Canadians abroad: September 8-14, 2006

[CDN4EVR]

Loyola, Andrew was sent an original e-mail asking for his availability for the camp. this went out to 25-30 players but in the end, although his club gave their blessing, more of a veteran squad was selected for the Montreal game. Andrew has always, and always will be ready to represent his country and although disapointed with not being invited knows full well how things work. Being a central defender and having to fight for a spot on the MNT is not an easy task at the age of 20 but is hopefull to prove himself in the near future. He hasn't heard anything yet in terms of the roster for the away Jamaica game and always hopes to be included. Luckally, Andrew is the only International player on his team so they do allow him to attend any national event in exchange for the right to brag about it in Most. Should I hear anything I will let the Voyageur know...I do have a 1 week vacation booked in Jamaica from the 7th of october to the 15th, so I have my fingers crossed as well. Cheers

[CDN4EVR]

Loyola, Andrew was sent an original e-mail asking for his availability for the camp. this went out to 25-30 players but in the end, although his club gave their blessing, more of a veteran squad was selected for the Montreal game. Andrew has always, and always will be ready to represent his country and although disapointed with not being invited knows full well how things work. Being a central defender and having to fight for a spot on the MNT is not an easy task at the age of 20 but is hopefull to prove himself in the near future. He hasn't heard anything yet in terms of the roster for the away Jamaica game and always hopes to be included. Luckally, Andrew is the only International player on his team so they do allow him to attend any national event in exchange for the right to brag about it in Most. Should I hear anything I will let the Voyageur know...I do have a 1 week vacation booked in Jamaica from the 7th of october to the 15th, so I have my fingers crossed as well. Cheers

[loyola]

Thanks CDN4EVR. Interesting to hear that 25-30 players were contacted, it pretty much means that we'll see new faces in our next games if Hart follows what he said (looking at a lot of players).

Good luck to Andrew.

[loyola]

Thanks CDN4EVR. Interesting to hear that 25-30 players were contacted, it pretty much means that we'll see new faces in our next games if Hart follows what he said (looking at a lot of players).

Good luck to Andrew.

[Guest Can. in UK]

Simeon Jackson has his second consecutive hat-trick tonight for Rushden & Diamonds (they lead Tamworth 4-1).

Impressive at any level! Congrats to him.

Gavin McCallum played for Tamworth. According to the BBC, he's had a lively match as well.

[Guest Can. in UK]

quote:Originally posted by Sigma

Hume plays 90 minutes as Leicester loss 1-0 at home to Hull. Awful, awful, awful...

Late in the game Rob Kelly brought on O'Grady as a striker and pushed Hume back to right wing, which makes little sense. Why not have three up front to try to grab the tying goal?

Leicester are rubbish.

It's crazy... there's definite talent at Leicester, they just can't get it together.

Hume seems like one of those players that is either really hot or really cold. Let's hope he starts bagging some goals soon.

[George]

Messiniakos lost 1-0 to Asteras Tripolis this weekend. Kappos did not play...nor was he on the bench. I wonder if something is up...?

- - -

I was able to watch the Olympiakos vs Panionios FC match. The highlights I provided did not do Tam justice. He had a pretty good game particularly in the second half. He was pushing up a lot in the 2nd half, and had a fantastic opportunity to score in the 75th min but he was denied. The ball has crossed to him on a corner on the far side of the field and he had a great volley, but the Olympiakos keeper managed to get a piece of it. The announcers were quite impressed that he was able to get such a decent shot off.

[rep]

Toronto native Michael Luk a freshman for St. John's University in NYC. Division 1 NCAA will play in a televised match on FOX SPORTS WORLD CANADA on Thursday Sept 14th @ 8:00pm EST.

St. John's is currently ranked 14th nationally and 2nd in the Big East.

[DubaiSupporter]

Will Johnson subbed on for the last 20 minutes in Jong Heerenveen’s 1-0 loss to Jong Ajax in Amsterdam.

I also heard that Graham Ramalho with Jong Groningen is out indefinitely with a thigh injury from a pre-season game. Apparently he also got an eye injury in the following game after he was called up for the senior team last season and was out for the remaining 2 games of the season.

[shaku_bert]

is anyone aware of online coverage of the FCK match today where Atiba will be featuring?

[BrennanFan]

according to UEFA.com, Hutch is playing left mid in a 4-4-1-1 setup for FCK. 0-0 at the 41'st minute.

[jonovision]

Hutchinson goes 90, has an attempt at goal in a 0-0 draw with Benfica.

[mjoni]

Not the most exciting game for Atiba in FCK's first Champion's League match, but they got a point from Benfica. The only real chance was Jorge in the 75th minute off the post. Atiba played the first half on the left wing, but never really got involved. In the second he was moved up to forward and was more involved, but, like I said, not much happened in this game. He had one half-decent chance when he got by his defender, but the shot was weak and right into Quin's hands. The most exciting moment for Atiba was probably trading jersies with Petit. But Atiba is a great player and did well when he had the ball, but unfortunately FCK were missing Marcus Allbäck and then Jesper Grønkjær leaving after 20 minutes with a groin injury, so Atiba was out of position all night. On the other hand, Hjalte Nørregård, Atiba's offensive midfield competitor, was very unimpressive. Good luck to Atiba with away games in Glasgow and Manchester coming up.

[Winnipeg Fury]

Copenhagen can win at Celtic and Benfica says Solbakken

By Martin Burlund and Gelu Sulugiuc

COPENHAGEN, Sept. 13 (Reuters) - FC Copenhagen can beat both Celtic and Benfica at their own stadiums, coach Stale Solbakken said after his side drew 0-0 with the Portuguese team on their debut in the Champions League group stage on Wednesday.

Copenhagen qualified for the group phase by surprisingly beating Ajax 2-0 in Amsterdam in the second leg of the third qualifying round to knock-out the former European champions 2-1 on aggregate.

Now Solbakken believes his men can do the same in their away games against Celtic and Benfica, although he draws the line at taking any points at Old Trafford where Manchester United beat Celtic 3-2 in their opening match on Wednesday.

"We can win at Benfica and we can at Celtic," Solbakken said after the match, although he admitted that needed to play better.

"It's important for us now to carry on from this and to improve on our counter-attack play. That will be very important in those games," he said.

But Benfica coach Fernando Santos was not as impressed with Copenhagen and he refuted the idea that the Danish champions could win in Portugal.

"When we are at home it won't be as difficult as it was here, and I am very confident that we will win in Lisbon," he said at the press conference.

FC Copenhagen captain Tobias Lindroth said that he was happy with the point and that his team's performance showed it belonged among Europe's elite.

"The group is still open," he told reporters. "The favorites are Man United, but after that I think it's open.

"We showed today that defensively we played really well and if we can create a couple of chances as well we can get a good result against Celtic."

Copenhagen's next two games are both away, with them playing at Celtic on Sept. 26 and Manchester United on October 17.

After a home game against United on November 1, they travel to Benfica on November 21.

Benfica face Manchester United at home in their next match on Sept.26.

[masster]

I watched Atiba today. It cost me $10 at a Portugese club but it was nice to see a Canadian in a major tournament. Wasn't worth the $10 though, the game was a real snoozer. Anyways, I'm sure TSN will have one of his games against Man U.

As someone else mentioned, he started at outside left midfield in a 4-4-1-1. In the first half he was invisible. Even for someone that was watching the game for the sole purpose of analyzing him, he was hard to find. He never made any runs with the ball, a lot of one touch. He just wasn't involved.

Everything changed in the second half. He was the farthest Copenhagen player up the pitch and seemed to be playing a striker role. I had never seen that from him before. Then when Pimpong was brought into the game, he moved into a supporting role where he had his best minutes. He made a couple of runs only to be disposessed, helped his team maintain possesion which they did very well in the final 10 minutes or so.

Its really hard to rate his performance since he was everywhere yet nowhere all at the same time. I wonder what grade the Danish papers will give him.

Given his versatility and calmness I can understand why Yallop put him at the back to plug that hole. With a midfield of Dero, JDG, Bernier and Serioux (through in Simpson, Brennan and Grande) I would almost be tempted to do that again. Is it really an upgrade if we play him in the middle and then have to start Reda?

[Ceres]

quote:Originally posted by masster

I watched Atiba today. It cost me $10 at a Portugese club but it was nice to see a Canadian in a major tournament. Wasn't worth the $10 though, the game was a real snoozer. Anyways, I'm sure TSN will have one of his games against Man U.

As someone else mentioned, he started at outside left midfield in a 4-4-1-1. In the first half he was invisible. Even for someone that was watching the game for the sole purpose of analyzing him, he was hard to find. He never made any runs with the ball, a lot of one touch. He just wasn't involved.

Everything changed in the second half. He was the farthest Copenhagen player up the pitch and seemed to be playing a striker role. I had never seen that from him before. Then when Pimpong was brought into the game, he moved into a supporting role where he had his best minutes. He made a couple of runs only to be disposessed, helped his team maintain possesion which they did very well in the final 10 minutes or so.

Its really hard to rate his performance since he was everywhere yet nowhere all at the same time. I wonder what grade the Danish papers will give him.

All the Danish news media got Atiba to be one of the 2-3 best FCK players in this match and some even make him MOM.

As for the match itself, then I can tell you that the Danish newsmedia are disappointed and attacking FCK for not trying to go for a win against a rather poorly looking opponent. Personally I see this result as being quite expected between two teams that for different reasons are not quite at their best at the moment. The FCK attack very much suffered from Allbäck being out and Grønkjaer getting injured in the first half and this forced the FCK manager to make some unusual tactical changes, like e.g. using Atiba as a forward.

So I think it's not quite fair to only judge the two teams by the their rather poorly looking attack in this match. You should not forget that the intire FCK defense and defensive midfield (except from Bergdølmo) are Danish/Swedish/Norwegian regular strarters in the Euro-08 qualification. So it's only natural for the FCK coach to put his faith in them when he lack the needed striking force, so we got to see two teams that for different reasons very much liked to stand solid in defense and then counterattack their opponent to death, leading to a rather boring 0-0 match. It perhaps is also not by chance that FCK always seem to get better results in away games in the Europa cups.

.

[Winnipeg Fury]

Copenhagen wait on Gronkjaer after Champions League debut

By Gelu Sulugiuc

COPENHAGEN, Sept 14 (Reuters) - FC Copenhagen may have paid a heavy price for their first point in the Champions League group stages with playmaker Jesper Gronkjaer suffering a suspected recurrence of a groin injury.

"It doesn't look good," captain Tobias Linderoth told Reuters after Wednesday's 0-0 draw with Benfica. "We'll have to wait and see what's happened with him."

ADVERTISEMENTGronkjaer fell to the ground clutching his groin after shooting from the edge of the box late in the first half of the group F match.

He tried to keep on playing, but his limping grew increasingly pronounced and had to be substituted before the break.

After that, Copenhagen managed only harmless long-range shots that sailed high or wide of Quim's goal.

While the club waited for news on Thursday, they can take heart in the prospect of Swedish international Marcus Allback returning from suspension for the next match on Sept. 26 at Celtic.

The Danish champions dominated the match, earning praise from local newspapers who last month hailed a major breakthrough when Copenhagen beat Ajax 2-0 in Amsterdam to reach the Champions League group stages for the first time 3-2 on aggregate.

"Good Enough for Europe" declared BT tabloid in a front page headline, although rival Ekstra Bladet saw a need for more strength in attack.

"Power was in short supply. The absence of Marcus Allback was as feared not just a handicap, but a mega-handicap," it said. Benfica managed only once to threaten seriously Copenhagen's tight defence, with midfielder Paulo Jorge hitting the post in the second half.

But despite pressuring Benfica consistently, the Danes wasted the few chances they created inside the box with poor marksmanship.

"We didn't have the opportunity to win," said Linderoth. "Defensively we played well, but Benfica were very difficult to break down."

(Additional reporting by Martin Burlund)

[Guest Ed]

Lots of Canucks in UEFA Cup action today:

Sandro Grande goes 90 for Molde as they draw some minnow Scottish club known as Rangers 0-0 in Norway.

Michael Klukowski and Club Brugges win 1-0 over hosts SCP Ruzomberok in Slovakia, with the young defender picking up a yellow card early in the 2nd half.

Jonathan de Guzman went 90 minutes and picked up a yellow card late as Feyenoord came back from a 2-0 deficit to draw 2-2 with Lokomotiv Sofia in Bulgaria.

Rob Friend has started for SC Heerenveen as they have a late game in Portugal with Vitoria Setubal, presently 0-0 at the half.

[SCF08]

Rob Friend's Heerenveen just took the lead. Friend was fouled outside the box while trying to head the ball and Afonso Alves slammed the ball in the net from the resulting free-kick.

Vitoria Setubal - Heerenveen 0-1

Unbelievable...

Friend got fouled outside the box again with a horrible challenge on the knee and from the resulting free-kick Afonso Alves hit a rocket from 25 metres again and it went in via the cross-bar...Even better than the first one...

Vitoria Setubal - Heerenveen 0-2

Rob Friend has just been substituted in the 80th minute. He was strong holding up play and worked his socks off. He played very well...

Heerenveen are cruising so Rob Friend will almost certainly play in the group stages.

Jonathan de Guzman didnt play too well today for Feyenoord but was still one of the better players. My beloved Feyenoord was horrible today and we were lucky to get a result in Sofia. De Guzman played left-central midfielder in a diamond formation and couldn't quite adapt to that new role...

Sunday awaits the big clash Psv-Feyenoord for Jono...

[Massive Attack]

Just a few more notes on the UEFA Cup:

Paul Stalteri didn't get off the bench in Tottenham's 1-0 away win over Slavia Prague.

Dave Simpson was not in the line up for Sparta Prague's 2-0 away win over Hearts. Although, I don't know if Dave's been integrated into the team yet, seeing as how late he joined them.

[Cheeta]

Great news regarding Hutch, as bizarre as it reads, and let's face it, I know bizarre. But for all Celtic's woes, I'll be surprised if FCK can take a point out of Celtic Park never mind a win. All the same, a very good day for Copenhagen. They're right on schedule.

I HAVE to see Rob Friend at Heerenveen. After the Jamaica match my imagination has been running riot.

Great to read Grande getting to play the full fixture.

Even better, glad that Dutch has taken up the de Guzman booking tradition.

Hi, Ed.

[Kurosawa1555362267]

On september 13 Massesse tied Prato 0-0 in a Coppa Italia match. Rocco Placentino played the last 10 minutes of the game.