Don't forget the small teams! (08/08/2006 21:09)

For most people the new football season starts 19th August 12:45 GMT when Premier League is opened with the match between Sheffield United and Liverpool at Bramall Lane. Sheffield United are playing their first Premier League match since the crucial match against Chelseas back in the 1993/94 season when they got relegated with the last kick off the season. Now they're back to give a good fight for a new Barclay Premiership contract in mid may.

If we go back about 1½ month, more spesific, 17th of June. On this date we will find my start of the season. The Intertoto first round got played. No big names on the fixture list, but the likes of Tampere (Finland), Kalmar (Sweden), Maribor (Slovenia) and Dinamo Tbilisi (Georgia) all are good teams from their respective countries that had to play through the first Intertoto round. Except for Maribor all got through to the next round with a total 8-1 aggreagate from both home and away match. Maribor won with a total of 8-0.

1st of July, the second round of the Intertoto cup is played. Still not many people think about it at all though. Teams like Lillestrøm (Norway), Grasshoppers (Switzerland), OB (Denmark), Hibernian (Scotland) and Moskva (Russia) all enter the cup in this round. They're all well respected teams in the European cups, but still many haven't heard about them.

15th July is a more known date for any football lover, although it's the final and last round in the Intertoto cup which will provide the winner on aggreagate after 2 matches a spot in the UEFA Cup. All the teams from the large leagues in Europe play only this last match. Marseille (France), Auxerre (France), Twente (Holland), Villareal (Spain), Hertha Berlin (Germany), AA Gent (Belgium) and my favorite team Newcastle Unite (England) all enter in this last round. It's kinda weird that many football lovers only associate this one match with the UEFA Intertoto Cup. Of course it's because all the big names first come into the cup in this round, but how did they all do. For instance Marseille barely got through because of the away goal rule. Newcastle played 1-1 in their first lege at home when they faced Lillestrøm, but managed to get an easy 3-0 away victory in the second leg. Also Hertha Berlin drew the first leg at home, but won their away match 2-0 to claim their UEFA Cup spot. The biggest surprise of them all was our little team from Slovenia, Maribor. Remember, they had to play the first round when they won 8-0, in the second round they won 4-1. In the third and last round they met last a year semifinalist Villareal from Spain and won 3-2 on aggregate.

So when do your new football season start? If you're Norwegian you might say that it started back at 9th april. Or you're more the classic European that says it starts when the Barclay Premiership kicks off 19th august. Anyway, here's a little list of happenings. You might find out that your not as big football fan as you tought you were.

Chilean Apertura 28th January

Peruian Apertura 4th Feruary
Copa Libertadores 2nd March

Japanese J-League 5th March

Ireland Eircom League 10th March

Russian Vischaya League 18th March

Swedish Allsvenskan 1st April (I don't see this as the season start, just like an appetizer for what's coming)

Norwegian Tippeligaen 9th April (Same as allsvenskan)

Brasilian Campeonato 15th April

Finnish Veikkaus 19th April                              (Same as above)
FIFA World Cup 2006 Germany 9th June      (Still not the start for me, more like ending of the last season)
UEFA Intertoto Cup 1st round 17th June       (This is were it all starts for me. Teams playing for spot in the UEFA Cup)
UEFA Intertoto Cup 2nd round 1st July
UEFA Intertoto Cup 3rd round 15th June

Osterreich T-Mob. Bundesliga 18th July

Danish SAS-Ligaen 19th July

Switzerland Super League 19th July

Ukrainien 1. div 21st July

Ungarien Borsodi Liga 28th July

Czechian Gambrinus League 29th July

Scottish Premier League 29th July

Turkish Turkcell Super Ligi 4th August

Argentinian Apertura 5th August

French Le Championat 5th August

English Lower divisions 5th August

Mexican Apertura 6th August

German 1. Bundesliga 11th August

Polish 1. div 11th August

Netherland Eredivise 18th August

English Premier League 19th August

Greece 1. div 19th August

Spanish Primera Division 27th August

The Italien Serie A is likely to be delayed so the starting date is uncertain. This is due to known "cheating" issues that were revealed in the end of last season.
Also the Portugese schedual is not made public yet for some reason. Last season they started 21st august, so i have no freaking idea why it aint published already.

If anyone should happen to miss Chilean Clausura, Pruian Clausura, Mexican Clausura and Argentinian Clausura i haven't put them into the list because it's kinda the second half of the season. They use 2 tables in thos countries. 1 for the first secion and another for the last section of matches played.

My teams

This entry will kinda be a double entry insted of making 2. Through out this season i will share my ups and downs in the global football society. I know the downs will come and might not share them at aonce it happen cause i can get kinda depressed when my team aint doing what they're supposed to do, win their matches of course.

First of all I'm Norwegian so i have my Norwegian team to follow. The team in my city is in the highest division, Tippeligaen, so it's pretty normal to follow that team with your heart and i'm one of those. The big problem is that they haven't done so well this season. Something that makes me very sad. The team is called Viking FK. There's already played 16 out of 24 matches total in Tippeligaen and Viking have only managed to 4 matches, 5 draws and 7 loses. The little bright part in the whoole picture is that the league is unbeliveble close this season. From 5th place to 13th place there is only a 5 point difference. Viking is currently placed 11th on goal difference. The team have been a disgrace all season only scoring a total of 14 goals. That's below 1 goal each match. If they can't get their act together soon i'm afrwaid they're gonna demote which would been aweful. This actually something i wont talk any more about at the moment, i'm just getting depressed, so lets move on to more happier moments so far.

Yes, Newcastle United have already made me a happy person. First of all they have signed Damien Duff for the coming season. They're also looking for new attacker that cantake over for a long term injured Michael Owen. I actually don't knkow if that's the biggest issue as they have Shola Ameobi who i think will be a great star if he just get the chance as first attacker insted of the one doing the job for the other attacker. He got great talent, but I wouldn't mind another great striker in the squad though. As it is just now they only got 3 strikers, Ameobi, Luque and Milner. Hopefully they'll get some new faces before the transfer window closes. This is not the only way Newcastle have made me happy so far though, as you probably got from the first part they claimed their victory with a 4-1 aggregate against the Norwegian team Lillestrøm in the UEFA Intertoto Cup third round. This gave them a spot in the UEFA Cup where they have drawn the Latvian team FK Ventspils to play in the first leg. A match that sounds like a walkover to most football interested people, but they are unbeaten in the league this season and just suffered their first loss since october 2005. So far this seeason they have 12 wins and 4 draws in the league. Newcastle will play the first leg away wich will be a mayor advantage as they can get a feeling on the opponent before making their tactics and pressure for the home match. First leg being played on thursday 10th august.
The first league match gonna be played at St. James Park against Wigan. A match Newcastle won 3-1 last season after 2 goals from retired Alan Shearer and 1 goal from Titus Bramble. Hopefully they can make the history repeat itself, except someone else then Shearer need to put the goals this time.

Hmm, who's logo is this you might think. Well, this is a team i've fancied since around 97/98 season. I discovered them when they played in the English Conference league. that's the lowest professional league in england for thos who haven't heard of it. Or as i like to call it, the connection league between amateur and professional. Last season they played in English 2nd division and promoted through playoff, beating Grimsby in the final. That was the best part of the entire last season for me. It was incredible feeling. So now they're playing division 1 football.
The first match was played on saturday (5th august) away against Swansea. An opponent who got beaten in the playoff final for division 1 last season. They came 5th in the league last season and was mayor favourites against Cheltenham. Cheltenham manager, John Ward, made an experience lineup and put his two speedy winger Ashley Vincent and main striker Steven Gillespie on the bench. Gillespie only started on the bench because of an injury. Also Shane Duff was injured, but played the first 45 minutes of the match. Cheltenham managed to hold bck the big Swansea pressure in the first half and the score was 0-0 at that time. In the start of the second half Cheltenham actually put themself 1-0 ahead after a counter attack and just minutes later increased the lead to 2-0. Swansea had to push more forward and cheltenham almost got their 3rd goal not long after, but didn't manage to put it. 10 minutes from time swansea reduced the lead to 2-1 which became the final result. Cheltenham won their important first match of the season and are placed 4th in the league after 1 match played. The second match got started 20 minutes ago. It's being played at home on Whaddon Road against Tranmere. This time Cheltenham is the favourite.
Current score, Cheltneham - Tranmere 1-0. Odejayi scored his second goal of the season. Wohooooo, it looks like i'm gonna be a happy man to deal with on the chat tonight.

Don't forget about your team just because they're doing bad, cause that's when they need you the most!

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This blogger owns the team The Gremlins. (TEAM:70090)