Top of the Klasse.

23/04/2012 by leo.

Football wise, it has been a long winter. The combination of working away from home, and actually having the wife at home to visit on the weekends has put the longer trips out of my mind – except when my wife wants me to take her into France, and then two times out of three this does not allow Football. At least the relative success of Cheltenham has meant that a period where I see them almost exclusively at the weekend,(with a diet of revisits in the general Manchester region during the week) was more than palatable.

Seasons change, as does home club form. At the time of writing, Cheltenham have not scored in five games and 77 minutes. It is a testimony to their earlier season form that even this record is not enough to take them out of the play off zone. With Cheltenham playing at Southend on a Friday night (no goals for us there),my first thought was to use the Channel Tunnel for the weekend, especially as I had an old ticket with the validity about to run out. I booked Monday off work, mainly because I did not want to drive from Belgium to Manchester in an evening. As it happened, the validity of my Eurotunnel ticket ended not on the Sunday, but the Saturday, and due to it being the first week of school holidays, there was almost no availability on the tunnel anyway. So my tunnel trip was instead scheduled for 25^th March, when I did indeed drive from Wingene in Belgium, to my flat in Didsbury, arriving back at around 23.30.

One I visited earlier – KVC Wingene in action against Blue Star Poperinge.

I was tempted but not too tempted by a variety of possibilities for the weekend, as March gave way to April – but this left me too indecisive and as often happens with the “cheapo” air fares, one needs to pick up straight away. Anyway, a short trip with little time between the games for sightseeing is best done to the old familiar countries, such as Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. Still, fares were showing rather high, and I almost gave up the idea until I saw that I could fly BA to Amsterdam within a sensible budget. If I’d driven with Eurotunnel, then I would have tried to start early enough to get into the Netherlands, so this was ideal. Although not taking the trip, Paul generously allowed me to stop over at his place and park the car there, meaning I had just the slight target of the 05.46 train from Horley to catch my 07.20 flight at Gatwick.

Not the Montfoort Stadium. Instead the ground of neighbours MSV ‘19

Even with the hour of time difference and the length of walk at Schiphol from Plane to Car Hire, I had some time to spare, and wandered into Utrecht for a while before heading to the match. In the Netherlands, the cities are generally more interesting than the towns. Indeed, most small towns in the Netherlands are much of a muchness, and somewhat dull. Pleasant (but dull) housing surrounds a pleasant (but dull) shopping area with a few small bars and restaurants and at least one supermarket. Driving must be done slowly, as it is never clear who has priority at a junction, but most cyclists assume that they own the road. It is, of course, possible that they do. The football grounds are almost always on the edge of town. Montfoort is no exception in these regards, although a couple of church spires and a windmill gave some respite on the skyline.

A football club bar should celebrate football, at least that’s what they think in Montfoort

Arriving at the grounds, one sees a neat small ground with a modern stand. Above the stand are the letters MSV’19. This is not the club I am going to see. Research shows that MSV play at the fourth level of regional Sunday football – so a ground with its own stand is quite something. Next to the MSV ground is a sports hall, and walking past the sports hall, one gets to Sportpark Hofland, home of vv Montfoort. This again is typical of the beast. Most of the surrounds of the ground are flat, but paved. On one side, a small stand has a small amount of elevation giving those inside a line of sight just above the benches. These seats, maybe 200 or so, provide all the cover. Each side of the stand are slightly raised grass banks, while in one corner, there is the clubhouse. This is typical of the type, Netherlands club bars are generally quite spacious, with a large bar area for drink, and food from a separate counter. There are more tables and chairs outside, in an area slightly enclosed. You can drink beer within sight of the pitch from this area, or through the clubhouse windows, but views will not be the best. You cannot take the beer to the other parts of the ground. I noticed that when someone walked out of the zone carrying the drink, they were quickly stopped by the stewards who had a quiet word after which the spectator returned to where he could legitimately finish his drink. While the professional leagues in the Netherlands suffer from a degree of hooliganism which goes beyond that remaining in Britain, the non-League game is one of tolerance, and four figure crowds can quite happily stand around the ground without even trying to goad the opposition.

Welcome to Montfoort. The teams enter the field to both sets of banners. Fans with a long memory will recognise the two footballers on the Montfoort badge from so many old programmes. Students of geography may note the wording VV Montfoort. Holland. Normally, the pedantic in me corrects the name Holland except in the two provinces of the Netherlands which are historically Holland. Montfoort is in Utrecht province, although close to the border with Zuidholland

Football in the Netherlands, below the two professional divisions is split into Saturday and Sunday football, with supposedly equal structures in each. This is the second season in which the top division of these two leagues is call Topklasse, and is national. The “Amateur Champion” is now decided by an end of season play off between the two TopKlasse champions. The winner of this can be promoted to the professional league, if they desire and have suitable facilities. The runner up can take the place if the winner declines. IN practise, there is next to no movement between the professional and amateur leagues.

The split into the Saturday and Sunday games is mainly on religious grounds. The protestants would never play on Sundays, whereas the Catholics always do, (this is true across much of Western Europe, countries are predominantly Roman Catholic are also predominantly Sunday football (or more recently Saturday night)). Saturday afternoon comes from the protestant communities. In the Netherlands there are more Saturday clubs towards the West, whereas in the area close to the German border, the Sunday leagues hold sway. With the West being more densely populated, there is a tendency for Saturday football to hold sway.

Apart from the National final, the Saturday and Sunday clubs can meet in the National and District cups. The rule for such meetings is that a Saturday club can refuse to play on a Sunday, but a Sunday club cannot refuse to play Saturday. Both legs of the national final are always on Saturdays.

Spakenburg are one of the top amateur teams in the Netherlands, and have won the overall championship 4 times, last season they came second in the Saturday Topklasse behind local rivals (the grounds are adjacent), IJsselmeervogels. Their neighbours went on to become overall champions, their 7^th title. The derby match between these two had become the stuff of legends, and a capacity 8,500 saw the match played a week before my arrival. As a Spakenburg fan said to me “We did not play well, but we won”. This meant that Spakenburg went to Montfoort as top of the league, and with quite a following, two supporters coaches were parked outside the grounds, and judging by noise and colours, they provided over 50% of the spectators. Montfoort have been one of the beneficiaries of recent changes. They were not in the old Hoofdklasse before the Topklasse was formed, and after finishing fourth at the Eerste Klasse level, they won promotion after a series of play offs. Last season they went up again, and again it was via play offs, and not the one direct promotion place. This season, it appears as if the rapid rise is going to end, and they are secure in the relegation zone.

Not surprisingly, Spakenburg dominated the game. They managed to hit the cross bar no less than three times, while home keeper Johan Verkerk was announced as man of the match. Then, just after an announcement of a minimum four minutes injury time, Montfoort attacked on the break, the ball dropped to Chanan Brandsma on the left side of the penalty box, he kept his nerve and put the home side ahead. Spakenburg were shocked to be behind in a game which they should have comfortably won. From the kick off, a player went on a run down the wing and was brought down, the free kick was blocked for a throw on, the throw on was blocked for a corner. The corner was long, and Roy de Vies found space to sweep in a shot. 1-1. The result really did not help either side, with four games to play. Spakenburg lost top spot to Rijnsburgse Boys, while Montfoort are still four points short of the play-off position in their attempt to avoid the drop.

Admission to the ground was €8, and a free A5 programme was available. This consists of four pages of text, mainly squads, league tables and fixtures, surrounded by a glossy professionally print cover and advertising. Around 1250 turned out for the game. I was told that the creation of Topklasse had done a lot for this level of football, with a higher quality of football and much better crowds. Although both Spakenburg and Rijnsburgse Boys were rumoured to apply for promotion last season, I do not think either want to go up. Last season, Oss were promoted despite losing both legs of the final to IJsselmeervogels. Oss had until recently been in the league, and anyway, there was no relegated club as RBC had been declared bankrupt. The main point against taking promotion is the amount of work required to create a suitable stadium, and the costs of running a professional team. Most of the professional clubs carry significant debt, while generally the “amateurs”, (Topklasse is officially semi-professional), can balance their books.

Two weeks after this trip, Rijnsburge were held at Noordwijk, while Spakenburg have played twice more since my visit to Montfoort and scored 12 goals. Spakenburg therefore are back on top as I publish this, but Montfoort are now beyond hope, with relegation confirmed.

It goes without saying that I was not going to take a flight in search of just a single game of football, and I did not stop at Montfoort, instead I headed south and to Belgium. A variety of factors make this the most popular destination for groundhoppers heading regularly into European football. The factors tend to be ease of access, quality and variety of beer, chips with mayonnaise, and only then the football. Belgium towns have kept some of the idiosyncrasies lost in the Netherlands. Most towns are centred on a town square with one or two old buildings and a mixture of bars, restaurants and banks. Themain shopping areas tend to be on radial roads leading away from this square, and while the outskirts are not far different to suburbia elsewhere, the houses are certainly not all the same. On the contrary, one never sees two identical buildings next to each other. Even closer to the town, where at first glance one may find a row of similar terraced houses, a closer look will show that each has a little difference to its neighbour, even if this is just a decoration above the windows. It is this style, a homogenised non conformity, that best sums up Belgium.

As in the Netherlands, the professional league consists of two national divisions. The difference here is that while regionalism and semi-professionalism certainly starts at level 3, it is a more gradual transition. There is also a great deal of movement up and down the divisions with no artificial barrier placed in the way of promotion. The League comprises of four divisions, Division One has 16 teams, which means after 30 matches, they go into play off groups of unnecessary complexity. Most people preferred the straight 18 team league, but of course the increase in number of meetings between the top six, and the television contract for these hold sway. Division Two has 18 teams, and Division Three has 36, in two regions of 18 teams each. One team from team from each is promoted, while three enter play offs with one team from the higher division. There are two direct relegation places and one relegation play off place from each. Division four has four divisions of 16, with the same promotion structure, but no less than three direct relegation places, and one place again in the play offs. Up to 14 teams can lose their fourth division place.

Having gone weeks since the trip, without the time or impetus to finish the article, I am settling for brief notes and photographs from each of the three Belgium clubs visited on the trip.

First up was Leopoldsburg. As a club that bears my name, I thought it appropriate for what was actually my 200^th ground in the country. Leopoldsburg also is one of those clubs that seems to always be in the bottom two divisions of the Belgium League. The club is known as KESK Leopoldsburg. The first “K” stands for Koninklijk, (it means royal), which can be seen in the name of most Belgium clubs with over 50 years of history. The “K” was actually awarded to the Excelsior FC Heppen in 1993. They merged with the more recently formed SK Strooiendorp Leopoldsburg in 1999. The new club kept those things that were of most value to Heppen, the “K”, the word Excelsior, and the Stamnummer (it may only be 3904, but it is still nearly 5000 less than the other club in the merger). I do not know when a much earlier Leopoldsburg club (with the far more impressive Stamnummer of 288) disappeared from view, but as the Belgiums tend to recycle their grounds, it would not be a surprise if KESK’s secondary ground had been used by this club. As it is, their Heidestraat ground is actually in Heppen, a good couple of miles from the centre of Leopoldsburg. The full name of the club is Koninklijk Excelsior Sportkring Leopoldsburg.

The ground is on the edge of town, nearly merging into the woods. At one end it has a neat stand built over a bar right up at one end of the pitch. The same side has a little cover in front of the dressing rooms, and a traditional single story long and narrow “cantine” (translates as bar) at the other end

I watched most of the game from the far side, where low cover runs the full length of the ground. The small structure visible at the end is an additional bar, allowing those in the stand to buy beer.

Admission was €8, and the crowd was quite small, I estimated it around 150. There was no programme as such, but an A4 printed sheet including the team names was made freely available around 20 minutes before kick-off. Quite a few of the fans came from the away team, Witgoor Sport Dessel. I had to question them as one of the names on the teamsheet had the wrong number. This makes them ask what you are doing there. It is not always easy to explain, even though every club in Belgium at this level has seen occasional English and German groundhoppers in attendance. As one I saw Witgoor at home earlier in the season, it was not a very exciting game, and was settled in Witgoor’s favour by a single late goal. The fans I had talked to had no hesitation in pointing out that scorer on this occasion, Alban Grepi was the player I had asked about.

 

It was the Belgium fourth division again the following day. The name Everbeur belongs to a small part of the small town of Averbode. Their football team started in the 1930s, joining the Belgium FA in 1932, (there were local unaffiliated competitions as well in those days), and after periods in more local leagues, making their way into the 3^rd level of the provincial League (Brabant) in 1935. They rose to the second level in 1937 and to the first provincial league in 1943. A season later they reached the National League. 1944-5 season was lost to the war, and Everbeur stayed in the National League until 1951. After two seasons back in the provincial league, they were again promoted in 1953, but just before the season started, the Belgium FA hit them with a bombshell, no less than 13 of their players were suspended for taking illegal payments, (which means any payment at all, as they were all amateurs). With the guts ripped out of the team, they were relegated at the end of the season. They also lost their ground at this point and almost went out of existence. Still, they ploughed on, despite relegation at the end of 56-7 season which after which it was 51 seasons until they again reached the top provincial level. Their lowest point were the seasons 1989-91, spent in the fourth provincial league. There is no further down to go.

Slowly, their fortunes improved, but they were still at the third provincial league until 2006. Then three rapid promotions, 2006, 2008 and 2010 and they are back in the league for the first time since that disastrous 1953 season. They club had moved to their current home in 1978, and adopted the name K. Everbeur Sports Averbode in 2005.

Today the ground is next to the local sports centre, and this provides some shelter for the standing spectator, plus of course, the obligatory bar. The seating stand, a modern steel construction is on the opposite side. When I arrived at the ground, it seemed likely they would again change division in an even year, but this time, it would be a relegation.

Their hopes were not improved when within 30 seconds of the kick off, visitors KFC Sint-Lenaarts were 1-0 ahead. There was a fair crowd here, around 300 on a sunny afternoon. The admission price was €9. As at other matches, an A4 printed sheet was made available with the teams just before kickoff. As it turned out, this was intended as an insert into a full A4 programme which was carried around the ground to those who wanted it during the first half. No specific price appeared to be charged for this, but the programmes were only given to those who also bought a scratch card.

The match turned on the referee’s decisions. In the 26^th minute, the visiting keeper managed to foul a home forward as he broke through. The referee gave a penalty and sent the keeper off. St Lenaarts had a substitute keeper to bring on, but this still means over an hour with only 10 men, and Everbeur had pulled level from this first penalty.

Not content with this, the referee awarded not one, but two penalties to Everbeur in the second half.

Having scored from the penalty spot in the first half, Shabi misses this chance to put his side 2-1 up with the second penalty.

With then minutes to play, Everbeur take the games third penalty, van Aerschot putting his team 2-1 ahead.

The Sportcentrum side and cover. The bar is within the Sportcentrum

With the visitors pushing forward to try and make up for this, Everbeur scored again in the final minute, recording a 3-1 win. Since then they have won two successive away matches, both against teams in the relegation zone, which have pulled them above the danger zone and makes survival at this level for another season more probable.

I was fortunate, I was not returning to the UK until Monday morning, and the fixtures had provided me with an extra game, albeit in the depths of the second provincial league. Although it was still a Brabant club, I first had to find my way around the Brussels Ring at a busy time of a Sunday evening. This was one of the times the satnav system was not playing ball, insisting that the roadname I gave for the ground was in fact a small driveway leading into a farm. Having looked up and down the roads in both directions and found nothing, I tried asking three small children (about 10 years old, I guess) playing ball in said driveway. One of them told me, in a language I understood (which means neither French, nor Flemish), to go back to the main road turn right and head to the cross roads. From this direction, the ground was clearly sighted, and it was still ten minutes before the start when I entered, although not through this gate.

The entrance actually must once have been connected to the road by a path, but this has not been closed off by a business, meaning a walk around the businesses and the side of a field to enter.

The home side, Denderzonen Pamel, were promoted last season and have accumulated just about enough points to ensure survival. The visitors, US Rebecquoise, still had hope of sneaking into the play offs, but it would depend on others as well as themselves. Still, they did their bit at the start of this game, 1-0 up with a third minute penalty, they tore through the home team to be 3-0up in just 21 minutes

No. 9 for Rebecquoise, Bert Sleewagen opened the scoring with a third minute penalty, and here in the 21^st minute, he is seen scoring his team’s third goal.

It cost €6 to enter the ground, around 150 people were present. There was a cantine/bar by the entrance, and the fact that a team sheet was given out as I entered the ground meant no searching for the official lists and time for a quick beer before kickoff.

Low cover, filled most of the length of the far side.

Not all the cover is in good repair – the partial blockage of the pathway is the home “dug out”

With five minutes to go to half time, the game took an unexpected turn, Denderzonen Pamel pulled a goal back, and then a minute later were awarded a penalty

Damien Wets scores from the spot. Denderzonen Pamel 2-3 US Rebecquoise. Four minutes before half time, but as it turns out, the final goal.

Early in the second half, I am near the corner flag, when Rebecquoise’s Jeremy Paduwat commits a foul and receives his yellow card. He then says something, loud enough for me to hear, but in a language I do not understand (i.e. French or Flemish). It is enough to make a few young ladies (probably players’ wives or girlfriends) by the clubhouse door actually gasp in shock. Paduwat then just walks to the dressing rooms, never glancing back to see the inevitable red card. I imagine that he got some stick himself from his manager later, as down to ten men, it was a constant struggle for Rebecquoise, once so solidly in command to hold onto the points. There are no goals in the second half, but just before the end, the numbers are levelled again when a second booking causes Pamel’s Jeroen Walravens to leave the field.

 

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The World’s Smallest National League?

27/02/2012 by leo.

You may ask what is the smallest National Football League? Well, the Pitcairn Islands (population 67) does not have a league, and neither does Vatican City (the smallest state by area – although in this case the 770 ‘citizens’ all have citizenship only for the period of their assignment to the Vatican, and resume their original nationality when returning home). I am sure someone will come up with Clerical Cup and other Vatican competitions, but this is not a national league.

In terms of area, Monaco is the second smallest behind Vatican on the World lists, with less than a square mile. There are quite a few countries with lesser population than Monaco, including San Marino (and Gibraltar if you wish to count it) in Europe, but at 35,000, Monaco claims less than a quarter of the population of the smallest London Borough (I’ve excluded the City of London itself).

Monaco is curious in football terms. On one hand there is AS Monaco, playing in the French League with use of Stade Louis II within the principality itself, but then there is the local league without a ground within the state, and hence playing on two venues in France. The two are at Moneghetti and Capd’ail. Both the grounds are right up against the border of Monaco, with Cap d’Ail being just across the road from the Arches at one end of the Stade Louis II, while wayward shots at Moneghetti must seriously risk entering Monaco.

I was on a five day weekend, mainly at the wife’s behest, and so a visit to the Monaco league was not to be my only match of the weekend. A pure footballing weekend in these parts would be a good idea, there are some matches on Friday night, games at various times around the Saturday, the local leagues (from Level 6 down) play mainly Sunday afternoons, and AS Monaco play on Monday, (as well as the Monaco League competition). I was limited however. It was sightseeing during the day, no matter that it rained near continually during the trip, and while I had the evening’s available, the only potential Saturday match would be a revisit to Nice, which I gave away.

So it meant that only Friday and Monday evenings would include football. A strange weekend if ever I had one. The Friday night match was at Etoile FC Frejus-St. Raphael, in the French National League (which for the uninitiated is their National Third Division). I have never understood the Raison d’etre of the French National League, and yet there appears to be no move to rationalise it. Covering the whole Country, with a lot of Friday night games, the league has to be fully professional, yet the average crowd this season is given as 1655, with a quarter of the clubs managing less than 600 spectators on average. Even these figures may be exaggerated – after the game I saw, the home web site estimated the crowd at 1000, while the visitors said 900, (tickets are sold, so an accurate figure is possible). My own guess is that the Martigues estimate is on the low side.

The club itself is a recent merger of clubs in the two neighbouring towns. As EFC Frejus, they won promotion to this level in 2009, and in their merged form they have kept their status. They play at the Stade Eugene Porcin in Frejus. The first thing one says about this stadium is that it is French. At least (from the spectators point of view) it is trackless, with the viewing areas square to the pitch. It has the almost standard cantilever stand along one side. The opposite side and behind one goal is lined with some quite highly stepped concrete terracing, looking as if it has been recently installed and renovated. Probably to mark the 2009 promotion and merger.

The one unique point is two traditionally styled towers by the entrance, containing the ticket booths, one of which backs onto a refreshment stall. As far the game, well the lower divisions have a reputation for dull football, and this match fitted well with the reputation. I think the home goalkeeper may have made two saves during the game. His opposite number made none at all. If he had made one save, then the game would have ended scoreless, instead of 1-0 to Etoile. The goal was a well taken turn and shoot by Matthieu Scarpelli. It was scored just less before the hour mark, and only minutes after his side dropped to ten men after Delcos was sent off.

And so on to Monaco. I did a little research on Monaco’s major football team, and the relative status of the rest. AS Monaco is of course the principality’s only side in the French system. They play fully as a French team and are indeed affiliated to the French Football Federation. While first team games are played at the Stade Louis II, they have a total of four adult teams and no less than 13 youth teams. Apart from the first team, all the others play their home matches over the borders in France. AS Monaco seconds play in the CFA (level 4) in Menton, while the third team play at Moneghetti and the fourths at Cap d’Ail in the district competition, Ligue Cote d’Azur. The top division of the District League also includes US Cap d’Ail, who play in the top division of the Ligue Cote d’Azur, (level 8 of the French system). Monaco’s teams play at levels 9 and 11. Apparently, the Stadium in Menton is used by two French teams as well as Monaco II, with the highest one also in the regional leagues (Level 7 of the system).

The Federation Monagasque de Football organises two football competitions, added to by a number of seven-a-side competitions. There may be women’s and youth football as well, but it does not get a mention on the web site. The competitions are the Challenge Prince Rainier III and the Challenge Ville de Monaco. These are not referred to as national football competitions within, but as Football d’Enterprise, (Football for Companies). All the teams in the league are Monaco companies, or other places of work (such as La Poste or Hopital de Monaco). When I asked about the matches at the stadium, and referred to the league as a national league, I was similarly corrected. Most of the players actually work for the companies concerned, as they are only allowed a limited number of outsiders. Apart from being one of these guest players, it appears there is no competition in Monaco for local players who are not employed by Enterprises with competition membership, and hence the only avenue for their football ambitions is across the border in France, (or of course, AS Monaco themselves). The rules allow for a maximum of five who do not work directly for the company concerned, but no more than 3 in any one category, the categories being “assimilated”, for direct family members of employees, “waivers” for players not connected with a company or “other business” for players connected with a company indirectly – which could include seasonal workers when not working, or contractors from outside. All of these categories can only play for one team if they do not work for another company with a team, so there is no room here for a transfer market.

The stadium at Moneghetti. The stadium is in France, but the apartment block and church behind the goal are in Monaco. The only clear spectator areas is at the near end of the building along the side, and a small area (used for parking of bikes) from where I took the photo.

There is international competition, Monaco regular enters a team in the EFSA (European Federation for Company Sport) tournament, a biennial competition. Monaco are staging the competition 21-23 June this year. Monaco also enter teams in competition against other non FIFA nations such as Vatican City or Gibraltar.

There are some other differences to games in England, but which I have seen in French Amateur Football, either at CFA or regional level. Firstly, the points structure, four for a win, two for a draw and one for a defeat (which means you only get a zero for forfeiting the game, or if you are found to be at fault for an abandonment), and secondly rolling substitutions. The number of substitutes is not limited, and players substituted can return to the field of play, except during the final ten minutes of the game, (a player who has not been on the field of play can still enter late, but a replaced player cannot come back).

But the differences go beyond this; this is the only league I have watched, where the rules specify games are limited to 40 minutes each way. The reason for this appears to be time constraints, allowing two matches to go ahead on the same pitch in an evening. Although on the day I watched, (and this is not uncommon), there were two matches at one ground and one at the other, all matches are short. This at least maintains the same conditions in all games. Finally, although my game was too clean to require it, there is a “sin bin”. A player receiving a yellow card is removed from the play for a period of five minutes. A second offence will still result in a sending off, and I assume more serious offences can lead to direct dismissal.

The competition is in two divisions, the Challenge Prince Rainier III is the top division with ten teams playing nine games each in the regular season, while the Challenge Ville de Monaco has two groups of six teams, playing only five games in a regular season which is already complete. Both have some sort of knock out at the end, with the two finals played back to back – the only two Monaco games to be played in Stade Louis II. There is promotion and relegation, both of last seasons Ville de Monaco finals are in the Prince Rainier III this season.

Cap d’Ail. In common with the Stade Louis II next door, this stadium sits above a car park. In this case it is used for the Marriott hotel next door.

My groundhopping has always taken on strict rules, especially when watching more than one game in a day, or other over circumstances where part of a match is missed. Basically, when I make plans, I must allow myself the chance to see every minute played in a game, and then if something goes wrong, and poor traffic conditions or a delayed train mean I miss a small portion of the game (how small is not defined), then I will still count the match. When travelling between matches, it must be physically possible to see the end of game 1, and the start of game 2 before I can consider it.

I was tempted by the idea of seeing the 18.45 kick off at Moneghetti, and the 20.15 at Cap d’Ail, but despite the fact I may be able to do the distance in under ten minutes (if I did not get lost), this still would not be enough and parking at both locations is a problem. So in the end I went to the early kick of at Cap d’Ail, pausing at the other ground just briefly (I was double parked, the only way I could stop close by – but I was in a row of double parked vehicles).

Not surprisingly, with the use they get, both grounds have artificial surfaces. The ground at Cap D’Ail is caged, except that there are a few steps of terracing on one side, with (closed) areas which could be used to sell refreshments. The number of spectators varied slightly during the game, but generally, I counted them at six (including myself). The game was between SMB administration and SMA. The company SMB (Société des Bains de Mer), which also features another team in the division, (SMB slots) runs some of the best known casinos and hotels in Monaco. SMA is Société Monégasque d’Assainissement, which sounds better than its English translation –the Monaco Sanitation Company. Incidentally, until SMA was founded in 1938 as a separate company, sanitation was the responsibility of SMB. The idea being that they were given a monopoly on running the casinos, but they also took responsibility for garbage as part of the deal.

Cap d’Ail looking towards Monaco.

The game was as poor as any match I have seen this season. Whereas I managed to mark down the starting XIs into 4-2-3-1 formations, neither side really kept their shape well. What was clear was that SMB Administration (second in the league at the start of the evening, and destined to go top for a week until the leaders played again), were by far the better of the two sides. 3-0 up before SMA scored with a rare shot in the 15^th minute, SMB extended the lead to 5-1 at the break and 11-1 at the end of the game. Such high scoring is not entirely typical – the average goals per match in the league is around 6, and the only other double figure haul was when league leaders Ribeiro Freres defeated bottom placed SMB Slots by 10-0. Before the game, I found the one league official in the ground, and he allowed me to copy the players names off the official list. I know they are correct as before kick off, the referee called each player out from the list, and checked the numbers were correct.

This rigmarole, a minute’s silence before kick-off, and a full ten minute break at half time meant we were running late. I actually left the ground at half time, crossed the road (and national border) to Stade Louis II, bought a ticket for the second division game there and returned to Cap d’Ail. I did not run, but still completed this in four minutes flat. At the time, I thought my game could run on to about 8.25, but in fact the referee compensated for the late start, by shortening the second half. It was a decision I thought odd, considering we had a ten minute break and three minutes injury time in the first half. Somehow, I suspect the locals take a pragmatic view. All that could have happened in a longer game was that SMB would increase their dominance to more than the 10 goal margin seen.

No doubt I will get some stick from the purists for including a game that barely exceeded 70 minutes, and had uneven lengths of halves. Frankly, I admit that even if this was to be seen as an extra game, it lacks something. As the supposedly major game of my evening, (as the other was no less than my third visit to the stadium). As a ground that I am claiming as a tick, it only just gets to pass muster – I did after all see the whole game, and the score counts.

As mentioned earlier, I ran across the border at half time and bought a ticket for the game at Stade Louis II – which gives away the fact I did not stay for the second of the evening’s games at Cap d’Ail. It was a wise choice, for the second division game was full of entertainment and interest.

The arches as views from inside the Stade Louis II.

I have a good past record watching Monaco, having seen them seven times, including twice at home and with the team winning five and drawing twice on my watch. However, they are well in the past, being based mainly on time I had to visit the South of France while working, and all seven previous visits came while Arsene Wegner was in charge of the team. One of the victories I had seen Monaco record, was on my visit to Racing Club de Lens. That was of course when both teams were doing well in the top division, now both are in division 2, and Monaco appear to be at risk of dropping lower.

Lens are known for actually having support, even for away matches – a rarity in France where distances are much greater than in England, and where games are much less likely to be scheduled with the convenience of the fan in mind. (Consider how much the convenience of the fans is taken into account in arranging televised games in England, and then think what less consideration must be like). Still there were around 100 visitors in on corner of the ground waving the colours, Sang et Or (Blood and Gold). The team actually played in a greenish hue of blue, with just a small amount of bright lime green trim. These are not colours that could invoke pride, so it is no wonder that only the traditional strips are on show. Monaco played in the familiar diagonal red and white halves. The first half contained plenty of chances at both ends, but no goals, Monaco had looked better earlier in the game, and started the second period strongly as well. This time they got it right, scoring quickly, and then adding a second. Two nil up ten minutes into the second half, and cruise control sets in.

Meanwhile, with no improvement in the situation, Racing Club bring on the youngster Thorgan Hazard. Thorgan’s elder brother, Eden is expected to move to the Premier League in the summer with clubs such as Arsenal and Chelsea chasing his signature. Assuming he is a better player than his brother, I can well understand this.

Thorgan changed the climate of the game from the moment he took the field, and crossed the ball for Toudic to pull a goal back within two minutes. Toudic then missed the most open of a number of chances that went astray as Lens attempted to level the game. The game went into injury time with Monaco still ahead, but three minutes later, Lens finally got the equaliser.

Some Monaco fans may well think they were robbed of points that would have lifted them out of the relegation zone, but this would be to misrepresent the game. Lens should have scored their second much earlier, based on the dominance they held in the closing stages, and the chances created.

Posted in The European Game | No Comments »

England C Team in Gibraltar

26/12/2011 by leo.

Once the laws of football had been formalised, it did not take long for them to spread across International borders, and almost inevitably, the first International game was played as far back as 1872. By 1906, football had become so professionalised that there was little room for the amateur in international football, and England started fielding an all Amateur International XI as well. Their first game was played in November 1906 and resulted in a 15 (fifteen) -0 win against France. The side for that match included players from South Bank, Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Old Malvernians, Old Foresters and Luton Town.

I am not certain if that game was entered as an official first team international for France, but most of the Amateur teams early games were against the full international XI of their opponents, (which meant they awarded full caps, while England did not). The England Amateur XI won their first 17 games and went unbeaten through the first 20. (To be accurate, three of these games were played by the team as a GB XI, as they were part of the 1908 London Olympics). In March 1909, the England Amateur team beat the full International team of Germany by 9-0, and a month later they beat Belgium 11-2. Both these results are still recorded as the record defeat for the National teams concerned.

Credit to Belgium though, as a year later, they gained a 2-2 draw with England (Amateurs) in Brussels, the Amateurs first failure to win. 1906-10 was a golden age for English International football with the Senior team also managing 18 unbeaten games between defeats in Glasgow in 1906 and 1910. The Amateurs finally lost in Copenhagen in May 2010. Denmark were the team beaten in the Olympic final, in 1908 and again lost to “England” in the 1912 final. The FA claim that England Amateur teams played at the 1908, 1912, 1920 and 1936 Olympics, but non English players may have been included in the latter pair.

I do not have a full record of England Amateur games, but one notable fixture, 28 January 1939 saw England beat Wales 5-2 at Whaddon Road, Cheltenham. Although by that time Cheltenham were a member of the professional Southern League, GE Perkins was in the England XI. By that time, the England Amateur XIs had become quite London based. Apart from Perkins, only two players were not Londoners, the goalkeeper G. Whitehead (Bury Amateurs) and T.H. Leek of Moor Green. I am saddened to note that Bury Amateurs changed their name to AFC Bury at the start of this season.

The England Amateur team was disbanded in 1974, basically because the distinctive name “Amateur Football” was being scrapped. The move was slow coming, and by 1974, many Amateur players were receiving so much boot money, that semi-professional clubs could not compete.

Still, with a strong distinction between the professional game (as in Football League) and semi-professional (or amateur), as in everything non-League, there was a case for a representative XI at this level and so in 1979, an England Semi-Professional XI was started. The first game was a 2-1 victory over Scotland, at Stafford Rangers in May 1979, with the Netherlands beaten at the same venue a week later.

Since then, the name of the team has morphed to the England National Game XI, and now England C, but the team has always been effectively the same, a representative side of the Football Conference, with the odd player entered from the lower leagues. Players have always come from the English non-League system (but including some playing for Welsh clubs), with I think just one exception. Kevin Todd, who I remember as a part of the Newcastle Blue Star team of the late 80s, made his one appearance in 1991, after signing for Berwick Rangers.

The England C team (using its current name) was not even limited to Englishmen. While only three players have been capped for both the C team and at Full cap level, I can easily name an equal number of players later capped for other nations. For the record – the players who moved up to the England squad were Alan Smith (Alvechurch) and Steve Guppy (Wycombe),with Peter Taylor (Maidstone)dropping to the semi-professional team in 1984, eight years after he won a full cap. Meanwhile, in the early days, I clearly remember Eammon O’Keefe moving up from playing in those first two England games, to play for Eire after switching from Mossley to Everton, Barry Hayles has gone on to play for Jamaica, while Junior Agogo has played for Ghana. The first two of these at least were English born. Agogo was born in Ghana.

In recent years, the shape of the Conference has changed. The effects of two promotion and relegation places has been to open up the Football League to those worthy non-League clubs which previously did not have the chance to improve themselves, but in reverse, the Conference itself has become the resting place for some many clubs with a lengthy Football League history behind them. Some of these clubs are getting far bigger crowds then their replacements; compare Grimsby, Luton and Stockport with Cheltenham, Morecambe and Macclesfield. Not surprisingly, these clubs have stayed full time professional, and the more ambitious clubs among the rest have also gone full time, boosted by increasing attendances and owners who put money in, (surely not still under the illusion that there is a pot of gold beyond any promotion rainbow?).

So, as the distinction between the Conference and the Football League has been eroded, in terms of professional clubs and even in wages offered, the choice of running a England representative side for players from Conference level down is looking more and more arbitrary. Players do not take the drop in level simply to get into the England team, but they can get into the team by taking such a drop, while many of last season’s team cannot play this season, as they are with either Crawley or AFC Wimbledon and hence moved into the league.

To my mind, the whole business of the England ‘C’ team is very arbitrary. Why do we award caps for one group of professional football players, while we have other groups of better players who are deemed too good to earn England ‘C’ honours, but fall far short of the standard required for England ‘A’. (The rarely used England ‘B’ designation is normally used for a reserve team of players picked from the same pool as the ‘A’ squad).

The only criterion I see the current XI being based on is to make it competitive in those tournaments it enters, and to neither overwhelm, nor be overwhelmed by its opponents. This at least is achieved, with the eight games 2009-11 resulting in two draws, five English wins, all by a single goal and a 1-0 defeat to a Portugal XI in the final game of the last International Challenge Tournament.

For England’s first International of the 2011-12 season, one could easily believe the squad had the ability to overpower their opponents. All but two members of the squad coming from the Football Conference, the odd couple being from Conference North. This predominantly professional squad was to play Gibraltar. The Gibraltarian League being an all amateur combination, played on the single stadium within the territory. Only a couple of players from Gibraltar have moved on to play semi-professionally in the lower levels of Spanish football, and there are no full professional players at all in the squad. The local newspaper’s sports reporter, loyal to his team tells me that one or two players have been offered chances in England or Spain, but have not taken them up; and as the game is played, one can see that there is some talent around and maybe some players could have made a higher grade with full time training and coaching.

The England team is very different to the one that played in the previous season. The age band, everyone over 20 and under 24 is very narrow, and only four players have played for England ‘C’ before, totalling only six gaps. The left back, Sean Newton (himself a late call up to cover for the inevitable absences in a team playing abroad on a Tuesday, when everyone has played club football on a Saturday) has two caps and is the only England player to have scored for the team before.

Lack of experience, difficult transport regimes, and little training together would all conspire against a team that one would expect on paper (or for that matter on a 3G artificial surface) to be far stronger than their opponents.

For the Gibraltarian team, there was no lack of preparation, the squad had been chosen weeks in advance and had been training together far more often than most club squads in the territory. Apart from the hope of a good game, and a close result in the match against England, the objectives of the Gibraltar FA are somewhat different to those of England. Soon after the Gibraltar FA was formed, it affiliated with the Football Association, and for many years had the same rights as any of the County associations, even though it did not enter clubs into FA Competitions, but seeing the explosion in the numbers of UEFA members, including the inclusion of other micro states (Andorra, San Marino) and dependent territories (Faroe Islands), there was a very good case for Gibraltar to join UEFA.

The GFA’s original application for membership came in 1997, and FIFA pushed it out to UEFA for consideration. If Gibraltar were accepted as a member of UEFA, then FIFA membership would also follow. Back at the time, FIFA were proud of the fact that their membership numbers made it the biggest international organisation in the world, currently 208 members, compared to just 193 in the United Nations, and at the turn of the Millennium it seemed there were opportunities for more to be added into the mix. Gibraltar ceased to be a part of the English Football Association and with the territory enjoying a similar autonomous role, to say the Faroe Islands, the candidacy looked good.

But there was one hurdle to overcome, and it was a big hurdle in the form of Spain. As soon as the Spanish Football Association (prompted by the government) objected to the inclusion of Gibraltar within UEFA, the plan was scuppered. I still believe the Spanish FA’s threat to leave UEFA if Gibraltar should be allowed to join is a bluff. With the National team for once on top of the World, and with Real Madrid and Barcelona carrying all before them on the club fronts, it seems they have a lot to lose by carrying out their threat.

UEFA went a step further than simply refusing Gibraltar’s application, they changed the rules and said that in future, only a recognised Nation could become a member of the organisation (I think this now applies to FIFA as well). This is not retrospective, so the continued participation of the Faroes and others is not in doubt. Now for a long time, FIFA has said that members should not appeal through local courts, but should apply to the Court for Arbitration in Sport in the case of any dispute. Gibraltar did just that – and won. The CAS said that the new rules could not be applied retrospectively, and any applicant that had attempted to join earlier had to be accepted on old rules. (This does rule out a floated move by Greenland to join, and delays any application from Kosovo until they gain full independence). After an appeals process, which did not change the decision, UEFA felt they had no choice, and in December 2006 announced Gibraltar were provisional members, to be rubber stamped by congress the following month. Congress involves the 52 countries (at the time) having one vote each, and with an intensive lobbying operation from the Spanish (with the threat of Spain pulling out to the fore), Gibraltar’s application was refused by 45 votes to three (with four abstentions). The three who voted in Gibraltar’s favour are believed to be England, Scotland and Wales

Gibraltar are pushing on with lobbying to bring the issue back to UEFA in the future, but despite confidence among some of the officials on the Rock, I feel it will be a long time before there is an change.

The following match report was written for the non-League Daily web site, and appeared there the day after the match.

The England C team were humbled by a well organised Gibraltar side at the Victoria Stadium, going down to a 3-1 defeat in their first game of the season.

England C can call on any players outside the Football League, which at the top level means 24 teams of mainly full time professional players, but any number of semi-professionals in the lower divisions. Gibraltar has only two divisions of Senior football, comprising a total of 16 teams, and generally amateur status. Yes, it is true that Gibraltar can put out Manchester United players, but that is only because there is a team by that name in the local league. Two Gibraltarian players do play in the Spanish Leagues, but only at semi-professional levels.

The game started in frenetic fashion, with more pace on display than purpose. England settled into a 4-4-2 formation, and appeared confident that they could play an attacking game. Gibraltar chose a more defensive minded 4-1-4-1 format, but from the word go they took the game to their opponents.

The story for most of the first half was Gibraltar attacking with pace and flair, particular the pair who play in Spain, Joseph Chipolina, the left full back was a constant threat overlapping, while winger George Cabrera was the threat on the other flank. England managed to stand firm despite numerous attempts, and should have taken the lead on 38 minutes, Danny Rose crossed from the left and Adam Boyes shot against the bar. Lindon Meikle then attempted to get a grip on the loose ball, but shot high and wide. This cost England dearly, as we were suddenly treated to a display of pace from Lee Casciaro, swopping passes with George Cabrera and then firing Gibraltar into a deserved lead.

Gibraltar appear too quick for the static English defence

After the break, England came out with six changes, but few differences. The goalkeeper, three midfielders and both strikers were swapped. Before the new grouping had even managed to greet each other and exchange names, the referee spots a stray hand where it should not be. Gibraltar’s Aaron Perez nets the resultant penalty. 2-0.

For the next six minutes, England are just wondering what has hit them, and then thinking it may be worse, with Robert Guilling hitting the post after a good interchange between Cabrera and Perez – then it was worst. Guilling was allowed to stand alone on the half way line, where he was picked out with a perfect crossfield ball, running on alone before shooting past the advancing Preston Edwards.

If Gibraltar ran out of steam after the hour mark, it was a sign of how much they had put into the early part of the game. Anyway, England continued to be disorganised, and despite having more of the ball, they could rarely show either enough guile or strength to worry Jordan Perez in the home goal.

Gibraltar stuck to the game plan, 4-1-4-1 throughout, although they were flexible enough to rotate some of the players positions within this system. Roy Chinpolina, who had an excellent game started off shielding the back four, and later joined it. Cabrera took up the lone forward position from Lee Casciaro allowing Casciaro to drop back, while Brian Perez and Aaron Payas had excellent games wherever they played.

Penalty – Gibraltar’s all important second goal.

England did get a goal back with less than ten minutes to play, it was knocked in by Connor Jennings at short range, following a rare defensive mix up for Gibraltar. England commanded possession after this, but there was never a suggestion that the goal was anything but a consolation.

Marks must go to Fairclough for demanding that his players went forward to applaud the home crowd at the end of the game. The crowd had chanted throughout (one of the few chants surely that uses the name of the organisation G-F-A, rather than the country). At the end they were calling again for UEFA recognition as well.

England. Jonathon Hedge (Tamworth) (Preston Edwards (Ebbsfleet)), Shaun Beeley (Fleetwood), Sean Newton (AFC Telford), Jamie Turley (Forest Green), Rory McAuley (Cambridge United) (Adam Watkins (Luton)); Lindon Meikle (Mansfield), Jai Reason (Braintree), Danny Rose (Newport County) (Kenny Davis (Braintree)), Robbie Willmott (Luton) (Ashley Chambers (York)); Adam Boyes (Barrow) (Connor Jennings (Stalybridge)), John Paul Kissock (Luton) (Michael West (Ebbsfleet).

All substitutions at half time, with Reason dropping from midfield to defence.

Gibraltar. Jordan Perez, Ryan Casciaro, Joseph Chipolina, Joseph Chipol (Jason Pusey 82), Lee Ferrary (Daniel Duarte HT); Roy Chipolina; George Cabrera (Gareth Lopez 89), Brian Perez (Jeremy Lopez 85), Aaron Payas, Robert Guilling (Kyle Casciaro 66); Lee Casciaro

Referee: A. Bacarisa (Gibraltar).

Attendance: Approximately 800

Gibraltar is a curious place to visit, very welcoming and an odd mixture between Spanish and British. Public transport and the border crossings are now straight forward, so visiting the territory by crossing the border from Spain is now quite easy, as is using Gibraltar airport as an entry point into Spain (you walk across the Spanish border, about 100 yards from the airport terminal). One curious point, soon to be changed is that the only road into Gibraltar runs straight across the airport runway, and so closes when a plane takes off or lands, (fortunately, there aren’t many flights). If driving, queues to cross the border can be several hours in length, entering Gibraltar early in the day, and leaving from mid afternoon onwards. Even during the game, I could see the line of cars across the runway until well into the second half, I was told this meant a one hour delay if I had left the territory at that time. A new airport terminal is being built, and then a tunnel under the runway which will alleviate some of the problems and allow more flights into Gibraltar.

The Stadium is next to the airport, and consists of a single cantilever stand over around 1000 seats. On the far side, some concrete seating has been built up, but this was not used for the International.

Posted in The Non League Game, The European Game, Political Footballs | No Comments »

The Lithuania Report.

12/06/2011 by leo.

After less than an hour crammed into the back of a Fokker propjet, I made the transition from Latvia to Lithuania. My plan, based on advanced checks on the fixtures was to see the only A Lyga game on the Tuesday, when Dainava played Tauras in a mid-table match, and then to follow this with the top two Zalgiris v Ekranes. I still had not decided on arriving in Riga whether to hire a car or to use buses and stay overnight in Alytus after the Dainava game.

In the end, my decision was made for me. While I was in Riga, I discovered that the fixture detail had been changed during the week before the matches, and my favourite Wednesday game, Zalgiris – Ekranes game was not to be played in the capital, but in Marijampole, a two hour bus ride away. This meant there was no public transport from there (or any other game) suitable to return me to the capital in time for my 6.30 flight on Thursday.

And so on arrival at the airport, my first job was to check car hire prices. A local company offered me three days for around £100, and knowing that Hertz, operating out of the next office bar one were charging almost twice as much, I took it straight off. Now comes the bit where modern technology really helps. Instead of trying to read a map and drive in an unknown country, my SatNav found the route to the hotel straight away. Still, it took some time after spotting the road, in a rather run down suburb, to find the hotel – which turned out to be ultra-modern once one entered. Clean, bright, spacious and while the breakfast did not add to much, the internet worked.

It took only ten minutes to walk to the town centre. Vilnius is larger than its rivals in Tallinn and Riga, and very well preserved. There are more churches than you could worship at in a month of Sundays. The country is predominantly Catholic and signs in the city centre commemorated a visit by Pope John Paul II in 1993. I managed a good walk around before the sun went down, and then entered a local establishment that provided a very palatable wheat beer, as well some food.

Vilnius Cathedral – one of many churches in the Capital, although not typical of the local style!

There is a strong but friendly rivalry between the three Baltic nations, all of which left the Soviet Union in 1991 and joined the European Union (and NATO) in 2004. I believe all three would like to embrace the Euro, but progress has been slowed by the recent economic crisis, which has put a halt to recent growth. There is one significant difference, Estonia and Latvia have never been other than small countries trying to fend off (not always successfully) the superpowers of the region, Sweden, Russia, Poland and Lithuania.

Lithuania (as part of a shared commonwealth with Poland) was the power in central Europe from the 15^th to 18^th centuries. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania included the current states of Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova, as well as parts of other states such as Romania, Poland and Russia. Even now it is larger than either Latvia or Estonia in terms of area and population – the three together have about one and a half times the population of Scotland, in an area which is almost twice the size of Scotland. I know the standard comparison unit is normally Wales, but I feel Scotland needs some recognition.

The local rivalries extend to the football field, and the trio have created a number of cross border challenges, which are almost completely ignored by the local populations. The three day, three match triangular tournaments are a favourite, even though these can never give the best of football. These are biased in favour of the home team, and the last two were won by the home team. Lithuania won a international series held in Kaunas last June, while Skonto won the champions completion, held at their indoor arena (which includes a full sized pitch) in January. The tournament total attendances were not exactly spectacular. The three games in Kaunas totalled a crowd of around 2000, whereas only 500 people headed to the Riga tourney.

The Zalgiris Stadium in Vilnius, although not currently in use, the pitch looks worn, and there is a groundsman working on it.

In ranking terms, Lithuania lead the way – they are ranked 54 by FIFA, ahead of Latvia (75) and Estonia (82), while UEFA rankings for clubs places Lithuania in 32^nd , Latvia one lower, and Estonia 43^rd. This gives all of them four entries in European competition, and all starting at the same stages. (Wales are 46^th, Northern Ireland 49^th). This is also reflected in attendances – the Estonian League has (according to European Football Statistics) an average “crowd” of just 188 in 2010, Latvia had 448, while Lithuania gets 880.

Zalgiris again.

So Tuesday morning arrived, rather dull and damp, and making me pleased to have explored the city centre in the previous evening’s sunshine. Fortunately, conditions improved allowing me to make the drive to Alytus in reasonable weather. The countryside was a mixture of woodland and agricultural land, but little of any great interest. At no point did I feel compelled to stop and admire the scenery.

As for Alytus, it would be easy to dismiss it as an ugly town, but this is a little unfair. It is bland and apparently uninteresting, but has a saving grace in the form of a large expanse of parkland that comes right into the centre of town, keeping the regulation apartment buildings at bay. Within this area is the Alytaus miesto Stadionas. (The extra “a” in the place name is correct, and I assume is possessive), miesto Stadionas means Town Stadium. What one gets is a very neat, and very new (it replaces another stadium on the same site). The press offices told me that it now holds 3700 seats, with two stands each the length of the pitch – a larger covered one on one side, and a lower open area opposite. The ground boasts the almost obligatory athletics track, with no facilities at either end. Neither stand has any elevation, so at least 10% of the seats are best avoided as too low.

The home fans at Dainava. A smaller number of away fans take up position at the other end of the stand

This probably ranks the stadium only behind the new stadium in Marijampole as the second best in the country, and during the week before my visit, it had the honour of staging the National Cup final.

The team name Dainava refers to an area within the city of Alytus. The visitors were Tauras, from the city of Taurage. This appears just to be a contraction of the town name, taking the local spelling for a zodiac sign and naturally using a bull on their badge. It appears that the city names are rarely included in the club’s official names here, although Klaipeda, Mazeikiai, Siauliai and Kaunas are all just place names. Suduva is the area which includes Marijampole. Zalgiris is the local name for the major battle that cemented Lithuanian power early in the 15^th century (English history books would refer to it as the Battle of Grunwald).

The main stand at Dainava, Alytus

Unlike in Latvia, people were allowed to smoke in the stands, and there was a beer tent at one end providing lager and dark beer, as well as soft drinks. No food, tea or coffee though. The crowd was the best of the tour, and if the official figure around 2000 is correct, then it just about eclipses the total of the other five games seen in Latvia and Lithuania. Admission was 5 lita for any part of the ground, with the majority taking cover, but the “ultras” from each side settling for the end sections of the open area.

As for the game, it was of pleasantly good quality, certainly better than anything I had seen during the Latvian part of the tour. The visitors had an assembled a squad including a number of foreigners, and the name that stood out was Seedorf. Sadly this was Regilo Seedorf, and I suppose the fact he plays in the Lithuanian League, having tried his luck in the Netherlands, Belgium and the Cypriot second division gives away that he is not quite as good as his Uncle Clarence.

While Seedorf was trying to run the midfield, it looked as if the game could go to Dainava, but as soon as Tauras decided to miss the centre of midfield and play the wings, the game changed in their favour. The opening goal came seven minutes before the break, when Borisovs played down the left wing and crossed the ball for the right winger, Buitkus to finish.

The home side levelled the scores direct from a free kick early in the second half, but never looked likely to capitalise on this. Instead most of the second half seemed to be a series of fouls on the visitors wingers. The inevitable happened with 15 minutes to play, as one of the series of yellow cards collected by Dainava was a second, and substitute Strauka left the field early. With three minutes to play, a splendid passage of play involving all three of the Tauras substitutes resulted in a winning goal. One player ran with the ball, passed it out to the left wing, and then the cross was met by a good header which looped over the home keeper.

The names engraved on the outside of the “KGB Museum” commemorate some of those deported or killed after incorporation in the Soviet Union

Heading back overnight to Vilnius allowed me to start again the following day, even though I would be repeating my steps to a large extent. It did allow me to enter the museum of the genocide victims, otherwise known as the KGB museum. On the two upper floors, this consisted of a highly politicised view of the resistance against first German and then Russian occupation of the country from 1940 to 1991, and the lives they lived if caught and deported . It is the basement, however that holds the power to shock. This is a dank prison, almost unchanged since the Soviets left in 1991, and was there place were the regime first took those who offended it for interrogation and imprisonment, before shipping them to Siberia, or simply executing them within the building. (No photos permitted), but the outside of the building is now engraved with some of the names of those killed.

While my trip to Marijampole covered many of the same roads as the previous day, I started earlier, and this allowed a stop in Trakai. Here an interesting and picturesque castle sits in the centre of a lake. The building has been restored and the new red brick stands out starkly against the older parts of the building. The oldest parts of the castle date back to the 14^th and 15^th century, but it fell into disrepair after the battle of Zalgiris. Just not needed when peace ruled! The modern restoration was carried out mainly in the 1950s.

Trakai Castle – restoration in redbrick!

Marijampole may be the current host of Lithuania’s national team matches, but it is not an exciting city. The town centre consists of a sterile concrete square and a couple of supermarkets. The two football grounds are situated to the north of the centre, only around 400 metres apart. Suduva used to play at the Suduvos Stadionas, before moving to the new stadium when constructed in 2008. The new stadium seats 6250 and originally had the same name as its predecessor, before naming rights made it into the “Avri” Arena. The older ground was similar to that visited the day before, older and slightly larger, but still a main stand along one side, and a low bank of uncovered seats opposite, and nothing but the track at either end. No admission was charged, and the “home” fans were provided with a free coach from the capital, but still I estimated the attendance at just 150, (officially it was 500). I chose the game as it was the “big” game – both sides could end the day top of the league, and also because there may be few chances to return and visit this stadium.

Zalgiris’ travelling support (for a home game) try to get behind their team.

In the short term, this does not seem to mean much. Not only have Zalgiris to play more games here, but also FBK Kaunas had switched their game for the following Sunday. While it was easy to discover that Zalgiris had a problem with their home stadium being considered unsuitable for a A Lyga license, and the planned new stadium being still on same drawing boards as it was on 10 years or more ago, the reasons for other matches moving was unclear.

Meanwhile, the travelling Ekranes Ultras try to look menacing.

Meanwhile, Suduva were actually supposed to be away to Atlantas in Klaipeda, but had switched to playing at home, and kicking off 90 minutes before the Zalgiris game. This was an annoyance to me, who would have doubled up had the matches been two hours apart. Indeed there may have been some local sympathy for my position. Some 30 or 40 people entered the ground around half an hour after kick off, many wearing Suduva colurs.

I could not find out why Kaunas, who have played their other games in their home city were to switch a game here. It cannot be for the crowds though Dainava appear unique in getting 2000 in for their mid table games. The others are all under the 1000 mark.

As for my game, it was settled by an early goal scored by Ribokas for league leaders Ekranes. After this, Zalgiris seemed to be able to command most of the play, and unleashed plenty of shots, but hardly any that were anywhere near the target. With the early goal secured, the visitors were content to defend deep against opponents that seemed to lack any sort of punch. Their own attacks were rare, but were more concise and precise.

Ekranes were always good to hold on to their lead, and the game finished 1-0. Most of the play was uninspiring, and it was a surprise when Austraukas of Zalgiris managed to get himself a red card a few minutes before time. I did not think anyone was going to be committed enough to make a serious foul.

I travelled back using the motorway route, through Kaunas soon after dusk, but early enough to see it has a small historic centre and may be worth a visit on another trip. I managed to sleep a little in a quiet service area, and hence delayed arriving in the capital until around 3 am, heading straight to the airport for my 6.30 flight.

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Boring, Boring, Barca?

29/05/2011 by leo.

Of course, I do not really mean that.

I rarely comment on games seen only on TV, but this time I see a change in tactics, an extension of the direction already visible on my last few trips to Spain. One has to look at the game, and try and go beyond the gushing comments of praise offered up by the TV networks and commentators and ask what actually happened.

The BBC stats suggested that Barcelona had 68% of the possession . Another site, citing a link to “Total Football Apps”, says that Xavi attempted 148 passes in the game, and 141 were successful, Iniesta also had over 100 successful passes, while Messi made 92 out of his 100 attempts. Rio Ferdinand made the most attempted passes for United, but this was only 47, with 40 making it.

I am not sure of the accuracy of this, but the figures are believable, having watched the game on TV. Barcelona played a short passing game, with a player rarely remaining in possession for more than five seconds, and the vast majority being successful and over a short distance. It was not just that United could not intercept these, they generally did not try.

When United had the ball, tactics still owed a lot to Charles Hughes, the apostle of the long ball and direct game. Hughes said that most goals come from moves of three of less passes, and hence players should get the ball into a shooting position in that time. Correct analysis, wrong conclusion. Barcelona do score goals that do not depend on 20 or 30 passes, but these depend on gaining possession near to the goal. If you play a long ball, then more often than not you are trying to win possession again. If you pass like Barcelona, then possession is never lost, and so never has to be regained. Not surprisingly, Barcelona committed far fewer fouls than Manchester United. Most fouls are mistimed attempts to dispossess the player with the ball, and hence they do not occur when you are already in possession.

Traditionally in the English game, possession has always swung from one side to the other, and is lost due to poor quality of passing and control more often than due to tackling. A team’s dominance of a match is down to being more effective both with and without the ball, but a team could totally dominate a game, win by four or five to nil, and still barely exceed 50% on the possession chart.

In Barcelona, we have a team that holds possession, keeping it for more than two thirds of the time. Most of these short passes are not taking the game anywhere, but it frustrates the opponents when they just cannot get the ball. In this way, cricketers are more tactically astute than footballers. They know that a run of maiden overs can frustrate their opponents, and that this can win a wicket when a more direct attack will fail.

The natural consequence of Barcelona’s success is that more teams will copy this style, (on the continent anyway). No imagine two teams playing possession and short passes, but without Barcelona’s star players. Neither side will commit to a challenge in the other’s half of the field, for fear of being caught out with their players out of position. Without Iniesta, Alves and Messi to run at the defence, and to open up spaces, these sequential passing moves will break down eventually. Even Barcelona did not score every time they had the ball. With defenders falling back, the side in possession will be forced to shoot from distance, and will not be able to generate the excitement of play in the penalty area.

Barca have been anything but boring, but the Barcelona style could well be copied into a new and more sterile game, leaving commentators to regret some of the superlatives thrown at this new dawn.

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Three Holders and Twinners in Riga

27/05/2011 by leo.

I thought the title could be something from Ronnie Barker, but maybe it’s just my warped sense of humour. The one thing that is certain, when you have suffered the second half of the season as we have at Cheltenham, you need a holiday, and more than that – you need a drink.

Many of my trips have simple plans. Get to the destination, get to see as much football as possible, take in a little of the scenery and sights if time permits. Eat and drink when necessary. If I do not travel alone, then my companions are liable to take similar views on these things.

This is a bit different. An end of season tour. Still football orientated, but I am out with a group of fans from Cheltenham Town. In the past we have visited places such as Milan and Lisbon, and the trips have always been drinking first, football second, (but not a distant second). Latvia may be a bit more challenging, but the rules are the same. It was my second visit, and quite a bit has changed in the last decade. Back in 1999, Latvia was still freshly separated from the Soviet Union, (it achieved independence in 1991), and it did not join the European Union until about five years after my visit. In the meantime there has also been economic boom and bust, the country being hit hard by the recent crisis.

In 1999, I had to fly British Airways, and paid around £250 for my return ticket, now the cheap airlines have arrived in force, and it was easy to arrange a return for under £100. I chose Wizz Air, because I wanted to add Lithuania at the end of the trip. My friends flew with Ryanair from Bristol, a straight forward flight, and were surprised to discover it was more a commuter flight taking Latvians home for the weekend then a holiday makers’ flight. My flight appeared to have at least two stag parties on board, including the regulation butch, hairy and very drunk youngish Englishman wearing a pink dress.

In the city, the number of bars has increased massively, especially the British and Irish bars, and drink prices have risen to almost British figures. There are bars open late into the evening, but generally the atmosphere was peaceful, without the raucous and uncomfortable atmosphere that the British are liable to inflict on foreign cities.

Riga’s Orthodox Cathedral. I did not find out what was unorthodox about the other one.

I arrived in the afternoon, and had spent some time wandering around the old town, and found a bar with over 20 different beers (including a variety of local ones), as well as some 50+ malt whiskeys. I would have stuck to beer, but some visiting Finns decided that as an Englishman, I must be an expert on Scotch, and hence demanded I gave my opinion on 35 year old malt that they paid for. It would be rude not to, so I complied. I thought it was a beautifully smooth creation, (the Whiskey, not the Finns).

I want to buy a beer!

When the others, to be referred to as the “Three Holders and Twinners” arrived, we discovered that the hotel had messed up the room booking, and two members of the party were shipped off to the altogether superior Albert Hotel. As the Ramada (where we were staying) has no bar, the rest of us followed suit after a short time to get into the room. Even with a flight due in after 9 in the evening, it is amazing how much some people can manage before the hotel bar finally throws you out.

In the morning, we had to again sort the hotel rooms, and then head to the railway station for the first match. We came across a standard problem – where do you queue for tickets. Naturally, I waited for ten minutes before being told, (about two minutes before our train), that it was the wrong ticket window. The sign that said so had fallen out of sight.

By the time our tickets had been purchased, we had missed a train and we repaired to the coffee shop. Well I had a coffee, Twinners and at least one Holder had soft drinks, while the others purchased beer. Showing the friendliness that one might be surprised, we were interrupted by the girl on the next table, who wanted to advise us on the best choices of local beer.

On arriving at the town of Ogre, (it is pronounced Og-Re, and does not feature Shrek on its coat of arms), it was only 20 minutes to kick off. Twinners and I decided to take a Taxi, while the Holders walked – we had spotted the ground from the train, and in fact the walk was only 10 minutes, but my earlier arrival allowed me to quickly speak to the match commissioner who found me a copy of the team lists. SC Ogre/FK 33 had been promoted from regional football to the 1. Liga (which is of course, the second level of football in Latvia) last season, and had started this season with 6-0 and 11-1 defeats. This was their first home game. Still in the 11-1 defeat a week earlier, they had been 1-0 up for some 15 minutes, and the equaliser was an own goal. The visitors, FK Tukums-2000/TSS had won only one of three games to date. I did not get the meaning of the names after the strokes, but I think it refers to merged clubs.

The Ogre Stadions.

The stadium was a basic athletics track with a stand on one side, raised well enough to give good views. The stand holds around 650 seats, of which over 600 were left empty. No charges were made, no programmes were issued, no souvenirs were on sale, and the only refreshments were from a vending machine in the corridor that led to the sports hall behind the stadium. To say the pitch was uneven would be an insult to many a ploughed field. Let’s just say you could not be certain where the bounce would take the ball.

None of this mattered though, as there were few players on show that could control the ball even when it did not strike a divot. It is questionable whether more players lost the ball through tripping over it, than through tackles, but it is fair to say that the tackles when seen were not for the squeamish. Still when the referee told a player who had been pole axed by a particularly nasty blow, he would do so without even a word of complaint. Goalless in the first period, Tukums managed to score three after the break to comfortably win the game.

Not likely to win prizes in a Ploughing competition.

On returning to Riga, the Three Holders and Twinners wanted to see the FA Cup final on TV. This is not shown on local TV, so there was a requirement to enter the first Irish bar showing it on satellite TV. I do not go to foreign countries to sit in faux Irish bars, drinking Danish beer and watching English football on TV, (or at least not all the time). So I carried on after seeing the others enter the bar, and about thirty minutes later, I found Arkadija – the ground of FS Metta/LU. That means for the second time in a day, I was at the ground around 20 minutes before kick off! The ground was buzzing, mainly with hundreds of kids connected to the Football School which gives its name to FS Metta. The ground is a plastic pitch with a cage on three sides, and four rows of seats along half the length of one side. It was nowhere near adequate for the numbers there. Admission was again free, but an A6 sized programme was sold for 0.5 Lat (about 60p). Plenty of refreshments and souvenirs were on sale, and a team sheet was produced on request, (it did take a while to find the person to request it from – and he then disappeared into the sports hall, which also included dressing rooms to find it). Curiously the sports hall is labelled Riga Futbola Skola. Riga FS is another team, like FS Metta/LU in 1. Liga – but they play their home games at the LU Stadium. The LU in both Metta/LU and the stadium stands for the Latvia University.

FS Metta/LU at Arkadija. From the seats, one is looking into the Sun, and toward a Soviet style war memorial in the park behind

Sitting on the third row of seats back, I found so much movement and noise in front of me, that it was difficult to concentrate on the game, so I walked around the other side for the second period and stood holding my camera. A few of the officials gave me odd looks, uncertain as to whether or not I was supposed to be there, but I was not challenged. The visitors, Valmieras FK were not in the same class as FS Metta, whose record beforehand had been two wins and a draw, including a 6-0 victory over Tukums. There was only one first half goal, as the overhit ball still came to the fore more often than not, but when the home side got into their stride, and the visitors tired of the battle, a further six goals were added, including a hat trick for a substitute who came on with less than 30 minutes to play.

Putkis scores Metta’s second goal, from the penalty spot.

One note from the lower division of the Latvian League, clubs are allowed to name up to seven substitutes, and then play all of them. Not everyone can name a full complement though. Ogre named four, and played them all including the second choice keeper, while Tukems left their second keeper on the bench, but played six others. FS Metta played a full seven, including a keeper, while Valmieras named five, and played four (again it was the keeper that was not changed). All this makes the second half of games somewhat piecemeal, and does detract from the game. For the Sunday games, in the Virsliga (top Division) and Cup, it was three subs only, from seven names.

After the game, I gave in and returned to the Irish bar, although I drank only Latvian beer while watching the second half of a League-2 play-off game, and the whole of the French Cup Final. Still we did not overdo things and left with the bar still open, and the result of the Eurovision song contest (on the other TV in the bar) still uncertain. We missed out on culture despite the opportunities presented. Our Saturday evening in Riga had been designated as “Night of the Museums”, with every museum open past midnight, and more importantly free to enter. Our excuse was that we did not want to join the rather lengthy queues, (especially while the bars were still open).

Crossing the Daugavas river back into the old town

Another day, another train ride, and while this time we went straight to the correct ticket window, we were sold single tickets under the impression we were buying returns. We took the train to Majori, in the Jurmala area. This is a resort some 20 km from Riga, with a fine sandy beach on one side of a narrow spit of land, and a river on the other side. We wandered down a well paved and very gentile walkway close to cafes, shops and some very fine housing. But if one looked behind, down the lanes connecting to out thoroughfare, you could see that there was also a lot of housing in serious need of repair, while a few burnt out hulks were left were they stood, a tribute to the affects of fire on wooden buildings with inadequate insurance. We walked along this promenade, and then back along the back before taking a lunch, where a rather large piece of cow was served at very generous prices. Although an English menu was provided, Jurmala is not reached by many foreign tourists. Returning to the station, and a square with a statue of St. George and the Dragon, there was a lack of taxis, so we had to resort to the bus. The bus driver told us he did not go to Sloka, but the person behind us in the queue said to get on anyway, and he would show us the route for the ten minute walk from bus terminus to stadium.

Majori, Jurmala.

Three Holders and Twinners on Jurmala Beach – I am safely the other side of the camera.

Our guide was a former professional boxer who had spent around five years in the East End of London, and was as good as his word, walking with us for about half the distance to the ground, and then disappearing into a warren of stereotypical soviet style apartment blocks that made up this town away from the tourist beach – pointing us down the road and (correctly) saying we would reach the stadium in around 5 minutes.

The Power of advertising. Somehow I cannot imagine “Villa Lido” will ever live up to the dream of the poster.

Jurmala has not one, but two professional football teams, and they share the Sloka stadium. With the newer of the pair being promoted last season, this was to be the first ‘derby’ in the top level. Probably the first ever. If there was a charge to enter, we did not find it, and we also got a free programme. FC Jurmala, who were formed only in 2008 were the ‘home’ team, while FK Jurmala VV were the ‘visitors’. Like the ground at Ogre, this had an athletics track and a single stand, this time around 1000 seats. There was no access to other parts of the ground, although some chose to watch through the fencing. The Latvian FA web site gave the crowd as 350, which I feel is close enough to the mark. FK Jurmala had the most vocal fans, with several flags and a poster saying “One Town, One Team”, which suggests they are a little put out by the rise of local rivals. Despite their flags showing the name FC Jurmala, rather than FK, they insisted that the new club was not a breakaway of the old one, but had risen on its own. Former Arsenal player Igors Stepanovs is on the FK coaching staff and also listed as a player, but not one of the 18 selected for this game.

Sloka Stadions, Jurmala. During the half time break, less than 30% of the “crowd” keep their seats.

FK have not had a good season, just one point from six games, while FC were on eight points from seven games. Still it was always FK that were the better side, and they were deserving winners with an early goal, (a header from a right side free kick), and a late goal, following a long passing move searching for the gap. In between time, over hit crosses and shots that would have been deemed high in Rugby Union were the orders of the day. No refreshments were available except in an enclosed VIP section at the top of the stand, which was well guarded by people who were never going to let me in, even in search of the team list. The area marked “Press Center” was locked and empty, but I eventually found the stadium announcer, and another official who managed to let me have a copy.

FK Jurmala fans wave the flag to say “We outnumber that other lot”.

Not only are no refreshments on sale at the stadium, but Latvia is one of the countries with a no smoking rule. The stadium is next to some woodland, and at least half the crowd seemed to disappear into the woods during the break. Clearly many of them had gone for a smoke, but it was also spotted that some had left bottles of beer that would not pass through security into the ground itself,

And so back to Riga. Skonto stadium is about a 30 minute walk from the station, but I decided I should get a taxi, having obtained press accreditation and been told to collect it around or after 16.00, (it was about 18.00 when I arrived). I needed have worried, the place was near deserted, with just a few people finishing off a pre match buffer, and kids playing a table football contest. I appeared to be the first person collecting a ticket, and when the others (who did walk) arrived, they may well have been the first to buy tickets. I saved 3 Lat (about £3.75) by getting accreditation, and paid exactly the same to the Taxi! Programmes, a 36 page A4 publication were 2 Lat. Naturally this was considered too much by the locals, and few appeared to buy them.

Ventspils fans pleased to be given the open end. Or at least happy it has stopped raining.

As the teams take to the pitch, it appears the mascot is trying to injure the Liepajas captain. Perhaps angered by the incident, Tomasauskas will receive his second caution on 63 minutes, and miss a crucial part of the game.

The bar was marked “VIP bar”, but VIP appeared to be a local word meaning public. Beer was obtained, and then I went up to the press seats where I was given copies of the team sheets, and also free coffee and biscuits. The others later came and sat in front of the press box, returning to the bar for a quick one at half time, before realising that this is not Britain – and they were permitted to bring the beer back to the seats. Another beer was quickly ordered to last the second half.

Skonto. The side we are sitting on is similar to that opposite, and actually has people in it.

The Skonto Stadium holds around 8000, with three sides being almost identically clad stands, and the fourth being rather rudimentary open seats. Around 50 supporters from each side waved flags and chanted behind the goals, while the other 1000 or so (official crowd: 1112), were in the stand on my side.

FK Ventspils are top of the league, with 22 points from 8 games. The only team they had not beaten in the League were Liepajas Metalurgs, (it was 0-0), who in turn had 19 points from 8 games. However, the Latvian Cup is played on the same season as England, (Autumn one year, to Spring the next), while the League season is through the summer. Hence the pair knew that Skonto have the Champions League place from the 2010 season. Both had already qualified for the Europa League, but the cup winners would play one less qualifying round. Despite the lack of crowds in Latvian football, Ventspils have created a very international squad, including Africans, Russians and two Japanese. They even managed to leave a Uruguayan as an unplayed substitute. The starting XI included two Russians, but the stars were Ahmed Abdultaofik, (a Nigerian) and Minori Sato (Japan) who played at the point of a diamond shaped midfield four.

On 35 minutes, Olegs Laizans (14) gets enough curve to beat the wall and keeper and put Ventspils one up.

By comparison, Metalurgs fielded three Lithuanians as their foreign contingent. It was clear from start to finish that Ventspils were the better side, and their fans knew it, making more noise despite having the open end. It took 35 minutes for them to grab the advantage, a direct free kick from Oleg Laizans, and they were never going to let it go. Abdultaofik scored the two, the second being from a through pass from Sato. By this time, Metalurgs had been reduced to ten men, when Tamasauskas picked up a second yellow card, and a late penalty was no real consolation. We gathered as near as we could to the presentation and shook most of the winning players hands as they went onto the pitch. We then retired to the bar, again spotting some of the winning team, who came through to meet their girlfriends before heading to a reception upstairs. We stayed in the bar longer than planned, as it started raining, and we saw the players leave after the reception as well! Fortunately, there was to be a gap in the rain, as the bar staff wanted to throw us out, (and anyway, we had drunk all the local beer, and all the Carlsberg).

Having won the cup, Ventspils’ supporters prepare to celebrate until the bus is due to leave (about 5 minutes).

So it was back to town, and a return to the first bar I had visited, taking a stray scouser we had met in the stadium in tow. They said they closed around midnight, but we stayed about 45 minutes longer, before transferring to another bar, (last orders just been called) for another hour of so before finally returning to our beds.

Lifting the cup. This does not make the front pages of the Latvian press the next day.

Still, we all managed a hearty breakfast in the morning, and a general sightseeing walk around the old town. It is quite attractive, and very compact, before leaving in the early afternoon, the Three Holders and Twinners back to Bristol, and me onto Vilnius

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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

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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.

 

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Not The Benelux Weekend.

25/05/2010 by leo.

Monday 24^th May was a bank holiday in large parts of Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, and I could have continued my Benelux weekend with another play off for the Belgium League. However, instead I turned further east and decided instead to go into Germany. When the Third division was created in Germany; the number of Regional leagues was increased from two to three while dropping to be the fourth level of German football. This meant that the Oberliga would be the fifth level, and would lose all lose teams to the new structure. If nothing had changed, then the existing nine Oberliga before the changes would have become the feeders to the new Regionalliga with the nine champions promoted, and three teams relegated from each. But this not fit in with the wishes of all the clubs. Six of the Oberliga remain unchanged in area, and each have one promotion slot. In the North region, the clubs protested at the amount of travelling for a reduced standard of football, and decided to break up the area into five area, Niedersachsen had both an East and West league, Schleswig-Holstein has its own league and the two Hanseatic city states, Hamburg and Bremen have one each. These was the same as the organisation at the next level down. Even with five leagues, there is only one promotion to be had. In the most populous areas of Westfalia and Nordrhein, the distances are not so large, and there are a number of big clubs. These decided not to make the leagues smaller, but to go the other way, and the two Oberliga merged to form the NRW-Liga. This league keeps both its promotion places.

Typically the leagues in Germany continue until the end of May, and some in the East may go on into June. So this holiday Monday is the penultimate round of fixtures in NRW-Liga. SC Wiedenbruck 2000 have already won promotion and the title, while Arminia Bielfeld’s second team lead Germania Windeck by one point for the second place, (there are no limitations on reserve teams getting promoted here). So my destination for the day is the Stadion am Schloss Strünkede, listed as the largest in the division, to see SC Westfalia 04 Herne at home to Windeck.

Only €5 to stand here – the programme was A4 size and quite thin and cost an extra 50 cents. I did not check how much extra it was to sit – the seating area had a separate entrance to the main terracing, and there was no movement between the sections. The stand provides the only covered accommodation available. The rest of the ground has been built up, with around 30 steps of concrete to provide a large bowl. When you enter the ground, you climb a slope that leads you to the top, behind one goal. From here, there is a path at the top of the terracing that would once have led all the way around the ground (with entrances to the top of the stand at each end). The only exception to the ability to make a complete circuit is a gap near where one starts, where there is a cutting to allow the players access to the field.

This ground has been built up from scratch – the pitch is at the same level as both the road one side, and the stream that runs behind the far terracing. You can no longer walk all the way along, as various pens have been fenced off. The few away fans appeared to be in the section between the entrance and the stand, (I saw no one wearing their colours, despite the importance of the game), and the end furthest from the entrance was completely closed and empty. Still, in such a big stadium, the 500 or so spectators rattle around – either sitting or standing in small groups towards the top of the terrace.

There are two reasons for keeping to the high ground. One is that the path is at the top, and you have to step down to you position, while the other one if that a nice 10 foot fence which means that the few is restricted for anyone standing in the front ten rows. Not that anyone was doing so.

Behind the goal, there are a few stalls selling beer and bratwurst, etc., and a souvenir stall where I bought a pen and a postcard. Most of the stalls appeared like hastily erected shacks, while the “VIP zone”, (the blue building overhanging the terrace behind the goal) has the appearance of a portacabin – as far as I could see, it was not in use. The white building you can just see behind the terrace if the dressing room and office block, where they happily handed me a copy of the team sheet on request.

Herne, playing in blue, lose sight of the ball as another attack is easily cleared.

As for the match, it will soon be forgotten. Herne kicked off, held the ball for best part of a minute – Windeck moved it upfield, crossed from the inside left position to Hayer who was left completely unmarked. He headed the ball into the net, and that was it – game over. Despite needing to win the game to have a chance at promotion, Windeck never committed players in an attacking position. They played in a 4-4-1-1 formation, and never allowed both wingers to move forward together. This meant they had limited options, and the defence had an easy day. Herne committed five players to defence – a flat back four with a midfielder playing just in front. If they were to make an excuse for not scoring, then I guess it would be “we are incompetent”. It was soon clear that the 1-0 away win was suitable to both teams, as the game slowed down and both employed time wasting tactics. The referee went along with this – no injury time in the first half, two minutes only in the second – despite several stoppages, and six substitutions. The biggest cheer of the day game twelve minutes from time, when Herne substituted their goalkeeper, Oliver Bautz. This action itself took longer than the total injury time allowed for the half. Bautz left the field to what can only be described as a sitting ovation, (no one got up to cheer him). I assume he is moving on next season, and this was his last home game for Westfalia.

A late free kick threatens the empty terrace more than the goal.

As Arminia Bielefeld II won 2-0 in their game, Windeck will start the final day of fixtures still one point behind in the promotion race

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A Benelux Weekend, Part 2.

25/05/2010 by leo.

Benelux means, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands – so having done games in the first two on Thursday and Friday, it had to be the Netherlands on Saturday. The three hours of driving from south of Liege to Rijssen passed without incident. Hidden in the woods on the Southern side of the town is the Sportpark de Koerbelt, home of Excelsior ‘31. I paid my €8 to enter (an “Amateur” game in the Netherlands costs more than a “Professional” one in Luxembourg), and picked up the small A5 programme (free). I then went in search of the team sheets. I found an office where several people were writing official team sheets. They were happy to talk to me, and offered me a coffee when they found I had come over from England – but then when I asked which sheet was for the first team, I discovered that this office was only for the other teams. Looking at the tables, I discovered that Excelsior put out 15 full men’s teams on any given Saturday, plus no less than 43 youth teams. According to those in the office, this makes them the biggest club in the Eastern Netherlands. A signpost outside the clubhouse points you towards the six pitches on site – but this cannot be enough, even with staggered kick off times through the day, they must use other fields as well.

The main pitch has a stand for around 400 people, taking up about half the length of the side, and a few steps of terracing to one side of this. The rest of the playing area has a flat pathway all around. The ground raises behind the goal and in front of the club house. The slope is grassed, except for a steps down the centre, with a few benches placed at the top of the slope, (of course, somewhere down one side there is a ramp for disabled supporters – I saw an electric wheelchair pass by at the lower level, and then pass me again at the top of the stairs). There were spectators sitting on the benches and on the grass. Despite a restricted view, around a hundred people appeared to watch the game without leaving the terrace in front of the club house. It seems to be the rule that you cannot take your beer with you down the steps. Well, it was a warm afternoon, so who is to blame those who stay close to their beer?

The Teams Enter the Pitch

As teams entered the pitch, not only did we have the banner wavers above, but also smoke flares and firecrackers. I noticed that all of these were set off from outside the playing area – everything is stage managed in the Netherlands, and the health and safety rules here make the UK seem dangerously lax. With the players not entering the pitch until the official kick off time, the match was five minutes late in starting. The match is part of the Zaterdag Landskampioenschap, (aka the Saturday Amateur Championships), and this is the last season it will be played. Currently the Hoofdklasse, the top level below the Netherlands League consists of three Saturday divisions (and three more on Sunday) with the champions playing off in a round robin, (two home games each) before the Amateur championship final, when the Saturday and Sunday champions finally meet to decide the overall champions. From next season, there will be Topklasse above the Hoofdklasse – providing a national championship for each day, and meaning only one tie is required to decide the overall champions. Barendrecht won group A, Excelsior won group C – but going into this game, the group B champions, IJsselmeervogels held the advantage with a win over Excelsior, and a draw at Barendrecht.

The first half was generally even, with both sides creating chances, but only one being taken – this was by the home forward, Niki Leferink after only 70 seconds of play.

Excelsior 31 are in the Red.

At half time, I managed to get back to the invites only area where I had picked up the teams (after being re-directed from downstairs). More free coffee, and cream cakes as well. The view from the top floor balcony was great, and I might have been tempted to stay if not for the flags.

View from the Top.

The second half changed complexion with 20 minutes to go, when Niki Leferenk was spotted diving in the penalty area. It was so blatant that there was no massive shout for a penalty, even from the crowd – and the referee agreed. But for Niki, the bad news was that he already had picked up a yellow card, so this was his second, and off he went. Still, it was his early goal that separated the teams, and continued to do so. The game moved slowly, as the home side were trying to waste time, and the referee never failed to accept an excuse to allow the trainers onto the pitch, not even demanding that the ‘injured’ players leave the pitch for a minute. With the advantage of a man more, Barendrecht were camped in the opposition territory, but everything they tried was blocked. It appeared to me that their game was too predictable, and that Excelsior were successfully predicting where the ball was going to go. To score a goal, a little pace and some randomness can help, and for all Barendrecht’s fine passing moves, they did not have this.

The only way that Barendrecht were going to score was with a move that was so perfect that Excelsior could not stop it, even knowing where the ball should go. It took until five minutes of injury time had passed to produce this. A free kick about 25 yards out, with the Excelsior wall surprisingly close to the ball, but a rocket of a shot from Alex van Dommelen, straight into the top corner of the net. The 1-1 draw was not really wanted by either side, as IJsselmeervogels remain in the group’s driving seat with a home game against Barendrecht on Tuesday. The slow match – late start, nine minutes of injury time (over two halves) and an 18 minute half time period was not to my liking either. It was already gone 4.30 when the game finished; not bad for a 2.30 start. I needed at least ten minutes more if I was to try and get to Gemert, where their Sunday Landskampioenschap game was taking place on the Saturday, at 6 O’clock. I gave it a good try, but it was more than ten minutes after kick off time when I finally reached Gemert. I did not stop, but went straight on in search of a hotel.

For Sunday, it was back to Belgium, and the play offs for a place in the League. I had considered returning to the Antwerp play offs, and seeing the second leg at Houtvenne – but instead chose Herk-de-Stad in Limburg. The simple reasoning was that of the teams at home on the day, this was the one furthest from Calais, and therefore the least likely for me to pick up on a day trip. Most likely, I shall drive a party over and drop everyone else in Herk, and then go off to one of the other grounds I need nearby!! Anyway, I reached Herk easily enough – it is a small town not far from Hasselt. I arrived about an hour before kick-off, and nothing was open in the town, but the clubhouse was already buzzing. Often the clubs are quiet with business picking up only in the last 15 minutes or so before the start, but with a coach load of visiting supporters, this one was busier. It was €7 to enter. No programme and the team sheet was a photo copy of the official handwritten list that has to be given to the referee. The clubhouse takes up more than half of one side, and with windows pitch side, it provides a good viewing area in itself. There is a little shelter erected in front of the clubhouse, but this is mainly to protect the steps up from the dressing room, while a few seats are for officials only. There are two areas of covered standing, a smallish one near the entrance, and a much longer structure diagonally opposite. Both of these have a step or two to increase capacity, whereas the rest of the pitch surround is a typical flat standing. I estimated the crowd around 400.

The fans were in good form, and none of the ‘organisation’ found in the Netherlands. The visitors had brought some smoke flares and firecrackers into the ground, while green and red hats worn by the home supporters (and one or two visitors) gave them the look that they had escaped from some St Patrick’s day parade.

Visiting fans, one wearing home colours on his hat.

Despite the preponderance of black and white shown by their fans, Bievre actually played in a light blue which I wondered how to describe – was it tending to turquoise, or was that an illusion caused by the lime green trims and numbers? Meanwhile a small number of home fans set up a band.

“The Band”

Royal Standard FC Bievre came into the match having finished fourth in the Namur province. They then beat Spy (away) and Yvoir to reach the interprovincial stage – Namur play offs are single games. Herk-de-Stad were second in the Limburg league, and followed this with wins over Koersel and RC Hades – in this case the matches were over two legs. The Interprovincial matches are all to be settled in a day.

Bievre made the brighter start, and seemed well in control for half and hour, although they were finding it difficult to find clear cut chances to force the home keeper to do any work. Herk-de-Stad had lined up a fairly flat five man defensive line, which meant they were outnumbered in midfield, even though one of other of the two forwards kept dropping back to help. Bievre were more standard as a 4-4-2. It was therefore against the run of play when Herk forward Bob Putzeys took a shot from the edge of the area and through the crowd on 31 minutes. The ball stayed low, and the keeper dived too late.

Herk had the better of the play, and looked to be on top early in the second half. I noted that they had pushed a player forward into the more standard 4-4-2 formation and this seemed to suit them better. Just after the hour mark, they had a ’set back’. Kim Claes, the left back brought down an opponent with a violent challenge that earned him a straight red card. Two minutes later, they withdrew one of the forwards in order to bring on a substitute and play on in 4-4-1.

David Beckers misdirects a header, shortly before being substituted.

To be honest, you would not have realised that Herk were a man down – for the next 15 minutes they continued to dominate the game, and were causing considerable problems to the Bievre defence. Putzeys and attacking midfielder Michiel Derwael causing the problems. With 15 minutes to play, it was clear that Bievre needed to change something to get back into the game – so they withdrew a defender and brought on the improbably tall Francois Toussant to create a three man attack. This caused instant confusion, and within two minutes the defence had messed up on marking duties leaving the earlier sub, Tanguy Daouet to level the scores.

Extra time beckoned. I noticed that despite taking a mid half drinks break in both halves, this game reached 90 minutes at least 7 minutes quicker than the previous day’s effort. I also noticed that while the previous day’s match had consisted of only precise passing, that may have delighted the perfectionist, but led to few chances – this match was a mixture of long and short balls – which meant the defenders had to be on their toes, and there was plenty of goal mouth incident. Naturally, once expected the side with a man advantage to be in command as player’s legs tired in extra time, and this appeared true for a while. When Toussant scored a minute before the extra time break, surely the writing was on the wall.

Panic in the Herk defence. Toussant (9) ends up pulling away to the post, where he scores what is almost a tap in to put Bievre 2-1 up after 104 minutes.

If the writing was on the wall, then I guess it was in French (the language spoken in Bievre) and was ignored by the Flemish speakers from Herk. The half time whistle of extra time came immediately after the restart – for the home teams equalising goal. It was the substitute left back, Jelle Verheyen who had pushed up the field for a corner that scored the goal. This rejuvenated the home team, but with only ten men they were never going to regain dominance. Half way through the second period they were awarded a free kick 25 yards out, but it bounced back off the wall, (perhaps the one with the French writing on it?). The loose ball fell the Kristof Pirlet – the player who had started in defence but moved to midfield when Herk went to 4-4-2/4-4-1. Still from around 25 yards he hit a thunderous shot into the roof of the goal. Bievre never gave up, and came close to levelling the scores again. Remembering that three substitutes had scored in Luxembourg, (and two had already scored for Bievre), I got hopeful when the visitors’ third sub was given the final three minutes, but in fact he hardly saw the ball.

The home celebrations at the end of the game were as if they had won promotion. Technically, they have to win another game, (away to Opwijk, the team attempting to avoid the drop) to do so, or win the play-off losers final, as I have heard of one merger that will cause a vacancy in next season’s league. Perhaps there is more I have not yet heard of, and this match gives Herk a place in the higher league?

Meanwhile, I note from the Kaelijne web site that they went on from the home win I reported earlier, to win 3-0 in Houtvenne and hence they are in the League next season.

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