Month: December 2016

 

Malta next. Senglea Athletics won the Second Division, followed by Gzira United – both teams won promotion.

The tine First Divison nevertheless had two hopeless outsiders – Marsa ended last with 3 points and Birkirkara finished 7th with 5 points. Relegated both and their presence relaxed the stable league members. Valletta FC had strangely weak season, finishing 5th with 13 points. Hamrun Spartans took bronze medals with 15 points. Only two teams competed for the title, head and shoulders above the rest , losing among themselves just a single match. The loss went to Sliema Wanderers, which at the end finished 2nd with 23 points. However, they had the best defense this season, allowing only 8 goals in the 14 championship rounds. The new champions did not lose any game, but won 12 and tied 2, scoring the most goals in the league – 34, and second-best defense, allowing 10 goals. At the end of the championship, there was a gap of three points between them and Sliema Wanderers. It was the spring match against Sliema Wanderers, which secured them the title and gave the only loss to Sliema.

Hibernians (Paola) celebrating their victory over Sliema Wanderers and along with that, their 5th title. No wonder both players and fans were all smiles.

The Cup final opposed Floriana to Senglea Athletics. Floriana did not have a strong season, but still was tiny bit stronger than the Second Division leaders and clinched 2-1 victory.

Not an easy victory, but enough for Floriana’s 15th Cup.

Senglea Athlerics deserves a special mentioning. Even in weak football countries like Malta there are ‘big’ and ‘small’ clubs on one hand, and on the other hand, second division clubs almost winning a trophy are rare too, as everywhere else. Senglea Athletics were perhaps the first lower division team to claim the Cup – they failed, but they won the Second Division, thus moving up to the top league.

Second Division champions and Cup finalists – Senglea Athletics in their finest season.

Northern Ireland – nothing spectacular, as usual. Distillery Lisburn finished last after very weak season in which they won only 1 match. But there were was no relegation, so it did not matter how bad Distillery was. The usual battle on the top between Linfield and Glentoran, the favourites hardly concerned with the rest of league.

Linfield lost the race against their city rivals, alhough they excelled defensively – only 15 goals in their net, but they lost 3 matches and consequently, the title. 35 points, however, left the next team in the table 7 points behind.

 

The title stayed in Belfast once again – Glentoran won it, after a splendid campaign: they finished without losing any match – 15 wins and 7 ties. This earned them 37 points, 2 more than Linfield’s record and meant 17th title altogether.

The Cup final opposed Ballymena United to Glenavon Lurgan. Ballymena prevailed 1-0.

Happy winners, Ballymena United. They never won the championship, but it was their 4th Cup and first after 1857-58. Long wait, but they won in particularly strong season – Ballymena was also third in the championship. Well done.

Cyprus – nothing new neither on international front, nor on the domestic one. 26th in Europe. Evagoras (Paphos) won the Second Division. Their city rivals APOP finished 2nd and both teams were promoted. Once again, one should add.

Aris (Limassol) was the First Division outsider – last with 17 points. Alki (Larnaca) was perhaps unfortunate – worse goal-difference placed them 13th and they joined Aris in relegation. Four teams struggled the escape the road to the lower level, all ending with 21 points. EPA (Larnaca) survived, so did AEL (Limassol), thus preserving top league derbies in their towns – there were the stronger at the time Apollon (Limassol), 6th, and Pezoporikos (Larnaca), 3rd. But the battles at the end of the table concerned only the teams involved – at the top the usual clash between APOEL and Omonia decided the new-old champions. APOEL lost the least matches this season – only 3, but they tied too many games – 10 – and their city enemies excelled in winning. 16 wins, 6 ties, 4 losses, 56-21, and 38 points made Omonia once again champions.

They also reached the Cup final, where they met Enosis Neon Paralimni, which had a strong season – they were 4th in the championship – and tried to win a trophy at last. The final ended 1-1 and had to be replayd. Alas, the strength of Paralimni was only enough for one match – they lost the replay 0-3.

Omonia (Nicosia) triumphed with a double. It was not easy sailing, but they won everything. The Bulgarian connection was to a large point the reason for continual success: Omonia employed often Bulgarian coaches – Vassil Spassov at this time – and the results were so great, so soon Omonia was going to increase the Bulgarian presence with a string of players as well. It may have been political connection – the left-wing Omonia naturally looked for help from Communist countries, which in turn was safe for Bulgaria to permit coaches and eventually players to work for Omonia. But no matter – by now, it was just the familiar, predictable, even boring – Omonia with more trophies.

 

Norway next – 25th. Mjondalen and Sogndal won promotion from Second Division, but there was one more spot in dispute: the 10th in First Division – Brann – played promotion/relegation tournament with Molde FK and Pors Grenland IF from Second Division.

Molde FK prevailed on goal-difference, for the three participants ended with 2 points each, and was promoted to top division.

FK Lynn was 12th and Haugar – 11th in First Division. Both clubs were directly relegated. 10th was Brann and they went to the promotion/relegation tournament after which they went down too.

The three last teams were outsiders this season, well behind the rest of the league.

Brann, 10th with 17 points. Third row, from left: Terje Rolland, Espen Røtne, XX, Eivind Norderud, Bjørn Erik Brandt, Neil MacLeod, Paul Danielsen.

Middle row: Thor Åge Johansen, Geir Austvik, Finn Krogh, Robert Hirsch, Øyvind Pettersen, Knut Langeland, Atle Bilsback.

Front row: Tore Strand, Bjørn Dahl, Les Shannon (trener), Kjell Rune Pedersen, Ingvar Dalhaug, Arne Møller.

IK Start finished 8th with 21 points, besting Bryne FK on goal-difference. It was fairly equal championship with no outstanding favourites – 8 points divided the 9th from the champion.

Rosenborg got bronze medals with 26 points. Ahead of them, 2 points better, and getting the single UEFA Cup spot reserved for Norway, was Viking. And a point better than Viking were the new champions.

Valerenga IF (Oslo) clinched the title with 9 wins, 11 ties, and 2 losses and 44-27 goal-difference. The champions were nothing special – they were considered disciplined team and hardly more.

But the joy of Pal Jacobsen and Erik Foss is understandable, especially the sign they make with their fingers – Valerenga IF won its second title. Jacobsen was also the top scorer this year with 16 goals.

The Cup final opposed Lillestrom SK to Moss. Lillestrom won 3-1.

3rd cup for Lillestrom, which was still rolling. Tom Lund was naturally in the center of Lillestrom’s success.