retired_jonkaytif

Its that time of year again when the competitive games end and the friendlies begin. Given our not so brilliant start to the Group, this could be excellent timing for us as we try and regroup and work out where things have gone wrong so far. Novemeber presented a friendly double-header against Denmark at home, and then the (relatively) short trip to Iceland. Oli Johannsen was removed, as was Mikkelsen, and this was followed up with an injury to Augustinussen. Sadly, at the grand old age of 34, and with a pace of 1, Jonsson was also not getting a recall.

The squad was as follows:

GK: Meinhardt Joensen, Gunnar Nielsen, Pol Naess Joensen
D: Sigfriour Abrahamsen, Atli Danielsen, Poul Ennigaro, Hans Frooi Hansen, Jens Kristian Hansen, Jon Roi Jacobsen, Simun Joensen, Kristian Olsen
M: Frooi Benjaminsen, Hallur Danielsen, Rogvi Jacobsen, Hans Jorgen Djurhuus, Claus Jorgensen, Aki Mork, Vagnur Mohr Mortensen, Petur Oli Samuelson, Mikkjal Thomassen.
F: Jakup a Borg, Ransin N Djurhuus, Hjalgrim Elttor, Andrew av Flotum, Anfinn Hansen, Barour Mortansson.

The media story on this occasion surrounded the place of Dam in the squad. Having earlier refused a call up as a replacement in the match against Belarus, he was not selected for this game. At the time I would not comment to the media about the dispute, preferring to focus only on the game. Now having a chance to reflect, I suspect I wont call him up again until he apologises. The media also felt the pressure was off in this game, with Olsen warning Denmark about their complacency.

Denmark tops their Euro 2008 qualifying Group 8 which also contains Slovenia, Turkey, Slovakia and Malta.

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Faroe Islands v Denmark
Saturday 11 November 2006
Torshavn

Att: 9975
Ref: Pierluigi Collina

Denmark lined up in this game with 4 defenders, 2 midfielders sitting on the halfway line, and a 4 pronged attack led by Lovenkrands!! Typically, things started abysmally and after just 21 seconds the referee awarded Denmark a penalty (im starting to get slightly suspicious about the number of times teams score against me in the opening 60 seconds!!) which was duly dispatched by Jensen. Some supporters were still barely taking their seats and we were already 1-0 down. The ship was steadied briefly, but after 27 minutes Lovenkrands doubled the Danes' lead and on the stroke of half time Poulsen capitalised on yet another defensive mix up. That more or less finished us off, with little in the 2nd half of any interest save other than for a much better 45minutes by my defence. Of greater concern is the complete lack of fire power up front.

Things are looking pretty bad at the moment. I havent scored a goal in a year and there are no signs of any real improvement or flashes of inspiration from the team that did so well in the world cup qualifying.

Faroe Islands 0 Denmark 3

XI: Nielsen; Joensen, Ennigaro, H Hansen, Abrahamsen; Mork (Mortansson 45), av Flotum, Jacobsen (Mortensen 68), H Danielsen; a Borg (Djurhuus 45), Elttor (Jorgensen 68).

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Iceland v Faroe Islands
Wednesday 15 November
Reykjavik

Ref: Franz-Xaver Wack
Att: 9190

A Danielsen had to leave the side through injury and was replaced by Hans a Lag. Simiarly both Thomassen and Benjaminsen didnt travel to Iceland, with only Augustinussen begin called up in their place.

Iceland sit 4th in Group 3. Spain, Russia and SAN MARINO above them. Finland and Kazakhstan prop up the group. Naively, I thought we might actually be able to turn in a good performance.

YET AGAIN, in under a minute the opposition are ahead, this time Gudjohnsen doing the damage on the counter attack after we struck the Iceland cross bar and then committed defensive suicide (it was certainly an entertaining opening minute). For them we did start to compete, but were dealt a body blow in 44 minutes when Gunnarson managed to head home a cross from the wing. The second half only got worse as the performance continued to decline. Gunnarsson scored in 55 minutes before Ennigaro capped off a dismal display with an own goal 12 mins from the end.

This game was absolutely gutting. Not only is the team going backwards in terms of performance, but the was the whole calendar year of 2006 without a goal. Thoroughly disappointing, and quite hard to take.

Iceland 4 Faroe Islands 0

XI: Nielsen; Mortensen (Joensen 64), Ennigaro, H Hansen, Abrahamsen; Mork, av Flotum (A Hansen 77), Jacobsen, Mortansson (Jorgensen 64); a Borg, Djurhuus (Elttor 77)

retired_jgirl87

A big :thup: for all your efforts.

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In August 2006 I reached my highest ranking of 106th, almost achieving my goal of breaking into top 100. Nov 2006, now at 123rd.

retired_complexdreams

What leagues do you have to run to get all the tiny nations?

retired_marcias

Doesn't matter using FM, you just need to select to include all players from the given country.

With CM you need to include a file which tells the game to retain players from the given nation.

retired_jonkaytif

When you are loading up a new game, there is an option to include all players from a specific country. In this case, I chose to include all players from the Faroe Islands (obviously).

Id recommend trying to manage a smaller nation. Can be a bit frustrating at times, but good fun nonetheless. Currently been a bit sidetracked by FM2006, but will hopefully soon return to my FM05 Faroes game and give it another few seasons before I gracefully retire.

retired_kalin-kolev

brilliant work.

have always considered this but have thought that the delays between the games and then not qualifying would be a bit of a drag.

Might try it now though with a Liechtenstein maybe

retired_perilousfaith

Always nice to read stories about those tiny nations finally making it