Every weekend, Three games, All the information.
Another week is over and as always, it´s time to prepare for some great football. This week, we will visit Palestine for the first time and take a closer look at the exciting Hebron derby, we will be in Mexico once again to try to understand the unusual system of the league. In addition, we will check out the development of Kazakhi football. Are you ready? Then let’s go!
(All times are in CET local time)
Friday, 18:00, Shabab Al-Khalil – Ahli Al-Khalil (West Bank Premier League)
Last January, we met the Palestinian national team waving the flag and displaying national pride at the 2015 Asian Cup. Three months later, we’re visiting the West Bank’s league and the amazing atmosphere of the local crowd at Hussein bin Ali stadium, in the Al-Khalil derby, or in English, Hebron.
Shabab Al-Khalil is one of the biggest clubs in Palestine. They have won several championships and cups, and their last trophy was the Palestinian Cup in 2013. They are also one of the richest clubs in the league thanks to their chairman, Khadr Qawasmi, a local businessman. The coach is Andrzej Wiśniewski, a Pole who was the Palestinian National Team´s coach in 2002, and who has been the manager of Shabab since 2010. He will be absent from this particular match from unknown reasons. Watch out for striker Fahed Attal, the all-time leading top scorer of the Palestinian national team with 14 international goals, midfielder Mohannad Fanon, who is considered as one of the biggest hopes of Palestinian football, and striker Mohammed Al-Karaki, who played with the national team during last week´s U-23 Asian Championships qualifiers.
Ahli Al-Khalil is a much smaller club, but it has had some impressive results in recent years. Since they were promoted to the West Bank Premier League in 2012, they have become an important club in the competition. This season they reached new heights when they qualified for the Palestinian Cup semi-finals. The club also has a foreign coach, the Italian Stefano Cusin, who was Walter Zenga’s assistant manager at several Middle Eastern clubs. The main players are Ahmed Maher, who has played 11 times for the national team and was part of the Asian Cup squad, Khaldon Elhalman, the leading scorer of the team, Fadi Dweik, the veteran captain, and Wael Merasat, one of the biggest names to have joined the league from Israel.
A high profile derby in the Middle East is something not that you don’t want to miss. Let´s hope for a good game and atmosphere, like in the previous round.
Many thanks to Mahmoud Abu Obeid from “Koora Palestine” for the information for this piece.
Sunday, 01:00, Puebla – Toluca (Liga MX)
A few weeks ago, we visited Mexico for a great clash for the top play-off spots. Now things get a bit complicated. As explained, the top eight teams at the end of the regular season will qualify for the play-offs, but there is an exception – the team who will be relegated at the end of the season is one of the top eight, their spot will be passed to the 9th placed team. Relegation is decided by the average of points per game over the last three seasons and just one team is relegated.
This long introduction is about Puebla. After a few bad years near the bottom of the league, Puebla has a chance to qualify for the play-offs for the first time since the 2009 Apertura. Puebla is in the last place of the relegation ranking, which means that they won't make this history, even though they are ranked in the 8th place. One of the heroes of Mexican football, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, is 42 and he is one of the team´stars. He plays alongside Luis Noriega, who played during Puebla's last title win in 2006, and Matías Alustiza, the club´s leading scorer who was the Copa Libertadores joint top scorer in 2012 with Neymar.
Toluca wants to clinch their playoff spot. As they ranked in the 9th place, they still can qualify even from this place, but they will try to improve their positions. The race for the playoffs is close, and there is difference of just 4 points between them and the 4th place. Toluca's manager, José Cardozo, a club legend, has an impressive record as a player in the team – Four championships, CONCACAF Champions' Cup and he is the all-time top scorer of the club. Another Paraguyan, Paulo da Silva, who already played for 6 years in Toluca, left the team for playing in Sunderland and Zaragoza, returned to the team in 2013. Watch out for Víctor Montaño, who played for a decade in France, and Marco Bueno, who won the World Cup with the U-17 team of Mexico.
Weird rules and system, an opponent that want to win, and Puebla that have two options for that match – playoff spot or relegation spot. By BabaGol and Yossport’s standards, this game is a must.
Sunday, 12:00, FC Astana – Aktobe (Kazakhstan Premier League)
Since Kazakhstan left AFC and joined UEFA in 2002, the Kazakhs try to be a genuine part of the European football. The national team is still far from this goal, but the local clubs are making great development. On Sunday, two of these clubs will meet, FC Astana and Aktobe.
FC Astana is a newly formed team with a lot of money. The team is part from an organization called Astana Presidential Sports Club, who includes also a basketball and ice hockey teams, and even a pro road cycling team. The manager of the team is Stanimir Stoilov, who reached the Champions League’s group stage and UEFA Cup quarterfinals with Levski Sofia. Last year, he led Astana for its first title in history. This season, after 4 games they lead the table and hope to win it once again. The key players are Roger Cañas, the Colombian who scored 3 league goals until now, Ulan Konysbayev, who made 23 appearances in Kazakhstan national team, and Foxi Kéthévoama, who was the league’s top scorer last season.
Their rivals, Aktobe, have experienced many successful moments in the past few seasons. Since 2005, they always finished in the top three, and won five championships. Now, they’re ranked 5th, four points from Astana, but they haven't lost yet. The team managed by Vladimir Gazzaev, the son of one of the biggest managers in the Russian football, Valery Gazzaev. Keep your eyes on Yuri Logvinenko, the player who made the most league appearances for Aktobe, Marcos Pizzelli, a Brazilian player who settled in Armenia and played 39 times for their national team, and Sergey Khizhnichenko, 23 years old young talent who came back after one season in the Polish league.
The Kazakh football is constantly develop and improve. Watching a great match from its domestic league will be worth it.