August 12, 2007: Round 18 of the Formula Division:


EB/Streymur – HB Tórshavn 1-2 (1-2)
1-0 Sorin Anghel
1-1 Milan Kuljic
1-2 Páll Mohr Joensen

The first quarter of an hour was evenly split, although EB/Streymur just had a small edge and maybe looked slightly more aggressive in the early stages. And it was also EB/Streymur who took the lead when HB's defense didn't clear the ball well enough, and it ended at the feet of EB/Streymur's Hanus Eliasen who went towards the by-line and crossed the ball to a completely blank Sorin Anghel in front of goal who with a powerful header left Tróndur Vatnhamar in the HB-goal with no chance.

But it took HB only 10 minutes to balance the score.

Rókur av Fløtum Jespersen tried his luck from long range, but the ball bounced off an EB/Streymur leg and ended with HB's Milan Kuljic in the penalty area, and he was cool enough to first take a step to the right before he drilled the flat shot into the back of the net. A well taken goal by Kuljic, who overall played a good game for HB.

Kuljic was close again later when Rókur av Fløtum Jespersen on the right hand side won a "body-duel" with EB/Streymur's left back, and from the by-line he cut the ball back to Kuljic who from around the penalty-spot took a shot that clipped the outside of the upright.

HB played well at this stage and their combinations were flowing quite well. And around 10 minutes before the break, HB took the lead with a beauty-goal. Mortan úr Hørg had the ball on the right hand side, 15 meters into EB/Streymur's half . He passed the ball forward to Andrew av Fløtum who again made a cross to Rógvi Jacobsen around the penalty spot, and he headed the ball downwards to Páll Mohr Joensen who became completely clear on goal, and Páll easily slotted the ball behind EB/Streymur's goalkeeper, René Tórgarð. A goal of the finest quality.

But just few minutes later, EB/Streymur so nearly balanced the score, but the shot from long range bounced off the crossbar.

HB's tactics for the second half was to defend their lead and try to hit EB/Streymur on the break. This was risky tactics, and in the end, HB only escaped by the skin of their teeth as EB/Streymur created several clear-cut scoring opportunities.

EB/Streymur's Hungarian striker, Karoly Potemkin went close when he after a scramble in the penalty area had a clear sight of goal, but HB-keeper Tróndur Vatnhamar pulled a magnificent reflex save out of the hat to deny EB/Streymur the leveler.

Shortly after, Ronnie Samuelsen fired a long range shot at goal, but again the goalkeeper made an excellent flying one-handed save.

John Heri Dam was centimeters from the equalizer, when his (probable) cross clipped the crossbar, when Tróndur Vatnhamar was otherwise beaten.

HB then had the opportunity to decide the match in a counter-attack, when Rógvi Jacoben played Ólavur í Ólavstovu clear with only the keeper to beet, but the shot was straight at the keeper.

In the dying moments, EB/Streymur went close again when Potemkin had another gigantic opportunity to get the goal. After some ping pong in the penalty area, the ball fell to Potemkin who from 6 meters was clear, but he fired the shot right on the goalkeeper's legs. The striker just couldn't believe his own eyes when he saw the effort saved.

In addition to these opportunities, EB/Streymur had a whole host of crosses and corners that produced many tense moments in HB's penalty area, but Hans á Lag was very good in defense and won most of these aerial threats.

With today's loss, EB/Streymur probably have to wave goodbye to the title, as they now have dropped 9 points behind leaders NSÍ and 8 points behind B36 in 2nd place.

On Wednesday HB and EB/Streymur play again; this time in the cup final. We can probably expect a tactical match…

AB Argir - NSÍ Runavík 0-2 (0-0)
0-1 Hjalgrím Elttør
0-2 Bogi Løkin

For most of the match, there wasn't much difference between bottom team AB Argir and league leaders NSÍ, who were held until the clock was approaching the last quarter of an hour. But then NSÍ scored twice, which keeps them a point in front of chasers B36 Tórshavn. As VB/Sumba got a point against B71 Sandoy, AB drops below VB/Sumba. But it doesn't really matter who is 9 and who is 10, as neither of them can make up lost ground. 10 and 11 points are just too much.

Skála - B36 Tórshavn 0-2 (0-1)
0-1 Klæmint Matras
0-2 Amed Davy Sylla

B36's main strength is their super defense. Today they kept the sheet clean for the 5th time in succession. Next Sunday they play VB/Sumba at home, so that could easily become a 6th clean sheet. That must surely be a record in the top division (unofficial, though). And as long as Formula Division top scorer, Amed Davy Sylla keeps scoring the goals, B36 will be very hard to stop. Today Sylla scored B36's second goal, after Santos had set him up. Klæmint Matras had given B36 the lead around the half hour mark in the first half, when he caught Skála's goalkeeper Predrag Markovic off guard with a shot from 35-40 meters.

GÍ Gøta - KÍ Klaksvík 0-1 (0-1)
0-1 Denni Conteh

With a 1-0 victory over GÍ, KÍ are once and for all clear of the relegation zone. They lead VB/Sumba by 10 points, and that's such a healthy margin that KÍ need not worry anymore. KÍ's scored their goal today after only 4 minutes, thanks to KÍ's new Danish striker, Denni Conteh, who played his second match for KÍ.

B71 Sandoy - VB/Sumba 0-0
In a rather doll match, B71 Sandoy and VB/Sumba produced only the second scoreless draw of the season. B71 can feel safe as they are 11 points clear of the relegation threatened VB/Sumba. And as KÍ Klaksvík won their match against GÍ Gøta, VB/Sumba, are now 10 points adrift of the all-important 8th place. That takes 4 victories to win back and is just not going to happen (note that VB/Sumba have so far only won 2 out of 18 matches, and therefore they're not suddenly going to win 4 out of the remaining 9 matches). Therefore it is safe to say now, that AB Argir and VB/Sumba will be relegated. And that means at the same time that both VB/Sumba and AB Argir have nothing to play for, really, even though 9 matches are left of the season. And that is very unfortunate for the league. But this is all due to the stupid change of rules the soccer association made before last season, when it was decided that the two bottom teams would be directly relegated, as opposed to before the change, when the 9th placed team would face a play off with the 2nd placed team in the 1st division. If that was still the case, the relegation battle would probably go right to the wire. Now it doesn't matter if you become no. 9 or no. 10. And as the gap to the important 8th place is too big to make up, there's nothing for AB and VB/Sumba to play for!