retired_marcias

Switzerland vs Faroe Islands

from St. Jakobspark, Basel

Wednesday September 15th 2010

Team line-ups:

Faroe Islands:
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Morten PetersenVagnur Mohr Mortensen Atli Gregerson Ólavur Gregerson John Jacobsen Mortan Hansen Jan Djurhuus Andrew av Fløtum | |Jón Rói Jacobsen | Kári Justinussen | | | | \ / | | | | | | | \ / Jákup á Borg \ / Alexandre Hohl / \ / \ / \ | | | | | | | | |Julien Cardinale Raphael Wicky Remo Meyer Johann Vogel Ricardo Cabanas Alain Rochat Pascal Egli Murat Yakin Phillipe Senderos Diego Benaglio</pre>
Switzerland

Author's note: teams written the wrong way round because I couldn't be bothered switching a near identical Faroese team to the away side :p

[This message was edited by Raptor on 08 March 2004 at 18:58.]

retired_marcias

FT: Switzerland 1-0 Faroe Islands
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Vonlanthen 87</pre>

In a heart-breaking finale for a brave Faroese team in Basel, out of favour PSV Eindhoven striker Johan Vonlanthen, on as a substitute, grabbed a late winner to give Switzerland all 3 points in this Euro 2012 qualifier. The statistics of the match will show that the Swiss had 17 shots on goal to the Faroes' 2, but that doesn't tell the whole story. Only 6 of Switzerland's shots were on target and few troubled the Faroese at all who defended excellently for most of the match before allowing Vonlanthen in. The Faroe Islands' main problem was again their creation of chances when attacking. On numerouos occasions they found themselves in promising positions, but their wingers dwelled too long on the ball to be dispossessed before crossing or just ran the ball out of play.

With the score still 0-0 well into the second half, the Faroese began to attack more and more which was greatly to their credit. Had they carried on defensively perhaps they would have got the 0-0 they deserved, but they created numerous openings, only to find a Swiss defender in the way to clear the ball or tackle before the Faroese strikers could get a shot in. In the dying minutes, before Vonlanthen scored, Jón Rói Jacobsen had a glorious opportunity to give the Faroes the lead as the ball broke to him 10 yards out, leaving him one on one with the goalkeeper, but the winger/striker slid the ball agonisingly wide. The Faroes still had time to create a couple more chances, but again the Swiss defenders closed in before the Faroese could pull the trigger.

Manager Adam Eckersley looked distraught after his side's late loss of what would have been a well-earned point, but can take solace from the fact that his team defended extremely well and did create chances. The problems were mainly in the crossing and shooting department with the Faroese players needing just too long on the ball to measure their crosses and shots which the Swiss didn't allow them. With a home match against Northern Ireland next month before a long break, Eckersley will be hoping he can alter things around to create more chances in what must be the Faroese' best chance of a win or at least a draw.

Raptor

I like this so far, always interesting to see an international story about a minor team. We've had lots of rags-to-riches stories at club level, but eventual glory for the dwarfs of international football are very, very rare indeed.

Keep it up :thup:

retired_marcias

Thanks

It's the most exciting challenge I've ever had in CM - at club level I always get that feeling that I'll succeed eventually, but with this challenge I have no idea at all how I'll do!

retired_marcias

Thursday 7th October 2010

Time seems to be whizzing by for me at the moment and I'd completely forgotten my my next International match was in just 9 days when I got an e-mail from FIFA asking me to confirm my squad. Having taken a long time looking at the stats and reports on all the players available to me for my last squad however, I'll be keeping mostly the same players. Jákup á Borg and Birgir Olsen are both out for a month though giving me a headache upfront. Jákup has played as a lone striker from the start of my previous 2 games with Birgir coming on as a sub later in the game so with me wanting to switch to 2 upfront for the visit of Northern Ireland to Tórshavn, I have a few headaches upfront. The Faroe Islands are not over endowed with top class strikers so to lose 2 of my best is a serious problem. One of the Faroe Islands' top 3 players, Rógvi Jacobsen, is still out injured also so hasn't featured for me at all so far.

In the end, I decided to call up 3 new strikers, leaving Teitur Joensen(MC) out from my last squad to make room for Christian Holst who has 31 caps to his name and 4 goals, Bárður Mortansson who, at 31, has yet to play for his country and Teitur Rasmussen, a 26 year old forward with 1 goal from 6 caps. I decided to try out three more strikers and drop a midfield player to give me more attacking options for a match where I want to really take the game to our opponents, unlike our more cautious approach against Austria and Switzerland. The bookies have us at 13-2 as the home side with Northern Ireland 2-5 favourites so nothing is expected of us and if we lose no-one will be surprised so there is nothing to be lost in really giving it a go.

With National squad selection sorted out I now have to turn my attention to this Saturday's Ross County vs Falkirk top of the SPL clash before heading out to the Faroes to prepare for our big game. It's been hectic so far, but with a lot of the spadework done in selecting my first squad when I had many a long night burning the midnight oil reading through player reports and the like, national squad selection is a lot easier now. Archie has said he is more than happy for me to send our club scouts, who have been kicking their heels of late with us not looking to sign any players for Ross County, to check out various fringe Faroese players to consider for future squads so 2 of our scouts are currently out having fun and taking notes on players at Faroese league matches for us!

retired_marcias

Faroe Islands vs Northern Ireland

from Tórsvøllur, Tórshavn

Referee: Gilles Veissière

Saturday October 16th 2010

Team line-ups:

Faroe Islands:
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Morten PetersenVagnur Mohr Mortensen Atli Gregerson Ólavur Gregerson Jan Poulsen Jón Rói Jacobsen Janus Mikkelson \ \ Jan Djurhuus \ Kári Justinussen | \ | | _| | | | | | | | \ / Bárður Mortansson Andrew av Flotum \ /</pre>
Northern Ireland:
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> &lt;------------Paul McVeigh David Healy----------&gt; / \ Andrew Johnston Philip Mulryne Darren Gibson / \ | | | | | | Stephen McClean Damien Johnson &lt;-------George McCartney Gary McCourt Aaron Hughes-------&gt; Roy Carroll</pre>

retired_marcias

Faroe Islands 2-1 Northern Ireland
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">av Flotum 71 McVeigh 36Rasmussen 82</pre>
The Faroe Islands rode their luck in Thorshavn to record an excellent and morale boosting victory in this Euro 2012 Group 3 qualifying match. The Faroese passing was, if anything, less assured and accurate than in their matches against Austria and Switzerland, but this time they put away enough of the few chances they created to secure the victory. The win was looking very unlikely however, when on 36 minutes Paul McVeigh was fed by Stephen McClean to slot home neatly from a tight angle. The Faroe Islands were creating very few chances themselves, just one in the first half, but were at least defending solidly again with McVeigh's goal their only major problem.

With just 20 minutes left, manager Adam Eckersley was urging his players forward, having thrown on Hojgaard, Rasmussen and Olsen as his team tried to salvage something from this game. On 71 minutes, Suni Olsen fed a superb pass through for Andrew av Fløtum to sidestep the Northern Irish goalkeeper for the Faroe Islands' first goal of the qualifying campaign. Eckersley wasn't satisfied with a single point however and despite his push for 3 points in Switzerland having unravelled he again shouted at his players to keep attacking and taking chances and on 82 minutes the risk paid dividends as Hojgaard crossed for substitute Teitur Rasmussen to head home the winner for his 2nd goal in 7 caps.

Manager Adam Eckersley was delighted with the result, commenting that luck is needed in these type of matches and that his team hadn't played as well as they had in Switzerland, but that their performances across the 3 matches so far was worthy of the 3 points they now have in the group. In the other match in Group 3, Chelsea's Miroslav Klose scored an 89th minute winner for Germany as they squeezed past Switzerland 1-0 with Michael Ballack seemingly having blown Germany's chances with a missed penalty on 85. The Euro 2012 qualifying tournament now takes a long winter break with the next match for the Faroe Islands being a very difficult away tie in Germany on 6th April 2011. 4 days earlier, Northern Ireland host Germany while Switzerland face Austria

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">European Football Championship 2012 Qualification| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Germany | | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | +2 | 6 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Switzerland | | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Austria | | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 3 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Faroe Islands | | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | -2 | 3 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | N.Ireland | | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -1 | 1 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Saturday 11th September 2010 Faroe Islands 0 : 2 Austria N.Ireland 1 : 1 Switzerland Wednesday 15th September 2010 Switzerland 1 : 0 Faroe Islands Austria 0 : 1 Germany Saturday 16th October 2010 Germany 1 : 0 Switzerland Faroe Islands 2 : 1 N.Ireland </pre>

retired_amyslack

Go Faroes - great result glamdring :thup:

retired_tonytranbg79

yeah start of things to come I hope

retired_marcias

Thanks. I suspect my "run" will come to an end a 1 consecutive win though