CONIFA World Cup 2018

[Wouter D]

Gyürki with the 3-0 from a penalty after a desparate tackle.

[Wouter D]

Szekely Land pull one back.

[Wouter D]

And another one! 79th minute, 3-2.

[Wouter D]

Injury time counter gives Karpatalya the 4-2, which should finish the game. Entertaining enough, this one.

[Ray de Galles]

Great game, loved it. Two really high quality teams (many levels above Barawa and Tamil Eelam) playing with real drive and commitment and a little edge to the meeting.

It all went mad when Székely Land started pulling goals back and they really did have enough chances over the game to win it pretty comfortably. If only they had struck the ball as cleanly as their centre forward did for their howitzer second goal more times. Kárpátalja‘s opening goal was a wonderful team move but their second was a dreadful keeping error which highlighted how important their own goalie’s excellent penalty save late in the second half was.

The game ended on a slightly surreal note as referee Clattenburg beckoned the Székely keeper forward for a corner in the hope of a consolation goal.

Decent crowd and a fantastic atmosphere with much communal singing of great mournful songs of terrible national tragedy from both teams and their support afterwards. Uroš Predić was lucky enough to see both semi-finals in the double-header so had quite the evening.

Wish I could make the final, I reckon it’s going to be a blast.

[Uros Predic]

As mentioned by Бога Нет, above, I was lucky to be at both semi-finals yesterday and enjoyed 11 goals and two cracking games.

Padania v Northern Cyprus was as feisty as I expected it to be - yellow cards a plenty early on, and late in the game too including a red for a stray elbow. Padania seemed a little thrown by Northern Cyprus' tactic of pressing them throughout and despite leading twice, they were generally second best throughout. As soon as Northern Cyprus made it 2-2 you knew a winner was on its way, rendering Padania's sole ultra briefly and mercifully silent whilst a group of local lads chanted 'You're not singing anymore' at him. The Northern Cypriots' determination to not change their hell for leather attacking tactics, even when 3-2 ahead in the final five minutes, kept it interesting to the last as well.

As others have pointed out, the Displaced Hungarians Derby was closer than the score suggests, and had Székely Land converted that first half penalty it could've been very different. Credit to them for keeping it interesting after going 3-0 down though, the goal that brought it back to 3-2 took the roof off the massive terrace, and there were decent chances for 3-3 before Kárpátalja made it 4-2.

Probably the best £12 I've spent on watching live football in ages. I was in such a good mood I even held off heckling someone in an International Surrey Football scarf.

[Sits]

When's the final and is there a stream?

[Ray de Galles]

6pm Saturday, there is a link to a stream upthread from the opening matches which should be carrying the final. Imagine it will be on Paddy Power’s Facebook again too.

Uroš, I was leaving it for you to air your observation that Kárpátalja could well be the Denmark ‘92 of the tournament by winning it as last minute replacements.

[Ray de Galles]

Kárpátalja‘s stunning opener below, I don’t think I appreciated quite what a solo effort it was at the time :

https://twitter.com/mycujoo/status/1004832027718373377?s=21

[DPDPDPDP]

http://www.skysports.com/football/ne...d-football-cup

Details here, seems like a bit of a ringer.

Just joined the forum and this thread. Most definitely a ringer, and according to the IOM boys, apparently none of his team mates seem to know who he was and most of the game were referring to him as "number 19" as opposed to his name.

[Ray de Galles]

Hmmmmm, I'm not sure I'd be taking anyone from the Isle of Man's organisation's story at face value either. They've hardly covered themselves in glory over the whole affair, especially with their flounce.

Clearly with such a tournament some of the qualification criteria are going to be somewhat elastic anyway and apparently the vast majority of teams were allowed to make changes past the stated deadline because of the problems inherent in compiling a squad and, in some cases, having them travel long distances to the tournament.

I hope you'll hang around and comment on a wide range of subjects, DP.

[Sits]

Yeah welcome DP, if we can call you that for short.

[DPDPDPDP]

Hmmmmm, I'm not sure I'd be taking anyone from the Isle of Man's organisation's story at face value either. They've hardly covered themselves in glory over the whole affair, especially with their flounce.

Clearly with such a tournament some of the qualification criteria are going to be somewhat elastic anyway and apparently the vast majority of teams were allowed to make changes past the stated deadline because of the problems inherent in compiling a squad and, in some cases, having them travel long distances to the tournament.

I hope you'll hang around and comment on a wide range of subjects, DP.

I know the IOM boys so I'm pretty close to the situation. Teams were allowed squads of 23 and CONIFA sensibly allowed changes past the stated deadline. However, the late, late addition of an obvious ringer, after the completion of the first game shouldn't have been allowed, i.e. No changes after the tournament started.

I was on this forum years and years and somehow lost it. Just recently re-found. And happily so.

[Antepli Ejderha]

I'm going to Fisher tomorrow but yet to decide on how many games. Tibet against United Koreans is one of the offerings.

[Ray de Galles]

I know the IOM boys so I'm pretty close to the situation.

Yeah, that was entirely obvious.

Teams were allowed squads of 23 and CONIFA sensibly allowed changes past the stated deadline. However, the late, late addition of an obvious ringer, after the completion of the first game shouldn't have been allowed, i.e. No changes after the tournament started.

Well, you say he’s an “obvious ringer”, we haven’t seen any evidence to back that up. Isn’t it up to the people running the competition how late past the deadline they let people make changes to their squad, given that they have allowed it at all?

Anyway, now you’ve stated the IOM’s case, what was your view of the tournament apart from that regrettable turn of events? What matches did you see, any particular highlights?

[Antepli Ejderha]

I'm going to Fisher tomorrow but yet to decide on how many games. Tibet against United Koreans is one of the offerings.

Change of plan, off to Enfield for the bronze medal match and final. Is anyone else going?

[DPDPDPDP]

Yeah, that was entirely obvious.




Well, you say he’s an “obvious ringer”, we haven’t seen any evidence to back that up. Isn’t it up to the people running the competition how late past the deadline they let people make changes to their squad, given that they have allowed it at all?

Anyway, now you’ve stated the IOM’s case, what was your view of the tournament apart from that regrettable turn of events? What matches did you see, any particular highlights?

I don't think I've ever heard of a tournament where you can make changes after the tournament has started. Again, allegedly, it was one man (not sure of his correct title) who allowed the change, not the general committee.

I hope honk the tournament has been great. Unfortunately I haven't been able to see many games using the live stream but I have caught a few highlights. Great to see Bruce Grobelaar still playing. Just the fact that the games are streamed is a wonderful thing for players' friends and family to watch and cheer from afar from the comfort of their own homes.

[Bored Of Education]

The Bruce Grobelaar thing stuck in my craw a bit, I have to say. As far as 'ringers' goes, bringing Grobelaar on - even if they registered him in time - is on a par with the Mohamed Bettamer inclusion in spirit.

I agree that the profile for these teams due to this World Cup has been great. We have had Conifa/Viva threads in the past but this World Cup has really caught attention.

[Ray de Galles]

The Bruce Grobelaar thing stuck in my craw a bit, I have to say. As far as 'ringers' goes, bringing Grobelaar on - even if they registered him in time - is on a par with the Mohamed Bettamer inclusion in spirit.

Well hang on, do we know how valid or not the “Mohamed Bettemar inclusion” was, “in spirit” or otherwise.

Grobbelar was obviously a bit of stunt booking to raise the profile from a team that are perhaps the most obviously cash-strapped in the entire tournament and are still fundraising to pay their bills. However, he was a Zimbabwe international and Matabeleland is part of that country so there may just be legitimacy there. They also raffled off two places in their most recent game (presumably because Chagos Islands replacing IOM rendered it a friendly).

By the nature of the teams competing, this tournament is not going to have cut & dried, easily defined player eligibility. There’s a risk of focusing on that issue over all the huge positives in the event is to get things out of perspective.

[HeavyDracula]

I must admit, to a layman, Bettamer looks like a massive ringer. His entire internet presence says LIBYA, which - the last time I checked - was nowhere near any part of Somalia.

[Sits]

The point about friends and family seeing you play on a live stream is a good one. A year or two back my son played Centre for the New South Wales gridiron team in an interstate series. This was by no means a high profile event but watching it live was quite a thrill. Apart from when I persuaded his Mum to watch (she worries about it) and he was promptly poleaxed and carried off.

[DPDPDPDP]

The point about friends and family seeing you play on a live stream is a good one. A year or two back my son played Centre for the New South Wales gridiron team in an interstate series. This was by no means a high profile event but watching it live was quite a thrill. Apart from when I persuaded his Mum to watch (she worries about it) and he was promptly poleaxed and carried off.

It is wonderful. My son has just finished his second year on a football (I hate calling it soccer) scholarship at uni in Texas. Roughly half his games were streamed live last season. It's great being 5,000 miles away and still be able to watch him play at this level.

8pm kick offs over there are not unusual, which is 2am here. I haven't missed a game though because there is no way I could sleep if he way playing and I had the chance to watch.

[Antepli Ejderha]

1500 tickets sold for the final. There's a few hundred here for the bronze medal match.

[Bored Of Education]

Well hang on, do we know how valid or not the “Mohamed Bettemar inclusion” was, “in spirit” or otherwise.

Good point, well made, I should have qualified that.

Grobbelar was obviously a bit of stunt booking to raise the profile from a team that are perhaps the most obviously cash-strapped in the entire tournament and are still fundraising to pay their bills. However, he was a Zimbabwe international and Matabeleland is part of that country so there may just be legitimacy there. They also raffled off two places in their most recent game (presumably because Chagos Islands replacing IOM rendered it a friendly).

Seemingly, Grobelaar seems to have spent mot of his time in Bulaweyo which is only an hour away and, to be fair, he is the goalkeeping coach for Matebeleland. I just hope he isn't replacing a young Matabeleland player - who it means more to - just for publicity. I thought that the raffle was a good bit of PR.

By the nature of the teams competing, this tournament is not going to have cut & dried, easily defined player eligibility. There’s a risk of focusing on that issue over all the huge positives in the event is to get things out of perspective.

That's why I said "a bit". I just don't want to see this sort of tournament - where there are teams whose participation is a rare example of national identity and, perhaps, have a decent shout for inclusion in FIFA - being awash with publicity stunts and novelty teams like the Sealand, Yorkshire and Surrey teams. I agree that this has been a massively positive boost for the Conifa teams.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Well that was some day. Two matches and no goals in either, that's after all of the goals were flying in during the whole tournament.

Padania were excellent in the first half but the second was drab. Szkeley Land seemed happy to sit back and defend as well as leaving little bits in the tackle. We were watching in one corner and in front of us a Padania player went down theatrically, we gave him some abuse as we same nothing, he got up with blood flowing from around his eye giving us a stare. There were a few other incidents but this elbow appeared to be the worst. Padania won the shoot out.

The ethic Hungarians moved to behind the bottom goal for the second match and continued to let off their red, white and green smoke. The Turkish Cypriots made little noise for most of the match and perhaps this lack of enthusiasm rubbed off onto their side who barely broke sweat in the first half against an organised Karpatayla team.

Finally in the last fifteen minutes as the rain started to fall the Turkish Cypriots decided to play, they created chances and Billy Mehmet hit the bar when he should have scored. Perhaps that was still on his mind as he missed their first penalty as the match, thankfully, went directly to penalties.

It was really nice to see some of the other competing teams at the final, Abkhazia in particular added some noise and colour. I'd say there was 2k+ at the final as well, sadly the Turkish Cypriots didn't bring their game to the final. It reminded me of watching an African Nations Cup match, too cagey with both sides afraid to lose rather than going for the win.