Day -701. WorldCup2018
Need a break from football? No, of course you don't. Well, worry not. Champions League and Europa League early rounds are well under, so early that fans may be wondering if this is the end of the season or the beginning of a new one. OK, of course they know this is the start of a new European adventure. It just sounded good, to me. It's an adventure that for most will probably be over well before the domestic seasons start. Not a bad idea to get the European disappointment over and done with before teams like Dundalk, the Irish Champions, can concentrate on winning their battles against the likes of Cork City and Shamrock Rovers rather than worrying about how to deal with Suarez and Messi, Lewandowski and Muller, erm...Vardy and Drinkwater, and Ibrahimović and...oh, he's in the Europa League.
Dundalk played in the second qualifying round of the Champions League today against what should be the bearded hipsters' new favourite team, FH Hafnarfjördur. Yes, FH Hafnarfjördur (thankfully known as FH) are of course the champions of Iceland. After the national team's exploits just 2 weeks ago I'm sure there are many jump-on-the-it's cool-to-follow-Icelandic-football bandwagon out there who will be following their results closely. They put themselves in a good position to qualify for the next round with a 1-1 draw in Ireland, with a goal scored by a Scotsman, Steven Lennon. Lennon has found a new energy for life and football in Iceland after his promising career with Rangers was stunted by what he calls "the drinking culture" in Scotland. In his words "there’s not much going on during the week" in Iceland. And with matches being played on Sunday he doesn't even get to enjoy the "big nights" on Friday and Saturday. Father of a young child born to his Icelandic girlfriend, Lennon was probably happily enjoying the quiet Icelandic life before it before the country was thrust into the football spotlight. Or he's happy about the attention that he might receive and may be dreaming of a big move back across the water to, who knows, Shamrock?
Other results of potential interest included Valletta's almost surprise against Red Star Belgrade. Leading 1-0 up until the 65th minute the Maltese Champions conceded 2 late goals to make qualifying a tough proposition. However, it is evidence of how even the minnows of Malta expect better results nowadays that the close defeat was a disappointment. Not so long ago that would have been seen as a victory. The shock of the first legs was Lincoln Red Imps' 1-0 win against Celtic. The amateurs from Gibraltar are the ultra minnows of the competition. Celtic's new manager was probably distracted, and therefore not giving his team very good instructions, because he was trying to figure out why his team were playing in Gibraltar and not Malta. And aren't Valletta the Maltese champions, he asked. And Lincoln are champions of where? All I was told, he thought, was that I was meant to be going to an island in the Med to play some team we were going to beat easily.
The champions of two other surprise Euro 2016 participants faced each other in Albania. Partizani, of Albania and Ferencváros, of Hungary drew 1-1 with the latter's goal being scored by Dániel Böde who was part of Hungary's Euro team. Hopefully he's getting a couple of days off work sometime soon. When I say champions of the two countries I mean the representatives in the Champions League of the two countries. Partizani were runners up last year but the champions, KF Skënderbeu, were banned from entering the competition by UEFA "due to its involvement in activities aimed at arranging the outcome of matches".
I could probably go on about a couple of the other ties, including Olimpija Ljubljana's almost complete comeback from a 4-0 deficit after 32 minutes against Trenčín to only lose 4-3. But I'm sure we would much rather debate the impending appointment of no-nonsense, say as it, shake it up Sam Allardyce as manager of England. He's got two years to rebuild and sneak England into Russia 2018, and then another year or two to possibly save face and snipe at reporters calling for his head before being sacked after a humiliating exit at Euro 2020 in...where's it being held again? Oh yes, all over Europe. So maybe, at 65 and ready to enjoy his retirement, he'll end up sleeping in Steven Lennon's basement in Iceland for a while. Maybe the FA will then look for an eager manger, ready to prove himself at the highest level. Harry Redknapp still around?
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