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| 2008/09 UEFA Cup | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 16 2008, 07:21 AM (1,849 Views) | |
| Simon | Jul 16 2008, 07:21 AM Post #1 |
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I thought I'd put the last round of the Intertoto Cup in a 'UEFA Cup' thread as it is essentially a qualifying round for that competition. It's been going for a few weeks now and I think it may have started not only before the end of Euro 2008 but even before the end of the Spanish second division, which is staggering when you think about it. Football has no summer break these days! This is actually the final edition of the Intertoto Cup, I don't know what's happening next year, maybe just an extended UEFA Cup qualification process? The best performance of any team from the Intertoto Cup remains that of Bordeaux in the very first year of the competition's existence 1995/96, when a bloke named Zidane helped them reach the final itself. 2008 UEFA Intertoto Cup third round First leg: 19/20 July Second leg: 26/27 July Winners enter UEFA Cup second qualifying round Bnei Sakhnin FC (ISR) v RC Deportivo La Coruña (ESP) Panionios GSS (GRE) v SSC Napoli (ITA) Sivasspor (TUR) v SC Braga (POR) Grasshopper-Club (SUI) v PFC Chernomorets Burgas (BUL) FC Saturn Moskovskaya Oblast (RUS) v VfB Stuttgart (GER) PFC Neftçi (AZE) v SC Vaslui (ROU) Stade Rennais FC (FRA) v SC Tavriya Simferopol (UKR) SK Sturm Graz (AUT) v Budapest Honvéd FC (HUN) NAC Breda (NED) v Rosenborg BK (NOR) Odense BK (DEN) v Aston Villa FC (ENG) IF Elfsborg (SWE) v FK Rīga (LVA) There are some interesting ties here. Rosenborg did well in the CL last season, winning home and away against Valencia and getting a draw at Stamford Bridge, which of course is as well as anyone has done there in some four years. But they won't necessarily find the going easy against NAC Breda of Holland who have talented veterans such as Lurling and Kolkka as well as Matthew Amoah of Ghana. Aston Villa are up against OB Odense which could be tricky, as could Napoli's tie with Panionios. Last year's German champions Stuttgart could also have had an easier tie than Saturn of Russia. Off the top of my head I think we have just one poster with a direct interest in this round - Galicia with Deportivo. Should be an interesting UEFA Cup this season, featuring teams such as AC Milan, Valencia, Spurs, Sevilla, Ajax (now under Van Basten of course), Everton, PSG, Feyenoord, Hamburg, Dortmund, CSKA Moscow plus whoever drops out of the CL. We could identify Milan as favourites but so were Bayern Munich last season... The First Qualifying Round for the competition actually begins tomorrow and features a load of small, little-known teams plus the sporting colossus that is Manchester City. Full details: http://www.uefa.com/competitions/uefacup/index.html |
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| raconteur | Jul 16 2008, 11:47 AM Post #2 |
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Hard to believe this Intertoto tournament is upon us already. I am a little surprised though to read this will be the final Intertoto Cup. Like Simon, I am curious to see what will be done next season or if the UEFA Cup, or whatever silly name I saw last week they are thinking of renaming it, will just stick with a smaller field of teams? Shocking how many similarities there between this coming season's Milan and last season's Bayern. If Milan can duplicate Bayern's fete of winning it's league championship, I'll be content! |
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| galicia | Jul 18 2008, 09:20 PM Post #3 |
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Right you are, Simon. My boys take the field today (Saturday, 7:00 pm (Spain's time)) in Israel against Bnei Sakhnin. We are missing some players, like Coloccini, who have had extra vacation time due to international competition, or like Pablo Amo (rumored to be on his way out to Zaragoza), due to injury. It is expected that Deportivo will play with Fabricio; Manuel Pablo, Piscu, Lopo, Juanan, Filipe Luis; Sergio, Juan Rodríguez, Lafita, Valerón; and Riki. If this holds, three players from Deportivo B team (2nd Division B; i.e. third division) will be playing here, Fabricio at goal and Piscu and Juanan as central defenders. I hope this is good news for us, because I presume they will show an eagerness that more mature players may lack when they play what they think is lesser competition. This potential overconfidence, in addition to lack of match fitness, makes this round of the intertoto very unpredictable. Of course, the biggest (non) signing of the year will be at hand. After multiple knee operations, Valerón appears to be ready to man the helm of the attack. All deportivistas are holding their breath, saying their prayers and engaging in their favorite superstitious rituals in the hopes that Valerón's knee can hold the stress of a full season and the assorted hacks that will go his way. It would be good news for Deportivo and Spanish football if it does. I won't get to see the game because I am in Thailand right now. It is too late for me and I don't think it will be televised locally or on the internet. Even the good folks at rojadirecta.com have no link (yet) for this event. Hopefully I will get good news when I get up. By the way, here everybody assumes that I am American, probably because I speak English and my wife is American, but every once in a while it turns out that, in the course of a conversation, I mention that I am from Spain. Every single time, the first words off the other person's mouth are: "Ah, Spain. Congratulations on your great soccer team. Very good in tennis, too". Cheers Pedro |
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| Don Balon | Jul 18 2008, 10:35 PM Post #4 |
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Sounds like you are on an exciting trip Pedro just don't forget to remind them that Spain also are the current world champions of basketball too! Good to see you checking in and keeping up to date on Depor's progress even when away. The sign of a true fan! Looks like the club's coach Miguel Angel Lotina came to a Solomonic decision and decided to send both goalies Aouate and Munua away from the club after their training ground fight lasts eason. Although I did think everything had been resolved between those two and between them and the club. Obviously that wasn't the case. So are Depor going to loan out Momo and Ruben Castro once again? Those two came in as promising players but never made it with Depor, instead they're loaned out to 2nd Division clubs every year. I would love to see Juan Carlos Valeron make a comeback. One of Spain's real talents who has constantly been troubled with injuries. When healthy, he's one of the smoothest players in the league. |
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| galicia | Jul 18 2008, 10:59 PM Post #5 |
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The "fight" between the goalkeepers is something that has not been properly addressed from a public point of view. Lotina stated from the very beginning that he would no longer use either of them, handing the goalkeeper's gloves to Fabricio (from Deportivo's second team). Nevertheless, he eventually reverted to using Aouate. Still, he insisted that he wanted the team to get rid of both goalies at the end of last season. What is not clear to me, though, is why Lotina took this stance. After all, all that is publicly known is that Munúa was the one who attached Aouate (this even got to the legal court system). Why punish the latter, then? Now, Deportivo has five goalkeepers training with the first team: Aranzubia, the two foreign goalies and the two guys from Deportivo B. Lendoiro (the team president) must find ways of getting rid of Munúa and Aouate. Similar things happen at most other positions: Momo and Rubén Castro, as Don Balón states, must be loaned, but there are also other guys who will eventually go or sit out: Bodipo, Pablo Amo, Taborda and several others that even I can't remember their names. I think Lotina wants the administration to find spots somewhere else for over ten players. It seems that every year we are in the same spot, having to sell players at a discount or paying their salaries while they do nothing but wait until their contracts expire so they can move somewhere else. Cheers Pedro |
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| rosarino | Jul 19 2008, 03:51 PM Post #6 |
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Saturday's Intertoto results: Elfsborg 1 - 0 FK Riga Saturn 1 - 0 Stuttgart Grasshoppers 3 - 0 Chernomorets Burgas Burgas FK Neftchi 2 - 1 FC Vaslui Sturm Graz 0 - 0 Budapest Honved Bnei Sachnin 1 - 2 Deportivo La Coruna Rennes 1 - 0 Tavriya Symferopol NAC Breda 1 - 0 Rosenborg OB Odense 2 - 2 Aston Villa Enjoy your trip Pedro! I don't think Depor will have any trouble finding a taker for Aouate. I always thought he was a pretty good goalkeeper. Deportivo were the only road team to win their first leg match. It looks good for they, Aston Villa (road draw with 2 goals) and Grasshoppers Zurich (3 goal home win) next week in the return legs. |
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| Don Balon | Jul 26 2008, 07:49 AM Post #7 |
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Deportivo's opponent the Israeli club Bnei Sachnin were delayed leaving their country when several players were accused of stealing from one of the Tel Aviv airport's shops! I guess they wanted a memento of their trip to A Coruña because after this weekend, their European adventure should be over! |
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| galicia | Jul 26 2008, 07:28 PM Post #8 |
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Bnei Sachni (I've seen different spellings, so I'll use the one Rosarino and Don Balon use) had a very decent showing in the return leg, losing 1-0 in Riazor. Deportivo's goal was scored towards the end of the first half by none other than Juan Carlos Valerón, who was, hands down, the best player in the team over the two games. This was his first game as a starter in Riazor since January (I believe) 2006. This is perhaps the most important outcome for us Deportivo fans. Valerón seems to be in good form, although he himself acknowledges that he lacks confidence when attempting some dribblings that would put extra pressure on his left knee. Deportivo fans saw also the first action by Ze Roberto, Omar Bravo and Mista, the new acquisitions. They had unremarkable games. Lafita and Riki seem to be playing at a decent level, although they missed multiple chances yesterday, and the canteranos, Fabricio (goalie), Piscu and Juanan (both central defenders) played very well. This is no surprise for Piscu, who did great last year in the fairly extensive action he saw. Now, we enter into the prelimary rounds of the UEFA cup. If I remember correctly, Deportivo and the other teams at this stage, need to advance over two rounds before they make it to the group competition. Cheers Pedro |
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| Simon | Jul 27 2008, 10:51 AM Post #9 |
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FK Riga 0-0 Elfsborg (Elfsborg win 1-0 on agg) Chernomorets Burgas 0-1 Grasshoppers (Grasshoppers win 4-0 on agg) FC Vaslui 2-0 FK Neftchi (Vaslui win 3-2 on agg) Budapest Honved 1-2 Sturm Graz (Sturm win 2-1 on agg) Deportivo La Coruna 1-0 Bnei Sachnin (Deportivo win 3-1 on agg) Tavriya Symferopol 1-0 Rennes (1-1 on agg, Rennes win on pens) Rosenborg 2-0 NAC Breda (Rosenborg win 2-1 on agg) Aston Villa 1-0 OB Odense (Villa win 3-2 on agg) Braga 3-0 Sivasspor (Braga win 5-0 on agg) Napoli 1-0 Panionios (Napoli win 2-0 on agg) Stuttgart 3-0 Saturn AET (Stuttgart win 3-1 on agg) So no upsets in the Intertoto Cup as of yet, although the 2007 German champions Stuttgart needed extra time to overcome the Russians FC Saturn. We've already heard the pleasing news of Valeron's return from injury but there was conflicting news for Aston Villa. Although they won through with a great 20-yard strike from Ashley Young who was a breakthrough star of last season, their Dutch international defender Wilfred Bouma suffered a nasty leg break in the 20th minute. I've heard at least one report compare the dislocation of his ankle as part of the break with that of Eduardo which is terrible to hear. Rennes needed what UEFA's website described as 'an epic penalty shoot-out' to beat Tavriya, although helpfully the site listed it as an away goals win and the report didn't mention the penalty score at any point. :rolleyes: Livescore.com gives it as 10-9. Napoli are back in the UEFA Cup for the first time in 14 years. It's an interesting mix of teams. Aston Villa are the only former European champions that we've seen so far and the line-up in the UEFA Cup First Qualifying round, which concludes in midweek, is even more obscure. City's match-up with the little-known EB Streymur has given United fans the chance to reprise a favourite joke of old, whereby you ring a well-known City pub in the city centre and say to the landlord "I was just wondering if you're showing the EB Streymur game tonight". "Of course we are", replies the landlord. "Great" says the United fan. "Do you know who they're playing?"
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| Manzanares | Aug 1 2008, 10:27 AM Post #10 |
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Here is the draw for the next preliminary round of the UEFA Cup, looks like it is being done by geographical regions, Southern section Siroki Brijeg (Bosnia) v Besiktas (Turkey) Braga (Portugal) v Zrinjski (Bosnia) Lokomotiv Sofia (Bulgaria) v Borac Cacak (Serbia) Aris Salonika (Greece) v Slaven Belupo Koprivnica (Croatia) Omonia Nicosia (Cyprus) v AEK Athens (Greece) Vllaznia Shkoder (Albania) v Napoli (Italy) APOEL Nicosia (Cyprus) v Red Star Belgrade (Serbia) Deportivo Coruna (Spain) v Hajduk Split (Croatia) Litex Lovech (Bulgaria) v Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona (Israel) Vojvodina Novi Sad (Serbia) v Hapoel Tel Aviv (Israel) Maccabi Netanya (Israel) v Cherno More Varna (Bulgaria) Central-East section VfB Stuttgart (Germany) v Gyor ETO (Hungary) FC Zurich (Switzerland) v Sturm Graz (Austria) Lech Poznan (Poland) v Grasshoppers (Switzerland) Slovan Liberec (Czech Republic) v Zilina (Slovakia) Metalurgs Liepaja (Latvia) v Vaslui (Romania) Young Boys (Switzerland) v Debrecen (Hungary) WIT Georgia Tbilisi (Georgia) v Austria Vienna (Austria) Suduva Marijampole (Lithuania) v Salzburg (Austria) Interblock Ljubljana (Slovenia) v Hertha Berlin (Germany) Legia Warsaw (Poland) v FC Moscow (Russia) Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (Ukraine) v AC Bellinzona (Switzerland) Northern section Djurgarden (Sweden) v Rosenborg Trondheim (Norway) Manchester City (England) v Midtjylland (Denmark) FC Honka (Finland) v Viking Stavanger (Norway) Queen of the South (Scotland) v Nordsjaelland (Denmark) Ghent (Belgium) v Kalmar (Sweden) Aston Villa (England) v FH (Iceland) Stabaek (Norway) v Stade Rennes (France) Haka Valkeakoski (Finland) v Brondby (Denmark) FC Copenhagen (Denmark) v Lillestrom (Norway) Elfsborg Boras (Sweden) v St. Patrick's Athletic (Ireland) * First legs to be played August 14 * Second legs to be played August 28 So Simon, now you get to repeat your joke by calling and asking about the Midtjylland match! ![]() I think Deportivo could have received a lot easier draw than Hajduk Split but that is a team they should still defeat. To my eye there don't look to be any really monumental matchups in this round, unlike the Champions League preliminary stage where there are several enticing looking ones. |
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| Simon | Aug 1 2008, 11:43 AM Post #11 |
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It would be rude not to! Actually those comedy geniuses at City have already hit the ground running this season, they were unable to play their second leg against Streymur at home because their stadium had been booked for that night by a certain Jon Bon Jovi! So strangely, instead of playing the game somewhere local such as Stockport, Bury or even Bolton, they upped sticks and went across the Pennines to Yorkshire and played the game at Barnsley! I agree with your assessment of the draw, and I would also think that Legia Warsaw and FC Moscow, as well as Djurgarden and Rosenborg might be feeling slightly hard done by when they look at the draw and see who else they could have got. Anyway, August 14th will be the first UEFA Cup game in Manchester since the place was trashed by visiting Scots at the final in May. UEFA have revealed the surprisingly long-term causes of the trouble! |
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| historyman | Aug 1 2008, 09:56 PM Post #12 |
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Tell me about it!
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| Pepe | Aug 14 2008, 10:54 PM Post #13 |
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I am a little surprised Deportivo only could draw 0-0 at home with Hajduk Split of Croatia. Depor will need to find some ofense in the return leg. Simon will be happy to read Man City's Danish rivals defeated them. |
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| Merengue | Aug 28 2008, 10:21 AM Post #14 |
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It is Deportivo and Manchester City who are in the most danger in these 2nd round games. Depor needs to score a goal and do no worse thana tie in Croatia in order to advance. Good news is Valeron will be in the lineup and maybe his experience will help them out today. |
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| Hector | Aug 28 2008, 03:27 PM Post #15 |
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Deportivo played a strong game and won 2-0 in Croacia over Hajduk to advance to tomorrow's main draw of the UEFA Cup. Goals from Riki and Verdu (penalti). Guardado continues to impress with his attacks down the left wing, what a great signing he has turned out to be for the club. So Racing, Valencia, Deportivo and Sevilal will be Spain's clubs in tomorrow's UEFA Cup draw. |
| iPuerta amigo, Sevilla esta contigo! | |
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