Albanian soccer

[chazsoccer]

Can somebody educate me about the Albanian National Team? Players? Where are their club teams?

How about the soccer league(s) in Albania?

[hammie]

Well Albania is considered a Minnow country they have always have made some nice wins and ties.

Here is link that might help:

http://www.uefa.com/uefa/Jubilee/AssociationWeeks/Association=2/index.html

[chazsoccer]

Thanks for the link.

Have you followed Albania soccer recently?

[hammie]

Yes I have! I am a Albanian so I follow the soccer there very closely what would you like to know.

[chazsoccer]

The house next door to me was bought by an Albanian family (Pula) about a year ago. We have become good friends and I want to learn more about their league and Nat'l Team so that we can talk about it during the upcoming World Cup Qualifiers.

[FK Partizani]

Here's a brief intro to Albanian soccer.
The country's first division (Kategoria e Pare in Albanian) is comprised of 10 teams. The FSHF (Albanian Football Association) decided to split the first division, comprised of 14 teams in 02-03, into two divisions A1 and A2 last year, each consisting of 10 teams, in order to become more competitive and make more money.
Traditionally the first division is owned by the trio from the capital, FK Partizani, SK Dinamo, and SK Tirana. SK Tirana or "Tirona" as it is called by its fans is the oldest team, founded in 1920. For more info see http://home.wanadoo.nl/sktirana/hyrje.htm
FK Partizani and SK Dinamo were founded soon after the WWII. The teams were founded by the Defense and Interior Minstries respectively. For more see http://partizani.net/.
Notable mention deserve KF Vllaznia from the northern city of Shkoder and KF Flamurtari from the Southern city of Vlore whose claim to fame is eliminating Partizan Belgrade in the Uefa Cup in the 80's only to be eliminated by Barcelona after tying both games (0-0 in Barcelona and 1-1 in Albania).
As for the National Team the closest we've ever come to qualifying for a WC has been in the qualifying group for the 86 WC. We defeated Belgium 2-0 at home only to be beaten in a crucial game against Poland at home 1-0.
Our eternal opponent in group games has been Germany which has beaten us numeorus times by the close score of 2-1, including an infamous game in Leverkusen in 2001 (for which i travelled to Germany) where the referee allowed a clearly offside goal in the 89th minute. This past qualifying crusade for the Euro 04' we were not beaten at home and gave some superb performances most notably beating Russia 3-1 and came close to tying Ireland away only to concede an own goal in the 92' minute (i feel like crying again). A recent development has been the away supporters of Albania due to our large immigrant population.
In our qualifying games in Germany, Switzerland, and Greece half of the stadium was filled with Albanian supporters which prompted Greek officials to move the following game in an island 8 hours away fro Athens. Many of the supporters are Kosovar Albanians who have been immigrating in the West since the 60's.
At the moment our best striker is Igli Tare who's been playing in Serie A for the past 4 years (Brescia and Bologna). Ervin Skela the playmaker and Geri Cipi defender are also two of our main players who currently play in the Bundesliga. After the liberation of Kosova many Kosovar Albanians have opted to join Albania. The best Kosovar player, Lorik Cana, plays currently for PSG in France.
Feel free to ask. Although this is my first post on BS i'm an avid reader of over 4 years.

P.S i'm also 1/4 Pula so give my regards to your neighbors.

[FK Partizani]

chaz, i forgot to add the link to the FA site
http://www.fshf.org/English/Faqja_Kryesore.htm

[chazsoccer]

Well, may I say that you have made a fantastic first post!

Thank you for a very well layed out explanation.

Pol, unë do kallëzoj ata ti thënë tung.

[FK Partizani]

Originally posted by chazsoccer
Pol, unë do kallëzoj ata ti thënë tung.

You have written an excellent sentence grammatically, a feat that many Albanians fail to achieve online (including myself)lol. Not only that but the fact that you managed to write the letter "e" with two dots on top is fascinating.

A few more helpful links:
This is the most helpful site statistically
http://foreignaffairs.tripod.com/armillotta/albanian_cups.html
for very recent news
http://www.albaniasoccer.com/
this one is a guide to the fan scene mainly in Kosova. though it's not in English i'd check their picture gallery which is very rich
http://tifozat.com/modules.php?name=coppermine
and this one is one of my favorites but their English version is yet to come
http://futbolli.com/

[chazsoccer]

Originally posted by FK Partizani
You have written an excellent sentence grammatically, a feat that many Albanians fail to achieve online (including myself)lol. Not only that but the fact that you managed to write the letter "e" with two dots on top is fascinating.

Thank you - I am trying to learn by using technology, and conversation with my friends. [Nana - Grandmother Pula - does not speak any english.] I was uncertain about ti or ty or ju, but ti seemed most appropriate. Certainly you have noticed we suffer the same grammatical and spelling errors in english here on these boards! As far as the letters - that's just a matter of cut and paste from the letter symbols available in MS Word.

[chazsoccer]

FK - Where are your folks from? - my Pula's are from Pshkopia, Albania.

[FK Partizani]

My family comes from the Southern region of Gjirokaster, whereas your neighbors are from the Northeast. I doubt there is any relation but hey you never know.

[hungaryforever]

Hi guys!
Though I'm not albanian I always liked albanian football.
It's glad to see the improvement of football in Albania.
The National Team is very good now. At home pitch it is almost unbeatable!
I think they won't qualif. them to wc 2006. The group is the hardest from all.
There is no weak team in it.
I think Albania will can make at least a draw against the other teams at home, but the team have to improve at away pitch.
What do you think?
Let's go Albania (and Hungary)! ( how can you say it in alb?)

Cheers:
Peti

[FK Partizani]

Hi guys!
Though I'm not albanian I always liked albanian football.
It's glad to see the improvement of football in Albania.
The National Team is very good now. At home pitch it is almost unbeatable!
I think they won't qualif. them to wc 2006. The group is the hardest from all.
There is no weak team in it.
I think Albania will can make at least a draw against the other teams at home, but the team have to improve at away pitch.
What do you think?
Let's go Albania (and Hungary)! ( how can you say it in alb?)

Cheers:
Peti

Para Shqiperi! (Let's go Albania)
Para Hungari! (and let's go Hungary)!
Thank you for your remarks. it is heartening to see supporters from other countries.
As far as Hungarian soccer goes i only know Ferencvaros, and of course the great Puskas.
However i tend to disagree with your remarks about qualifying. This is our chance to qualify. We have beaten Turkey at home twice in the past (friendlies though) and Turkey's performance against Latvia gives me even more hope. We beat Greece 2-0 last time at home in a qualifying game. We have currently a 6-game unbeaten streak at home with two victories in the last month against Sweden and Iceland both by the score of 2-1.
Denmark may be tough to beat but it is much better than having Germany or any other Euro superpower in the group. However we'll have to wait and see.

Good luck to Hungary in the qualifyings.

[hungaryforever]

Thanks Partizani FK!
The key game for Albania will be the first match against the greeks. I know it is not only a match, I studied history, so I know quite well the backgrounds of this game.
If Albania will win, it is a good start, and the players's moral will rise hight!!!
But still I think it is the hardest group among all.


Para Shqiperi!

[rivers]

I have been watching the Albanian senior team with great interest over the past few years. I think Albania has of good of chance as ever now to qualify for a major tournament, with their current WC 2006 group. The group lacks a major power that every other group has.

Good luck to them.

[FK Partizani]

I think Albania has of good of chance as ever now to qualify for a major tournament, with their current WC 2006 group. The group lacks a major power that every other group has.

Good luck to them.

Exactly. the lack of a major power gives me hope as well. in the past we always seemed to draw in the same group as Germany. We all know Germany always qualifies so we had lost all hope of qualifying before even getting on the field.
I wouldn't worry so much about Turkey, Greece or Denmark. Don't get me wrong all three have quality teams, but it's not an insurmountable task to beat them at home or get a draw away.
Our recent showing in the qualifying for Euro 04 encourages me even more. and we're undefeated at home since 2001.

Let's Go Albania!

P.S now id' like to know how am i gonna get to watch all the games here in the States since our opponents games don't seem to be carried by Setanta with the exception of Turkey i think.

[hungaryforever]

FK Tirana - Ferencváros 2-3 (0-1)

The Albanian side would have deserved the win. Hungarian football is a big ********. Shame. The ref supported us. I'm happy seeing the score, but that's all.

[chazsoccer]

Thanks for posting some updates - the info is hard to come by on this side of the Atlantic.

[hertha supporter]

Does anybody know about Rezart Dabulla?

I have him on my team in CM 03-04, but I hear he's a pretty decent player....