March 4th, 2007: National Team in La Manga
The Faroe Islands lost 2 and drew 1 game in their training camp in La Manga, Spain, from February 24th to March 4th. The first conclusion to be made is that the Faroe Islands are in dear need of a goal scorer. Before this training camp, the Faroes hadn't scored a single goal since new coach Jógvan Martin Olsen took over from Henrik Larsen. - That makes it 5 matches without scoring. And it took another 3 training matches in La Manga, before the Faroes finally scored a goal in their match against Swedish club Kalmar FF. That made it 7 games in succession without scoring.
If the Faroes have such difficulties in scoring against these relatively weaker teams, they'll find it mighty difficult to do it against much tougher opposition in the likes of Ukraine and Georgia, whom the Faroe Islands will play on March 24th and 28th.
The Faroe Islands had a completely new (and unknown player for people in the Faroe Islands) in the squad. The player was Tem Hansen, who plays for Danish 1st division club Fremad Amager. He has never lived in the Faroe Islands, but has Faroese roots however, and is therefore eligible to play for the Faroes (also even if he has played 2 internationals for the Danish U17 team). Tem Hansen replaced defender Herbert í Lon Jacobsen, who withdrew because of injury.
Also Christian Lamhauge Holst, who is in the same situation as Tem Hansen, has been recalled after a long absence. Lately, he has been scoring a lot of goals in the Danish 1st division for his club Lyngby Boldklub. He replaced Bergur Midjord, who withdrew because of injury.
The full Faroe Islands squad in La Manga:
Jákup Mikkelsen (GK), B36 Tórshavn
Meinhardt Joensen (GK), KÍ Klaksvík
Atli Danielsen, Frem (DK)
Fróði Benjaminsen, B36 Tórshavn
Mikkjal Thomasen, B36 Tórshavn
Hanus Thorleifson, B36 Tórshavn
Kári Nielsen, HB Tórshavn
Jákup á Borg, HB Tórshavn
Rógvi Jacobsen, HB Tórshavn
Christian Høgni Jacobsen, HB Tórshavn
Rasmus Nolsøe, HB Tórshavn
Mortan úr Hørg, HB Tórshavn
Símun Samuelsen, Keflavík (Iceland)
Sámal Joensen, GÍ Gøta
Tem Hansen, Fremad Amager (DK)
Andrew av Fløtum, Fremad Amager (DK)
Hans Pauli Samuelsen, EB/Streymur
Marni Djurhuus, EB/Streymur
Christian Lamhauge Holst, Lyngby (DK)
Below, short match reports from the 3 training matches against TPS Turku, Cartagena and Kalmar FF:
Faroe Islands vs. TSP Turku 0-1 (0-0)
The first match was played on Sunday, March 26th, against TSP Turku; a club from the best division in Finland. The Faroe Islands lost 1-0 with the goal scored in stoppage-time. The Faroes' best chance came in the first half when Christian Høgni Jacobsen hit the crossbar.
The starting 11 for the Faroe Islands were:
Jákup Mikkelsen, Atli Danielsen, Fróði Benjaminsen, Marni Djurhuus, Mikkjal Thomasen, Kári Nielsen, Jákup á Borg, Símun Samuelsen, Rógvi Jacobsen, Christian Høgni Jacobsen, Rasmus Nolsøe.
Substitutions:
46': Sámal Joensen for Mikkjal Thomasen
46': Tem Hansen for Kári Nielsen
46': Hans Pauli Samuelsen for Símun Samuelsen
46': Hanus Thorleifson for Jákup á Borg
46': Andrew av Fløtum for Rógvi Jacobsen
46': Christian Lamhauge Holst for Christian Høgni Jacobsen 60': Mortan úr Hørg for Marni Djurhuus
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Faroe Islands – Cartagena 0-0
The Faroes won 6-5 on penalties(no extra time played)
On Wednesday, February 28th, the Faroes played against Cartagena, a Spanish Mediterranean city in the autonomous community of Region of Murcia. Cartagenia was celebrating the centenary of local soccer, and in this regard they had picked a team which they regarded as their national team. The match against the Faroe Islands they therefore considered as their first official international soccer match. (See wikipedia)
No less than 12,000 enthusiastic Carthaginians attended the match. – The locals took this training match quite serious.
The match ended in a goalless draw. But because they were also playing for a trophy, the match was decided on penalties: The Faroes won it 6-5. – It's not every day the Faroe Islands win a trophy in soccer:-)
The starting 11 for the Faroe Islands were:
Jákup Mikkelsen, Atli Danielsen, Fróði Benjaminsen, Marni Djurhuus, Mikkjal Thomasen, Sámal Joensen, Jákup á Borg, Hans Pauli Samuelsen, Christian Høgni Jacobsen, Andrew av Fløtum, Rasmus Nolsøe.
Substitutions:
Tem Hansen for Sámal Joensen
Jonhard Frederiksberg for Hans Pauli Samuelsen
Rógvi Jacobsen for Andrew av Fløtum
Christian Holst for Christin Høgni Jacobsen
Mortan úr Hørg for Marni Djurhuus
Kári Nielsen for Mikkjal Thomasen
Símun Samuelsen for Jákup á Borg
Related links:
About Cartagena - Wikipedia
Spanish Newspaper Article from December 2006 about the preparations for the match. (This article is in Spanish, but with Goggle's translation machine, you can make it make sense, if you really want to:-)
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Faroe Islands – Kalmar FF 1-3 (0-2)
0-1 Patrik Ingelsten
0-2 Cesar Santin (pen.)
0-3 Viktor Elm
1-3 Hanus Thorleifsson
The Faroes' 3rd and final match in this training camp was against Swedish opposition Kalmar FF, who play in the top flight in Sweden, Allsvenskan.
The Faroe Islands made a disastrous start to the match, when Kalmar' s Cesar Santin set up Patrik Ingelsten to tap in the opening goal in the 1st minute!
The Faroes were outplayed for most of the first half, and around the half-hour mark, Kalmar doubled their lead. The referee had judged the Faroese defence to have handled the ball and awarded Kalmar FF a penalty. Cesar Santin made no mistake from the spot.
The Faroe Islands improved much in the second half and put some pressure on the Kalmar goal, but however, it was Kalmar who made it 2-0 about a quarter of an hour into the second half. Again it was Cesar Santin who created the goal with a good through-ball to Viktor Elm, who beat Jákup Mikkelsen in the Faroese goal.
Halfway through the second half, the Faroes finally managed to score a goal after approximately 700 minutes of goal-drought (these 3 training-matches, 4 qualifiers against Georgia, Scotland, Lithuania and France and a friendly against Poland). Goal scorer was Hanus Thorleifsson.
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