August 22 & 23, 2009: Round 21 of the Vodafone Division:

August 22

Víkingur - 07 Vestur 2-3 (0-2)
0-1 Tamba Yarjah
0-2 Tamba Yarjah
0-3 Jón Nielsen
1-3 Andreas Lava Olsen
2-3 Andreas Lava Olsen

Rock-bottom 07 Vestur are still breathing after a 3-2 win away to Víkingur this evening. This was 07 Vestur´s first away win this season.

Sierra Leonean Tamba Yarjah proved his worth when he pulled 07 Vestur in front just a couple of minutes after kick off and doubled the lead just before the break.

When Jón Nielsen netted within 10 minutes of the restart from a corner to make it 3-0 the points looked safe for 07 Vestur, but with two goals from Andreas Lava Olsen in quick succession midway through the second half, Víkingur were back in the match, but 07 Vestur managed to hang on to the points however.

But 07 Vestur’s main problem is that they still have two teams above them in the table. They will desperately be hoping for a draw between B36 Tórshavn and KÍ Klaksvík on Sunday. If that becomes the result, then 07 Vestur will only be 3 and 4 points adrift of KÍ and B36 in 9th and 8th place, respectively.

07 Vestur’s next match is a massive game at home against B36 on 30 August. Suddenly there is actual hope for 07 Vestur…

23 August

NSÍ Runavík - HB Tórshavn 0-2 (0-1)
0-1 Milan Kuljic
0-2 Hans á Lag
As this match was scheduled to be played at the stupid and unprecedented time of 13:00 local time, there will be no match report from this match (we'll post the result though). Let's just call it a boycott! (B36 will get the money instead).

But now HB have published on their website that next Sunday’s match between HB and Víkingur will also be played at 13:00 local time. It’s disrespectful towards fans - of both clubs. Clubs should not forget who it is who pay their money. Without fans, no money!

Update/correction:
It turns out that it was just a typo on HB’s website that next Sunday’s match would be played at 13:00. They have now corrected the time to be at 15:00. And of course HB wouldn’t do such a stunt. HB are good people :-)

EB/Streymur – B68 Toftir 4-0 (3-0)
1-0 Arnbjørn Hansen
2-0 Arnbjørn Hansen
3-0 Hans Pauli Samuelsen
4-0 Sorin Anghel

EB/Streymur won their 3rd match in succession and all of them with clean sheets to climb to second spot in the table and with a game in hand. B68 are heading in different direction where they now have dropped to 5th, having been in second place a few matches ago. But only 1 point separate 2nd from 5th, however.

Arnbjørn Hansen opened the scoring for EB/Streymur after only a couple of minutes and doubled the lead halfway through the half before Hans Pauli Samuelsen increased to 3-0 with at fine long range effort just before the half time whistle. Sorin Anghel made it 4-0 around 5 minutes after the break.

B68 had several chances to score, but all were missed. They were alone with the goalkeeper as well as the woodwork was hit twice.

B36 Tórshavn – KÍ Klaksvík 3-0 (2-0)
1-0 Jákup á Borg
2-0 Róaldur Jacobsen
3-0 Bergur Midjord

The first 5-10 minutes of the match produced some end to end stuff, but without yielding any scoring opportunities however. The tempo slowed down again and B36 eventually got the upper hand.

A lot of away fans had come to support KÍ and with several drums between them they were making plenty of noise.

But it was when the noise-level was at its highest that B36 took the lead on 18 minutes by Jákup á Borg, the epitome of B36, even if á Borg spent four and a half years with neighbours and rivals HB Tórshavn from 2004 to 2008. From 20 metres, á Borg struck an unstoppable bullet which goalkeeper Jákup á Borg could only watch go in just inside the far post.

The rest of the half produced few scoring opportunities and B36 seemed to be 100% in control. Todi Jónson the lone striker up front for KÍ got nothing to work with and Hjalgrím Elttør, the creator on the left wing saw little of the ball.

A few minutes into the second half, B36 were very close to 2-0 when defender Klæmint Matras got a free header from a corner, but the chance was wasted.

KÍ weren’t able to produce anything and just after the hour mark, B36 doubled their lead with a free kick from Róldur Jacobsen that took a wicked deflection off the wall to deceive Mikkelsen who again could only watch the ball go in.

Midway through the half KÍ for once created one very good move where Símun Joensen got to the byline and made a fine cross to Todi Jónsson who just failed to connect with the head however.

Apart from these – a couple of minutes - KÍ failed to put any pressure on KÍ until the last 5 minutes of the game where they finally managed to maintain some pressure on the B36 goal, and Todi Jónsson also came extremely close to reducing the deficit, but the ball bounced off the post. A goal could have set up a grandstand finale as the referee added 4 minutes to the clock, but instead it was B36 who made it 3-0 in stoppage time.

Brima Koroma who had come on towards the end did well to keep the ball on the pitch along the touchline as he used his speed and technique to get in front of his marker before he played across to Jákup á Borg in the penalty area. Á Borg then made the short pass to an even clearer Bergur Midjord who easily tapped in.

From this match it is very difficult to see how KÍ should be able to overtake B36 who pulled 4 points ahead, because today’s KÍ team just lacked too many qualities.

But it’s also beyond understanding how this B36 team can have come so close to relegation as they have with today’s match in mind as they for the most played really well. But then again, it was a bottom team they were playing against…

After Sigfríður Clementsen was sacked at EB/Streymur a few weeks ago, B36 added Clementsen as an assistant coach to coach Mikkjal Thomasen, and maybe it was Clementsen’s finger marks we saw today and on Wednesday when B36 drew with ÍF Fuglafjøður, as Clementsen has moved some of the players to different positions on the pitch.

But B36 are not home and dry yet, though, because next Sunday they visit bottom team 07 Vestur who have improved a lot over the last few weeks and can close the gap to only 3 points if they win.

AB Argir – ÍF Fuglafjørður 4-2 (1-1)
1-0 Nikolai Lindholm Eriksen
1-1 Nenad Saric
2-1 Nikolai Lindholm Eriksen
3-1 Morten Overgaard
4-1 Stig-Roar Søbstad / Janus Joensen
4-2 Balazs Sinko (pen)

AB took the lead with a flying header from Nikolai L. Eriksen after a fine cross from Rasmus Nielsen just after the first quarter of an hour, but Nenad Saric equalized for ÍF just before the half-hour mark when his shot took a wicked deflection off defender Morten Overgaard to deceive AB goalkeeper Tórður Thomsen who had to be at his best a few moments later to deny ÍF from taking the lead.

AB then got a penalty, but as you all know by now, the penalties are rarely converted successfully in the Vodafone Division 2009. – Not even the Norwegian Stig-Roar Søbstad could score on it as Andras Gango saved brilliantly and even held on to the ball. (That was the 12th out of 29 penalties which had been missed so far this season; that’s over 40 %!)

But it didn’t matter for AB today as they took a 4-1 lead in the second half before ÍF got a late consolation on a penalty – would you believe it:-) to bring the tally down to 40%.

AB don’t have to worry about relegation and are in fact only 5 points from a runners up spot. ÍF are in no immediate threat as they are 6 points above the relegation line. That should be enough.