Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Fishing for Minnows

After a solid recovery session from yesterday’s lengthy column I’m back on the keyboard ready to serve as today’s blog trequartista. As I mentioned yesterday, today’s column is all about smaller football clubs that maybe you’ve never heard of before but that you should definitely know about so you can be better prepared for the late night football trivia debates in your local pub!

Today we journey to the city of Aalesund in Norway, home of Aalesunds Fotballklubb! Background and History:

Nicknamed the Tangotroyene (Tangoshirts) for their bright orange kits (Orange tops and blue bottoms for the home kit and all black kit for away), the club was originally founded in June of 1914 and have grown steadily ever since. The club is now a yearly challenger for honors in the Norwegian Premier League (the Tippeligaen) as well as the Norwegian national cup tournament.

The last few seasons in particular have been among the best in the history of the club as AaFK won the Norwegian national cup in 2009, finished 4 th in the Tippeligaen and made it to the 3 rd round of qualifying in the Europa League in 2010.

Currently the club sit 12 th in the Tippeligaen with 24 Pts out of a possible 57 but they have qualified for the Norwegian cup semi-finals and were eliminated in the final Europa League Playoff round before the group stage!

Rivals:

AaFK has a solid group of rivalries with SK Herd, FC Skarbovik, FC Spjelkavik, SPKL Rollon, Molde F.K. and Hodd among the more notable.

Staff (Coaching and Playing):

It is no coincidence that AaFK’s success began shortly after the arrival of current manager kjetil Andre Rekdal. The former midfielder and defender’s playing days saw him wear the colors of rival Molde FK as well as Bundesliga stalwarts Borussia Monchengladbach, Ligue 1 side Rennes and several other notable European sides. Rekdal was also capped 83 times for the Norwegian national side between 1987 and 2000 scoring 17 international goals along the way.

But of course a club is nothing without its players and the AaFK squad is one of the more diverse squads in the Tippeligaen with several players hailing from outside of Norway (Finland, Jamaica, Estonia, Costa Rica, Sweden, and Nigeria according to FIFA primary nationalities).

Former players of note include former AaFK stand out (now with Fulham) John Arne riise as well as current Manchester United Goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard.

Quick Hits:

- Local Supporters group called “Stormen” (The Storm) consists of approximately 2000 members

- Team website www.aafk.no

- Next Tippeligaen match on Sunday September 11 away against slight favorites Sogndal IL as AaFK look to halt a poor run of form over the last 5 matches.

That wraps up this edition of “Fishing for Minnows.” Check back on Friday for the big Weekend Preview!

Ciao.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Managers Philosophy

Labor Day (or the International Break depending on your priorities) has come and gone and now is the time of year when, despite the cooling temperatures, global footy action really starts to heat up!

Along those lines, I feel it is now appropriate to step up my efforts for “The Offsides Trap” and really start producing. As I began to think about what my first legitimate post would entail, I came to the conclusion that I need to have some kind of format (so that if anyone began following the blog they could have a realistic idea of when to expect the goods). Here is what I came up with:

On Friday I will give you my thoughts on the upcoming weekend’s biggest matches, what and who to watch for, and of course my extremely uninformed predictions for the matches I find most interesting/relevant/and not likely to be a blowout etc…

Then after the weekend, on Monday, I will provide the Weekend Recap (an analysis of the footballing events of the past week), as well as brief look ahead to the coming matches and fixtures that will be worth keeping an eye on!

Finally on Wednesday, I am tentatively planning a piece called “Fishing for Minnows” where I will profile, analyze, and publicize players and teams from some of the smaller leagues throughout the world. Obviously if there is a team or league you’d like to learn more about, I will gladly take requests via twitter @bfkesq

Since today is Tuesday and I missed posting anything yesterday, I figured I could spend the rest of this post providing everyone with a little background on myself and why I started the blog.

In 2002, I caught a temporary strain of football fever while I was living in Japan. The World Cup final was in Yokohama that year and we lived nearby…I couldn’t help but get caught up in the spectacle of world football. Add to that, that the US had a great run that year and that experience helped lay the foundation for what some would call a pretty intense obsession with the beautiful game.

Three and half years passed before the symptoms resurfaced in 2006 and became a full-fledged outbreak. While at St. Gregory’s University in Shawnee, OK; a group of my buddies and I started a Sunday league football club called “McLovin FC” (which still exists to this day) while concurrently getting hooked on FIFA’s 2006 Road to the World Cup for Xbox 360. On top of that my summer employment was such that I got to watch every single game of the 2006 World Cup. June and July of 2006 officially converted me from an American Football fan to a passionate supporter of the beautiful game, the real football.

After the World Cup ended, I realized I had to have more the of the sport and so I started doing my research on which club I should call my own and which clubs I would consequently love to hate. It turned out to be an easy decision. I had always known about Manchester United and of course I knew about Beckham, Ronaldo, Rooney, etc… thus whenever anyone would ask who I supported, MUFC would always be my answer; but it wasn’t until I actually watched a Manchester United game with my new found passion for the sport that I became a true Red Devil!

Their tempo, their bravado, their pace, and most importantly their manager! I am a believer in the way Sir Alex does things and I feel as loyal to him as a fan, as I do to the club itself. As long as he is in charge, I will never worry about the club.

I understand those that may call me a “bandwagoner” or a glory hunter (as I often refer to New York Yankees fans), but the fact of the matter is I don’t care and I love MUFC!

Outside of the Premiership, I enjoy watching Barca and Real Madrid as well as almost any team in the Bundesliga and Eredivise, but the only other team I actively support and follow is Udinese as I have family in Italy that are ardent Udinese supporters!

On the international level, as I mentioned early, I’m a patriot through and through, there’s no other team I follow like the Red, White, and Blue (USMNT)!

Anyway, I hope that gives you all a bit of insight into why I support the teams I do and also provides a perspective on why I’ll write some of the things I write. I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you all and hopefully engaging in some lively competitive banter with many of you!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

New Manager Announced!


First and foremost, welcome to my new blog!

I am an amateur football enthusiast, nothing more and nothing less.  I have a true passion for the beautiful game and though I am not an expert by any means; I do enjoy competitive banter and sharing my love of the sport with others.  I do play Sunday football and never miss a Manchester United or US National Team match. 

I will be using this blog to share my occasional thoughts on the world’s game, as well as make the occasional prediction and providing my takes post-match! 

I thank you all for stopping by and hope that you enjoy!