are not offered for sale!

The majority of the support were Indians, this being one of the largest population of expats in Qatar. However, their team was never likely to do them proud, and the match was a cakewalk for Australia. A win by four goals was hardly a satisfactory result considering their dominance, but they appeared to declare in the second half. Tim Cahill got two of the goals, Harry Kewell and Brett Holman the others. The test for Australia will be the second game, when they play South Korea.

Having visited all five stadiums for the first five games, match six was the first to get a repeat visit. The match was South Korea v Bahrain at Al Gharafa. No problems getting tickets here, with a crowd of just 6669. Bahrain may lie not far from the coast of Qatar, but this has not persuaded their fans to travel over in great numbers. If they had done, they would not have been impressed, except in the final few minutes. South Korea spent most of the game well in the comfort zone, and Koo Cha Cheol scored just before and after the half time break to give them a two goal lead. It was only after a foul by Kwak Tae Hwi with five minutes to go that Bahrain found any hope. The Korean was sent off, and Faouzi Aaish converted the penalty. This meant a few nervous minutes for South Korea, as they ran down the clock, but they held on to the 2-1 victory.

The Group D matches saw us repeat the travelling options from two days previously, starting at Qatar Sports Club where North Korea were taking on UAE, and then going back to Al Rayyan to see the Iran-Iraq clash.

North Korea had an early chance to take the lead, following a clumsy challenge by Hamdan Al Kamali on Jong Tae Se. Hong Yong Jo stepped up and hit the penalty against the bar. Hong Yong Jo is one of three North Korean born players who play their football abroad, he has been at Rostov, while two others play for Wil in Switzerland. The team also includes three Japanese born Koreans, two of which play in Japan while Jong Tae Se is with VfL Bochum.

The North Korean fans, who all sat together in a block, all wearing shirt and tie, appeared to be the champions of a synchronised cheering contest. Led by a cheerleader, who saw little of the game, they almost all held small North Korean flags and waved them in unison

Wave to the Right, Please

UAE had very little to show in the first twenty-five minutes, but then Korean keeper needed to make a sharpish save when Ismaeil Matar received the loose ball after a defensive error, and they started to get more into the game and had several close shots.

Somewhat to our surprise, the North Korean fans were somewhat tardy in taking their seats at the start of the second half, leading us to wonder whether there had been mass defections, or if they might suffer criticism for a failing in their synchronised flag waving, once back in Pyongyang.

Meanwhile a long shot from Matar goes narrowly over the bar as UAE start the strongest in the second half. The game gradually slows down and by the time there are 20 minutes to play we are all resigned to it remaining scoreless.

This time the journey to Al Rayyan is less tense than two nights previously. Although a taxi I had booked had called me back to say he would not make it, Paul and Rob found a row of cabs waiting as they left the stadium. Paul sat in the taxi to claim, while Rob came looking for Steve and myself. Although by the time we reached the point the cabs had been waiting, it had been moved along by the police, Paul persuaded the taxi to circle the stadium, catching us up just before we may have given up. We arrived nearly thirty minutes before kick off.

The second game started in a lively manner with chances at both ends, and we did not have to wait long for a goal. A 13^th minute cross to the far post was met by Emad Mohammed Ridha who headed towards goal. The score was accredited to him, although it appeared that Younnus Mohmood (who had scored the goal in the final, four years ago) got a boot to the ball before it could cross the line. Emad, incidentally plays his club football in Iran. Iran levelled things in the 41^st minute when Teymourian found Rezaei just onside and needing only a step to pass a defender before shooting in from the right. Naturally, Iraq came back strongly, and Rahmati had to make two saves – from a Ala’a Abdulzehra header and a Samal Saeed long shot before the break.

Former Bolton player Andranik Teymourian celebrates the Iranian equaliser

Iraq started the second half with Samal Saeed shooting over after meeting a corner headed on by Younnis, while minutes later Mohammed Kassid had to be alert to fend off corners at the other end. Iran began to take control as the game moved on, Rezaei on the right wing keeping the ball moving and sending in threatening crosses, while two big centre halves pushed up and looked threatening whenever there was a corner or an opportunity for a long throw.

Although it seemed that Iran were in control, this had the potential to be fleeting, and it took a good block by Nosrati to stop Younnis putting Iraq ahead in the 70^th minute. On 75 minutes, a chance fell to Rezaei, but he could only place the ball into the side netting. Iran finally got the breakthrough on 84 minutes, a tug on substitute Khalatabari’s shirt gave Iran a free kick, wide on the left wing, and a deceptively curving shot from Iman Mobili was missed by everyone as it found its way into the net. Iran should have increased on the lead when Hadi Aghili headed a free kick over the bar.

With the match complete, we had now seen all 16 teams in their opening games. The best games were the Iran – Iraq and Syria – Saudi Arabia matches, but no clear favourite for the title has emerged. The South Koreans certainly look strong, while the Japanese seemed a little unprepared. With the win against Iraq under their belt, Iran also may also fancy their chances. The local teams present a different puzzle. One of the coaches went as far as to comment on the fact that not one of the teams who had competed in the previous month’s Arabian Gulf Cup had won their opening game in this tournament. Six teams play in both tournaments.

It is safe to say that more than half the coaches from this tournament will change jobs or at least become unemployed before long, but Saudi Arabia’s Jose Peseiro left quicker than most, receiving his marching orders after just one match.

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Qatar – Day 3. Shocks and Excitement in Group B

10/01/2011 by leo.

The area around my hotel is a little bit strange. It is called the diplomatic area, but that is only part of its “charm”. The embassy of the United Arab Emirates sits opposite the hotel, and is a low, whitewashed building surrounded by a similar whitewashed wall. It is anonymous as a building can be. Looking in the opposite direction though are all manner of tower blocks. Some of these may well be offices, but I think the majority are apartment buildings. The blocks are not anonymous, every single one is looking for some feature in order to stand out from those around it. Hence within the confines that no modern architect will use any building materials other than steel, glass and concrete, we have all sorts of design flourishes, curves, spikes, and the like. Some sort of Islamic motif is popular, so we have glass blocks seeming to rise out of the “ruin” of a traditional stone building, or large blocks with a domed roof. One feature many buildings here have in common, is that they are still under construction.

Tower Blocks competing for attention.

Between these blocks, the roads are all three lanes in each direction. Traffic however is sparse, but the traffic lights are set for a higher density, meaning you frequently wait for several minutes as nothing at all emerges from the side roads. The other side of town, however is a different matter, and our journeys to and from Khalifa have been dogged by lengthy traffic jams. It is with this in mind that we have some trepidation over our plans to see double header matches on the next few days. The opening matches in group B should prove the point. The early game is between Japan and Jordan, at the Qatar Sports Club, which is actually quite close to the hotel. I could probably walk it in 30 minutes. The later game is at Al Rayyan, the only stadium outside the Qatar municipality – we think it is around 25 kms. Kick off times are three hours apart.

The games on Tuesday are in the same order, and on the same pair of Stadia, so we intend to go to the first match, and try and book a taxi to meet us immediately after the game to transport us onwards. If successful, we will repeat the exercise two days later, if not then the latter trip will be to the second ground alone.

The Qatar sports club is the smallest of the stadia for this competition, and the closest to the city. It has a single tier of seats, nowhere near as high as that at Al Gharafa. The stands here are square with the pitch, and there is enough artificial grass overlaying to suggest that a running track has been covered up. One side is given over to the main stand and boxes, and from this side, the backdrop is the series of constructions going on in the diplomatic area

Japan clearly were in control of the early stages, although it took some time before they created a clear cut chance. On 25 minutes Makoto Hasebe shot through a crowd of players, a shot which Amer Shafi could only parry. Maya Yoshida put away the rebound, but was ruled offside. Hesitation by the Japanese defence allowed Hasen Fattah to get a shot from around the penalty spot after 29 minutes. It was a soft effort and went directly into Kawashima waiting hands. It took a fine save from Shafi to stop Kagawa putting Japan ahead on 40 minutes. He collected a pass from the right just outside the area and then burst two defenders before unleashing a shot.

Completely against the run of play, Jordan scored in the last minute of the first half, the shot from Hasan Abdel Fattah was heading straight towards the Japanese goalkeeper, but Maya Yoshida stuck his foot in the way, deflecting the ground shot into the roof of the net. The Jordanian fans, who were clearly the majority of the crowd went wild. Could this be revenge for the 2004 quarter-finals, when the Japanese, by persuading the referee to change ends partway through a penalty shoot out, cruelly defeated the Jordanians. At half tme, Japan changed their main striker, bringing on Tadanari Lee, Japanese born, but of Korean defence, who had played under-19 football for South Korea. Japan looked rattled at the start of the second half. Dortmund’s young star, Shinji Kagawa was seeing a lot of the ball, but he was failing to link with his team mates. Just before the hour, Stuttgart’s Shinji Okazaki came on, allowing Kagawa to move to the more central position he fills for Borussia.

Jordan were doing a very good job in containing the Japanese, and pushing up, pressing and trying to keep the ball away from the Japanese in their own half. When they lost the ball, they were quick to fall back and hold formation, helped by the fact that Japan do not tend to break at speed. Still chances were being created with both Makoto Hasebe and Okazaki shooting narrowly wide. Taking off the lone forward Abdallah Deeb on 71 minutes, Jordan were now in a very defensive formation, with no outright striker. Jordan suffered a blow in the 77^th minute when captain and influential defender Hatem Aqel was injured. Their resistance still held until into injury time, when Hasebe received a short corner and crossed it into the six yard box, where Maya Yoshida headed the ball past the slow to react goalkeeper. With a long period of injury time, mainly due to Hatem’s injury, Japan actually had chances to take an unlikely win, before settling for the point.

It was clear throughout the game that Japan had the more capable players, but they did not gel together well as a team. The team has suffered several injuries in the run up to the tournament, announcing two replacements at the deadline for changes (six hours before kick-off). They were also less prepared than most of the other teams here, with the climax to the domestic season not changing from its traditional New Year’s Day date. With this in mind, there is every chance they will improve for the other games.

At the end of the game, it was about a ten minute walk before I reached the point where the taxi had agreed to pick us up. My compatriots, Paul and Kevin were waiting, but no taxi. However, another car had offered to take us for 100 Riyals, (around £18), which we would have taken, had the actual cab not turned up suddenly, taking us on the meter (for 38 Riyals). With a couple of worrying traffic jams, we actually took around 25 minutes before the taxi dropped us, (still with five minute walks to the actual gates). Still there was a little over 15 minutes to go when I entered the stadium, and with stops to pick up a media tribune ticket, and grab a coffee and sandwich, taking my place with the national anthems in progress. It turned out that Paul and Kevin had a much more difficult time, taking almost all the spare time in order to reach their gate, and only entering the stadium as the national anthems were playing.

I do not have to describe the Al Rayyan (aka Ahmed bin Ali) Stadium, as my last post described Al Gharafa. The main difference between the pair is that at Al Gharafa, the seats here are red and black, rather than yellow and blue. After the classic finish, and the tense drive between games, I was pleased the game did not start in the most exciting of fashions. The atmosphere, however was electric with Syria having thousands of fans packing their half of the ground. Despite being closer, the Saudi Arabian team had only a fraction of the support. Apparently, there is a large Syrian ex-pat community with Qatar, which provides the basis of support. Our taxi driver late in the evening, who intended going to watch his team (India) play, felt that Syria, Iran and India would all benefit from the having very large communities in Qatar. Many of the Syrian supporters were standing throughout the game, and a crescendo of noise rose every time they went forward, or if Saudi just gave away possession. Although Saudi Arabia were considered favourites, the Syrians, maybe buoyed by the noise seemed to have the better of the early stages, and took the lead after a partial clearance on 37 minutes was met by Amer Dees who struck a well placed shot.

The goal seemed to spur Saudi Arabia into action, realising at last that this game may not be as simple as they thought it would be. Syria, after all are the only team to have come through the qualifying stages unbeaten, and they finished above China in the group. Saudi launched a series of raids down the wings at the start of the second half, and made two substitutions to improve their attacking options, the first of these was Taiseer Al Jassam, who came into the game at half time. The Syrian keeper punched out a corner on 60 minutes, only for Taiseer to head the ball back towards the goal, now the goalkeepers sight line was blocked by Naif Hazazi (the second Saudi substitute), and he did not see the ball until it was too late. Within minutes, Syria had regained the lead as the match on the field began to match the excitement in the crowd. The move started on the left, but the ball was crossed too long to be effective. It was then headed back to a more central position where Husein was in position to take his shot, and with a major deflection, Syria scored again. Having scored twice Husein, who had started the game as a defensive midfielder, moved up to be an attacking midfield role, after Adel Abdullah had come on as substitute. Saudi were now committed as an attacking force, but this made for an exciting game, as there were chances on the break, and both Husein, and Syria’s second substitute, Qussai Habib were keen to try and exploit the gaps. Meanwhile Saudi Arabia hit ball after ball into the area, where at times it seemed to bounce around like a virtual pinball. Mosab Balhous made a fantastic save from the head of Nawaf al Abid to keep Syria ahead as the game entered the four minutes of injury time. He then spent a minute getting treatment before the corner. The crowd was now getting noisier with each clearance- surely someone was going to step in and demand a decrease in decibels under health and safety legislation?

Celebrating the first goal

Finally, the whistle went and Syria could enjoy their victory. It is important victory for Syria, who face Japan next at the Qatar Sports Club. Seeing how Syria had a massive portion of the 15,768 crowd at Al Rayyan, it may be a very full stadium for this game. Japan should be desperate to make up for their disappointment in the first game, and should be capable of upping their game as the tournament progresses. Saudi Arabia will be even more determined to make up for their loss, and it will be interesting to see if this result was the peak for Jordan. After the opening two days, we certainly picked up a lot more excitement

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First Days in Qatar

09/01/2011 by leo.

Transferring from cold, damp, Heathrow to hot, humid Doha is a relatively straight forward process. We flew Emirates, leaving London somewhere near the back of one of the new A380 Airbuses. Emirates have more leg room than most airlines, and much better video entertainment, so with the plane being well short of full, the ride was quite comfortable. From Dubai, we quickly found our onward flight to Doha. Getting through immigration was slow, but it did not take us long to reach the hotel. Too early, in fact for the room to be ready, so we spent 90 minutes waiting around in the reception area before going up to the room. To be accurate, I spent the time in the lobby (where the internet connection is free, you have to pay to use it from the room), Kevin went walking and in search of the first match ticket of the trip.

I shall leave my impressions of Qatar itself for another blog, once I have taken more time to see it. This time I relaxed in the hotel until the room was ready, and then freshened up and took 40 winks before heading to the stadium.

When it came to obtaining tickets, the English visitors were in three categories. Those that had managed to obtain press accreditation, those who had bought tickets on the internet in advance, and those trying to buy tickets on the day. Despite the opening match being flagged as sold out even before we arrived in the country. Soon after arriving at the hotel, Kevin went on a trip to a ticket office and managed to get a ticket with just a few minutes of queuing. Dave, meanwhile had pre-ordered his tickets, and went to a different ticket office, in the shopping centre near to the Khalifa Stadium at about the time it opened in the afternoon. What he found was a disorganised scrum around the ticket booth. The booth was supposed to print both pre-ordered tickets and new ones, but just getting into a position and asking a question was near impossible. The ticket booth’s operators had a problem that you had to enter a single block number to see if there were any tickets available in the block, and they were continually searching the blocks that were sold, and not those that were not. They could not print all Dave’s tickets for different games due to printer problems, but he did eventually get his ticket for the opening game. He tried again after the game (and again unsuccessfully), before getting them the next day.

For Steve and I, picking up our accreditation for the tournament was straight forward enough, but this allowed us to use the Main Media Centre, and did not actually include match accreditation. Confirmation that we had been accredited for individual games is supposed to be sent by e-mail, but this was not done. The media web site did not have the confirmation during the morning, but when we tried again, it was in fact confirmed. This process where you cannot confirm much in advance that you are listed for tickets is repeated every game, but if you are not listed, they simply add you to the list as the media benches are not actually full.

The Khalifa Stadium is the National Stadium for Qatar. It dates back to 1976, but was massively renovated for the Asian Games in 2005, and will need to be rebuilt almost in its entirety for 2022. It has an athletics track, but this has been covered with an artificial grass covering for the event. On our arrival, the pitch itself is entirely covered with a white plastic sheet, the effect is enough to make visitors complain that they hoped to leave the snow behind in England. This was removed shortly before kick-off, to reveal a grass pitch in perfect condition. The stands are curved both behind the goal (to allow for the track) and also along the sides, meaning the centre is further from the touchlines than the corners, and the stands are deeper and go back further in these positions. There is a single tier of seating all the way around, except for two small gaps, as the stands for each side are not connected.

A second tier is added centrally on the West side of the ground, and above, some arched steel superstructure supports a stretched membrane roof. This is probably intended to keep the VIPs (and possibly the pitch) in shadow, rather than protect from other elements, but with all the matches at Khalifa having an evening kick off, this will not be put to the test.

An arch, asymmetrical to the west side’s structure rising above the east side, supported by a number of steel cables, and holding some of the floodlights, (there are also four stubby floodlight pylons rising out of the east stand – the west side lights are all held from the roof of the stand). On the approach, the ground has a slightly odd feel, hardly that of a major stadium. This feeling is not helped by the fact the ground is within a complex, surrounded by other structures, and the centrepiece is not the stadium, but the neighbouring Aspire tower. Note that about a third of the way up this structure, there is a TV screen, replaying live the match next door!

After an opening ceremony that was involved a large number of noisy fireworks, and some effective lighting affects, the games got away on time. Both teams lined up in a 4-4-2 formation, but in the early part of the game, Qatar were quicker to commit men to the attack, and by doing so left spaces in the defence that the Uzbeks could try and utilise. It was the experience of Alexander Geynrikh and Maksim Shatskikh that most likely to produce a goal, and Geynrikh did shave the post with one shot. But as they half continued, Uzbekistan seemed to have less conviction going forward, and seemed more satisfied to go into the break still level. Two free kicks, both taken by the Brazilian born Fabio Cesar Montizene may have threatened this equilibrium, but the best reached was again the post.

Qatar renewed their attacking intentions at the start of the second period, but they were not doing enough to cause any discomfort to Uzbekistan. The Uzbeks themselves seemed to have little intention of going forward, instead laying the ball back and trying what appeared to be ridiculous long shots. Only appeared to be, as one apparently purposeless backward move found centre half Odil Akhmedov some 25 yards out, from where he blasted a shot just under the bar to give his side a lead just before the hour.

That the home fans did not appear to have much faith in their team’s chances of recovery. When the official corwd of 37,143 was read out on 75 minutes, at least 10% had already left. A minute later, one of the home defenders made the cardinal error of a soft pass in front of his own goal, Djepparov was more aware than the other defenders, and Qatar were 2-0 down.

On the next day, we made our way out to the Al-Gharafa stadium for the other game in the group, Kuwait and China. Despite being a clear and warm day, there was a beat of a breeze for the afternoon, keeping the humidity down and meaning conditions for the match were very pleasant. The Al-Gharafa stadium was built in 2003, and holds 22,000. It is a modern stadium with a single tier of seats going around to a uniform height all around. There are slight curves both behind the goals, and along the sides, but there is no running track here. Blocks of seats are alternately blue and yellow, the club colours of Al-Gharafa in the Qatari League.

Both sides started the game in 4-2-3-1 formation and with a lot of speed and effort. Kuwait seemed to have the better of the early exchanges, and had what looked like a good appear for a penalty in the 13^th minute for an apparent foul on Al Mutwa by Du Wie.. China’s best early chance saw Qu Bo hit the side netting after receiving an excellent crossfield pass from Zhao Xuri

Qatar had Mesad Nada sent off for kicking the Chinese forward Yang Xu after he had been fouled and both players were lying on the ground. It was a bit of a “Beckham moment”, but the Australia referee did get the decision correct. Immediately afterwards, a substitution took off Kuwait’s lone forward, placing them almost in a 4-2-3-0 formation. Although the early pace of the game had faded by this point, Kuwait were still trying to make good use of their 10 men, containing the Chinese, and then trying the break out down the wings, so as Bader Al Mutwa could push through the centre. Kuwait could have taken the lead on the stroke of half time, when a free kick taken by Al Mutwa was touched just wide by Hussein Fadhel.

Even with ten men, Kuwait had the better of the opening exchanges after the break, but it was China who scored first. A corner was part cleared to the edge of the area, from where Zhang Linpeng struck a shot, which was then took a massive deflection off Hussain Fadhel. A free kick from just outside the area ten minutes later was powerfully struck home by Deng Zhouxiang, adding to the Kuwaiti misery. China were well in control for the rest of the game and could have added another when Rong Hao was pushed through and forced a save.

Overall, Kuwait must be disappointed not to have picked up something from this game, but the Chinese proved stronger and took their chances. The official crowd for the game was 7423, over half of these were supporting Kuwait, while China also had well over 1000 supporters. No doubt some of the team’s supporters, especially among the Kuwait section were ex-pats working in Qatar, while other locals were at a premium.

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Qatar Preview, Part 3.

05/01/2011 by leo.

Group D. If there is a rule that every competition has to have a group of death, then this it is. But in Asia, death is more deadly than just a word. Iran and Iraq have recently fought a long and bloody war, while Iraq’s celebrations following their semi-final win in the 2007 tournament was followed by a bomb blast which killed 50 celebrating fans in Baghdad.

By winning the 2007 tournament, Iraq have been excused from the qualification this time. Prior to 2007, the Iraqi record was three successive tournaments in which they were knocked out at the quarter-final stage. For the 2010 World Cup, Iraq had an easy win over Pakistan, but were then placed in a difficult four team group with Australia, Qatar and China, and the added disadvantage of playing home games in Dubai. After drawing with China in the first game, they then lost in both Qatar and Australia. Some pride was regained with a home win over Australia and a fine win (which I saw) at Tianjin, in China. The result meant that the Chinese were out, while Australia were through with a game to play, while Iraq played Qatar in Dubai for a place in the next round. Qatar won this match 1-0. As Asian Champions, Iraq went to the 2007 Confederations Cup in South Africa. Their Asian Cup win was based on solid defence, and the Confederations Cup was little difference. In a group with South Africa, Spain and New Zealand, Iraq conceded only a single goal to Spain – but at the other end of the field, they did not score in any of their games, and hence did not reach the semi-finals.

In September 2010, Iraq played the West Asian Federation Cup, beating both Yemen and Palestine in group games, but then losing 2-1 to Iran in the semi-finals. November saw the Gulf Cup, and draws (both 0-0) with UAE and Oman, sandwiching a victory over Bahrain. This was followed by another semi-final defeat on penalties to Kuwait after a 2-2 draw. Kuwait won both the West Asian, and Gulf tournaments. The coach, Wolfgang Sidka has much experience, but mainly in the lower divisions in his native Germany. He is knownin the region having had a spell as coach of Bahrain, and both Al Arabi and Al Gharafa in Qatar. The team is captained by Younis Mahmoud, who scored the winning goal in the previous tournament and will be relied upon to inspire the team again. Mahmoud plays for Al Gharafa in Qatar, one of six players who play there. Still, as a sign that some normality is returning to their home nation, ten of the players now play league football in Iraq. Others play in Iran (3), Indonesia (2), Turkey and Libya.

By contrast, all but two of the Iranian squad currently play football within their home country. One of the two exceptions is Javan Nekounam, who at 30 years old is about the best known of the current Iranian squad. At lot will be expected of the national captain in what may be his last major tournament. Nekounam plays for Osasuna in Spain along with the 26 year old Masoud Shojaei. There are a few other players in the squad who have been beyond the national borders, and best known in England would be Andranik Teymourian, formerly of Bolton Wanderers and Fulham. Teymourian was born into the Armenian community in Tehran and is apparently the only Christian in the Iranian team. Last summer, Teymourian was released from a disappointing spell with Fulham, and although both Blackburn and Sheffield United were reported to be interested in signing him, he returned to Iran after his work permit was not extended, and he signed for Tractor Sazi in September. At Tractor Sazi, he plays with another national team veteran, Mohamed Nosrati.

The past record of Iran places them as one of the best in Asia, with three appearances (1978, 1998 and 2006) in the World Cup finals, although never passing the first round. They won three successive Asian Cups in 1968,1972 and 1976, although they had the advantage of being hosts in both 68 and 72. Of the eight tournaments since then, they have lost in the semi-finals on five occasions, ending up in third place four times. The last of these was in China in 2004. Twice they were beaten in the quarter finals (including the last tournament), while only in Japan in 1992 did they fail to get out of the group. Qualification for this tournament was reasonably straight forward, topping a group including Singapore, Jordan and Thailand, Iran won all their home games and also the away match in Singapore. Recently, they were losing finalists in the West Asian tournament (to Kuwait). Iran have won this title on four out of six occasions it has been played.

The coach, Afshin Ghotbi does not have a senior playing career, having played for no one more senior than UCLA in California. Ghotbi moved to California at the age of 13, and started coaching there when he was only 20. He has been chief scout to the USA team, and assistant coach at Suwon Bluewings in Korea, and LA Galaxy in USA, and then for the Korean national team under Dick Advocaat and Pim Verbeek. He returned to Iran in 2007 as coach of Persepolis, who won the league title in 2008. Despite this Ghotbi disagreed with the club owners and left in the autumn. He was appointed as Iran head coach in April 2009, when bad performances under previous coaches had already dented their chances of reaching the World Cup. After the Asian cup, Ghotbi has already agreed to move to Japan and take over Shimizu S-Pulse.

Third of the teams in the group is the United Arab Emirates. Like Iraq, this is an Arabian Gulf Nation, which plays in the bi-annual Arabian Gulf Cup. Although Iran also borders the same piece of water, the Iranians are not Arabs (and consider it an insult to be called Arab), and do not enter the Gulf Cup. Indeed whenever I have read about the Gulf Cup on message boards, there always seems to be Iranians complaining about the name of the competition. In Iran, the waterway is known as the Persian Gulf, and they even name their own Premier competition, “The Persian Gulf Cup” (even though it is a league).

At the UAE, the coach for the last 18 months has been Srecko Katanec – a Slovenian who has played internationally for Yugoslavia and Slovenia. As a full back for Sampdoria in 1992, he played in the European Cup final at Wembley, losing 1-0 to Barcelona. He became coach of Slovenian club in 1998, but moved on in the summer to become Slovenian national manager. Under his stewardship, Slovenia reached the Euro finals of 2000, and the World Cup finals of 2002. He resigned after the team performed badly in 2002, and after a public argument with star player Zlatko Zahovic. This appears to be a pattern, he later coached Macedonia and resigned in April 2009 after a spat with Goran Pandev. In Asian terms, UAE always appears to be about, but rarely make an impression on the major tournaments. They have only qualified for one World Cup in 1990, losing all three group matches, but in the Asian Cup, they have qualified for all but one of the last nine tournaments. Having said that, they have left after the first round on five occasions. The exceptions being in Japan, 1992 when they were beaten semi-finalists, and four years later, as hosts, when they lost to neighbours Saudi Arabia in the final. UAE are members of the West Asian Football Federation, but have declined to participate in their major tournament. They have won the Gulf Cup once, on their own territory in 2007, and have been runners-up on three occasions. All of the 23 man squad for this Asian Cup play professional football within the UAE, and I am not aware of any having spent time abroad. Qualification was by the relatively easy Group C, with only three teams after India withdrew. Malaysia were beaten twice, and Uzbekistan in the away game.

That leaves North Korea, a country that decided not to bother at the start of the qualifying procedure, instead concentrating on their bid to reach the World Cup, while playing in the 2008 and 2010 Asian Challenge Cups. With its complex internal politics, nothing about North Korea is simple. It is well known that the North Koreans played in the 1966 World Cup in England. The rest of the story is less well advertised. After FIFA has decided that only one place in England would be available to countries from Asia, Africa and Oceania, all of the African entries withdrew, except for South Africa (who were expelled due to apartheid). The Asia/Oceania group only consisted of North and South Korea, and Australia, (South Africa would have played in it as well, had they not been removed), but FIFA originally scheduled it to be played in Japan. Then, for some reason, FIFA relocated the matches to Cambodia. This was not to the delight of South Korea who added to the withdrawals, leaving North Korea and Australia to play out two games in November 1965, with North Korea winning by 6-1 and 3-1. Although the North Koreans lost to the Soviet Union in their first game, a draw against Chile and victory over Italy meant they reached the quarter-finals, where they lost their 3-0 lead over Portugal, finally going down 5-3. After that, North Korean failures generally came in the qualifying stages, although they declined to even enter for 1998 and 2002. Their 2006 qualifying campaign came to an ignominious end. In a home match against Iran, with North Korean chances of qualifying already slender, the referee refused to award a penalty, and then sent off a Korean for protesting too much. This caused rioting amongst the fans, and the throwing of bottles and stones onto the pitch. In the end, riot police were required to re-create order and FIFA ordered their next home match to be played behind closed doors in Bangkok. In the 2010 World Cup qualification, North Korea started with a 9-2 aggregate win over Mongolia. This placed them in a group with Turkmenistan, Jordan, and South Korea. It sounded too good to miss, and I had made most of the arrangements to get to the match when it came out that North Korea would not agree to all conditions required to hold the match (which included flying the South Korean flag and playing their anthem at the stadium). As a result, the match was switched to Shanghai, China and was drawn 0-0. Fortunately, I was able (for a price) to reschedule my visit to June, and saw North Korea beat Turkmenistan 1-0. The following week, they beat Jordan 2-0 and reached the next round (I was in China, and saw the Chinese knocked out by Iraq). The return match against South Korea completed the group, (this was played in South Korea), a further scoreless draw being inconsequential as both teams were already through. North Korea’s record in four games was three wins, three draws, four goals scored and none conceded. In the next stage, they drew South Korea again, plus Saudi Arabia, Iran and UAE. Again the home match against South Korea was played to a draw in China – this time 1-1. Of the matches in Pyongyang, the Koreans beat both UAE and Saudi Arabia, and drew with Iran. They also won their away match in UAE, and drew in Saudi Arabia, losing to Iran and South Korea. This was enough for them to finish second in the group and gain their ticket to South Africa. In the finals, they performed well against Brazil, going down to 2-1 defeat, but then crashed to Portugal and the Ivory Coast. Reports say this was received badly back home, and the team was subjected to public humiliation on their return, but the source of these reports has never been verified.

Whatever may have happened to the World Cup team on their return to North Korea, the squad for the Asian Cup is basically the same team, 17 of the 23 players from are in both squads, and all the players that started in the World Cup are there again. (Of the six players dropped, four did not take to the field in South Africa, and the other two were used only as substitutes). The reports did say that coach Kim Jong-Hun came in for special criticism, being accused of betraying Kim Jong-un (the heir apparent to Kim Jong-il as supreme leader). Kim Jong-Hun is no longer with the team, and the chief coach is now Jo Tong Sop. Jo has been coach of the under-19 team, which won the Asian U-19 championship in October. He has also acted as assistant to the previous coach and took charge of the team for the Asian Challenge Cup in February. Having not played in the Asian Cup qualification, North Korea needed to win the Challenge Cup to make it to this Asian final. Despite this, they did not send out their potential World Cup team, for what may have proved to be a useful preparation, but instead sent out a very young side. Despite a shaky start, the Koreans opened up with some stylish and attacking football to win the title. Only one of the players in Sri Lanka had played for the team I saw in World Cup qualifying in 2008, while four made it into the finals World Cup squad. A further three have been promoted to the senior squad for this tournament.

Not all the North Korean squad plays football in North Korea. Three members of the squad are Zainichi Koreans, (which means they were born in Japan). This trio are Ryong Yong-Gi and An Yong-Hak, both still based in Japan, and Jong Tae-Se, now with VfL Bochum in Germany. The North Korean captain, Hong Yong-Jo became, I believe, the first North Korean player to switch to a foreign club (with official permission) when he joined FK Bezanija, then in the Serbian Super League. A year later he switched to Russian Premier side Rostov, where he has now spent three seasons. In 2008, Kim Kuk-Jin moved to Corcordia Basel in the Swiss Second Division, and a year later he transferred to FC Wil, who this season have signed a second North Korean, Cha Jong-Hyok

Iran are rated 4^th in Asia according to FIFA, but only 66^th worldwide, Iraq’s rankings are 9/101, UAE 12/105 and North Korea 14/108. This suggests that Iran should be able to qualify, while the others are rather close to call. Indeed Iraq and UAE should be favoured by the climate. However, this group is far more complex. Iran and Iraq play each other first, and the winner of this game must be a favourite to qualify. This game is akin to a local derby in England, where form can go out of the window. The key to the group is the enigma which is North Korea. They are clearly quite capable of beating their own ranking and qualifying from the group. If North Korea beat UAE in their first game, then I think they will go through. If North Korea lose, then I would be surprised if they recover, although this is not the same as saying UAE will qualify.

Looking at the squad lists, and the 368 players who will be in Qatar, I find that 277 (just over 75%) play their football in their home country. Three teams, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and UAE use only players from their own leagues. Qatar, China and India have just one player outside their domestic league, and Iran uses only local players, with the exception of two with Osasuna in Spain. At the other end of the spectrum, only four members of the Australian squad play in their A-League, and one of those is with the New Zealand side, Wellington Phoenix. The 91 players who play league football in “foreign” countries play in 29 different countries, although eight of these are playing in the tournament itself. Indeed, the hosts Qatar have the biggest number of Asian Cup foreigners. Six of these are with Iraq, and four with local neighbours Bahrain. Iraq is the only country, apart from Australia with more than half its squad playing outwith its own borders.

Top European nation in providing players to the tournament is England with nine. Seven of these are Australians (two of which do not play in the Premier League), while the other pair are South Koreans. There are eight Bundesliga players in the team, which appears to be the Japanese destination of choice. Five members of the Japanese team play in Germany, along with Hao Junmin of China, Sun Heung-Min of South Korea and Jong Tae-Se of North Korea. The South Korean team also utilises two players at Celtic. The only Asian country that has failed to qualify, but has representation for its league is Indonesia, thanks to two Iraqis at Persjia Jakarta. Two of the North African countries are represented, with a Qatari at Zamalek in Egypt, and an Iraqi at Al Ahly Tripoli in Algeria. The only person who plays in Oceania is Wellington’s Jade North. Of course, as an A-League player, he plays half his games in Australia (i.e. the away ones). Finally, there is an Indian playing in the USA for Kansas City in the MLS.

Only six of the coaches are nationals of the country they are coaching. Of the others, nine are Europeans, while the odd one out is the Iraqi Adnan Hamad, who now coaches Jordan.

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Qatar Preview, Part 2

29/12/2010 by leo.

Group B of the Asian Cup brings together Saudi Arabia, champions in 1984, 1988 and 1996 with Japan, champions in 1992, 2000 and 2004. In the last tournament, Saudi Arabia defeated Japan in the semi-finals, which meant that Saudi did not have to play in the qualifying tournament for this competition, while Japan had little trouble in negotiating their way through a group with Bahrain, Yemen and Hong Kong. They lost in 1-0 in Bahrain in their second game, but the other five group games were all won, with 17 goals scored and only three more conceded.

Alberto Zaccheroni was appointed coach of Japan at the end of August, replacing Takeshi Okada who had seen them through the qualifying games and the World Cup finals. Zaccheroni seems to be a surprising choice – he is well known in Italy, having had spells at Milan, Lazio, Inter, Torino and Juventus, but not having any success since Milan’s 1999 title, and generally only staying at each club for a short period. Eight members of the side selected by Zaccheroni ply their trade in Europe, while the rest are Japanese based. Hasime Hosogai will switch from Urawa Red Diamonds to Bayer Leverkusen in the winter transfer window. In the midfield for Japan will be Shinji Kagawa, the boy wonder of Borussia Dortmund’s first half of the season

The Saudi coach is Jose Peseiro, formerly an assistant to Carlos Queiroz at Real Madrid, and coach at Sporting Club de Portugal, Panathinaikos and Rapid Bucharest. Having already failed to guide his side into the 2010 World Cup Finals, Peseiro needs a successful tournament if he is to extend his tenure. Saudi Arabia reached the final of the Gulf Cup last month, but were beaten 1-0 aet by Kuwait in the final.

Syria were impressive in qualifying, winning four games and drawing two, giving them a point more than China. Lebanon were beaten home and away, the Chinese at home and Vietnamese away, with the remaining games finishing 0-0. Syria have failed to qualify for the last three Asian Cup tournaments and have never gone beyond the group stage. They met Jordan, the final team in this group during the West Asian championships in Jordan. The match finished 1-1, and with Jordan losing 2-1 to eventual winners Kuwait, they ended up bottom of the three team group. After the West Asia tournament, Syria appointed Serbian Ratomir Dujkovic, whose c.v. included leading Ghana in the 2006 World Cup, but they then sacked him after just one friendly win (2-0 v Bahrain), the Syrian FA claim this was for being late in returning from vacation, while Dujkovic says it was a dispute over appointing his assistants. The new coach is Valerui Tita is a Romanian, combining the duties with coaching leading Syrian club side Al-Ittihad. In the last week, Syria have played Iraq twice, but Tita was only appointed in time for the second game, (which Syria lost) and not the first (which they won). 17 members of the squad play in Syria, only two for Tita’s club side. There are two European based players, Senharib Malki of Lokeren and Louay Chanko of Aalborg.

Jordan’s qualification started with an uninspiring 0-0 draw at home to Thailand and defeats in Singapore and Iran; but they recovered to beat both Iran and Singapore at home, and with another draw in Thailand, they ended up in second place. Going into the final qualifying match, Jordan have five points, playing at home to Singapore on 6, while the Thais, also on 6 were playing away to already qualified Iran. Saify and Beni Yaseen scored as Jordan won their game 2-1, while a last minute goal saw Thailand out. Despite home advantage, Jordan did not reach the semi-final of the West Asian Championship. They have only been in one Asian Cup finals before, reaching the quarter finals in China and then losing a remarkable penalty shoot out after the Japanese persuaded the referee to change ends with Jordan 2-0 up. Jordan scored three penalties, and then missed four in a row, losing 4-3 to the eventual champions. The coach is Adnan Hamad, who has had five spells as coach of his native Iraq side, including the 2004 Asian Championship. Most of the squad play in Syria, with players in Saudi Arabia, Syria and Cyprus.

FIFA rank Japan as 29^th in the World, or second in Asia, with Saudi Arabia in 81^st, Jordan 104^th and Syria 107^th. The Japanese are many people’s favourites for the tournament as a whole, but their preparation does leave something to be desired. The Emperor’s cup final goes ahead on its traditional date of January 1^st, which means the Japanese players are still playing for their clubs, at home and the winter, while their opponents have been preparing in the region.

Group C features Australia, South Korea, Bahrain and India. South Korea secured their qualification by finishing third in the previous tournament, Australia as winners of a qualifying group, Bahrain as runners-up while India did not play in the qualification, but instead won the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup. This is part of the unusual system used by the AFC in arranging their international tournaments. The first three in the 2007 Asian Cup were given direct qualification to the tournament, along with the holders. There were originally 24 teams to fight out for 10 further places, but North Korea, Myanmar and Turkmenistan withdrew without playing. With 21 teams now in the contest, there was a play-off game in which Lebanon beat Maldives 6-1 on aggregate and the surviving 20 teams were divided into five groups of four, two reaching the finals from each group. The final two places were given to the winners of the secondary international competition, the AFC Challenge Cup played in 2008 (in India) and 2010 (in Sri Lanka). Twenty teams were entered into qualification for the 2008 Cup, including the three sides who had withdrawn from the Asian Cup qualification and India – the only country to actually enter in both. After India won in 2008, they too withdrew from the Asian Cup Qualification, causing one group to continue with only three teams. Challenge Cup qualification uses centralised groups (all matches in single round-robin groups, in a single venue), and the host is then chosen from the final eight. The twenty clubs for 2010 included Maldives, after their early elimination from the Asian Cup. India is included in the draw for the 2012 Challenge Cup. I will only find out later if they or anyone else gets a double chance by entering the Asian Cup as well.

All but one of the India team are based in India, the one exception being Sunil Chhetri who plays for Kansas City in the MLS. A surprising number, however are listed as free agents, so there may be some who find new placings if they are successful in Qatar. Best known of the players is the veteran Baichung Bhutia who hopes to add to his 102 caps and 42 international goals despite recent injury. India do not have a good record in past competitions, and have only twice qualified for the finals. They finished second (to Israel) in 1964 in a very small tournament played in Israel. Until Israel switched to European football, their existence always caused friction in Asia, and in 1964 both Iran and Pakistan withdrew from the qualifying tournament as they were unhappy about the final venue, giving India a free ride. When India qualified again, for the 1984 Asian Cup, they finished second in a qualifying group played entirely in Calcutta. This time, as their qualification was via the Challenge Cup, all matches were again played in India, (India had exemption from qualifying for this competition). India fared poorly in the 2010 Challenge Cup, but this can be excused as the side entered was clearly a youth squad. They are the current holders of the South Asian Federation title after an eight team tournament played in Bangladesh in December 2009. Since 2006, the coach of India has been Bob Houghton, the former coach of Hastings United, Maidstone United, Malmo FF (twice), Ethnikos Piraeus, Bristol City, Toronto Blizzard, Al-Ittihad (Saudi, twice), Örgryte, Zurich, Colorado Rapids, China, Shanghai Pudong, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Uzbekistan and Changsha Ginde coach. Houghton was player-coach to Hastings at the age of 23, and has since been coaching for 40 years, without ever being out of work for any long period of time. He is most well known for taking Malmo to the 1979 European Cup final. India’s build up to the tournament has been marred by injury to Bhutia and by internal dissent, which has seen team manager Pradip Chowdhary resign (for a lot of Asian clubs, team manager is a non-coaching job). The last couple of India’s warm up friendly games were not played, just highlighting the problems that what may well be the weakest team in the competition is facing.

Bahrain is the smallest of the countries that have qualified for the finals. It is an Island in the Gulf, off the coast of Qatar. Until 1878, Qatar was actually ruled from Bahrain. I have noticed that part of the new rail systems mentioned in the Qatar bid document for 2022 World Cup is a rail link to Qatar. Bahrain qualified from a group including Japan, Hong Kong and Yemen with ease, winning their first four games. The first home game saw them beat Japan 1-0. They came close to reaching the 2010 World Cup finals as well, again finishing second to Japan in the first stage of qualifying, and then finishing third (to Japan and Australia) in the second phase. They did lose all four games against Japan and Australia at this stage. This gave them a play-off against Saudi Arabia (two draws) which was won on away goals and a final play off when they were beaten by a single goal and New Zealand went through. This is their fourth Asian Cup, but also their third successive time in the finals. Only in 2004 did they make it beyond the group stage, ending up in fourth place. In the Gulf Cup, they have three times been runners-up, but have never won the title – and they had a poor time in November when they were bottom of their group, behind UAE, Iraq and Oman. As with the hosts, Bahrain have been dogged by controversy over the number of naturalised players in their squad, which will probably include Jaycee John Okwunwanne, Abdullah Omar Ismail and Abdulla Baba Fatadi, all of which are African born, naturalised Bahrainis now playing in European Leagues. Okwunwanne plays in Turkey for Eskişehirspor, while the others are with Neuchatel Xamax.

The coach, Salmar Sharida is a Bahraini national, who has spent some time as coach as Pakistan, and as successful as anyone has been for them. Returning to Bahrain he coached Muharraq. This has always been the most successful club in Bahrain, and under Sharida they had their best ever season, winning all the domestic trophies, and the AFC Cup, (the only time any Bahrain club has won international honours).

Australia switched to the AFC in 2005, so this is their second Asian Championship. In the qualification for 2007, they countered little difficulty, winning three out of four games against Bahrain and Kuwait after the Lebanon withdrew, but they found the finals more difficult than they had expected – after a 1-1 draw with Oman, they lost 3-1 to Iraq but scraped into the second round with a 4-0 defeat of Thailand. They went out in the quarter-finals to Japan in a penalty shoot out.

Qualification for the 2010 World Cup and 2011 Asian Cup were taking place simultaneously, and this demonstrated the difference between Australia’s full squad, and the team they put out for matches played on non-official international dates, when players from the European Leagues were not available. By March 2009, the Australian record (half way through the final round of qualifying for the World Cup) was won 3, drawn 1 with the dropped points being away to Japan, but in the Asian tournament they had drawn 0-0 with Indonesia, and lost at home to Kuwait. Fortunately, they did not play another Asian cup game until the World Cup qualification was successfully completed. With European based players available, they beat Oman home and away and following a draw in Kuwait, they scraped through to the finals with a 1-0 win over Indonesia.

Australia’s coach is the German, Holger Osieck. He has previously coached in Germany, Turkey, Canada and Japan and his successes include the CONCACAF Gold Cup for Canada in 2000, and the AFC Champions League with Urawa Red Diamonds in 2007. Of all the teams in the Asian Cup, Australia have the most players based in Europe. Eight play in England, and three in Turkey. Only four members of the team play in the Australian League (and one of those is with Wellington Phoenix in New Zealand).

Finally, we have the South Korean team. As their qualification was automatic after finishing third in 2007, they played the 2010 World Cup without having to worry about Asian affairs. In the East Asian Championship at the start of 2010, they lost 3-0 to China – but this was with a squad very different to the one used in the summer for the World Cup. Not surprisingly, the squad for this Asian Cup bears more relationship to the World Cup squad than the EAFF title. A dozen of the players play in the Korean League, and three in Japan. 33 year old veteran, Lee Young-Pyo has 120 caps for the side, and now plays for Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia. He has previously played with Spurs, PSV and Borussia Dortmund. Five of the squad currently plays in Europe. The uncapped 18 year old Son Heung-Min has broken into the Hamburg side this season, scoring three times in just seven appearances. Lee Chung-Yong is established at Bolton, while the expected star is Park Ji-Sung of Manchester United. Two of the Koreans play for Celtic, meaning the Scottish side could be the one that feels the effects of this competition most strongly. This pair includes Cha Du-Ri, son of Cha Bum-Kun formerly of Bayer Leverkusen, and a member of Korean side in the 1986 World Cup. Coach Cho Kwang-Rae has always been based in Korea, and won the Korean League title when coaching Anyang Cheetahs in 2000.

FIFA ranks Australia at 26^th World-wide, which places them number 1 in Asia, while South Korea are the third in Asia, or 40^th overall. I find this strange, and believe that South Korea should actually be ranked top of the list, ahead of Japan and Australia. Bahrain’s rankings are 7^th/93^rd and present a possible spanner in the works for the others, especially if they are slow to acclimatise. India are down at 142^nd/23^rd, and I must agree with FIFA’s representation of them as the weakest team in the competition.

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Qatar Preview, Part 1.

26/12/2010 by leo.

The FIFA decision to place the 2022 World Cup in Qatar should cause greater interest in the 2011 Asian Cup, to be played in the same Emirate. Still, this tournament will not be taking many of the current stars of European Leagues away from their day jobs, nor will it present many new future stars, and so much of the tournament will be ignored by the European press.

For me, it will be the third time I have been out to see the tournament. In the previous two, China 2004 and South East Asia 2007, I managed to stay away the whole three weeks, seeing both the start and completion of the competition. This time, I can only see the first week. Judging by the last two editions, there will be plenty of interesting football and no lack of controversy.

To start with Qatar, the host. I am sure that many people know little about this small emirate jutting out into the Gulf from the Arabian peninsula. To start with, the place is not as small as many may think. A land mass of 4,400 square miles means that it is a little over half the size of Wales. This is a good comparison, as the population is also just over half that of Wales. Of course, there are differences, the GDP of Qatar, boosted by oil revenues (and little else) is far in excess of that of Wales. It is this revenue that allows them to stage a World Cup, whereas they probably feel the £25 million per season in sponsorship to Barcelona is merely small change.

For the 2011 competition, five stadiums are being used – the largest is the Khalifa Stadium in Doha, which holds around 50,000. The stadium is scheduled to stage 7 games, which could all feature the home side, should they go through as group winners and proceed to the final. The Al-Gharafa stadium, also in Doha holds 25,000 and is used by two local sides, Umm-Salal and Al-Gharafa themselves. It will stage eight matches, six in the group stages. Also in Doha are two stadiums holding around 15,000 – the Qatar Sports Club stadium is used, naturally by Qatar Sports Club, and shared by Lekhwiya and lower division Al-Sailiya, while the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium is the home of Al-Sadd. Qatar SC stages six group games and a knockout match. Al Sadd just three group games, a quarter-final and the third-fourth play off. Finally, Al-Rayyan is the only one being used that is outside the capital municipality (but not by far). This stadium will stage six group games. The official name of the stadium is Ahmed bin Ali, it is shared by Al-Rayyan and Al-Kharitiyat.

Qatar’s results in previous editions of the tournament have not been good, not even in 1988 when they again were the home nation. On that occasion, the 10 teams were arranged in two groups, with knock out rounds starting at the semi-final stage – Qatar won two, but also lost two of their games, and lost out on qualifying to South Korea and Iran. This time around they will be under the guidance of Bruno Metsu, the French manager who made his name by taking Senegal to the 2002 World Cup Quarter finals. In the last Asian Cup, Metsu was coaching the UAE, and while they were knocked out at the group stage, he became a Vietnamese national hero when the UAE won their last game to hand the home side a place in the quarter-finals. I expect the Qatar squad to be boosted by a number of naturalised players who are chosen from Africa, South America and from some or their Arab neighbours. Almost all the players for Qatar actually play club football within the Emirate, but one exception (and clearly one of their best hopes) is Hussein Yasser. Hussein’s father was an Egyptian coaching in Qatar at the time of his birth. He has been on the books of both Manchester United and Manchester City (without playing), but has European experience at AEL in Cyprus, Braga and Boavista in Portugal, and currently plays for Zamalek in Egypt.

In Group A with Qatar will be another “Gulf” nation, Kuwait. Kuwait have had a degree of success under the coaching of Serbian, Goran Tufegdzic. They are the current holders of the West Asian Football Federation title, held in Jordan in October, and more recently, the Gulf Cup when it was played in December in Yemen. In the first of these, they beat Iran in the final and in the second they beat Saudi Arabia with a single goal in extra time. They also defeated Qatar during the group stage. Kuwait have won the Asian Cup before, back in 1980 when they were also the hosts.

Kuwait qualified from a group including Australia, Oman and Indonesia, and started poorly by losing at home to Oman. Their second game was in Australia, but on a date when the Aussies could not call upon European based players – this may have been a factor in their 1-0 win. A second victory followed at home to Indonesia, after which they drew all their final three games to finish a point ahead of Oman. The final game was the return in Oman, with a crowd of 27,000 in Muscat. A win for Oman would have put them through, but the final result was 0-0.

Kuwait will be the final team to play the hosts in group games. Qatar’s opponent in the opening game will be Uzbekistan. The Uzbeks had a simple qualifying group, after India, who had been placed in the group won the AFC Challenge Cup in 2008 (which carried direct qualification), and pulled out of this alternative method of going through. This meant the Uzbeks were in a three team group, and the Malays were in the midst of a long run of poor form. Malaysia ended up losing all four of their games, while Uzbekistan and UAE each won the away match (both times 1-0) when the pair met. Most of the squad plays league football in Uzbekistan or other former Soviet Republics, which means their league seasons are well closed, and the team has had plenty of time to prepare and acclimatise. They recently drew 1-1 with Bahrain, a match played in Dubai, with Alexander Geynrikh of Pakhtakor scoring. One member of their squad, Jasur Hasanov plays club football for Lekhwiya in Qatar.

The fourth team in Group A is China. They also finished second in their qualifying group (to Syria), but qualification was never in doubt, with two wins over each of Vietnam and Lebanon. The Chinese have prepared with a series of uninspiring results (mainly wins) against second rate European teams in China. Latvia, Estonia and Macedonia being the last three to make the trip. Uruguay won 4-0 when they went to China in October. The Chinese will play holders Iraq in Doha before the tournament starts. They started the year with a moral boosting win in Tokyo in the East Asian Championship – which included a 3-0 win over South Korea, but this is not considered a big deal locally compared with the Asian and World Cups. Defeat to Japan in the 2004 Asian final still hurts in Beijing. Most Chinese national players now play in the Chinese League, which is reported to have improved recently (and to be less corrupt as well). The chief coach, Gao Hongbo was assistant to Arie Haan during the 2004 championship, and coached Changchun Yatai to the 2007 League title, (their only championship).

FIFA’s rankings place the Chinese at 87^th, Kuwait 102, Uzbekistan 109 and Qatar lowest in the group at 114. China should be able to get through to the knock stages, and I feel that home advantage may well be enough to allow Qatar to join them – but neither of the others will be easy to beat.

Posted in Asia 11 | No Comments »

Moldova (without playing Tennis).

27/10/2010 by leo.

It would be easy to downgrade everything in life for comic affect, and many of our best comedians do just that. When I told people I was heading to Moldova, several people mentioned Tony Hawks’ extremely funny book “Playing the Moldovans at Tennis”, as if this was a documentary about life in Moldova. At the start of the book, England beat Moldova 4-0 in a European Championship qualifier; which means I can date the first chapter to September 1997, and therefore understand that the rest of the action took place later that year. A lot of progress can occur in 13 years in a newly independent country, even if situations such as Transnistria remain unchanged. So to start with the simple points – the streets are lit (sometimes poorly), and this light is added to be the neon blare of dozens of small casinos. There were some uneven pavements, but no missing manhole covers – the greatest risk when walking down the road is where some railings or other fencing have been removed leaving a short and rough metal stub, which could trip or even maim the unsuspecting passer-by.

At no time during the trip, did we feel uncomfortable walking on the streets. We found a variety of eating and drinking establishments, and were welcomed by all. At one point in the book, Hawks makes his way to Orhei (because he decides he cannot be bothered to change bus to Orhei Vecchia). We made the trip to Orhei intentionally, (the side trip to Vecchia still being awkward by public transport), and found it to be a pleasant enough place, with some rather poignant memorials, a pretty church, a café that sold excellent pastries, and of course a recently refurbished football ground. Apart from some half decent football, what else could we ask of a small town that one does not intend to spend more than six hours in?

St. Stefan cel Mare (the Great) is featured prominently across the country. In this case we see him outside municipal buildings in Balti.

The basics – Paul and I travelled to Chisinau using Austrian Airways, although one of the planes was Air Moldova with a code share. On the outward journey, we had only a short time to change flights in Vienna, but this went smoothly, despite a delay of more than 30 minutes at Heathrow. On the return, we were supposed to be stuck in Vienna for a long time, but this was shortened by delays in Chisinau. There are few direct flights to Moldova from the UK, but there are also routes via Germany and Romania. If using the latter, and flying out to Bucharest via Wizzair, then one has to switch airports in Bucharest, a factor in our decision not to fly that way. On arriving in Chisinau, we avoided the taxis touting for business and instead took a microbus from a compound at one end of the concourse. This took us to one end of Boulevard Stefan cel Mare (which is the main street of Chisinau) for the princely sum of 3 Lei (18 to the £). For accommodation, we rented an apartment, two rooms, each with a double bed, plus kitchen and bathroom for €35/night (payable in cash and in Euros). The apartment we rented can be found at www.homeservice.md – we had some help in arranging the booking from Oliver, (publisher of Groundhopper-Informer), whose wife is Moldovan. We were met in Chisinau by Oliver’s sister in law, Christina who was very helpful in arranging for us to meet the operator of the apartment. Andriy, who booked us into the apartment, later became our driver, taking us to and from the Sheriff ground (€45 Euro), and also taking us back to the airport at the end of the stay (100 Lei – about £5.50).

The Moldovan Football League is arranged with two national divisions, the top one being called Divizia Nationala and the other being Divizia ‘A’. The next level, split into three regions is called Divizia ‘B’. Fixtures, results and league tables for all can easily be found on the FA’s website, www.fmf.md – both the Nationala and ‘A’ divisions have 14 teams, although 6 of those in the lower division are in fact reserve teams. Oddly, there is only one reserve team in the ‘B’ Divisions. Only one of the reserve teams (Dinamo Bender) appear to have their reserve matches listed at the same venue as the first team, although several use secondary (and generally artificial) pitches on the same complex. Olimpia-2 Tiligul is the reserve team of Olimpia Balti, but their home base is about a two hour drive south of Chisinau, while Balti itself is a two hour drive north!

The Moldovan National Division was formed in 1992, following the country becoming independent from the USSR. During the first nine seasons, Zimbru won the league eight times, while since then the title has been firmly situated in Tiraspol, in the hands of Sheriff. The only other title winner, in 1997, was Constructorul – then a Chisinau club, but now renamed as FC Tiraspol and sharing the ground with Sheriff. Sheriff themselves were only formed in 1997 and quickly established themselves as the major team in the capital of Transnistria. Prior to Sheriff, the top club there was Tiligul-Tiraspol who finished runners-up on six occasions, but finally folded in 2009, having lost their support to the new boys.

On “31 August 1983″, this is the Museum of Archaeology and Natural History

As a general rule, the top two divisions play their matches on different days of the weekend, either Saturday/Sunday or Friday/Saturday - with a lack of certainty as to whether the top division fixtures are the day before or after the lower division. ‘B’ Division games are mainly Sunday. Most games kick off in the afternoon, with the kick off time sliding backwards as autumn sets in. The first set of fixtures of the season kicked off at 18.00, while our games at the start of October were 15.00 and as the winter break approaches, 13.00 is used. Of the four stadiums I visited, three had floodlight pylons, but two of these were not fitted with lights. Zimbru has floodlights, while Sheriff has lights (attached to the roof of the stand) but no pylons on the primary stadium, (the second stadium of the complex has lights on pylons). Matches in Tiraspol generally take place around three hours later than the rest of the fixture list, allowing the possibility of doubling a game here with one at Dinamo Bender on the same day. As getting to Tiraspol involves crossing the unofficial Moldova-Transnistria border, only Bender, which is also in Transnistria could be paired with Tiraspol. Occasionally, Zimbru, or Dacia (currently sharing the stadium) also play in the evening – allowing a double header with another team in the Chisinau area, Academia, Rapid, Sfintul Gheorghe or Gagauziya.

For those trying to learn Romanian, Sfintul Gheorghe translates as Saint George. Gagauziya is in fact a territory to the south of the country, with a degree of autonomy, and a desire to be independent. The football team played in Comrat, the capital of the region last season, but on being promoted, they have moved to share Suruceni (just outside Chisinau) with Sfintul Gheorghe. A word of warning to those travelling to the country. Most fixtures will take place on the dates given months in advance on the website, but on any given weekend, it is possible for some matches to be changed late in the day. For our trip, the Zimbru-Sheriff game was switched from Saturday to Sunday about two weeks before the fixture – but another match, at Olimpia Balti was only switched to a new date after we had left England. One needs to check via either the internet or the local papers when in the country. I took my PC with me, and had no trouble finding WiFi in local cafes in the capital. There were also internet cafes around. We did not buy a paper, but spotted at least one sports daily, in Cyrillic. Most Moldovans speak both Romanian (according to actual Romanians, with a “country accent”), and Russian and newspapers can be in Romanian (with Roman characters), Romanian (Cyrillic) or Russian (also Cyrillic).

With the Thursday match at Tiraspol (see previous posting) finishing only just before midnight, and a 20 minute wait on the border, it was about 2 a.m. before we hit our beds. Hence we decided that Friday would see us choose a local match in the ‘A’ division. We had CSCA-Buiucani in mind, as at least they were supposed to be playing on a ground of their own, rather than playing on an artificial surface next to another pitch. Fortunately, the next morning we elected to take a coffee in a nearby café with WiFi, so as I could check e-mails and web sites. Two things immediately showed up, Buiucani were not using their own ground, but had switched to their opposition, (Zimbru’s second team, on Zimbru’s second pitch), while in the top division, Olimpia Balti had changed their fixture from Saturday to Friday afternoon. Balti’s other club, Locomotiva had switched their ‘A’ division match from 15.00 to 13.00 kick off. Balti was already one of our options for the Saturday game anyway.

So we quickly paid up at the coffee shop, and returned my computer to the apartment. We asked the first taxi we saw to quote as a price to Balti, and we told 650 Lei (around £35) for the two hour ride. I know we could have tried to haggle, but we simply accepted the price – asking that he stopped at an exchange place on the way out of town so as we could pay in local currency. A second stop was made at a petrol station and then we were on our way. [We had to show the taxi driver the place on the map – the place is pronounced Beltsy; and we were saying it as if we were ordering Indian food]. There were some souvenirs on sale when we got to the ground, and we could have bought scarves with the club name in Cyrillic, or spelled Beltsy in Roman characters.

One odd incident, about 30 minutes out of Chisinau, we saw a coach parked roadside with the Olimpia Balti logo painted on it. There were a few people milling around after the bus. Knowing that Balti’s reserve team were based in the south, and were playing away in Balti; our first thought was that it could be the reserve team bus, and it had broken down. However, just after we arrived in Balti, we saw the same bus arrive at the Olimpia Stadium, and the players getting off. My only conclusion is that the team (or at least a fair portion of them) live and train in Chisinau even if they represent Balti.

Moldovan Football Grounds appear to have good gateways – this is the entrance to Orasenesc in Balti.

It was shortly after one when we arrived in Balti (pronounced Beltsy), so we did not try to see the Locomotiva game. With 1.8 km between the grounds, I felt we could have happily paired the matches, while Paul never really fancied the idea. Not going to the other game gave us plenty of time to look around the town. This is a pleasant enough place, even if there is little in the way of things to see. The main round, as in Chisinau is called Stefan cel Mare (Stephen the Great), and a memorial to this fifteenth century (sainted) hero stands in the centre.

The Main Stand at Olimpia Balti. The home team in Red, Nistru Otaci in Blue.

The football ground shows its age from the moment one enters. The gateway itself has lost part of a letter from the name Stadionul Orasenesc, and some of the paint on the ornate entrance is peeling. Inside, plastic seats have been attached to the stands on either side of the ground, while what is left behind the goals is just support for wooden benches long since rotted, and hence unused. There is some cover to a central section upper deck, but this was not accessible to the general public, so we were glad that the weather remained dry. The playing surface itself was in a terrible state, but was still usable, unlike the track that surrounded it. This had been original laid as strips of tarmac, but they have contracted leaving gaps between the lanes, and also at the start and end of the strips.

We paid 10 Lei (about 60p) to get in, and the official crowd of 600 seemed about right, (the Moldovan FA publishes the match stats, including official crowd figures around two weeks after the game). As we were to discover over three games, Moldovan football can flatter to deceive, with good moves in midfield being wasted by poor crossing and even poorer heading of the ball. There was one exception to this in the 37^th minute and this gave us the only goal of the game.

From this angle, we can see the state of the track (which has almost as much grass on it as the pitch) and the far stand.

We returned to Chisinau using the microbus. Two hours in a cramped minibus for the princely sum of 51 Lei (under £3) each. The bus took us to the North bus station in Chisinau, which is not in the North of the city. It takes its name from the fact that buses to the North go from there. We had to get a local bus into the centre when from the bus station, simply because we could not work out exactly where we were. We chose to go to Orhei the next day, and again used the microbus routes. This time we had to use the central bus station, which is near the centre of the city, and is well hidden as the market seems to extend into the streets in all directions. As we headed out of the station we passed rows of old women selling soft cheese – almost certainly having arrived by bus the same morning, and then setting up their wares at the closest spot they could find.

Soviet Artwork on the side of a public building in Orhei.

I have already described the town above. The stadium is central, and we passed it on the way in. This is a recently refurbished stadium with all the spectator accommodation on one side. In fact, only half of this side has been fitted with plastic seats – the other half still having the bare concrete steps. A very small number of seats in the centre of the stand were under cover, but it was a sunny day, and we elected to avoid these. In contrast to the previous day, both the pitch and the tarmac running track surrounding it were in good condition. The ground also had new floodlight pylons, but in common with the old ones in Balti, there were no lamps.

Another gateway – this on Orhei. The cash desks are unoccupied, although a sign on the left says admission is 10 Lei.

When we went into the ground, we found that the ticket sales booth was unoccupied. We asked the gate steward where to buy tickets, but he just waved us in. It appeared that no one was paying for admission, so I assume the 700 given as official attendance was no more than a guess – and I would say about twice the actual numbers. Many of those that attended arrived late, and there was a mass exodus at half time. Some of these returned, but somewhere between 50 and 100 people less watched the second period.

Just before kick-off, home team in white, Academia in Blue. You can see people avoiding the lack of admission charge, but watching through the fence, and as at Balti, the floodlight pylons contain no lamps.

The home team were named Viitorul Orhei last season, but are now called Milsami. This is down to the club taking on new owners in the close season – the name is derived from the names of the owners. A group of fans were wearing new shirts with the new name on it, and even had the name on a banner. I got the feeling that the new owners had done their P.R. work with the regular support well.

Applause from the home fans, who seem to have taken easily to the summer name change.

The visitors were the Academia UTM side, up from a University in Chisinau. I don’t think the players are actually connected with the University, but at least the team now plays there, (last season, the first team played at the Dinamo Stadium, with only their reserves at the University). Once again, the football on show was not very good, especially when the teams got close to the goal – but we did get a goal in each half, and a final result of 1-1.

Orhei – it appears that the seats are more popular than plain concrete.

Our exploration of Chisinau was mainly carried out on the Sunday morning. It is an intriguing city, but one that probably has more for the resident than for visitor. The first thing one notices is the high number of casinos with flashy, neon lights just off the main road. I was intrigued enough to glance in through the doorways of one or two. What one saw inside was a few slot machines and a serious lack of customers. One might ask what type of economy involves empty casinos. If anyone comes across a legitimate answer, then let me know. Looking around, we then noticed that Casinos were not the only business notable for its numbers. The number of jewellery shops, mainly advertising that they bought and sold gold was also over the top, compared to anywhere I know, except perhaps the diamond quarter in Antwerp. Thirdly was the number of mobile phone shops – especially those for Orange. Certainly if you had the need to buy an Orange Mobile Phone, you would rarely have to walk more than a block searching for one. In the other towns we visited, the numbers of casinos and jewellers was closer to normal, but the number of mobile phone shops was equally high. Paul has an Orange mobile phone, which works over most of Europe – but did not work in Moldova, (my phone is not from Orange, but connected itself to the Orange network most of the time while we were there).

A less Orthodox Church Dome.

One final feature that we could not help but notice while wandering around Chisinau that one notices was the legs. The women (and in no way limited to the younger women) of Chisinau seem to delight in showing off their legs, short skirts and high heeled shows being the fashion. They carry it well, too – which considering the uneven paving in places is quite a feat in itself. While our first couple of days in the country were warm, the weather turned cooler over the weekend, and out came the thigh high boots – still showing off legs that many Americans would pay their surgeons a great deal of money to achieve.

More orthodox.

The cathedral for Chisinau is set in a park at the north end of Stefan cel Mare. It is typical of orthodox churches in the region, and there are actually a few more picturesque examples in Chisinau and around the country. Outside the church is a copy of the Arc de Triomphe, while further up the road is a statue of Stefan cel Mare (guarding the entrance to another park), and the soviet contributions to architecture in their government buildings. We then cut across to walk back down the next parallel road – not realising that we walked close to the Dinamo Stadium without taking time to see it. The parallel road was called 31 August 1989. Paul asked what it was called before 1989, leading us to check every road sign as we wandered down, but all references to the road’s previous name had been obliterated. This was surprising, as most of the buildings here were built closes to 1889 than to 1989. The date would either appear to commemorate Princess Anne’s separation from her first husband, or just possibly the decision by the parliament of the Moldovan SSR, (still then part of the Soviet Union) to make Romanian, rather than Russia their official language.

This is the sort of garden ornament I need.

Most of the national museums seem to be housed in the older buildings on 31 August 1989, including one with a MiG fighter and a soviet missile in it’s garden. Nearby we found the ruins of the old Republican Stadium. This is where England played on their visit to Moldova. The only remains of the football stadium is the gateway, although as yet no of the plans (and there have been several over time) to redevelop the site have come to fruition. We walked down from there towards the railway station, checking out a home brew pub that was to supply our food and drink later. The railway station has been done out very ornately, for somewhere that appears to only have five trains (all international routes) per day. The result is that apart from use to catch trains, it can be hired out for events. When we went past, it was being used for a wedding reception.

The entrance to the old Republic Stadium.

Then it was down to the Zimbru Stadium – we used a taxi for this part of the journey, but did walk back later – it was not a short walk, at least an hour from the station which itself is at one end of the town. The Zimbru stadium is a new development, opened only in 2006. Three sides are of near uniform design with the fourth side, all along one side being much more narrow. The area is residential, and the stadium is overlooked by some tall residential blocks. Currently, another Chisinau club, Dacia share the stadium and they have hung a large banner over the side of the nearest block. When we arrived at the stadium, well before kick-off time, there were crowds pushing around the ticket booths, giving the impression that tickets could be at a premium. This was however not in any way the case. The official crowd of 5000 (half the stadium capacity) was surely an over-estimate, I suspect around twice the number actually present. We bought our tickets without problem, noting that they had been put up by 10 Lei for this big match, and hence to get a good seat, we had to pay 35 Lei (almost £2). Should have settled for a cheaper variation though. If one walks along in front of the stand behind the goal, then there is someone to check tickets as you walk towards the main stand – but if you use the much wider pathways behind the stands, and enter from the far end (as we did but chance), then there is no one to check, and anyone could take any seat.

A statue outside the Hotel Chisisnau, and below, the ornate railway station.

There were a couple of occurrences that highlighted the state of local football. Just before we entered the ground, a section of the home crowd had grouped together to enter the stadium. They had the flags and banners and were being faced down by quite a contingent of security police. The leaders of the band were even disguising their identity with balaclavas covering their faces. They then meekly accepted the demands of the security at the ground entrance, entering in single file and allowing themselves to be searched, (and of course, removing the balaclavas). Still, they managed a little trouble at half time. Sheriff fans had been installed in one corner of the ground and had displayed flags there. At half time one of the home fans went across and stole one of the flags. He then ran the whole length of the main stand, showing his prize and without one of the many security police stopping him. They finally intervened when the other home fans joined in and before they could set fire to the prize. Still it was not returned to its owners and did not reappear.

Zimbru Ultras.

Incidentally, there was a programme for the match. We first spotted that a few fans had programmes with them, but we could not see where they were being given away. However, soon after we found some seats, someone came out and distributed copies generally in the main stand. The programme was just one piece of A4 paper printed on both sides, arranged so as it could be folded down to A5. Most of the writing was in Cyrillic text, although the match details on the front were in Roman characters. When I got back home, I took both the programmes for Zimbru and Sheriff to a local pub in Cheltenham. He confirmed my theory that the Sheriff programme was in Russian, while the Zimbru one was in Romanian. If you need a pub landlord with Russian ‘O’ level, it pays to do your drinking in Cheltenham.

You may have noticed that I have not mentioned the football much, and that is because it was not very good. I have this theory that football of roughly equivalent ability will attract similar crowds regardless of the country it is played in. Officially, the Moldovan League has an average attendance of under 1000 – and our experience suggested a gap between official and real crowd levels. I was talking to a Radio Moldova reporter during the second half. When I told him I supported a fourth level club in England, he was not overly impressed – and he certainly struggled to believe my assertion that Cheltenham would beat most, if not all the clubs in the Moldovan League – but I am certain that none of the local clubs would do well in League-2.

Inside the ground – the taller of the stands runs continuously behind both goals and along one side. Both sides normally play in Yellow, but as the home side, Zimbru have switched to green

There was in fact some reasonable football played, and two well taken goals, Abdul Razak Salifu scored for Zimbru on 24 minutes, while Serghei Gheorghiev levelled 12 minutes later. The rest of the game was rather frustrating to watch with silly mistakes, poor crosses and terrible headers making light of some good midfield play. By midway through the second half it seemed that both sides has settled for the draw which followed. Sheriff made quite a few from the Europa League match three days earlier. Some of these were forced as the Moldovan League demands at least three Moldovans start in each game. Gheorghiev was one of these three, born in Gagauziya, their goalkeeper was a local from Tiraspol in Transnistria, while the third Moldovan, and the only one that played both games was actually a naturalised Moldovan, born in Georgia. Sheriff also fielded two Serbians, and nationals of Slovenia, Russia, Bosnia, Ghana, Latvia and Burkina Fasi. Zimbru fielded nine Moldovans in the starting line up, Salifu (Ghana) was one of the foreigners, while they also fielded a Russian. The Zimbru goalkeeper was the only one person in the 18 man squad selected for the Moldova game to actually play club football in Moldova (and he was only on the bench). When Tony Hawkes played the Moldovans at tennis, most of the team played not only in Moldova, but in Chisinau itself. If he tried it again, he would find four of the starting 11 in Russia, three in Ukraine, and the others in Sweden, Poland Romania and Kazakhstan but he would not have to travel to Moldova at all.

The Zimbru badge – the animal is a Buffalo

Posted in The European Game | No Comments »

Shooting the Sheriff

07/10/2010 by leo.

One of the questions I get asked, as “Why are you going there?” The answer I normally give is simple – “because I have never been there before”.  In some cases, the journey may well be more of a challenge than others, and reading up about Transnistria on the internet before making a trip to see Sheriff Tiraspol play in the Europa League suggested that this was a foolish choice, and that we were heading to a lawless place where we would be bound to be shaken down by the crooked border guards.

As lawless places go, Tiraspol is a remarkable tidy and ordered city – and the officials looking after the border between Transnistria and the rest of Moldova hardly said a word before stamping the small sheet of paper that sits inside the passport to allow a visitor 24 hours in the territory. (The 24 hours is controlled as such – my friend Paul was ahead of me in the queue, and was allowed to stay until 11.50 the next day, while I had 5 minutes longer).

Sheriff Stadium with its own Petrol Station

Once in the city, there is no feeling that there is an overbearing military presence. We walked past a barracks, but saw no other signs of the military. There were not more or less police on the roads than other countries. The people we tried to talk to were friendly and tried to be helpful, although the lack of a common language hindered communications. We had no trouble ordering coffee, food and beer – or in buying tickets for the evening game. I will admit we took an easy option over crossing the border – by accepting an offer of car and driver for €45 return, we were accompanied by someone who could speak Russian – but there were no signs that there would have been difficulties anyway. The ease of crossing surprised a Moldovan Radio Journalist I spoke to in Chisinau. It certainly appears that had we applied to the football club for journalist’s accreditation, they would have passed it on to the border (and this would have caused a problem), while the journalist was surprised that tickets were on sale on the day of the game.

In fact, our biggest problem was obtaining the small programme that was available for the game. This was A5 size, and mainly in Russian (we think). It was distributed (free) somewhere outside the ground, but we did not see them until we were inside. It was therefore down to our blagging skills to obtain this. I can report that both Paul and I ended up with a copy each.

This brings me on to the subject of Transnistria itself. Effectively, the territory is self governing – but the only other territories that recognise its independence are those of two other ‘breakaway republics’ from the old Soviet Union. The history, as far as I can work out is that Transnistria was incorporated into the Russian empire sometime in the 18th century. Moldova was part of Romania, and hence in the Austro-Hungarian empire, and then part of Romania until 1940. After 1940, both became the Moldovan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the USSR. It was however one of the quickest to breakaway when the Soviet Union broke up. Under Russian control (autonomy is a name only), the west side of the Dneister river was basically an agricultural economy, while the east bank was heavily industrialised. The population of the west continued to speak Romanian, with Russian as a second language (and for a while, only Cyrillic writing was permitted), but immigration to the east gave a roughly equal split in population between Romanians, Ukrainians and Russians with Russian as the lingua franca. After independence, the Transnistrians did not want to become dominated by a Romanian state, while the Moldovans did not want to lose the heavy industry, and the supplier of 90% of the country’s electricity. There was a bloody conflict from 1990-92 – followed by an uneasy peace. The status of Transnistria is basically guaranteed by a Russian army contingent stationed there, but Russia itself shies away from recognising it as a state. There is now relatively free movement across the border, and the majority of the Transnistrian population actually carry Moldovan passports, (they cannot travel without them as the Transnistrian passport is little more than waste paper). Accusations abound about the running of Transnistria, including the influence of Victor Gushan and his Sheriff group, (the country’s second biggest company, after a steel mill that relies on Russian orders). However, most of these accusations come from Moldovan sources, and really need a more thorough examination then they have received. The Sheriff group is the country’s biggest retailer, controlling supermarkets, banks, and petrol stations while the group includes a TV station as well.

Moldova is however, keen to join the EU – either on its own or by becoming part of Romania again and this ambition cannot be realised until a solution to the Transnistrian problem is realised. If Moldova agrees to jettison Transnistria, then it is unclear whether it would join the list of mini-states, or if it would itself merge into Ukraine. Just to confuse matters further, another even smaller area of Moldova, Gagauziya (in the south) also would like to break away. Gagauziya has one football team in the Moldovan League – promoted last season and now bottom of the top division - and have also entered a team into a non-FIFA board competition in Northern Cyprus. Transnistria has four teams in the Moldovan National Division, with Sheriff having won the title for ten successive years. The other three are FC Tiraspol, Dynamo Bender, and current league leaders Istra-Stal Ribnita (in the north of the country).

From what I can see, the Moldova-Transnistria situation may well be left for some time. It can be resolved in one of two ways. If Moscow were to give up support for the breakaway state, and withdrew its armies, then there would not be little to stop Moldova asserting power – but the consequences would probably be bloody, and could well be followed by long running terrorist resistance. The other solution is for the rest of Moldova to decide that joining Europe is more important than keeping all the territory. If Moldova ceded control (in return perhaps for guarantees over electricity, etc), then there would be little in the way of the country joining the E.U or merging with Romania.

Tiraspol is neither a big, nor a spectacular city. It will never be one of the world’s great capitals, but it is functional. It has some wide thoroughfares, often lined with trees and other greenery, it has parks. It has a central church, and unimpressive government buildings. One of these has a fine statue of Lenin outside – one of the few reminders of soviet style memorials, and as such an item that should have a preservation order on it.

As dusk started to fall, we made our way back to the stadium. We had time for the walk (around 90 minutes) from the centre as UEFA fixed the kick off at 22.05 local time. Although the streets are all lit, in places the main footpath runs the other side of trees, and is in the dark. The footpath is also in places uneven with gaps in the tarmac giving way to mud and puddles. It is no wonder that one of the better selling Sheriff club souvenirs is a torch in club colours.

The stadium complex is on the edge of the town, but can be easily reached by trolleybus or microbus. Cheap taxis would take you there from either the centre of town, or from Bender. Any groundhoppers trying to go to Tiraspol may want to consider that most of their games are later in the day then the rest of the Moldovan League, and between Dynamo Bender and Tiraspol, one does not need a border crossing – so a double header is possible when kick offs are three hours apart (at least by taxi).

The stadium is a very modern complex, consisting of two football stadiums a sports hall and an unfinished hotel complex. Both of the stadia have floodlights and stands and would be good enough for league games. It is used by two teams, Sheriff, and FC Tiraspol. The matches never clash, and both tend to late kick offs – but there are no signs to show whether any league matches may be played on the smaller stadium. The group photo of the Sheriff team used in the programme did appear to have been taken in the smaller stadium, but this only means that it may well be used as a training venue.

The main stadium is a very functional affair with two near identical sides, and two near identical ends. The roof is at a uniform height all around, and appears as if it would provide protection in poor weather. The end stands are raised above ground level, and have netting between stand and pitch, but this did not stop Kiev fans from lobbing flares onto the pitch, or one fan from actually entering the playing area (from where he was apprehended and taken away). Outside, we met the club mascot, supposedly a bee, (due to club colours of yellow and black). We also met a fan who had come from Odessa, 100 miles or so away (and in the Ukraine). Although he was supporting Kiev, it was not his first time here. Odessa is nearer to Tiraspol than Kiev, so this may be his closest venue with European games. He told us the stadium was around five years old. We also briefly discussed the local politics, and our new friend then translated some comments I made when we were accosted by a roaming TV camera crew. I never found out if they were Transnistrian or Ukrainian, or if they used the footage. My comments were diplomatic, praising the stadium, the friendliness of the people, and promising to support Sheriff, (well, diplomatic assuming it was a local TV crew).

The Sheriff XI on the pitch contained only one local player (and he only gets listed as Moldovan –  I have been told that he was actually born in Georgia). The other ten starters came two each from Brazil, Serbia and Burundi, one each from Bulgaria, Bosnia, Russia and Senegal. There were three Moldovans on the bench (two of which were from Transnistria), but they (and a Serbian) stayed there. The subs that played came from Latvia, Slovenia and Serbia. By comparison, six of the starting line up for Dynamo Kiev were Ukrainian, supported by a cast from Finland, Croatia, Serbia, Morocco and Nigeria. They left three Brazilians and two Ukrainians on the bench, playing only two subs, from Ukraine and Macedonia.

The game started with Dynamo playing the more assured football, but they fell behind to a freak goal in the 8th minute. The goalkeeper attempted to kick a clearance and the ball hit Erokhin who was as surprised as anyone when the ball looped over the keeper and into the net. Still, for the next half hour, the visitors showed enough to say that they should eventually turn chances into goals, but then as the ball sailed harmlessly over the Kiev area a hand flashed up and helped the ball on its way. Centre half Yevhen Khacheridi was the guilty party, and the penalty meant the score was 2-0 to the home team. The visitors lost heart after this, while the home team rarely looked like adding to the scoreline without actual assistance from the visitors.

Sheriff Score from the Penalty Spot.

There were sizable contingents from each side determined to sing through the game, with at least 1000 travelling fans in the crowd around 14,000. One third of one end had been fenced off, presumably for tickets sold in Kiev, while the rest of the end seemed to have a majority of blue colours, the yellows of Sheriff gathering at the opposite end. The flares late in the game came from the fenced off section, and if any action is taken, then Sheriff will be criticised for inadequate security, as well as Dynamo as it was their fans. Coming away from the ground, there were queues of traffic in both directions, while two trolleybuses were operating late. Even when we reached the border around 1 in the morning, we had to queue for around 20 minutes – a sure sign that a fair portion of the crowd had crossed the Moldova-Transnistria border to see the game. The guards even left the entry paper with our passports (as souvenirs of the visit). This was the only souvenir we found – Tiraspol is not known for tourism, and we saw no postcards or other souvenirs at all.

One final point, the match was the first time a Moldovan or Transnistrian had beaten a Ukrainian side, and this was too much for coach Valery Gazzaev. Having seen Kiev miss out on the Champions League for the first time in 5 years, Gazzaev offered his resignation when his team failed to beat BATE (from Belarus) in their first Europa League game. While it was not accepted then, this further failure meant that his tenure at the club had less than 24 hours to run, by the time he left the stadium. Not all the fans agreed that the eclipse of Dynamo as the Ukraine’s leading club is down to Gazzaev, who has previously coached CSKA Moscow to win the UEFA Cup. A poster briefly unfurled in the second half of the game read “We now have nothing left but our memories. Thanks a lot Ihor!” A reference to club chairman Ihor Surkis. Further bad news followed for Kiev when Shaktar beat them three days later to take a five point lead at the top of the league table.

 

Posted in The European Game | No Comments »

The Islanders

23/07/2010 by leo.

While the question of the status of the British Football Associations as four different members of FIFA and UEFA sometimes get raised, it seems to be forgotten that there are other analogies, other FIFA members that are not states in their own right. The Faroe Islands, does at least have a level of independence from Denmark, but then so does Greenland, who appear unlikely to be allowed to join in the near future. French territories such as New Caledonia are also member states of FIFA, (while Monaco is not, afraid of jeopardising AS Monaco’s position in the French League). In the far East, the return of Hong Kong and Macau to Chinese control did not mean the disbanding of their own national football associations, or their removal from FIFA’s lists.

Of course, there are differences, in particular, the Faroe Islands, New Caledonia, Hong Kong and Macau all have their own leagues and no representation in the mainland’s league, (New Caledonia does have representation in the French Cup), while Wales has clubs in the English system.

And so to Puerto Rico. The one thing that is clear is the status of Puerto Rico – anyone in the US or Puerto Rico seems to know this – it is an unincorporated organised territory of the United States. It is not alone in this – Guam, the US Virgin Islands and North Mariana Islands have the same status. Puerto Rico, Guam and the US Virgin Islands are all members of FIFA. The North Mariana Islands are associate members of the Asian Football Confederation, meaning they may join FIFA at some time in the future. Puerto Rico has both a national league of its own and a team at the second level of the US Football system.

A little history and politics before we get back to Football. Puerto Rico is part of the lesser Antilles islands. Its nearest neighbours are the Dominican Republic to the west, and the Virgin Islands, (US and British) to the East. Columbus landed in 1493 on his second voyage, naming the island San Juan (after Saint John the Baptist) and the main town Puerto Rico (or Rich Port). At some time these names were switched, and the town of San Juan is now the capital of Puerto Rico. The Spanish colonised the Island, enslaving the local population and sacking its riches, although for most of the time, they were only interested in the ports, and left the interior untouched. The lack of immunity to European diseases, and the effects of slavery killed off most of the local population, and hence the only remnants of the indigenous population (known as the Taino) is through the gene pool. Spanish immigration, along with slaves brought in from Africa is the basis of the current population. The racial make-up of the population appeared to me to be very mixed – with the addition of recent immigration from across Latin America, while there has been sizable emigration to the USA, as all legal citizens are citizens of the US, and hence have free movement to and from the mainland. Spanish is the main spoken language, and the level of English spoken is surprisingly poor, even among those working in the tourism industry, despite the fact that the main source of this tourism is mainland USA.

Since becoming a Spanish Colony in 1493, the island was eyed up by other colonial powers, particularly the British and Dutch. This has led to heavy fortification of the port of San Juan. The British attacked in 1595 (unsuccessful) and again in 1598 (successful – although the British forces went down with dysentery, and had to abandon the Island back to the Spanish after only 10 weeks). Further attacks by the Dutch, British failed, but the Americans did win their 1898 war against Spain, and the territory, along with Cuba, Guam and the Philippines were all ceded to the USA at the treaty that followed – giving the USA an instant empire of its own.

The current political situation on the Island is something of a stalemate, with the main political groups being those in favour of the current situation, and those who would like Puerto Rico to become the 51^st state. If this were to happen, then with around 4 million people, it would be around mid-table of the list of states by population, but above only Delaware and Rhode Island in terms of area. To use the most common form of land mass comparison, Puerto Rico is half the size of Wales, has 33% more population, and a hell of a lot more motorways. There is an independence party on the island, but they have little influence at the ballot box; however, there does appear to be a movement to remember the pre-colonial island, with a number of books on Taino culture and even a Taino-Spanish dictionary on offer!

It appears the general population knows from where their bread is buttered. To citizens of the US, this is Caribbean lite, a chance to go abroad without the complications of changing currency, or missing their favourite TV programmes, and thanks to the boys at BP, tourism should be up this year, while the Gulf of Mexico coast suffers from the consequences of paying less than US$1 per litre of petrol. Meanwhile the strangest consequence of Puerto Rico’s political situation, is that the locals can register as Democrats or Republicans and have a say in who the presidential candidates are – but they do not get to vote in the Presidential election itself. They also have no voting representation on Capitol Hill. Four million American citizens with taxation but no representation.

One local told me that he did not think that the locals should have supported Spain in the World Cup, given the history of the Spanish exploiting the “Rich Port”, and taking away the riches. The majority did not appear to agree and generally, the local support was for Spain. Of course, more of the locals are descended from Spanish settlers than any other group and from what I could discover, the riches that the Spanish plundered and moved through Puerto Rico were more from other Latin American countries than from Puerto Rico itself. Still, there is a difference in that these descendents of the Spanish will show an allegiance to Spain, (once their more local allegiances have not worked out). Would an Australian, New Zealander or Canadian support England in the World Cup final?

Getting to Puerto Rico was more straight forward than I may have hoped for, considering that matches in the US and Canada do not kick off on time – the best you can do is for the national anthem(s) to be played at the stated kick off times. The worst was Montreal, where the match notes stated (quite accurately) that kick off was 7.47, as opposed to the official 7.30, and then the second half started 68 minutes later, (in most games I went to, the halves kicked off around 62 or 63 minutes apart, which I have found to be the general standard in England and Europe as well). Portland finished around 9.00, and I reached the airport by 9.30 giving time to check on for a 10.20 flight. Over 8 hours flying, 100 minutes changing planes and three time zones meant I arrived at Puerto Rico around midday, but still had to hang around in the hotel bar waiting for the room to be ready. Still, I was in place to see the World Cup final on TV, although after the journey, I lacked the will to watch it outside with the locals, and settled for my comfortable (air-conditioned) hotel room.

The flags at the top are for the USA, Puerto Rico, and the Cross of Burgundy – which is the flag raised by the Spanish when this fort was their defensive position

I used the overpriced taxi service to get to the Stadium. Taxis in Puerto Rico have a perfectly reasonable fare structure printed on the side, but all refuse to use this structure. I have been told (by a taxi driver) that they use a zonal system in tourist areas – he even produced a table to show how it works, except he did not reckon with me being able to read English, and realise that the fares printed were not the same as he wanted to charge (in fact, the official table says zones are only used to and from the airport, meaning I was only overcharged by $2 between airport and hotel). Anyway, the stadium is well outside the tourist areas. There is a metro with a station next to the stadium, but no station in the main city or the tourist resorts. Asking about taxis with locals, the response was always, “I don’t know, I never use them!”.

When I arrived at the Stadium, it was practically deserted, making me wonder if I had the wrong date, or at least kick off time – but the gates were open, and I was admitted, and the fixture was as printed. The stadium was another that is shared with baseball, and this results in an impressive stand curved around two sides of the ground only, while no spectator accommodation at all on the other two sides. The pitch was grassed, but was clearly not well looked after. In one goalmouth, there was a diamond shape of bare earth, and my assumption is this would be third base, the other bases were thinly grassed over, as was the plate area – which anyway was just off the playing surface by the corner flag. At Portland, I was told the pitcher’s mound was portable, and was moved from the sideline in one piece, I assume something similar happens here, as no mound was visible.

Of course, there were factors to keep the crowd down – the World Cup final on TV earlier in the day may well have distracted potential viewers, and a double weekend, with matches on both Friday and Sunday – but anyway I was given the impression that crowds for the Islanders are not as high as the other USSF division 2 clubs I had visited. The official figure for the match was 1089 (less than halve the figure that had seen the Friday match). A lot of the crowd appeared to be on the young side, and they did manage to make quite a noise despite being spread out around the ground. Thunder crackers were being given away free, as often appears to be the case in Britain, while a few vuvuzelas could be heard. I fear a sign of things to come – in small numbers, these do not produce the continuous buzz we are now familiar with from World Cup games on TV, but a plaintive wail.

It is about time I discussed the current situation for Football in the USA. The main league is the MLS, (Major League Soccer) with 16 current teams. They play 30 matches, which means the standard format of playing every team home and away. However, the league table is split into two, the Eastern and Western Conferences with the top two of each Conference guaranteed a place in the eight team end of season play offs. As a rule, this means that the top eight in the combined table will make up the play off teams. The league is franchised, rather than direct promotion and relegation, so it is already known that two new teams (Vancouver and Portland) will enter for 2011, and one more (Montreal) in 2012. There are plenty more potential franchises in the offing. Up to last season, the second division was the United Soccer League’s division one. However, over the last year, there has been a dispute between the teams, mainly over the league’s ownership. Six teams were going to leave the division and reform under the title North American Soccer League, (which was also the name of the main league when I first visited in 1994). The two leagues then sued each other, which is of course a national pastime in the USA, but this one went to the governing body, the United States Soccer Federation, (USSF), which decided to curse both houses and run the league, (for one season only, officially) themselves. This is under the title USSF, Division 2 – but on the USL web site, you access it as Division One. The USL itself has two further divisions, as well as running a Women’s league. The USL division 2 is a six team league, and the only level 3 league in the USA, while the PDL (for Premier Development League) is a widespread level four league, with four regional conference, each divided into two more regionalised divisions. All of the PDL teams play a 16 match regular season, but division sizes are not always 9 teams, so in some there are more than two matches against selected teams, whereas others have a couple of opponents they play once only, (9 teams is the most popular division size though). There are special arrangements in the PDL for Bermuda Hogges – who only play four opponents at home – each of their visitors play twice on the islands, generally Friday and Sunday of a weekend. When Bermuda travel to the mainland, they also play two matches on a weekend, although generally at different locations.

In the USSF Division 2, the 12 teams play 30 matches, which means they play every team at least twice, and four selected teams on four occasions. Two of Puerto Rico’s opponents play twice in a weekend on the Island, but Carolina visit the Island twice, in May and July. The league is arranged in two Conferences, but unusually they are not geographic, and depend on whether a team was going to stay with the USL, or become part of the NASL. The groupings for playing teams twice however are regional, with four groups of four, plus every team players on other team a third and fourth team, (allowing the all Canada match, Montreal and Vancouver to take place four times, which may be over the top, as they also play twice in the Canadian Championship). Only the top team in each Conference is guaranteed a place in the eight team play offs, which does not make sense, as if eight out of 12 go through, then fairly clearly a minimum of two must go through from each Conference, and the combined table is going to decide the make-up of the play offs.

And so, the game itself. Both teams played with a single forward, and the opening exchanges seemed frenetic, fast and not well organised, the play was not helped by the playing surface. Carolina took the lead with two early goals, the first when Sullieu Bundu broke through the defence at put the ball past the keeper on 18 minutes, and then eight minutes later when the home side failed to clear their lines, allowing Josh Gardner a shot that went in through a crowded area and into the net. After the second goal, the Islanders re-arranged their team, bringing on a second forward and in simple terms, they overran Carolina for the last sixty minutes of the game. The statistics sheets bear this out – Puerto Rico are recorded as having 16 shots, to their opponents 6, and to have been ahead in this category 10-1 after half time, they also led 10-1 on corners. The official page does not record how many of the shots were on target, but does state that the Carolina goalkeeper made five saves, while the home keeper made only one (and of course, failed to save two more). In the end, the only statistic that matters is that those two early Carolina goals were the only goals of the game.

According to the stats sheet, the Islanders goalkeeper made one save. Guess this is it!

When I went into the office after the match to pick up the stats sheet, I got to see the Puerto Rico coach, Colin Clarke and his assistant Adrian Whitbread. Clarke appeared very busy trying to load up a video of the match on his computer as a way of finding out what had gone wrong, but Whitbread had time for a quick chat. Naturally, as I support Cheltenham where his old boss, Martin Allen had been manager until recently, we talked a bit about Cheltenham and Martin Allen first. It is always nice to meet someone this far from home who has heard of Cheltenham Town.

The Clarke/Whitbread team is in charge not only of the Islanders, but also of the Island’s international team. Generally, this has not been a burden as they have not played since being knocked out of the World Cup by Honduras back in 2008. However, the status of the club gives them more matches than most USSF teams. Back in the spring, they played in the Caribbean Football Union championships and actually won the tournament. A top three position in the CFU championships gives a team a place in the qualifying round of the CONCACAF Champions League, and the Islanders are due to visit Los Angeles for the first leg of their two legged contest at the end of the month. After that has been played, the National team will be taking part in a three match series in the first round group stage of the Copa Caribe, (the national team competition in the Caribbean). As they are staging these matches in Puerto Rico, the home side has every chance of going through, although they will not be expected to reach the final stage, let alone qualify for the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2011.

Looking at the team from the last World Cup, very few of the International team play Islanders League squad, some are with Universities on the mainland, and quite a few are with the clubs in the Puerto Rican league. Only one appears to be in the MLS – Terry Boss, a goalkeeper at Seattle Sounders. Boss is not the regular keeper for League matches, but did turn out in their US Open Cup game. I will be observing the squad list for the August games, to see if the club has managed to recruit more of the international squad.

Whitbread told me that the Islanders do not have difficulty in recruiting players, as Clarke has excellent contacts with scouts on the mainland; he also seemed to think more of the squad would play for the International team next time around, as those coming from mainland USA are already USA citizens, (there not being a separate category called Puerto Rico citizens), and they can therefore qualify to play internationally after a two year residency period. I’m not certain if FIFA have anything to say about this, but I know they have started to insist on a five year residency by players taking out a change of nationality to play for their adopted countries, after several high profile cases especially in countries such as Qatar. The difference here is that no change in nationality takes place.

There is also a large pool of US citizens qualified to play for Puerto Rico under the parent and grandparent rules, whose forebears have left the Island. Of course, this argument works both ways, anyone who is born on Puerto Rico, but who then leaves for a mainland university is qualified as a potential USA international by the time he has finished his course!

I did my tourism bit in PR, the day after the match spending the afternoon in the old city of San Juan, and looking around one of the forts used to defend the territory against various aggressors. It is an interesting place, and quite a contrast to the modernity of most American cities. The Island also has a good selection of beaches, and I would imagine some fine scenery had I taken a car – public transportation is poor, and there are not many tours on offer. From my hotel to the town it was about an hour’s walk. Despite heat and humidity, this was not a major problem. I had to cross a bridge over an inlet that brings the sea behind the peninsular the hotel was on, and one of the locals jumped into the sea at me. I was somewhat surprised that the water was deep enough to take someone jumping from about 20 feet, but he made a bit of a splash. It was the closest to an aggressive act I witnessed during the whole tour. Further along, where there was a grass verge, some green lizards, (Iguana, I think) paused in their sunbathing to observe the unusual site that is a pedestrian in these parts. It is still, as I have already suggested, “Caribbean Lite”, for Americans, it is over-priced for taxis and hotels, and I would not recommend it to vacationers. For me, it adds one to the list of countries visited for football, the only extra one available to me at this time, but before I will really start to say I have been to the Caribbean, I need to go to at least one Island with a Test Venue for cricket! Rumour has it that the French and the Netherlands also colonised some of the area, and they play neither cricket, nor baseball.

Posted in The American Game | No Comments »

On the North West Frontier

17/07/2010 by leo.

Following my Tuesday night baseball game, I started Wednesday in the same city as I intended to finish it. A rare luxury indeed. My priorities for the morning were the World Cup semi-final, and some laundry. The recommendation from the night before had been Fremont – for the football – but it turned out to be good for both, as while looking for a place to park near the pub, I actually spotted a launderette, and with an adjacent parking place. Fremont is more like a European suburban town centre than anywhere else on this trip as it has shops, offices, bars (and a launderette) in a line down the main street, and a shortage of parking spaces. People were actually walking from home or office to whichever shops they needed to visit. With my clothes safely ensconced in a machine, I followed the suggestion and went to watch the football at the George and Dragon, a “British” pub. Not that I could get in, the place was heaving and no room was available inside. Still I joined with a 100 or more others watching from the courtyard in the open air. Beer was of course available, and was good. Nothing I like better on a hot day than a good Hefeweizen, and despite the fact that Seattle is a long way from Germany, the beer (locally brewed) hit the mark.

It was rather hot in the courtyard, so after switching my clothing to a dryer during the half time interval, I choose another bar for the second half. Not quite so crowded, and room to have a bite to eat as well as seeing the game, (diet coke now in preparation to drive later). After the game, my clothes needed more time in the dryer, so I went to the coffee shop next to the laundry. It was here that I almost had a disaster. When I put things back into the car, and tried to re-arrange my luggage, I managed to shut the car boot, (or trunk as they call it) with the keys inside. This is where I discovered how much better Americans are at service than Europeans. The café operators found the number of the car hire company, and lent me their phone. I ordered another coffee and stopped to wait for someone to help. Before I had barely drunk a drop, someone had arrived from a company called “Pop-a-lock” – and within minutes, the car door was open. Great service, and smiles the whole time, (but slightly disturbing how quickly the car was broken into).

For the Open Cup game, both LA Galaxy and Seattle Sounders selected teams that bore no relation to that for the previous Sunday’s league match. Indeed only three of the starting line up had started in the last match, although all six playing subs now started, and of the 14 on the benches, 11 had started on July 4. Also changed were the colours, with the Sounders picking a particularly bright fluorescent yellow/green, which rather stood out in the bright sunshine. The match was not held in the well appointed and central Qwest Field, but the more homely Starfire Stadium, part of a university complex about 10 miles south of the city. This stadium had been used by the Sounders prior to the building of the new stadium, and the club’s elevation to the MLS. The playing surface is artificial and appeared to be on the narrow side. From time to time, a flume of black beads was thrown up by the bouncing ball, or a player’s footfall . A single tiered and covered stand runs along the length of one side, providing around 15 rows of metal seats. A similar but lower and uncovered construction runs about three quarters of the opposite side, and there are also a few rows of seats for part of the space behind one goal. Standing spectators found vantage places around the rest of the ground, especially on grass banks towards the corners, one of which had a bar set up – there are no laws against beer and football in America. The crowd was given as 4512 – suggesting the stadium holds around 5000.

The match opened in frenetic fashion, with chances being created at both ends, and the Sounders have some sense of dominance, pinging the ball around within the area, but not managing to get past the defenders and put in a genuine shot. This helped the crowd to generate some noise and atmosphere – and without the need for prompting from the announcer, in contrast to the baseball the previous night. At one end of the main stand, there is a group of supporters, styled as the Emerald City Supporters, who sang throughout the game, aided by a drummer and a German style leader with a megaphone. However this good start should have been nullified when Klein got free on the right in the 19^th minute. Alan Gordon, a sub on Sunday managed to scoop his chance and it went over the bar. While Seattle had the most of the possession, it was again the Galaxy that came closest to scoring after 39 minutes. Again the move started with Klein on the right – this time he put in Kirovski, who advanced to a tight angle, and then launched a shot which came off the near post. A typical home chance in the 42^nd minute saw both Levesque and Jaqua trying to control a bouncing ball while the goalkeeper faced them but did not himself take the ball, the chance was eventually bundled away.

The second half started with Seattle again looking the better side – but this time they managed to get from the ball bouncing in the area, to the ball bouncing into the goal. The ball was advanced, originally down the centre of the field, and then passed to the left from where Montana shot twice, the first effort being saved, the second coming off the bar. Much of the support were calling for a goal, but Jaqua was most alert and headed the bouncing ball into the net. The score was added to on 63 minutes. Again Montana was the man on the left, who delivered a perfect cross to Jaqua, who headed the ball in off the post. A chance for Jaqua to complete his hat trick, was blocked after Zack Scott crossed low from the left. LA Galaxy responded by making their 3 substitutions within a few minutes, while Levesque tried to place a shot past the goalkeeper and failed. A touch by Levesque in the 76^th minute played Jaqua through in space, but the goalkeeper was quickly out and foiled another attempt to complete the hat-trick. This was his last chance, as he was taken off with seven to play.

The ground is next to the railway line, and every few minutes we could see a train, trundling past one corner of the field. Most of these were freight, but it was noticeable that one passenger train had the word “Sounder” on its side. This was not a reference to the football club itself, but a reflection that both the football club, and the rail service take their names from the Puget Sound, a deep water channel that serves Seattle and gives it such a good position as a port. When one drives up and down the road between Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, you are treated with the greenery, mainly forested slopes coming away from the lowlands, and mountain peaks in the distance. Most of the mountains were green, but a small number stood up proudly above the others and had a white cap of snow on the peaks.

From here, my next port of call was Vancouver – a return to Canada. Crossing the border, I was asked why I was going, I said to watch the Whitecaps – the customs official then asked why? He let me through despite the fact I did not give an adequate answer. I went first to the centre of town, where I failed to get into the construction site where BC Place, the eventual home of the Whitecaps in the MLS next season. The construction of a new roof will not be done in time for the start of the new season, so they will start the season at the Empire Fields – the stadium used when the Empire and Commonwealth games of 1954 were held in Vancouver. Good to see that neither the Empire Fields, or BC (for British Columbia) Place have yet taken to sponsor’s names. There are plans beyond this, that they may one day have a “soccer-specific” stadium in Vancouver, but the plans seem to be on hold at the moment, with 2013 being the earliest possible date for this venture.

Apart from not accessing the stadium, the city is a good place to walk around, with a lively feel, and many pleasant vistas, especially when viewed from the waterfront. At one end of the city area is Stanley Park – the name reminding me of the park between the stadiums in Liverpool – I made my way over for a look. It was a recreational area with several features, including a grouping of totem poles.

Stanley Park, Vancouver – no football grounds, but several totem poles.

For the moment, they play at the Swangard Stadium, which is around a 30 minute drive from the centre of the city. As with most drives in America and Canada, once you are off the motorway networks, progress can be painfully slow, as you charge along for half a mile or so, and then stop at an interchange, where the lights hold you for three or four minutes. Roundabouts are a new fangled idea that have not caught on much in these parts, while busy intersections invariably include a phase for left turns when everything else cannot move, and the traffic turning left gets stopped if there are any pedestrians to cross the other road.

The Swangard Stadium is a simple affair, with a track around the playing surface. It has a covered stand on one side, and open seating opposite, while allowing some spectators onto the curve of grass behind both goals. At one end this is a VIP area, while the other is for the more vocal supporters. The stadium is named for Erwin Swangard, a journalist who raised around C$1 million for its construction. An unusual programme came in two parts, each a single piece of paper. One was a glossy sheet with some match details on it, which folded out to be slightly larger than 2 A4 sheets of paper, held longwise. With this, a simple slip of paper, unfortunately slightly larger than the main folded programme gave the two teams’ current rosters, Conference tables, and Vancouver stats.

The visitors for the match were AC St Louis, AC standing for Athletic Club. St. Louis are new this season to professional football, although the city has a reputation as being a “Soccer City”, with a club in the old NASL until 1977. The filled their 5,700 capacity stadium for the opening match, but results have been disappointing and crowds have dropped since. With Whitecaps top of their Conference, and St. Louis bottom, (they are both in the NASL Conference), the game looked straight forward for Vancouver – but this did not turn out to be the case. The club made a strange choice of coach at the start of the season, going with Claude Anelka whose only previous experience, (at Raith Rovers, where he got the job by promising £300,000 of investment), ended briefly with Anelka laughed out of town. Anelka did not last long in St Louis either – meanwhile St. Louis have been criticised locally for putting all their investment into the new team, especially after their team in the Women’s Professional Soccer League folded.

It was not for want of trying that the Whitecaps did not win the game – they certainly held more of the possession, and were crossing the ball from both wings – it is just that the crosses were uncontrolled and generally went over the penalty area. Particularly in the first half, St. Louis made little of the game – typically of American teams, (especially struggling away from home), they played a five man midfield, with one player in a holding position between the standard ‘two banks of four’. This of course leaves the team with only one forward and in the case of St Louis, he got little support.

The second half followed a similar pattern with no score until only 18 minutes were left to play. A rare St. Louis chance fell to Jeff Cosgriff, and his shot was pushed away for a corner. When the corner came in from Luke Krealmalmeyer, Mark Bloom was left unmarked in the area, and took advantage of the lapse to put the visitors into the lead. The USSF ignores FIFA instructions on substitution rules, and allows up to five in this league. This gives a coach plenty of scope to change things, but results in a very disjointed game. Here there were seven changes in the last 30 minutes, five of them for Vancouver. St. Louis almost made sure of the game on 85 minutes when Gauchinho, their Brazilian import headed narrowly wide. It was a miss they regretted, as within a minute Whitecaps’ left back Blake Wagner hit a long ball over the visiting defence, into the path of one of the substitutes, Randy Edwini-Bonsu who calmly put the ball home.

A final score of 1-1, and I headed south straight away. With the reputation of the Canadian-USA borders to cause delays, especially for traffic heading into the states, I thought it better to cross late at night and stay in a motel not far south of the border. My policy worked in so far as I did not have to queue, and while at the Detroit border, they had still held me up by almost an hour asking questions and getting me to fill in forms, (which were promptly thrown away), all this border inspector asked was where I had been. I answered “day trip to Vancouver” and did not even mention the football – and with that, he allowed my passage!

To most people, the name Tacoma either means nothing, or reminds them of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which collapse spectacularly in 1940, and more importantly, was filmed as it collapsed. I paid a visit to the site, where two new bridges carry the freeway over a channel of the Puget Sound,. Not only is there no obvious commemoration of the original bridge, but I could not even buy a postcard (showing either). So instead I drove down the coastline for a mile or so, and cut inland to an area known as University Place. I then found the Curtis High School, home of Tacoma Tide, a PDL level club. The high school grounds has a large stadium with artificial surface. Confusingly, all the markings for American Football, Soccer and at least one other sport are marked out, albeit in different colours. The stadium also has a running track. On the side you enter, there is a large seated stand, covering the whole length of the field, while opposite there are a few rows of metal bench seats on scaffolding. Most of the crowd, estimated at 65 were in the main stand, but a small number including one couple displaying a Canadian flag sat opposite. I thought to enquire as to whether this couple were supporters of the visiting Vancouver Whitecaps, but they said they were just tourists travelling around. I struggle to believe Canadians could turn up here by chance, any more than I did. Now you have noticed that I visited the Whitecaps 24 hours earlier. This time it was their PDL team, under the title Vancouver Whitecaps residency. The exact status of the PDL is difficult to define, teams are only allowed to have 8 players over the age of 23 in a squad of up to 26 players, but nothing stops them playing all 8 throughout the games 90 minutes. Still with a team allowed to name seven substitutes for a match, and then to play six, (subs cannot return after coming off), it is unlikely this would ever happen. In fact few of the teams have more than a couple older players, and Vancouver Whitecaps Residency does not have a player older than 20. Their oldest player was none other than Randy Edwini-Bonsu, who had played 23 minutes and scored the equaliser on the previous evening. As well as Edwini-Bonsu who had started when I saw Vancouver win in Montreal; the PDL team also featured Doudou Toure who was a non-playing substitute on both occasions I had seen them play. Of course, in the USA, the main place for youth football is the college system, and many PDL players also turn out for college sides.

The new
Tacoma Narrows Bridges.

The full name of the High School Team, as shown on the stand is Curtis Vikings

Confused markings, for soccer, they use the yellow circle, but also the white centre line. Note the Canadians on the left of the seats.

Tacoma Tide, which also runs a basketball club under the same name is just off the running for a place in the play-offs, (they need to finish second behind Portland Timbers U-23 team). There coach is Gerry Gray, born in Scotland, but naturalised as a Canadian having moved at the age of 12. He is a former Whitecaps player (and a dozen other clubs in USA and Canada) as well as having 34 caps for the Canadian team. Tide have three players over the age of 23 in the squad – all started, but two were substituted before the end.

I feel the correct two Whitecaps players were in the first team squad, as the pair appeared to be the best the team had on offer. Whitecaps lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, while Tide played in 4-1-4-1. With only one forward each, neither side showed much adventure up front. Apart from the confusing markings, this appeared to be a harder surface than other artificial pitches I had seen, creating a difficult bounce. Still, there were a few chances at each end, and Whitecaps should have taken the lead just before the break. Toure was brought down while trying to break through the defence and took the penalty himself. It was not a badly taken penalty, low and to the keeper’s right, but he got down well to save it. Tacoma made the most of this, when six minutes into the second half, Rory Agu (without a doubt, their best player, and one I imagine might be moving to a neighbouring professional side) broke through the defence to score the only goal. As the game went on, Tacoma appeared to have the better of the later stages, which is not what I might have expected, as the visitors assumedly train as a full time team, but there was no other goal to celebrate. Only one substitute more than the normal number in this game – the visitors making four changes in the first 22 minutes of the second period, including taking off both Toure and Edwini-Bonsu.

Despite the low turnout, there were three Tacoma fans who put up banners, waved flags and tried to sing through the game. The players appeared to appreciate the support. They held season tickets and went to most home games, but did not travel away. The PDL has a 16 game season if they do not make the play-offs, with the Tacoma schedule for home games consisting of two matches in May (in one weekend), three in June and 3 in July (including two on successive days). It was US$10 to enter, with a season ticket costing US$70. The match programme, which is free, is a single sheet of A4 with one team’s roster on each side, interspersed with a little publicity for sponsors, the Conference table, but no notes. The trio of regular fans said they had season tickets but were uncertain whether they could see the Saturday game, as it was to be played in the state capital, Olympia, about 20 miles away. Away from home, the team has one double header weekend when they visit two of the division’s Canadian teams, Vancouver and Victoria Highlanders – five of the division’s teams are in Washington state, with Portland being the only one in Origen.

In order to lessen the travelling burden, double header weekends are not unusual in the PDL, and Tacoma were due to play another Canadian team, Abbotsford Mariners the following day. Abbotsford were playing Portland Timbers U-23 on the Friday while Vancouver were to go to Portland on the Sunday. As it happened all four games were wins for US teams, over their Canadian opponents

The Tide Fan Club – the flags show the moon, because as they told me, the moon controls the tide. Meanwhile the poster on the right wears a mask because he is suffering from “Yellow Fever” – the club plays in yellow.

Main Stand at Tacoma.

Paying the Penalty. Doudou Toure’s penalty is saved by Tide goalkeeper Scott Barnum. Randy Edwini-Bonsu, who had scored for the first team on the previous night, is the player infringing on the right.

Driving through Washington state means taking a motorway that is somewhere between the mountains and the ocean. The massive inlet of the Puget Sound is the backdrop one side of Seattle and Tacoma and runs down as far as Olympia. Although neither Vancouver, nor Portland are in this state, they are close to the borders, so most of my time on this leg of the trip was in Washington. To the East, one sees a range of quite high green hills, with a small number of snow covered peaks standing majestically on their own. This is volcano country, and I think it is the volcanic activity that allows some of the peaks to grow aloof from the surrounding hills. I have some time on my way to Portland, so I head inland, and end up by side of Mineral Lake, a setting where the active American can park his RV, do some swimming or fishing, and still get satellite TV. Mount Rainier hides just behind the first line of hills.

Twenty minutes later, I get a better view from the roadside.

Portland itself is another bustling city, but I have no difficulty parking immediately outside the ground (several hours before kick off). A tram saves me the walk down town, although the distances are short enough (about 20 minutes) that I end up walking back. It has the standard mixtures of new and old (as in 90 or 100 years) buildings, with the older ones always being the more attractive, and a spoilt riverside that is underutilised, and anyway gives you views of the giant motorways that soar way above your head. Another mountain, in this case Mount Hood, occasional shows its peaks in the distance. From the central shopping area, I walked to the riverside, then through a market area and back past some theatres to the centre.

Different styles in Portland – and no the buildings are not an angle, it’s just the effect of a wide angle lens.

Portland did boast what I considered to be the euphemism of the month. In one area, where the four lanes of traffic were quite quiet, there was a notice up to say that as an “anti-congestion” measure, to drive a car down this road more than twice in a short period of time, between the hours of 10 P.M and 6 A.M (they don’t like the 24 hour clock) would be committing an offence. Had my schedule allowed me to stay as late as ten, I would have driven down the road, (not more than twice), just to see the traffic jams. As it was, I had a flight at 10.20, and the match was not scheduled to finish until close to 9 – so I certainly needed to avoid any congestion.

PGE Park in Portland is uneasily shared between Soccer and Baseball (it has had other names in the past, including the bland Civic Stadium when no sponsor has been available. PGE = Portland General Electric). One can see different colours and patches where the artificial turf is replaces after a baseball game, and near one corner, the batter’s plate is still plain earth. There are plenty of seats, but only two sides are properly utilised, the stand behind to goal is a curve, while the main side is parallel to the pitch – but quite a long way back. At pitch level, and for half the length of the pitch, there are tables being used as an open air restaurant with a buffet service. On the opposite side, there is a single row of seats high above the pitch, with a tented area in one corner, assumedly providing some type of food and drink service. Being a baseball ground, there is a concourse behind the seats at the top of the lower tier, selling all sorts of food, beverages and souvenirs. The oddest feature is a small section jutting out from the side of what appears to be an adjacent building. This provides about five rows of seats behind the goal, and suspended about 20 feet above ground level . This building also has a flat terrace at a slightly lower level, from where a few people were watching. Some of these, curiously was watching the game while furiously peddling away on an exercise cycle. For next season, a new stand will be added on the East side of the ground, and a low row of seats behind the south goal, putting fans on all four sides. The ground will no longer be shared with baseball, allowing it to become a more closed in soccer venue, and while the pitch will still be artificial, it will be a fresh pitch with no joins where the bases once were.

The fitness fanatic way to watch football – and yes, the one on the right, while pedalling a gym bike with the temperature well into the 80s, is wearing a green football scarf.

Timbers did not capitalise on an early chance, when DeMartin blasted the ball over. On 15 minutes, Pore beat a defender and ran down the left channel before delivering a pass to the head of Bright Dike, who unfortunately directed the ball straight to Caleb Patterson-Sewell in the Miami goal. While Portland were playing a straight forward 4-4-2, the Miami formation was more complex. Listed as 4-3-3, but the right full back had a tendancy to push forward, while he left sided counterpart did not. All of the midfielders were either centre or left, with the right side being dealt with either by Euzebio Neto, the full back moving forward, or Edward Santeliz, a forward dropping back. This was not a technique that was really affective, and most of Portland’s chances in the first half came from this channel. Pore came close to scoring again on 28 minutes, shooting across the goal to the far post. Miami wasted a rare attack when Paulo Araujo shot wide from at least 35 yards with other, better options available. The left side continued to be the place where Portland piled on the pressure.

Portland finally took the lead in the 48^th minute, when a free kick from the right appeared to hit Ross Smith, who still needed to goes to get the ball across the line. Surprisingly, the home team did not push on from this position, and instead it was Miami who now came to the fore, with Christian Gomez finding space on the right on several occasions, but always failing to deliver the ball accurately. It seems a common failing in this league that players need to take too much time on the ball before passing or shooting, and this was certainly Miami’s problem. Still they certainly should have levelled the scores in the 79^th minute. Three times, Miami players had shots blocked or saved in a single move before the ball was bundled away for a corner, which was over hit and ran to safety.

Behind the goal, with the small stand. Another few rows of seats will be added close to ground level next season. The fitness cyclists are on the right, between the floodlight pylon, and the yellow pole (which marks the foul line when baseball is on the stadium).

Mandjou Keita missed a golden chance to make the game safe in the 88^th minute, somehow managing to pull the ball past two defenders, but then hitting a shot wide. This left Ryan Pore with the job of showing how it should be done – picking up the ball in midfield, he accelerated past two defenders, and then calmly slotted the ball past the advancing goalkeeper, much to the satisfaction of the Timbers’ very noisy home fans, who had kept up a good series of chants throughout the game.

More than any other group of fans I had encountered, those behind the goal at Portland were mimicking the best habits of the English, waving flags and scarves, and singing some of the same songs.

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