2011 Algarve Cup

Japan and Chile ..first time?

 

Are these 3 different competitions, or just one ?

I mean the Group A teams all look stronger than any Group C team, and perhaps Group B too with the exception of Sweden.

 

schedules.

Group A winner vs Group B winner is the final champion.
Group A runner-up vs Group B runner-up is the 3-4 final.
and 3rd place of A.B is 5-6 place.
the more points of the two groupA,B 4th place vs group C winner is the 7-8 place.
the runner-up of groupC vs the last groupA/B is 9-10 place
3th vs 4th of groupC is 11-12 place

 

Hi,

Can confirm that Japan and Chile are making their debuts in 2011.

For those interested, all Algarve Cup results dating back to the very first tournament in 1994 are recorded here:
http://www.ultimatenzsoccer.com/InternationalResults/id1913.htm


Cheers,

Scousekiwi

 

As mentioned by chinadaiyi. The Algarve Cup has the same format every year.

 

It's going to be odd if Chile qualify for the World Cup but get dumped into the sissy bracket at the Algarve.

I applaud the Chilean feds for sending their ladies to Portugal - nice to see them taking the program seriously.

 

Not so odd when you consider that all the teams in the top 2 groups are ranked higher than Chile and that not all of the teams that qualify for the World Cup are automatically better than those who don't. For example, Equatorial Guinea is not better than Denmark.

Portugal, Romania and Wales are ranked similarly to Chile and this is why they are in that bracket. In fact, Chile is ranked below all these 3 teams. Also, teams from the 'sissy' bracket have beaten teams from the top groups, including in the last edition, when Romania beat Finland 1-0, and Portugal drew with Finland and China in the 2 previous editions.

 

If Iceland knows the schedule, doesn't it then follow that the schedule has been released? So why is there no news on any other of the participants' matches?

 

Well, you can deduce the other group B matches by logic

 

GROUP A
USA, Norway, Finland, Japan
Fixtures?

GROUP B
China, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland
02.03 Sweden v Iceland, China v Denmark
04.03 China v Iceland, Sweden v Denmark
07.03 Sweden v China, Denmark v Iceland

GROUP C
Portugal, Wales, Chile, Romania
02.03 Portugal v Wales, Chile v Romania
04.03 Portugal v Chile, Wales v Romania
07.03 Portugal v Romania, Chile v Wales

http://www.faw.org.uk/news/1982

 

COMPLETE SCHEDULE FOR 2011 ALGARVE CUP

GROUP A
USA, Norway, Finland, Japan
02.03 Norway v Finland, USA v Japan
04.03 Norway v USA, Japan v Finland
07.03 Japan v Norway, USA v Finland

GROUP B
China, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland
02.03 Sweden v Iceland, China v Denmark
04.03 China v Iceland, Sweden v Denmark
07.03 Sweden v China, Denmark v Iceland

GROUP C
Portugal, Wales, Chile, Romania
02.03 Portugal v Wales, Chile v Romania
04.03 Portugal v Chile, Wales v Romania
07.03 Portugal v Romania, Chile v Wales

09.03 Final, 3rd Place, 5th Place, 7th Place, 9th Place, 11th Place

 

Looks like it's going to be a great tournament with four World Cup teams in the fold! I see the match dates have been announced, but have any times or locations been made available?

Do you know if any of these matches will be on tv?

 

Always last minute. They never manage to schedule things in time for all but the dedicated and/or lucky guessers to be able to travel.

Eurosport and German channels have previously had *some* coverage, at least for the early stages. However, with Germany not participating...

 

? The never relase arenas or times until last minutes but since dates are relased earleir and all game is in southern Portugal (the Algarve province) how do that hamper travel?
Unless you are already living in Porugal you would pretty much have to fly in to Portugal and relay on local tranportaition anyway. How would it help to know which minor municipaly arenas the games will be in earlier? You can't book buss or local rail tickets that in advance anyway and as for renting a car it dosen't make much difference if you have to drive 60 km west from Faro or 40km north from it.

And as for booking tickets.

 

Well, I'm obviously not the big adventurer that you are. I don't backpack, hitchhike or slum it; I like to know where I'm staying and how I'm getting there. At this time of the year, I can't take 10 days off work to manage to hit the flights to the Algarve that would cover the whole of the tournament. In previous years when I've looked into going to a few matches, I would have been greatly helped by knowing exactly which matches were being played where and when, slightly in advance of the 8 days they managed last year (or another year, when they even moved fixtures after they'd announced them).

 

The only International Airport (and as far as I know it also is the only comercial) in the area is the one in Faro. So there is no need to wonder where to book the flight.
And that seem the reasonable place to stay being the main hub for the area and the tournamnet, and with a 99% probability that at least the Final will go in the big arena just outside Faro (As it done the last years). Local tranports in the Algarve region have to be with buses, local train (where they exist) or car, none of who will help much to know in advance where exact you should go.
And the Algarve region isn't very big (seen by American or Scandinavian eyes anyway).

So unless you is prepared to rent a car or go by local transporattion, ten years advance notice wouldn't help much since the torunament is played mainly in small towns (Faro actually being the only thing possible to call city in the region*) without other tranportation.

*My informations come from relatives in northern Portuagla that may or may not have a distorted view of the soutermost province of their country.

 

WHEN to book the flights is of more importance (seeing as I can't be away for the whole tournament, as I mentioned before). As I said, I like to have exact plans in advance. If you don't, then good for you. Perhaps you should help the tournament with its marketing and create "Algarve Adventure Tours"?

 

Well, I prefer to have all important things organized beforhand when possible.
But arranging air travelers on hour to fit just in time with the game is something I avoid, not trusting the flights arrival time enough for that. And the days for the games have been released for over a month.

 

Even when you are there it's a still a nightmare checking where and if the games are happening. Just last year I had to ask Stensland's dad, in the foyer of their hotel (just before the team left), if their game was still going ahead as planned, after there was talk of switching venues due to the heavy rain. Means you can't do public transport and taxis are well expensive.

Watching training sessions is crazy as well, now that teams and games are spread right across the Algarve. Used to be that they were based at Montechoro, or nearby and all trained there too.

 

I didn't even have a vague intention of going this year. No Germany, plus Sweden have been too painful to watch other than from behind a "skämskudde" lately.

 

My family hasn't been before, but were able to take the 10 days and just picked a fairly central location and have a car.

Trying to contact US soccer has gotten us pretty much nowhere (and with no central website, hard to find info), so asking generally, where do you get tickets? And how did you find out about practice sessions and the information on that?

Luckily, it seems like the weather (so far) has been mostly sunny and warm, so hopefully that continues and no worries on rain and other less than ideal vacation weather.

Thanks for anything that might help

 

You have to go Montochoro or Alfa mar
a lot teams are in Alfa mar!
ps
Monotochor has the tournament's office and give's you all the info!
You just have to know the right people...

 

ps i'm still looking for the team rosters of:

Iceland
Finland
and Japan for Algarve

can somebody help me
???