Champions League 2008-09 group draw

The draw for the 2008-09 UEFA Champions Legaue took place last night with the foolowing groups:

Group A: Chelsea is likely to win, and no tips on the runner-up. The Romanians will be interesting to watch.

• Chelsea (England): Last season's finalists enter the tournament as big favourites under a new coach. Will be exciting to watch them, and they are certainly contenders again as well as favourites in the group.
  
• AS Roma (Italy): The Italians are always strong, and AS Roma is an example of it. They won't get my support though...
  
• Bordeaux (France): The team coached by former French super-star Laurent Blanc will be interesting to watch, since they are relatively unwritten at CL level.
  
• CFR Cluj (Romania): These are the Romanian and should thus not be underestimated. Still, without knowing much about them, they are a completely unwritten team.
  

Group B: Inter Milan, as a serious contender to the title, is by far the favourite. The surprising Cypriots will be interesting to watch as well.

• Inter Milan (Italy): Under the new coach José Mourinho, and an already star-filled team, they should this season be even more serious contenders for the title.
  
• Werder Bremen (Germany): Not as strong as in previous years, but I still is the safest bet to follow Inter to the next round.
  
• Panathinaikos (Greece): Will have to hold up the flag for Greek football after Olympiakos sensational elimination against Famagusta.
  
• Anorthosis Famagusta (Cyprus): The surprising Cypriot team is in after a sensational win against the Greek champions of Olympiakos, but will have their hands full!
  

Group C: Barcelona is by far the favourite, and could get a flying start to the tournament. I think the other three teams will be fighting for the crumbs...

• FC Barcelona (Spain): A renewed Barcelona under Pep Guardiola will be interesting to watch, now without Deco and Ronaldinho, but with Messi playing a much more important role.
  
• Sporting Lisbon (Portugal): Portuguese teams are always hard to play against and so will Sporting (don't check their web-site though: it is crap!).
  
• FC Basel (Switzerland): Their second CL appearance, the Swiss will be interesting, but I don't think they will make it far.
  
• Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine): The defending Ukrainian champions are becoming a common team in the CL. Last season they finished last in their group, let us see what they can do this time!
  

Group D: This group has some of the most interesting encounters in the group stages! Liverpool-PSV is a classic encounter, and Fernando Torres facing his old club Atlético will surely also cause talk!

• Liverpool (England): Always better at European level than in the Premier League, they will probably be hard to beat again, although the group surely looks difficult!
  
• PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands): Dutch champions doesn't that say it all?
  
• Olympique Marseille (France): Good to have the southern French giants back in the CL!
  
• Atlético Madrid (Spain): Hungry for European success, they will be hard to beat, as well as good to have them back in the CL!
  

Group E: Manchester and Villarreal usually have some good clashes, and the Scots always put up an entertaining fight. However, Manchester United should be considered the favourites by far.

• Mancherster United (England): Defending champions, they will surely be the team to beat, and will have to fight very hard to win again.
  
• Villarreal (Spain): The "yellow submarine", siilver winners in Spain last season, are in the second CL; in their first one, two years ago, they tied Manchester United twice and reached the semi-finals...
  
• Celtic (Scotland): Awesome champions of the Scottish league, Gordon Strachan's team will as always be liked in Europe, but will have to fight much more for the points!
  
• Aalborg B (Denmark): The Danish champions are in their second CL ever, but will probably have an early exit.
  

Group F: Olympique Lyon and Bayern should be fighting for the top-spot in this group, and I would give the Germans the edge. Nevertheless, the two other teams are strong outsiders and may tease the other two.

• Olympique Lyon (France): Continuing as the most awesome team in French football (seven titles in a row now), and having played well in the previous CL's, success has nevertheless eluded them. Will this be their year...?
  
• Bayern Munich (Germany): Good to have the Germans back after their notable absence last season. They are German champions, and under Jurgen Klinsmann, I would consider them a contender for the title.
  
• Steaua Bucharest (Romania): The most traditional Romanian club has been in the CL many times, and won highest European honours in 1986. The participate as Romanian runners-up this season, but should nevertheless not be discounted (and an addition here: great for Romanian football!)
  
• Fiorentina (Italy): Hard to beat, boring to watch... Farewell!
  

Group G: Difficult group where all have an option, perhaps with FC Porto and Arsenal with a slight edge. I tip the Portuguese to go on top.

• Arsenal (England): Arsene Wenger's team came closest to European success when they reached the final two years ago. This season the team looks less strong, and I doubt they can reach that far, although they can never be discounted.
  
• FC Porto (Portugal): Portuguese champions and two-times winners of the CL/Champions Cup (1987 and 2004) they are again a potential outsider for the title.
  
• Fenerbahce (Turkey): Turkish runners-up last season, but managed to qualify for the CL with an experienced and capable side which surely will be hard to defeat.
  
• Dynamo Kyiv (Ukraine): The traditional Ukrainian side ended second in Ukraine last season, but qualified to the CL after destroying Spartak Moscow in a Soviet-era traditional clash.
  

Group H: Probably the hardest group as both Real Madrid, Juventus and Zenit St. Petersburg must be considered some of the best teams in Europe. Every match will be interesting. Borisov will be facing some expensive first-hand training....

• Real Madrid (Spain): Spanish champions and as always, serious contenders for the title.
  
• Juventus (Italy): "The old lady" is back in Europe after their forced relegation in 2006, and they are very welcome! They will be interesting to watch, and will surely want to show they belong in the CL top! A serious outsider for the title.
  
• Zenit St. Petersburg (Russia): The defending UEFA Cup champions and Russian champions are playing their first CL, and will be a team to count on, and will give everyone a serious fight. Another outsider for the title!
  
• BATE Borisov (Bielorussia): I know nothing about these Bielorussian champions besides the fact that they are sensationally in the CL after defeating Levski Sofia.
  

David Villa in Valencia

I am delighted that the Euro 2008top-scorer, David Villa, has decided to stay in Valencia.
Rumours have lately connected him to Real Madrid, but I am happy that he will not waste his talents and playing time for going to Madrid.
This season will hopefully be Valencia's, after a few meager years, and David Villa will be central in this!

Gold for Argentina

The Olympic final between Argentina and Nigeria was not an entertaining match: in fact, it was one of the worse matches Argentina played in this tournament, and while Nigeria was tactically sound, and managed to control the deadly Argentinean strikers, the heat in the stadium in Beijing seemed overwhelming for both teams.
Nevertheless, Argentina wins gold for the second time in a row (on a fine goal by the Benfica player Angel Di Maria) and emerge as one of the favourites in the coming World Cup.
I have never hidden my outright preference for Argentina, and I am of course delighted! I have to thank the Nigerians for a great tournament, and must add that the three best teams got the medals in the Olypic games of Beijing:

Gold: Argentina
Silver: Nigeria
Bronze: Brazil

Congratulations and thank you to these teams!

Gold for the USA

In truth in football it is not always the best team that wins. And I mean "best" in the sense that it is not the team that plays the nicest football, that creates the most chances, that attacks the most, that plays the most entertaining.
This was exactly what happened in the Olympic women's final between Brazil and the USA. I think the USA did not have a shot on target until the 85th minute, while the Brazilians were constantly in possession and attacking.
Here though, I must also say another truth in football: the more clever defeats the more naive. One must respect the discipline and defensive tactics which did that the Brazilian ladies, in spite of overwhelming superiority in possession, never really got a great chance. The North American ladies thus fully deserved the gold ahead of the naive (and unlucky in the end!) Brazilians.

So congratulations to the USA for their gold medal!

That said, there is a deeper problem here for the sake of women's football.
I have before said that I do not find women's football too exciting: it is too mechanical and with too little flair. The Brazilian ladies have been the first to add flair to women's football, thus making it more entertaining to watch. But if teams that play like the USA did today continue winning, women's football will always be too boring to watch! With all due respect for the tactical prowess of their victory, it is more exciting to watch someone count grains of sand than to watch someone play like the US ladies did today!

The European champions in Copenhagen

Yesterday there were friendly matches all over the world, and Denmark was honoured of hosting the winners of Euro 2008, Spain, in Copenhagen, for the first match the Spanish are playing as holders of the title, as well as with their new coach, Vicente del Bosque.

The match was played in the shadow of the plane-tragedy in Madrid earlier in the day, and much celebration that was to take place was cancelled.

But at least for the Danes, there was not much to celebrate: going into the World Cup 2010 qualifiers in just a couple of weeks, the Danes have to admit that they were completely overrun by a far superior Spanish side. Spain played like champions, yes, but Denmark made it all too easy for them: I have not seen such dominance, away, for a long time, and it must worry the Danes, in spite of it being "only" a friendly match.

Spain won 3-0, on two goals by Xabi Alonso and one by Xavi Hernandez.

Argentina in the Olympic final

I do not think that the game was played harshly: in fact, I feel that the Brazilian red cards were way too harsh! Nevertheless, the Argentinean victory was fully deserved in this semifinal between Argentina and Brazil which should have been the final.

3-0 for Argentina on two goals by Kun Agüero and one penalty by Juán Román Riquelme, and they are now ready to face Nigeria in a repeat of the Atlanta 1996 Olympic final, where the Nigerians ran away with a not entirely deserved victory.
But thank you to the wonderful Brazilians; I hope they win the bronze medal against the poor Belgians, and well... GO ARGENTINA!

Being a Brøndby fan....

I am a Brøndby supporter, and I consider Brøndby the best team in Denmark. That said, there are some bad things about supporting Brøndby, primarily the "fans"/hooligans who give the rest of us Brøndby supporters the following reputation:

• We have never read anything but the label of a beer
  
• Our diet is composed of pizza, burgers and cheap beer
• We have never talked to any woman besides our mothers and the woman selling beer at Aldi
  
• If we ever have children, we will name them all Kim Vilfort, even the girls
  
• Our geographical abilities are limited to knowing the bus number to the stadium
  
• We cut each others hair, and that is why we're all bald skinheads
  
• None of us have ever held a job for any longer than until the next match
• More than a Brøndby victory, we like beating up people
• Burp, fart, shit, puke...
  
• None of us actually know the rules in football...

Sadly for the real Brøndby fans, the vast majority of supporters who dearly love the blue-yellow team, who love football and who know how to behave, there is a small group of Brøndby supporters who for some reason keeps following our team, giving us the above reputation and making trouble like they did yesterday in Århus, after Brøndby lost 2-1 to AGF. Therefore the loss is doubly sad.

Go Brøndby!

Goodbye and thanks for nothing

Cameroun and Italy, in the first round of this Olympic tournament, played some of the most boring football ever, and now, both teams are out, in the quarterfinals: farewell to both, and thanks for nothing.

I did not see Italy lose 2-3 to Belgium, but I am happy they did: every time Italy is out in football it is a reason to be happy!

What I did see though, was Brazil's extra time 2-0 victory against a Cameroonian team who did not seem to have gone to China to kick a ball, but rather to kick the men. This should not surprise about Cameroun though: they have always played physically, bordering on the outright violent, and are one of the teams ever with most cards in the world cups. And today they lived up to their style: destructive and boring football, nothing to do with that so-called "Olympic spirit".
While Brazil was not impressive, very slow and lacked fighting, they did the whole world a favour by eliminating Cameroun. And I hope Cameroun doesn't come back to the Olympics.

The wolves from Midtjylland

When I was a young lad I lived for a while in central Jutland, not far from Ikast. Back then, Ikast had a team in the top Danish league, and did quite well: they played a memorable cup final against Brøndby in 1989, and I went to many of their matches. It was all a bit strange for this little town in the middle of the marshes, but it was so: local traders, traditionally with a lot of money, poured money into the team.
Some years ago the teams of central Jutland, Ikast and Herning, got together to make a big team, seated in Herning, but pulling from Ikast's success. They created a team with the really stupid name, FC Midtjylland. I have always found it a silly thing, and have never supported them: I would prefer good ole' Ikast, and I find that FC Midtjylland is an artificial money-creation, more than a team with traditional support.

That is my personal opinion, but not to take away the extraordinary results over the last years as the investment of FC Midtjylland money-men starts to pay off: FC Midtjylland is leading the Danish Superliga, and last night they opened up at European level! In the UEFA Cup qualifers FC Midtjylland was to face the Premier League team from Manchester City. A Danish team should be no problem for a Premier League team, and although the English stars grossly under-estimated the Danes, it doesn't take away the fact that FC Midtjylland played a great match and deservedly won 0-1 in Manchester.

The team emblem is a wolve, so the wolves roared in England last night.

Standard Liege-Liverpool

I rather enjoyed last night's spirited fight between Standard Liege and Liverpool in the Champions League qualifier. Although it ended 0-0, it was a good match - one where both teams knew that the promised land of the Champions League would not come by itself.
Standard Liege, in front of a great crowd in the Belgian city, has every reason to be disappointed: missed penalties and some huge chances were not used, and that will make it very difficult when they face the reds in Liverpool.

It is a pity that one of these teams has to be out of the Champions League already; they would both be great!

The funeral in Aalborg

Last night the Danish champions Aalborg Boldklub (AaB) took a big step towards qualifying to the Champions League by defeating FBK Kaunas 2-0 in Aalborg. AaB has played in the Champions League once before, but back then qualified because Dynamo Kiev was suspended because of a bribery scandal.
Now, they have the chance of qualifying for the first time, and become the first Danish team to have played in the Champions League twice. This is very important, to say the least, but could you see it on the spectators...?
They were playing at home, on such an important match, but the little stadium wasn't full. And as the match progressed, support was only available from some 20 fans. In fact, this looked much more like a funeral than then home-team winning a qualifier for the Champions League.
I guess AaB fans are poor supporters, and boring fans, but it will be a pity for Champions League to have big teams go play in Aalborg and there being barely any atmosphere at the stadium! If that would be the case, I'd prefer Kaunas.
Get yourselves together AaB fans!

Olympic quarterfinals

The first round of the Olympic football tournament is over without major surprises: Brazil and Argentina have lived up to their aspirations with three straight wins each, and are ready to the quarterfinals. It has not been amazing though: Brazil seems to have eased their way through Belgium, New Zealand and China, while Argentina had to fight a bit more against Ivory Coast and Serbia, but looking awfully strong nevertheless.
The three European teams in the quarterfinals, Belgium, Netherlands and Italy, have been efficient, but an absolute bore of the kind that makes one want to watch paint dry rather than them. In their last match, Italy and Cameroun played for the 0-0 draw that would take them both through in some of the worse football ever seen.
Not really Olympic spirit there.
Finally, besides Cameroun, we have two other African teams in the quarterfinals, Ivory Coast and Nigeria, who will in fact each other in an all-African quarterfinal.
As it is now, the four quarterfinals on Saturday are as follows:

• Argentina-Netherlands
• Ivory Coast-Nigeria
• Brazil-Cameroun
• Italy-Belgium

I make no discrestion that I want an Argentina-Brazil final: it would be best for the Olympics and for football fans in general.

PS...

On a completely different note, I am missing some countries from the Olympics: Western Sahara, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar and Tibet.

Cheers to them, because they belong in the Olympics!

2008 Olympics

The football tournament has started and today I watched my first match: Brazil destroyed New Zealand 5-0, and one could really see the different levels! Brazil was sooooo superior to New Zealand that it was almost sad! And Ronaldinho played excellently, although the background was a poor New Zealand side.
I guess that is one of the down-sides of the Olympics, even more than world cups (where it nevertheless happens as well): too many teams of a very low level...
So until now, the predictions are holding: Brazil and Argentina (with an incredible Messi) have won both their games until now.

On a different note, I also watched a woman's game: the USA defeated Japan. I don't have much positive to say; the game was a bore, and the atmosphere was irritated by continued high-pitch screams throughout the match....

I need a life.

Olympic football

The Olympic games in Berlin are about to start, and football is one of the sports where the country's will be competing.
The history of olympic football has always been rather awkward, and still today, the position of olympic history is very strange: something in between a semi-youth tournament supplemented with some star players.
For the first Olympic games, when there was no world cup, the Olympics were considered like the world cup, dominated by Europeans. This was just until unknown Uruguay in 1924 blew all Europeans away, and the groundwork was laid for the first world cup in 1930 in Uruguay. Then, for many years, olympic football became the ground of amateurs, dominated by Eastern Europeans, who had "state amateurs".
In general, it was a bore, and no competition with the World Cup: one can also see this in relation to countries that were the best in the world, were not to be seen in the Olympics: Brazil, England, West Germany, Argentina... (with only possible exception of some Eastern European countries).
Over the last years this has started to change, and the allowing of new players has made the tournament a bit more interesting, although some participating nations still only show off with a secondary youth team.
The great exceptions for these Olympics in Beijing are Brazil and Argentina. Argentina are defending champions from 2004, and Brazil is keen on winning its first gold ever in football. They therefore have shown up with very strong teams, and are by far the favourites to win the whole thing.
Nevertheles, because olympic football is such a bore, one doesn't know what may happen. However, I may add that it is not really worth bothering with games in the first rounds, until the semi-finals, unless you are from one of the countries playing.

Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1900 Paris	Great Britain	France	Belgium
1904 St. Loius	Canada	United States
1908 London	Great Britain	Denmark	Netherlands
1912 Stockholm	Great Britain	Denmark	Netherlands
1920 Antwerpen	Belgium	Spain	Netherlands
1924 Paris	Uruguay	Switzerland	Sweden
1928 Amsterdam	Uruguay	Argentina	Italy
1936 Berlin	Italy	Austria	Norway
1948 London	Sweden	Yugoslavia	Denmark
1952 Helsinki	Hungary	Yugoslavia	Sweden
1956 Melbourne	USSR	Yugoslavia	Bulgaria
1960 Rome	Yugoslavia	Denmark	Hungary
1964 Tokyo	Hungary	Czechoslovakia	East Germany
1968 Mexico City	Hungary	Bulgaria	Japan
1972 Munich	Poland	Hungary	USSR
1976 Montreal	East Germany	Poland	USSR
1980 Moscow	Czechoslovakia	East Germany	USSR
1984 Los Angeles	France	Brazil	Yugoslavia
1988 Seoul	USSR	Brazil	West Germany
1992 Barcelona	Spain	Poland	Ghana
1996 Atlanta	Nigeria	Argentina	Brazil
2000 Sydney	Cameroun	Spain	Chile
2004 Athens	Argentina	Paraguay	Italy
2008 Beijing

Pathetic Glasgow Rangers

In last seasons' UEFA Cup final the Russians of Zenit St. Petersburg were far superior to a poor Glasgow Rangers side.
With a new Champions League season starting, Glasgow Rangers had the opportunity to get a qualifier against the Danish champions AaB - all they had to do was defeat the Lithuanian champions, FBK Kaunas. One would expect that for a team like Glasgow Rangers this should not even be an issue, but in one of the first surprises of this seasons Champions League, the Lithuanians eliminated the UEFA Cup finalists.
On the one hand it is positive that we will have a team in the Champions League from such puny leagues as the Danish or Lithuanian, on the other hand it is pathetic that Glasgow Rangers can't manage to go through (all due respect to the Lithuanians).

Euro 2008 road/boat-trip

This Euro 2008 also took me on a combined road-boat-trip with some friends like during the 2006 World Cup. Destination: Faroe Islands and Iceland.
In fact, the trip started on the day that Turkey was playing Croatia, when the four of us going on the trip met up in the Danish town of Viborg, from where we would drive to Hanstholm on the following day to take the ferry that would take us to the North Atlantic islands.

Viborg has a football team called Viborg FF. Until last year they played in the best Danish league, with decent results. However, Viborg is more of a handball town, and after being relegated, I think it’ll be a while before we see them in the “Superliga”.
Perhaps it was the lack of a local team, but there were not many people in the local sports pub where we went to watch Turkey-Croatia over many good Classic Fadøl.
It was perhaps understandable, since the match was not overly exciting, but all the drama happened in those last minutes of the extra time: Croatia scored to 1-0 with one minute left but the never-give-up Turks equalized in the last second. We were not many in the pub, but you could feel the drama when the disappointed Croats without confidence lost the penalty kicks.

After seeing the Cathedral of Viborg we continued to Hanstholm on the next day to get on our Smyril Line Ferry, M/S Nörrona, where we would spend the next two days on our way to the Faroe Islands.

The boat was full of all Scandinavian nationalities and a lot of Germans. So although the lounge bar of the ferry was full for the evening’s match, there seemed to be no major support for either the Netherlands or Russia. Over beers on the rocking ship we saw a surprising turn of events in the tournament: the Dutch had until then seemed invincible in their first-round matches. But a Dutch coach, Guus Hiddink, heading the Russians, apparently knew how to handle his countrymen. Although it took them into extra time to win 3-1, the Russian victory was very well-deserved and they were ready for the semi-final.

No flying-Dutchman on the North Atlantic.

Although the Faroe Islands were not participating in the European Championship, the game the following day would see one of the teams play that had defeated the Faroe Islands in the qualifiers. In fact, the Faroe Islands scored half of all their goals in the qualifiers against the Italians, who barely defeated the Faroese with 1-2 and 1-3.
Italy had disappointed in the tournament so far, but everyone knows that Italy starts playing well in the latter round, while Spain is completely opposite: the Spaniards start well, and end up losing.
So it was with only cautious optimism, not to say outright pessimism, that we got comfortable to watch Spain-Italy in the lounge-bar after passing the Shetland Islands.
But Spain won! After penalty-kicks all right, but a deserved and unexpected victory in a long 0-0 match between the two Southern European giants.
Spain was now ready to their first semi-final since 1984, and we had a couple of days break from the damn boat and from football on the lovely Faroe Islands, where besides amazing landscapes we saw a football pitch situated beautifully between the cliffs at Eidi.

One more day on the boat until we were on Iceland, but not before we watched the first of the semi-finals between Germany and Turkey on the lounge of the ship.
There was, now, no doubt who most people were supporting: there were many Germans on the boat and not a single Turk.
The Turks were also like that on the pitch in Basel, where there were many injured players. Still, Turkey gave another memorable fight against the mighty and annoyingly efficient Germans. Often the Germans were having trouble against never-ending Turkish attacks, and it was incredible when the Turks equalized to 2-2 with only two minutes left of the match; were the Turks about to do it again…?
But if anyone can do late victories, it is Germany: Phillipe Lahm scored a winner for the Germans with only a few seconds to go, and there was just a petty celebration from the Germans on the ship, and no party. I think one Turk on the ship would have partied better than the hundred of Germans that were already there.

In the qualifiers for this Euro 2008, Iceland was in the same group as Spain (1-1 in Reykyavik and Spain won 1-0 in Mallorca). So it may have been proper that we arrived at the port of Seydisfjördur in Eastern Iceland, on the day when Spain was facing Russia in the semi-final.
We drove for a couple of hours, passing the mighty waterfalls of Dettifoss, before making it to Myvatn, with its other-worldly landscapes. There, we were to stay at a cabin at the charming Dimmuborgir Guesthouse.
We arrived in a hurry, as the match was already starting. There was no TV in the cabin, so we sat down at the kitchen table of the owners, in front of a small TV, to watch the match.
One of us broke his glasses and thought he was provided with some condoms to repair them… (no further comments necessary…).

Spain had defeated Russia 4-1 in the first round, but after Russia’s match against the Netherlands and the return of Arshavin, expectation were rightfully higher on the Russians. Nevertheless, the Russians were hugely disappointing: they hardly threatened the Spanish goal and although Spain scored late, they won 3-0 in a victory that seemed much too easy.

Spain-Germany in the final!

Iceland is amazing, and we thoroughly enjoyed the following days, almost forgetting there was a major football tournament going on as we went hiking among lava, whale-watching, smelling sulphur and playing yatzy in the most obscure places we could find.
On the day of the match we went white-water rafting on the Jokulsa river near Varmahlid. It was a great and challenging raft on an absolutely gorgeous glacial river along narrow cliffs. There were three rafts, ours a combined Danish-Canadian crew, and one with only Germans. Of course, the Germans started shouting “Deutchland!” as they ventured out on the rapids, and we immediately replied “Viva España!”

Perhaps it was a premonition of things to come for the Germans that same evening: on a 4-level rapid our raft slid through almost perfectly, while the German raft tipped over into the cold water in a spectacular fall.
A cold shower for the Germans, and it would not be the last on that day.

We stopped on the way to Reykyavik in Borgarness to watch the match. We found a small cozy restaurant with a large TV, where we also had a well-deserved hamburger after our days’ adventure.
And although the place was full of German tourists/fans, we had no doubt that we won (well, Spain as well…): we had plenty of beers and openly celebrated Torres’ goal. So much that one German annoyed said at the end of the match: “You must be happy Germany lost…”
We were indeed, but even happier that Spain had (finally) won!

“Viva España” became the motto of the last few days in Iceland, where we went discovering around the “Golden Circle” (Pinghvellir, Godafoss and Geysirs) and the beautiful city of Reykyavik.
Go to Iceland! Even to watch football!

Back-posting

Yes, I am back-posting from all the posts I would write in my little notebook during my recent trip through half the world.
Sorry - I guess this blog is as much a football-diary.
Cheers.