FAR20.1: FØROYAR! (clap, clap, clap)

A Picture Blog
After the cool game against Austria back in October (see here), I was mega-excited about seeing my second international game in the Faroes – Faroe Islands vs. Serbia. Serbia are currently leading the group, and the Faroes are trailing in fifth place (which is a nice way of saying they’re bottom in the group, but when you consider the fact that not all the players are professionals, and the entire country is the size of a small town in one of the other countries, that’s hardly surprising!).

That said, the Faroes had every reason to be a little optimistic – this was the first game with the new manager, Brian Kerr (former manager of the Republic of Ireland), the Serbs had played at the weekend, whereas the Faroese were able to rest, and the day before, the Faroese U-21 team had spectacularly beaten Russia 1-0.

I used a video when I wrote about the last game, so for something different, here’s the story in pictures:
1. The poster advertising the game, and the fact that this will be the first game with the new manager.
2. It was a little surprising to be walking down Tórshavn’s main pedestrian street the day before the game and pass the Serbian national team, looking somewhat bemused (them, not me).
3. Game day arrives – and we’re very excited!
4. The little group from Serbia – I’m always impressed by the fans who follow their team wherever they go. A trip from Serbia to the Faroes certainly won’t have come cheap... 5. The singing of the anthems... 6. And off we go! 7. There was a scary moment about fifteen minutes into the game when arguably the Faroes’ best player looked like he might have to go off injured, but we all cheered when it looked like he was going to be able to carry on.*
8. Twenty minutes into the game and it’s still 0-0. This is pretty good! And in fact, this continued until the 43rd minute, when the Serbs scored. The Faroese played AMAZINGLY well and nearly scored a fair few times.
9. At half-time the heroes from the day before (the U-21 team) were brought on to the pitch and given a massive cheer by the crowd.
10. I’m guessing the construction workers working next to the pitch weren’t particularly productive during the game. Hopefully their bosses won’t read this.
11. The game finished: Faroe Islands 0 – 2 Serbia. That’s actually pretty impressive, although the Faroese played so well in the first half that a goal would have been nice (and well-deserved)...

*This guy played really, really well. I turned to my friend and told her how impressed I was. ‘His dad and my dad are cousins,’ she replied. Where else could that happen?