Thrills and spills in the highlands

Victoria park
Source: JOD photography

It was the only option left. Edinburgh had become London price wise for four days. Hogmanay being a massive attraction and drive in the price hike. I scampered around for a place to stay for those four nights around new year's. Newcastle, Glasgow, Aberdeen, even remote areas like Fort William, nothing. It came down to Dundee or Inverness for affordable accommodation. I chose Inverness. After all that was sorted I was dealt a blow with Inverness Caledonian Thistle not having a home game. However as luck would have it, they were away just over the road in Dingwall, home of their Highland rivals Ross County.

So a highland derby? This needed to be done. Tickets were available and it was off to Dingwall we went on new year's eve. My first premiership game and it was a derby, brilliant. A chilly day in Dingwall with Inverness washed out it was probably a typical highland derby setting. Caley Thistle under Irishman Richie Foran were bottom, Ross County with a former Limerick striker (Curran) and Cliftonville star (Boyce) were sixth.

Derby setting
Source: JOD photography

After getting into Victoria park early to take in the build up the game kicked off at three on the dot. However it was nearly over after two minutes for myself and my friend. A smoke bomb was let off and my innocent friend got the blame from the investigating steward. Thankfully common sense prevailed and we were allowed to stay but missed Boyce giving County the lead.
The game was County's as they forced Fon Williams into a few key saves before Caley hit the back of the net with Carl Tremarco's diving header causing a roar from the opposite end of the ground. Caley didn't quite fill the away stand but were in good voice until Boyce's deflected cross/shot gave County the lead again.

Half-time arrived and with it darkness. Daylight not sticking around for the second half. A half with more drama. Foran made a double change near the hour mark and well, within minutes County hit them with a sucker punch. Martin Woods slotting past Fon Williams in the box. 3-1 and Caley looked shaken.

Ross County v Inverness CT
Source: JOD photography

They did try to rescue the game with County keeper Fox making a couple of stops. With Boyce having a stormer he remained a threat on the counter. Ten minutes remaining and a Caley lifeline, Fox could only parry a shot from outside the box and substitute Alex Fisher was quickest to pounce. 3-2 and a grand stand finish in store. Urged forward by Foran, Caley just couldn't force the ball home and referee Robert Madden sounded his whistle on the derby, County being the highland top dogs going into 2017.

After the game a surprisingly lax segregation saw Caley and County fans exchange pleasantries. "Going down, going down" being one with Caley fans wanting to get out and hope the winter break is put to good use. A few did want to show County fans they had a bit of fight left after what was a deflating result.

First highland derby and it was eventful to say the least. The next clash isn't till March by which time, given how congested the bottom of the table is, things will be different. Foran and Caley had better hope so.

Egypt - Africa's great mystery

For me one of Africa's great footballing mysteries involves Egypt. Not the club game, which has been home to the giants of the African game Al-Ahly, but the national team. The national team has certainly provided success down the years be it winning African titles or supplying decent players who have gone on to forge decent careers in Europe. As mentioned the domestic game has been home to multiple champions league winners Al-Ahly while their great rivals Zamalek reached this year's final losing out to Mamelodi Sundowns.

The great mystery for me is how this nation has not had more world cup appearances. To date Egypt has only two world cup qualifications (1934 and 1990) with no win registered, although they did manage to cling onto a draw with Ireland in 1990. Most nations will have lulls in fortunes with periods in the footballing doldrums but Egypt really do defy this. They have been African champions a record seven times which includes the dominant era of 2006-2010 where they won the African title three times running. Yet they failed to qualify for either of the world cups in 2006 or 2010. How can such a power consistently fail to qualify for the world's showpiece event?

I'm sure Egyptian fans won't want reminding that Togo and Angola have had more recent appearances in the world cup. It's not like Egypt have lacked the talent. The likes of Mido, Amr Zaki, Hossam Ghaly and Ahmed Hassan had been part of those failed world cup attempts.

However after failing to capitalise upon that dominance the team did plunder into the doldrums. They weren't even qualifying for the African nations cup. In fact, up until this campaign they hadn't qualified since their 2010 title victory. They make their return next month in Gabon but looking slightly ahead they are also on the right path to their third world cup.
Granted it's only two games into the final stage but Egypt lead their group containing Ghana, Congo and Uganda. The group winner qualifies for Russia and Egypt have two wins from two.
These days Egypt can call upon the sheer pace of Roma's Mohammed Salah, the industry of Hull City's El-Mohamedy and Arsenal's holder in midfield El-Neny. Koka at Braga is a decent striker to have as well. Best of all though is having a Trezeguet to call upon, always useful even if it's not David.

November's home win over Ghana has got fans believing that the world cup absences will be ended soon. The return game will be huge and being the final game in the group it's shaping up to be the biggest fixture in years for the nation, in a world cup sense.

In fact the last big world cup fixture was the tie-breaking play-off for the 2010 edition. A dramatic 2-0 win over Algeria meant both countries ended the group with identical records in points and head-to-head. The play-off in Sudan saw Algeria edge through 1-0 to condemn Egypt to more hurt, despite being the three-in-a-row continental champions.

So Russia 2018, will Egypt be there? It will be worth tuning into this to see if Africa's great mystery can be solved.

The utterly dominant TNS

In Scotland, Celtic have been the subject of "can they go the season unbeaten" questions with the title secured. The Celts are, at the time of writing, fourteen points clear with two games in hand on arch-rivals Rangers. They have won all, bar a last minute slip up in Inverness, their league games but this doesn't actually make them the most dominant team in their domestic league in Europe.

We are going to Wales, well the Welsh league but the team in question are actually based in Oswestry, England. TNS, The New Saints to give them their full name are well, well clear in the league. They are twenty-one points clear of distant second placed Connah's Quay having won EVERY league game this season. That's nineteen wins to date with no slip up at all. They stand to become the earliest league champions in Wales ever. Such is their lead, they could lose seven on the bounce and still be top, thanks to the healthy goal difference built up.

TNS will be lifting their sixth successive league title in the new year giving them another shot at the champions league qualifiers. Their last defeat in all competitions was away at APOEL Nicosia back in July. They are chasing a European record held by Ajax which is twenty-six consecutive league wins. TNS have twenty-five ahead of their game against Cefn Druids on St Stephen's day.

The dominance has bought the 'how can it be good for the league' questions. In truth it can't. There is dominance then there is this where no one is even taking points off TNS. Some of this can be down to the fact that TNS are the only full-time professional club in the league. Training full-time does make a massive difference. However TNS are also getting players in that the rest simply can't afford.
Their 3-0 win over third-tier Scottish side Livingston showed how far they have come in recent years. Their annual champions league campaigns bring in fortunes that dwarf what the Welsh Europa league entrants get. So you have TNS maintaining a dominance that won't be broken unless they go down the road of the previous dominant force in Wales, Barry Town, which was financial implosion chasing progress in Europe.

On a European scale no team has gone a league season with a 100% win record. Can they do it?. No matter how dominant it would be some feat, no question. I've jinked them now with this post, haven't I.

On the subject of records, they also stand to break the largest league winning margin. Already standing at twenty-one points clear the record, which I blogged about earlier this year, is the twenty-nine point margin Celtic won by in the SPL in 2013-14.

Club world cup thoughts

Last Sunday morning (December 18th) the club world cup final was held in Yokohama, Japan. Real Madrid faced Japanese champions Kashima Antlers and while it ended in an all too predictable outcome the J-league side made the Spanish giants work for the trophy.

However this competition should be in theory at least the biggest club game in the world. The chance to be called world champions. The viewpoint of this competition is varied to say the least. It's viewed as an inconvenience in Europe while in South America it's the ultimate prize. For Africa, Asia, North America and most of all Oceania its a reward to be in the same tournament as their more illustrious European and South American opponents.

Personally I do like the idea this tournament tries to portray however it is not entirely fair that the European and South American teams get byes to the semi finals. And yes I know they are the two biggest footballing continents.

Only Europe and South America have ever won this tournament which when you look at it more isn't that surprising. They are the two biggest footballing continents and the two with the biggest tradition. Prior to the expansion of this tournament in 2005, (there was a trial in 2000) it was only ever a single match between the champions of the two big continents so to include the four other champions has been a welcome change.

The big problem for this tournament is trying to change the views from Europe. The final last Sunday wasn't even that well advertised and the game not on tv.
The viewpoint of the tournament is that it's too predictable. Europe will almost always win because they have the concentration of all the best players in the world leaving the rest well behind. The South American sides would be more competitive if their continental winning sides weren't broken up after the success. This year Atletico National had lost a chunk of their Libertadores winning side, River Plate before that and so on. A potential improvement from Asian sides could help this tournament. Given the cash Chinese sides are splashing maybe they will be more competitive. Although it remains to be seen as last year Guangzhou Evergrande were comprehensively beaten by Barcelona. That after splashing a pretty decent sum already.

Another aspect that needs changing is the host country. It seems like its always been Japan, (even the one off games before expansion were in Japan) but only Morocco and the UAE have only hosted it as well. Spread it around more. Brazil, Australia, Mexico etc open it up.

I will also tackle new FIFA president Gianni Infantino's proposal to expand this tournament even further. I've read articles suggesting thirty-two teams in the summer, another including Europa league and copa Sudamericana winners and well, I don't necessarily agree with expanding this any further. If expansion is insisted upon I'd go with maybe including the defending champions to bring it up to a nice figure of eight teams and go open draw from there.  I like the way this tournament brings together the six continental champions plus a host country champion and go for the title.

The timing of this tournament I understand is hindered by the fact that the different champions leagues end at different stages in the year but it's current slot doesn't do it much good, just before the Christmas break. Although if it was better received it would be as gooda time with no clashes with current season champions league games.

Basement battle

Saturday November 19th was the first football game I attended since the decision to up root and leave Ireland. Being Edinburgh based the game was a no brainer, it was Edinburgh City v Cowdenbeath. Sure why wouldn't you?.

A few months ago I blogged about my first ever game in Scotland while on a short trip which was seeing Hibernian dismantle Greenock Morton 4-0 at Easter Road. For this I decided to give the other club a shot. Edinburgh City are newly promoted to the Scottish football league this season having seen off East Stirling in a play-off match last May. The step up has so far proven to be a challenge but in the past few weeks City have seemingly turned a corner and had some decent results. One such result was putting League 2 leaders Forfar Athletic out of the cup which set up a tie with East Fife this coming weekend.

Their opponents in this game were Cowdenbeath a side in a free-fall. They went into this game two places above City at the bottom of League Two and to give an idea of their free-falling nature, they were in the championship two seasons ago. Two successive relegations and an awful start to this season have them residing well off any promotion picture and it all set up a fixture that few would've thought could happen not so long ago. While Cowdenbeath were in the championship, getting thumped 10-0 by another Edinburgh team in Hearts, city were winning the Lowland league (part of the 5th tier) with ease. Quite a turn around in two seasons.

City play their home games at the Meadowbank stadium down the road from Hibernian's Easter road. It does feature a pet hate of mine with a running track but the main and well only stand adds an element of charm.

Conditions wise it was bitter. A 3pm Saturday kick-off with a low sun soon gave way to a bitterly cold and crisp evening. Cowdenbeath bought a sizeable number of the 352 total attendance and were in good spirits surprisingly. They didn't have far to travel being based north of the forth.
The visitors started disastrously giving up two glorious chances for City. Had City a striker in form then they would've been two or three up in the first half. Cowdenbeath's keeper, David McGum keeping his side in the game. Cowdenbeath got back into the game with some bursts forward, one of which was foiled by the impressive Joe Mbu, whose sliding challenge on one of the attacks was as brilliant a challenge as you will see. Just before half-time Cowdenbeath struck with Kris Renton given the freedom of the city to nod home.

Half-time cups of tea were needed to brace the bitterness and the second half began with Cowdenbeath asserting some control on the game, hitting the bar later in the half before a sitter was spurned. The challenges were flying in however from both sides, not much pulling out. Eventually city did rescue a point when Dougie Gair pounced on a loose ball in the box to shoot low into the net. That came after an Ouzy See header flashed narrowly wide of McGum's post. The points were shared which wasn't enough to elevate City off the bottom but does keep them within reach of the sides above them . It keeps Cowdenbeath in among the cluster of sides that reside in the lower half of the division.

Capital cities without Champions league football

Sometimes being based in the capital city can help a club to compete on a greater stage be it at home or abroad. One only has to look at Madrid for a prime example of this with both Real Madrid and Atlético competing for honours. Paris with their sole PSG becoming the dominant force in France, Lisbon with the powerhouses of Benfica and Sporting CP and of course London that is home to five premier league teams this season.

With this in mind a quick glance at the teams playing in the champions league in the past has lead to me coming up with this blog post. What capital cities are absent from the champions league on a regular basis. I developed a criteria for this question because there are of course countries who have never had a team qualify for the group stage, Ireland, Iceland and the Baltic countries being a few. To qualify for this I also discarded countries who had less than five qualifications in the past twenty-three years since the group stage was introduced. This is what I came up with, some you might be shocked with.

Ankara, Turkey:

This might not actually be a surprise at all but the capital of Turkey has never had a team qualify for the group stage of the champions league. Not too surprising given that the capital hasn't even had a a title winner since the Super League was introduced back in 1959. Ankara hasn't even come close to breaking that glass ceiling. In fact the last time an Ankara club finished in the top three in Turkey was back in 2002-03 when Gençlerbirliği finished nineteen points off winners Beşiktaş. The following season however Gençlerbirliği did reach the last 16 of the UEFA cup in the city's best European run to date. 
This season Osmanlispor are currently top of their Europa league group containing Villarreal, Steaua and FC Zürich with a terrific chance of qualifying for the last 32.

Oslo, Norway:

Norway gets onto this list because of Rosenborg's exploits in the late 90s and early 00s when they regularly competed in the group stage. Rosenborg are based in the northern city of Trondheim and their dominance of the domestic league in that time prevented any progress for Oslo to get a team into the group stage of the premier club competition. With Rosenborg's European performances the league actually had two champions league places in 1998 and Oslo still couldn't get a team in with Molde being the lucky beneficiaries that season. 

When Vålerenga did break Rosenborg's domination in 2005 they couldn't get through the qualifying stages the following year going out to Czech side Mladá Boleslav and that is as close Oslo have got to getting into the group stage. 

Edinburgh, Scotland:

Like Ankara this isn't much of a shock really considering the dominant powers of Scotland reside in Glasgow. However unlike Ankara, Edinburgh has had a side in the qualifiers. That team was Hearts in 2006 after they split the Old firm in 2005-06 to finish 2nd. Hearts managed to negotiate the obstacle of Bosnian champions Široki Brijeg before they succumbed to AEK Athens in the final qualifying round, going down 5-1 on aggregate. 

The capital's other side Hibernian haven't threatened to end the barren run with a couple of UEFA cup appearances the some total of their European adventures. 

Bern, Switzerland:

This might shock you. The capital of Switzerland, regular participants in the champions league has never had a team reach the group stage. The city's big team BSC Young Boys did appear in the qualifiers in 2010-11 but they couldn't get the better of Tottenham in the final qualifying round. Since then the club have had two shots of trying to end the run but fell at the 3rd qualifying round in 2015-16 and the play-off round this season. In 2004-05 they fell in the qualifying rounds to Crvena Zvezda. 

The club haven't won the domestic title since 1986 and in a league such as Switzerland's where multiple sides getting into the group stage doesn't happen, a title win is what's needed for Bern to finally grace the group stage of the champions league. 

Minsk, Belarus:

Like Norway with Rosenborg, Belarus gets into this list courtesy of BATE Borisov's regular qualifications. BATE are from a city an hour away from the capital of Minsk and to date the capital hasn't been able to get a side into the group stage. Given BATE's utter domination of the league the capital hasn't had a domestic title winner since 2004 when Dinamo Minsk were top dogs in the country. Belarus only gets one team into the champions league and with BATE's current streak of eleven titles it's difficult to see Minsk ending their run of being absent from the group stage. 

It's the Europa league however where they have had a bit more luck with Dinamo qualifying for the group stage there on two occasions (2014-15 & 2015-16). 

Other mention:

Above were the capital cities without a qualification at all. There is one capital with a solitary one qualification that might have you scratching your head and that is the German capital of Berlin. 

The city of Berlin has only had one qualification since the group stage was introduced in 1994-95. That came in 1999-00 when Hertha BSC came through the qualifiers, defeating Anorthosis of Cyprus. They then reached the second group stage after a top two finish in a group containing Chelsea, AC Milan and Galatasaray. A last place finish in the second group stage with Barcelona, Porto and Sparta Praha ended their run and to date is the last time Berlin has played host to champions league group stage football. 

The French cup and it's unique aspect

Coupe de France
source: getfrenchfootballnews.com

The seventh round of the French cup takes place this weekend and as as usual it has it's unique aspect in full flow. This round of the French cup not only features sides as far down as the ninth tier of the football league system but offers a unique aspect in including sides from the various dependencies that make up France's "L'outre mer". The domestic cup winners of New Caledonia and Tahiti being joined by sides from Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion and Saint Martin.

The inclusion of these sides does obviously open up some quite eye boggling travel distances. To combat this the French football association (FFA) offers mainland sides the chance to apply to be eligible to face the overseas teams. To break it down, the sides that express interest in travelling are then put into the section of the seventh round where they can be drawn against any of the overseas teams. The make-up of the travel budget for the overseas teams remains unclear but I'd be amazed if there isn't some sort of grant from the FFA, their local leagues and football associations to travel the vast distances. Likewise for the mainland teams open to travelling.

The French overseas territories
source: meteofrance.fr

The draw for the seventh round is made in two parts with the overseas section made first. As mentioned in the previous paragraph it's pitting sides who have applied to travel for their cup games with the overseas sides and of course which overseas teams make the journey to the mainland. The main part of the seventh round draw being made the following day.

The overseas section of the draw threw up the following:

• CS Moulin (Guadeloupe) vs FC Fleury 91
• AS Magenta (New Caledonia) vs Pau FC
• Club Franciscain (Martinique) vs FC Lunéville
• ASC Le Geldar (French Guiana) vs SC Selongey
• JS Saint-Pierroise (Réunion) vs Sainte-Geneviéve Sports 
• Avoine OCC vs AS Excelsior (Réunion)
• Rodez vs FC Mtsapéré (Mayotte)
• ASM Belfort vs Phare du Canal (Guadeloupe)
• US Avranches vs AS Dragon (Tahiti)
• FC Mulhouse v US Matoury (French Guiana)
• Tarbes v Golden Lion FC (Martinique)

Last season all the overseas sides were eliminated by the time the competition reached the last 32 with Réunion side US Saint-Marienne bowing out to Gazélec Ajaccio, who were in Ligue 1 at the time. No overseas team has ever won the French cup nor has any progressed beyond the last 64. Of the overseas teams only five in the history of the French cup have progressed two ties in the same season. So reaching the last 32 remains as the glass ceiling yet to be breached. Could it happen this season? well history suggests no but given that we are talking about 2016 I guess we can't completely rule out a strong performance from the overseas teams. The Ligue 1 teams don't typically enter the cup until the ninth round (or last 64) so the opportunity of getting a plum tie against the big names of PSG, Marseille, Lyon or Saint-Étienne isn't entirely out of the question. 

A popular question that might rise from this is the hypothetical situation of an overseas team winning the French cup, do they get to play in the Europa League?. The answer to this is unfortunately no. Given that some of these overseas teams come from FIFA members it renders them ineligible for European competition. Some of the sides such as the Réunion representatives have taken part in the African champions league while the Tahitians and New Caledonians are regularly involved in the Oceania champions league. To enter European competition a team to my knowledge has to be affiliated with a UEFA nation and competing in the structure within that said nation, none of the other overseas teams are competing in the French league system. 

What makes this aspect more interesting is that the likes of Réunion, New Caledonia and Tahiti are FIFA members. So this could happen with say the Dutch cup including sides from say Aruba and Curacao or even the likes of England, Spain and Portugal going down a similar road.
It's safe to say that while the FA cup in England remains the oldest cup competition in the world, the French cup is surely the biggest. From researching this blog post a figure of the amount of teams that took part one season was north of seven thousand. A quite incredible figured given that the FA cup most years hovers in and around the eight hundred mark.

SO for the weekend that's in it, Bon chance to the overseas teams and hopefully one at least breaks new ground in getting through to the last 32.