Waiting for Thursday by...

...uploading graphics and stuff!

A scene from last Saturday's friendly vs Norwegian Stabæk as seen through the fence.

Of course I went to see the home friendly. And of course my inside intelligence - which could completely revolutionize your expectations for Thursday's UEFA Cup clash with Manchester City - is staggering I guarantee you. But I won't bother sharing :-)

Here's another weird thingie for you:

The league standings as I see it through my little helper script. Top teams in green box, bottom in red. Gaps marked by green strokes. (Key: 0 is points now / minimum, X is most likely / finish tendency and 3 is maximum finishing points.)

Before hacking the already messy script for my new ideas I draw them. Such as these boxes that attempt to define the top and bottom. I'm not so sure I'll program this one though.

According to my not-so award winning probability assessment script the chance of a Copenhagen victory is 31%, the probability of a draw 28% and the risk of a loss 41%. Perhaps that is realistic.

Unofficial list of injuries: Manchester City: Shaun Wright-Phillips, Daniel Sturridge, Richard Dunne, Dietmar Hamann, Benjani Mwaruwari, Martin Petrov, Michael Johnson, Valeri Bojinov; FC København: Cesar Santin.

That will be as much copy/pasting I'll bother for this time. In the good old days I'd have dropped the story about Ståle dissing City's buying of many players you see above anyway. And I would have written something nearly artistic. Not so much anymore, folks. I have to admit I'm having fun with other projects.

A youth team match vs Lyngby

Had some business in town this morning and figured I'd drop by the training grounds on my way. But I was late and missed it. Noticed a youth team match nearby and stuck around for about half an hour. Why not it wasn't raining that much!

It was a visit from Lyngby. True to the prejudice of Lyngby style of play, they had the ball and attacked. The guests's no. 12, "Yousuff" judging from the shouts - a tall kid with curly black hair, did well in an offensive midfielder role. The Copenhagen defense deterred most efforts though and the rest missed the goal. One of the defenders were called "Højer" which should ring a bell.

"Yousuff" opening for a pass on their right wing.


But not getting past the defense anyway.

The part of the match I watched was a 2-0 win because the lone striker, a stocky black kid, scored on the two chances he got (not entirely sure he did the actual finishing as it was in the far end of the field, but almost sure). Quality performance judging from the very little I saw; he didn't lose the ball a single time he got it. Think his name was "Dan" or something like that.

A lonely striker.

Man I miss the Super league season...

Moved on only to find the shop I was going to had closed. Well at least I got some fresh air... and rain on this Saturday morning.

Happy New Year - and a look at 2009

Welcome to 2009.

First change is I will no longer update the Google Calendar previously found below these posts and through iCal. Because someone has awaken to the present and an official calendar is now available at FCK.dk: use fck.dk/ics/. Subscribe in your preferred calendar software.

I'm still not delivering the obnoxious stream of transfer rumors. But the signing of 23 years old Senegalese offensive player Dame N'Doye [Wikipedia, Transfermarkt] appears to be practically finished. We know him a bit too well because he scored when his former club, Panathinaikos FC, beat us November 2007 [match stats at bold.dk]:



A look at our next UEFA Cup opponent could be in place but right now it's simply too much work for a lazy blogger as Manchester City could upgrade half their team. Last rumor I saw was they are talking to the Italian coach Mancini. I'm looking forward to see Robinho in Copenhagen, though.

On a final note a team of youth players were eliminated in the group stage of the indoor Danish championship today. Good performances by Danni Jensen and Kevin Bechmann Timm.

Hibernation status

Denmark

51.5% of the season's matches have resulted in 44.1% home wins, 28.4% draws and 27.5% away wins. My "creative" league standings puts Copenhagen firmly in the top three with a nice unbeaten at home record:



League resumes 1st of March with the Brøndby away darby.

Europe

Amazingly, Wednesday we beat Club Brügge to advance in the UEFA Cup.

Club Brugge 0 - 1 FC Copenhagen

FC Copenhagen pulled off a smash-and-grab job to beat Club Brugge 1-0 and claim Group G's final place in the knock-out stages. Club Brugge started the night in third place, needing only to avoid defeat to go through, but after dominating the opening half, they fell behind when Cesar Santin fired Copenhagen ahead just before the hour mark.

In the "Round of 32" we will clash with Manchester City at 18th or 19th February and 26th of February 2009.

FC Pornography

About 30% of the traffic to this blog (that's you) come here looking for something... a bit more erotic than football usually is. Google Analytics reveals everything. There are no pictures of a nude Niklas Bendtner here but there are links to a certain training session.

Since I just hate to disappoint people I guess I might as well throw in a few links for the story of the week (sic!): A sponsor ships free pornographic DVD's to the training grounds after wins.

Free Porn Is Always A Great Incentive

Hell yeah there's nothing wrong with it. In fact, this might be the only thing that can prevent the Lions from going winless this season.

"Winless"? I suggest they spend a bit more time following the Danish league and a bit less time manipulating images.

Former Old Firm stars get interesting win bonus.. porno films

Copenhagen, known locally as FCK, screen the films at their training ground - although they refuse to reveal who gets to keep them afterwards.

Here's a recommendation...

The world's 50 greatest soccer derbies

44 - FC Copenhagen v Brondby

Denmark's big derby is called the "New Firm" with Brondby founded in 1964 in the drab industrial section of the city while Copenhagen, who have a huge white-collar fan base, came about after a merger of minor clubs in 1992. Copenhagen have a "cool" image while their rivals have a "big fat chip on their shoulder".