New defender offensive?

Danish media are reporting we're buying Israeli defender Yoav David Ziv from Beitar Jerusalem, the club we eliminated to play European football this year. Price is supposedly around 500,000€. [Danish sources: forza.dk / FCK lun på israeler, bold.k / Israeler koster FCK 3,7 millioner kroner] As far as I remember from our games against the Israelis, he's pretty good.

I have tried to find an English language source for the story with no luck. What I did find however, was a Jerusalem Post story about Zionist settlers doing illegal construction work on "historic Israel" territory aka Palestinian territory occupied by Israel. As the land is the subject of ongoing peace negotiations the Israeli authorities work to stop these activities. And here is what - quite frankly - stuns me:

According to Yitzhaki, the settlement drive also has the support of seven players from the Betar Jerusalem soccer team.

Strikers Totu Tamuz and Amit Ben-Shushan, defenders Arik Benado, Yoav Ziv and David Amsalem, and midfielders Aviram Bruchian and Idan Tal did not plan to participate in Sunday's events, but had signed pledges of support, Yitzhaki said.

Hmmm... that's pretty extreme. Gee, I'm happy they don't "plan to participate"! Looks like we're getting a Zionist on the offense for our defense. I wonder if we'd buy a public Hamas-supporter? I guess we would.

But someone needs to scholar this guy about the only West Bank he's allowed to attack as long as he's with us: Brøndby IF aka "Vestegnen" ;-)

Another Copenhagen club: Lyngby BK

FC København is of course not the one and only Copenhagen club. It's just the biggest, oldest, best and the only one with real international class. But this weekend they played away in the other end of Denmark (0-0 in Aalborg Saturday) so I clenched my thirst for live football with a visit to Lyngby on Sunday.

Visiting Lyngby is also a visit to the other end of the league table. Before this weekend they were rock bottom. The grilled sausages are semi self service but actually better than any food you can buy in Parken. The cheerleaders appeared to be school girls. Concrete and grass stands are separated by hedges.


Sausages grilled by a guy watching the game.

Lyngby BK beat visiting Viborg FF 2-0 in a game that was a lot more entertaining than the AaB - FC København appeared on TV. Lyngby sports an attacking style of play with emphasis on fast, precise passes utilizing both wings. Defensively they run a lottery business. Their goalie is Rune Pedersen, formerly FC København. Both teams managed to miss a couple of enormous scoring opportunities.


I shot a short video of the native fans doing their tribal thing.

Visiting Lyngby stadium is no problem. From Copenhagen central station take trains B or E north for about 15 minutes. From Lyngby train station it's a short walk or bus 182, 183 or 300S for just a couple of minutes. Follow fans in blue shirts.


View Larger Map
A Google map of the stadium.

G-14 invite received

As previously mentioned, the G-14 is expanding and FC København among the clubs that may join. Other clubs include Sevilla, Roma, Monaco, Werder Bremen and Chelsea. A total of around 50 clubs from 23 countries will get the invitation.

The administration of FC København have not decided whether to join or not. Understandably, I think. We're just making the break into European class and some of what G-14 wants could have made this harder, I think.

Sources: sportinglife.com / SEVILLA TO GET G-14 INVITE, forza.dk / FCK inviteret indenfor i fornemt selskab.

Naked butts

Danish newspaper B.T. put up a little gallery of Mathias 'Zanka' Jørgensen and Ailton Almeida accepting the punishment for losing a ball juggling competition: Having the rest of the team fire off shots at their bared buttocks.

UEFA Cup group stage draw

Group B
1. Panathinaikos FC (GRE)
2. FC Lokomotiv Moskva (RUS)
3. Club Atlético de Madrid (ESP)
4. FC København (DEN)
5. Aberdeen FC (SCO)

UEFA.com / Past masters meet in group stage, Daily Record / Dons get Atletico, Lokomotiv, Panathinaikos, Copenhagen.

Possible UEFA Cup opponents

Our coefficient of 19.129 puts us in fourth seeding layer. Meaning next week one team from each of the following pots will end up in the same UEFA Cup group as us.

Pot 1: Villarrea, Bayern München, AZ Alkmaar, Panathinaikos, FC Basel, Girondins Bordeaux, Bayer Leverkusen, Anderlecht.
Pot 2: Tottenham Hotspur, Lokomotiv Moscow, Zenit St. Petersburg, Sparta Praha, AEK Athens, Hamburger, Bolton Wanderers, Austria Wien.
Pot 3: Spartak Moscow, Sporting Braga, Galatasaray, Atlético Madrid, Getafe, Everton, Fiorentina, Stade Rennais.
Pot 5: Aris Thessaloniki, Aberdeen, FC Zürich, AE Larissa, SK Brann Bergen, IF Elfsborg, Helsingborg IF. (Not AaB Aalborg because no teams from the same association are put in the same group.)

(Once again: thank heavens for copy/paste.)

We're in the UEFA Cup

As of writing this, when I Google for articles on tonight's game vs Lens, zero (0) turns up. I can't have that so here we go: The FC København vs RC Lens UEFA Cup qualification game from the perspective of a Copenhagener.

Buying the ticket I felt realistically hopeful we'd progress. Drawing 1-1 at home in the first of two games like these is hard to turn around for a aggregate win; it's only happens about 1 in 5 times. (Which is not the same thing as saying FC København had 4 in 5 chance of progress like the Danish newspaper B.T. incompetently did.)

It was a rainy evening in Copenhagen and the pitch was unpredictable and fast. The referee soon proved to be about the same quality as the pitch. Not the best conditions but ok.

Just a quarter of an hour into the game Lens' Eric Carriere took advantage of a loose ball and put the guests ahead. The home side atmosphere dropped somewhat but both audience and players kept it going. Quite a few chances were missed in both ends of the stadium.

Outstanding performances were pulled by Libor Sionko and Jesper Christiansen among others. The former thanking the coach by fielding him in the starting 11 by being a constant threat to Lens' left side, a physical and technical feat on a very large part of the pitch; the latter by performing a handful of world class saves.

Then with a quarter of an hour to go Marcus Allbäck leveled the score when it was the French defense who were taking a little nap. Symptomatic of a close and very professional game. People in the stand went nuts.

Five minutes into the overtime Michael Gravgaard had to risk everything to stop a Lens attack but got the man in stead of the ball and was correctly sent off. This provoked the international debut of 17 year old Mattias 'Zanka' Jørgensen (he already did five minutes of Danish Cup and 15 minutes of Danish league time). And boy did he do well! Applause for Zanka!

But the following minutes turned into some kind of nightmare with Lens trying to finish off Copenhagen. Then Libor Sionko led a counter attack and was run over in the Lens penalty area. The resulting penalty kick was taken advantage of by Jesper Grønkjær, FC København had one leg in the UEFA Cup group phase and the stands were in ecstasy.

I had been thinking 200 Dkr for the ticket to a game against "some French team" was a little expensive. As far as I remember, it was cheaper when we beat Lazio? But let's just say this one was worth it all. Whew!