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Macedonian Football forum

2008-03-29T23:11:00.002+01:00

Finally! MacedonianFootball.com releases the first independent Macedonian Football forum. Register and start discussing topics related and not related to the Macedonian football. Visit the Macedonian Football Forum

World Cup hopes

2007-11-26T09:13:00.000+01:00

Written by Stefan K.
Monday, 26 November 2007
The draw for the World Cup 2010 qualifiers has been made. Maybe it is a little too early to predict what might happen and who will further qualify for the World Cup 2010 but our group somehow it’s very exciting and give us a lot of hope that the time for Macedonia at least to reach the last play-off games has finally come. We are in a group 9 together with Holland, Scotland, Norway and Iceland. Except Holland who is clear favourite in our group the rest four teams including Macedonia are very much at the same level and with the same chances of qualifying. The beginning of the qualifying campaign it’s almost a year away but the hard job that needs to be done starts now. First and most important for the Macedonian FA to do is to secure that the current head coach Srecko Katanec sighs a new contract for the next qualifying campaign or bringing a new person who is capable of guiding the Macedonian national team to success. In all the previous qualifying groups Macedonia had at least two or tree contenders for the first spot, which is not the case now, except Holland who is favourite in this group Scotland’s and Norway’s fans can hardly remember when they where last time part of a big tournament and Iceland’s fans same as us never had the chance to taste the feeling of it, rightly so the Macedonian football fans can be with real expectation for the next coming qualifiers. Let’s do not underestimate the power of Scotland and Norway but to be honest they have nothing more than us and they have nothing to fear about, same as us they are capable of beating anyone on the day and at the same time they can slip from anyone, so finally we are in the same boat as anyone else. Regardless of the name of the next coach he needs to be told that his task is to bring us to that treasures 2nd spot of the table which guarantees at least further play-off games or nothing less than that is accepted, because if we don’t grab the chance now probably we will not qualify for a long long time to come. Maybe we have a high hopes but nation without hopes doesn’t deserve a place in the qualification at all and let’s do not talk about World Cup in football.

MacedonianFootball.com

2007-05-10T17:08:00.000+02:00

The website is moved to http://www.MacedonianFootball.com

Igor Mitreski 3 more years in Energie Cottbus

2007-05-02T15:48:00.000+02:00

Igor Mitreski signed new 3 year contract with the German Bundesliga team Energie Cottbus and with that he became the best payed player in the history of the club

After the win of Energie Cottbus over Bayer Leverkusen with which the club secured the stay in the German Bundesliga, Igor Mitreski signed new 3 year contract and became the best payed player in the history of the club. The coach Petrik Sander insisted on a contract renewal with one of the best Macedonian defenders. The regular member of the Macedonian national team was negotiating with his club almost for a month and finally after they secured their stay in the Bundesliga, a new contract was signed. This year Energie Cottbus is a real surprise in the German Bundesliga and one of the main reasons for their good results is definitely their good defesive line leaded by Igor Mitreski.
Igor Mitreski is born on 19/02/1979 in Struga. He started his career in his home town club Karaorman. After few seasons in the Macedonian championship in the clubs Napredok and Sileks he was transfered in Spartak from Moscow where he spent 4 years. Before joining Energie Cottbus he spent one half season in the Ukrainian Metalurg Zaporoschje and Israeli club Beitar Jerusalem. In his rich career he has 41 caps for the Macedonian national team and 16 played matches in the Champions League for Spartak Moscow.

Only in Macedonia

2007-04-12T14:13:00.000+02:00

The assistant referee stole the ball

After the end of the match from the Third Macedonian league between Astibo from Stip and Philip || from Vinica, the ball disappeared. The hosts have immediately started searching for the ball. They look for it at the guests dressing room but they weren't able to find it there. Than they've queried that some of the referees stole the ball and have called the police. The police than spotted the car of one of the assistant referees who was on the way back to home ans stopped him. After they've searched his car they found the ball with which the match was played in his sports bag. The ball worth about 100 euros was returned to the football club Astibo and luckily for the referee the police didn't pressed charges for his act.

Rabotnicki Kometal sacked Gorgi Jovanovski

2007-04-11T16:18:00.000+02:00

The Serbian Dragoljub Bekvalac is the new coach of the Macedonian champion Rabotnicki Kometal.

After the 3 draws in row and after couple of days of serious meetings and discussions, the decision has been brought and the famous Gjore Jovanovski is no longer coach of Rabotnicki Kometal. The coach that brought the biggest successes in the history of the club - the 2 titles in the seasons 2004/05 and 2005/06 and was very close for winning the 3rd title in row this season, has been sacked because of the latest performances of the team and the small disputes with the board. In the last 3 rounds Rabotnicki surprisingly won only 3 points by drawing with Bashkimi, Napredok and Shkendija so their leading position is now in danger because Makedonija GP and Pobeda are on just 2 points behind them.

At the same moment when the board announced that Jovanovski is not the coach of Rabotnicki, they've announced the new name in the team - Dragoljub Bekvalac. The Serbian coach Dragoljub Bekvalac is born on 14/07/1952 and is one of the best Serbian coaches. He made the biggest success of the football club Bezanija and created the team that was promoted in the Serbian First league this season. With the club that had the debut in the highest league he managed to win a place in the Play-offs but couple of days ago he suddenly resigned from the club because of private reasons and today we saw that the "private reason" was the offer from the richest Macedonian football club. Previously Bekvalac worked as coach at the Serbian clubs Vojvodina, Sutjeska, OFK Beograd, Obilic, Hajduk Kula and in the Bulgarian clubs Liteks and Beroe.

KAA Gent interested for Macedonian defenders

2007-04-10T23:29:00.000+02:00

One of the best clubs from Belgium, KAA Gent will reinforce the defence with Igor Kralevski and Boban Grncarov

The famous Buffalos from the Belgian city Ghent are interested for two Macedonian defenders, Igor Kralevski and Boban Grncarov.
Igor Kralevski, the 28 years old 1,90m tall defender who was twice member of the Macedonian national team currently plays for Luch from Vladivostok. In 2005 he moved from Rabotnicki to the Croatian club Hajuk and this summer he signed for the Russian club.
Boban Grncarov 1,90m tall defender who is currently playing for the Ukrainian club Stal Alchevsk where he's loaned from Metalurg Donetsk. The 24 years old defender who already has 6 caps for the Macedonian national team previously played for Vardar, OFK Beograd from Serbia and plays in Ukraine since 2003. According to some Belgian medias, Boban Grncarov has already signed contract with KAA Gent.

Noveski close to Everton

2007-03-30T09:27:00.000+02:00

Nikolce Noveski the 27 years old central defender of the Macedonian national team is very close to sign contract with the English club Everton

Scouts and coaches of the English club have visited the last 6 matches on which one of the best defenders in the German Bundesliga Noveski played, the last 5 matches of his club Mainz and the qualifying match of the Macedonian NT in Zagreb against Croatia. They are extremely interested in signing him and yesterday it was confirmed by Noveski too:
- Everton are most concrete and have shown the biggest interest, but nothing is decided yet. There are still some other big clubs from England, Spain and France who are interested and very soon I'll have to decide, said Noveski.
Nikolce Noveski is member of Mainz for 3 years and his contract is about to expire in June. According to transfermarkt.de he's worth 2.5M euros. If Noveski joins Everton, he will be the 4th Macedonian who played in the English Premier League after Goce Sedloski (Sheffield Wednesday), Gjorgi Hristov (Barnsley) and Artim Sakiri (WBA).

Xtratime.org

2007-03-29T22:02:00.000+02:00

Let me present you the Xtratime Community - the only place on the net where you can discuss about the football in Macedonia. Xtratime.org proved to be the best football forum on the internet and that's why with no doubts, the Macedonian Football forum on Xtratime.org became the official forum of MacedonianFootball.com Xtratime is the place for you to talk about football. Managed by its members, people from various parts of the globe gather at Xtratime to share their common passion for the game.
Share your passion for football in the football forums! And as you get to know the community more, you'll find that Xtratime is not just about football. Xtratime.org is a flourishing diverse community and they want you to be part of it! Enjoy your stay here!

Croatia - Macedonia video highlights

2007-03-26T19:54:00.001+02:00

The goals from the EURO 2008 qualifying match between Croatia and Republic of Macedonia played on 24/03/2007
Croatia - Macedonia 2:1
0:1 Sedloski 36'
1:1 Srna 58'
2:1 Eduardo 88'

What next?

2007-03-25T23:47:00.000+02:00

by Stefan K.

The game is over, the Macedonian football fans are disappointed and the hopes of qualifying are shattered, many fans will question themselves do we really have what it takes to qualify for a major tournament.

After the defeat in Croatia our chances for reaching the second place in this very tough and complicated group are slim, now we need a miracle to happen to qualify. But what do we do next? Do we wave the white flag and surrender or we stand still and fight to the end? Well I think the answer is simple. We have enough time until our next game against Israel at home to see what went wrong in the previous games and try to improve, we need to learn from our mistakes and make sure they don't happen again in the future. I completely understand the situation we are in the moment and agree that those qualification may well look over for us but we can't just simply give up now, we can't turn up for the next game just to make the numbers. The remaining games are as much important as the game against Croatia, they are not just for qualifying for the European Championship next summer, those remaining games are so much important for the Fifa World ranking. We need to win as much points as possible in the next games if we want to improve on our current position because that is going to be very crucial for the draw of the groups for the next World Cup.

Now in this difficult moment for the players as well we need to give them our vote of confidence and to give them all our support because on the end of the day they didn't let us down, they didn't ashamed our country, they give their best and they made us proud to be a Macedonians and I believe that with a little bit of luck in the next draw we can qualify for the next World Cup, but until then we don't need to let our emotions to take over and start blaming each other for this bad result, because we lost the game from a quality side which is full of recognized world class football players and as we all know only one can be the winner, in this unfortunate moment for us they are the winners but let's hope so the very next time we will put it wright.

Croatia - Macedonia 2:1

2007-03-24T22:12:00.000+01:00

10 men Macedonia fail to survive on Maksimir although they had the lead from the 36th minute

It took ten minutes before the game's first goal attempt, a Milan Rapaic effort for Croatia that sailed harmlessly over. Macedonia then signaled their intent as Goran Maznov's floated corner found its way to Ilco Naumoski in the six-metre box, but he failed to connect cleanly, allowing a thankful Josip Simunic to clear. Rapaic was wayward from distance again, yet he almost turned provider, finding Marko Babic in the area, who headed over.
On 38 minutes, the Macedonians shocked the home crowd by breaking the deadlock. Dario Simic fouled Naumoski and from the resulting free-kick, Sedloski thumped the ball low past Croatia keeper Stipe Pletikosa from 25 metres. The goal knocked Croatia out of their stride as the half wound down. Rapaić was subsequently replaced by Srna at half-time and he hauled the hosts level on 58 minutes, smashing a free-kick high into the centre of the goal. Sedloski was then harshly dismissed with a second yellow card with little over 20 minutes left. Although Croatia dominated, Macedonia was dangerous and threatened on the counter. The Croats tried to penetrate the stubborn defense through influential midfielder Luka Modric, who had many strong runs and deft passes. Marko Babic and Bosko Balaban also had close chances for Croatia, while Goran Pandev threatened for the visitors. Croatia smelt victory and they breached a retreating defence two minutes from time when Srna crossed for Eduardo to convert from close range.

Croatia: Stipe Pletikosa; Dario Simic, Josip Simunic, Vedran Corluka, Niko Kovac, Marko Babic, Niko Kranjcar, Milan Rapaic (Dario Srna, 46), Luka Modric, Bosko Balaban (Igor Budan, 80), Eduardo da Silva.
Macedonia: Jane Nikoloski; Nikolce Noveski, Goce Sedloski, Aleksandar Mitreski (Igor Jancevski, 77), Aleksandar Vasoskis, Vlade Lazerevski, Velice Sumolikoski, Ilco Naumoski (Darko Tasevski, 60), Robert Popov, Goran Pandev, Goran Maznov (Miroslav Vajs, 72).

Croatia leads Group E with 13 points, two ahead of Russia and five ahead of England, Israel and Macedonia.

Group E	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
Croatia	4	3	1	0	13	3	10
Russia	4	2	2	0	5	1	8
England	4	2	1	1	6	2	7
Macedonia	5	2	1	2	4	3	7
Israel	4	2	1	1	9	6	7
Estonia	3	0	0	3	0	4	0
Andorra	4	0	0	4	1	19	0

Croatia - Macedonia countdown

2007-03-24T11:02:00.000+01:00

EURO 2008 Qualifications; Group E
Qualifying round - 24 March 2007 20:15 (CET) - Maksimir stadium- Zagreb
Croatia - Macedonia

Croatia 4-4-2 formation	Macedonia 5-3-2 formation

Pletikosa	Nikoloski
Corluka - Simic - Simunic - Babic	Noveski - Sedloski - Vasoski
	R. Popov - - - - - - - - - Lazarevski
Rapaic - N.Kovac - Modric - Kranjcar	Shumulikoski - A.Mitreski
	Pandev
Balaban - Eduardo	Naumoski - Maznov

source: Ivan Dimitrov

Referee: Konrad Plautz (AUT)
Assistant referee: Markus Mayr (AUT) Andreas Fellinger (AUT)
Fourth official: Thomas Einwaller (AUT) UEFA Referee observer: Marc Batta (FRA)

Betting odds from various bookmakers:
1 - X - 2
bwin: 1.25 - 4.85 - 10.5

Expekt: 1.3 - 4.4 - 11.5
10Bet: 1.26 - 4.77 - 10.68
Gamebookers: 1.3 - 4.5 - 9
Asian Handicap (-1.5)
Gamebookers: 2.00 - 1.85
Pinnacle: 2.04 - 1.89

Possible surprise in Zagreb?

2007-03-22T22:21:00.000+01:00

Only a day before the Croatia - Macedonia match from the Group E of the EURO 2008 qualifiers

Macedonia always in the mood for surprises
This is probably the most important match for Macedonia in the qualifiers so far. Coming back from Croatia without points will definitely erase all wishes and chances about qualifying for the EURO 2008. That's why all members of the Macedonian national team are extra motivated for this match. But it will not be easy. We all know that. It will not be easy to play against Croatia - former bronze team, currently ranked 12th in the World, full with great players... and definitely one of the biggest factor of their success on home ground is playing on Maksimir - the Croatian impregnable fortress. Croatia has never lost an official match on that stadium. The only lost match was the 0:2 friendly match with France in 2000. On the other 34 matches played on Maksimir, Croatia have 24 wins and 10 draws with fantastic 80 goals scored and only 20 conceded.
But as the Croatian coach Slaven Bilic said, this row will end one day. So the Croatian players must be careful and shouldn't be so relaxed. Croatia shouldn't be so sure in their win because Macedonia is always able to surprise, especially on away matches. Here are the last results of the matches played away from Macedonia:
Netherlands-Macedonia 0:0
Ecuador- Macedonia 1:2 ( Neutral ground )
Turkey-Macedonia 0:1 ( Neutral )
Estonia-Macedonia 0:1
England-Macedonia 0:0
Andorra-Macedonia 0:3
Albania-Macedonia 0:1
As you can see Macedonia is not defeated on the last 7 matches played away from home and has conceded only 1 goal.
Macedonia are always playing extra motivated against the big teams and are always in the mood for making surprises and spoiling the plans. The Macedonian national team is always making at least 2 surprising results on the matches with bigger teams. Is this match away to Croatia going to be the 2nd surprise for Macedonia in this qualifiers after the 0:0 away to England?
The coach of the Macedonian national team, the Slovenian born with Croatian origins - Srecko Katanec, has some problems with the missing of Igor Mitreski and Robert Petrov. Aleksandar Vasoski and Robert Popov are expected to substitute them so the probably the Macedonian starting 11 will look like this:

- - - - - - - - Nikoloski - -- - - - - -
- - Noveski - Sedloski - Vasoski - -
Lazarevski - - - - - - - - - - Popov
- - Shumulikoski - A.Mitreski - -
- - - - - - - - Pandev - - -- - - - - -
- - - - - Naumoski - Ristic - - - - -

So far Macedonia and Croatia have meet 4 times and Croatia have been better on 2 of those matches. Here are the results and scorers:
1998, Zagreb, ECQ: Croatia-Macedonia 3:2 (Suker 16 , Boban 45,70 - Ciric 2, Sainovski 55)
1999, Skopje, ECQ: Macedonia-Croatia 1:1 (Hristov 80 - Suker 19)
2003, Sibenik, friendly: Croatia-Macedonia 2:2 (Maric 35, Andric 72 - Sedloski 10, Toleski 60)
2004 , Skopje, friendly: Macedonia-Cro 0:1 (Klasnic 33)

We should all expect great match on the Maksimir stadium in Zagreb because of the hot atmosphere between the player and the fans on both sides. Let me raise the warm the atmosphere a little more with the photo of Karolina Goceva, Macedonia's best (and the hottest) female singer, who visited and gave support to our boys on their trainings in Ohrid.

The 22nd round is postponed

2007-03-16T18:38:00.000+01:00

No First league football in Macedonia this weekend because of the heavy incident from the previous round when Vardar's players were attacked on the half time break in Kumanovo.

All matches are postponed
All 6 First league matches are postponed until the final decision is made for the abandoned match between Bashkimi and Vardar. Previously the Football Federation of Macedonia canceled the matches from the 22nd round involving Bashkimi and Vardar but because of the regularity, today they decided to cancel all matches from the Macedonian First League. The date for the matches of the 22nd round will be decided after solving the case with the Bashkimi-Vardar match.

Until when?

This is the last thing that the Macedonian football needs. And that's why the Macedonian football fans are asking: "Until when are we going to watch scenes like this on the football stadiums in Macedonia"? The football in Macedonia is going down and down. But until when? Let's all hope that all this will finish tomorrow in when the current leaders of the FFM will not get the support from the delegates on the congress in Struga.

Macedonia with record 49th place on FIFA ranking list

2007-03-15T08:57:00.000+01:00

Macedonian football national team is in the Top 50 national football teams on the new FIFA ranking list

Best rank in the history
After the 0:1 win away to Albania on the friendly match played last month, Macedonia got a 4 place jump on the new FIFA ranking list. The four position progression took Macedonia on the 49th place with 585 points and that's the biggest success in the history of the Macedonian national team.
Argentina took the first place on the list, passing Italy and Brazil. Croatia is the best ranked team from our Group E in the qualifying for the EURO 2008. They stayed on the 12th position. Russia had 4 place progression and is now on the 23rd position. Israel is also better ranked than Macedonia and is now on the 38th position. Estonia is still 106th and worst placed team from our group is Andorra on the 163rd position.

Goran Slavkovski arrived home

2007-03-11T17:59:00.000+01:00

The biggest potential football star and current Inter Milan player, 17 year old Goran Slavkovski, today arrived in Macedonia after agreeing to wear the red and yellow jersey of the Macedonian national team. Slavkovski is born in Sweden but with Macedonian origins and that's why there was a huge "battle" for him by both Football Federations.
Today he had the chance to meet the Macedonian Prime Minister, Mr. Nikola Gruevski and after that he watched the big Skopje derby between Vardar and Rabotnicki. On the short meeting with the Macedonian medias he said:
- I'm very happy that I'm in Macedonia and that I will play for the Macedonian national team. I don't speak much in front of the cameras because I'm expressing myself on the pitch.

Goran Slavkovski will have the debut in his red and yellow No.9 jersey for Macedonia on the friendly match between the U21 national teams of Macedonia and Albania that will be played on 25th March on the Gradski stadium in Skopje.

(photo MIA)

Expekt now offering odds for the Macedonian league

2007-03-08T09:36:00.000+01:00

Great news for all who like to bet. Expekt, one of the best online bookmakers recently have included the Macedonian league in their offer.
What can you get there?

- Consistently competitive "Odds & Offers"
- All major and many unique Sports offered
- A variety of bet types - including futures, multis, handicaps and many more...

So what are you waiting for? Take your credit card and open an account by pressing HERE, or on the banner.

You don't have a credit card? That's not a problem. You can transfer money from and to your bank account by using Moneybookers

Slavkovski: I am Macedonian

2007-02-28T18:27:00.000+01:00

Picture worth a thousand words...
The president of the Macedonian Agency for Youth and Sport, Ivica Georgievski visited Goran Slavskovski in Milan. On the meeting Slavskovski ensured him that he wants to play for Macedonia. Goran Slavkovski said: My name is not Svensson or Larsson and I'm not blue-yellow. My name is Goran Slavkovski and my parents are from Macedonia, I am Macedonian, my heart is in yellow and red colour and that's why I'm gonna play for Macedonia.

Goran Slavskovski will play for Macedonia

2007-02-24T07:27:00.000+01:00

One of the most talented young players in Europe to play for Macedonia

Finally confirmed
After a year of doubts, meetings and begging, finally Slavkovski's family confirmed that he chose the Macedonian national team. The coach of the Macedonian U21 national team confirmed that Goran Slavskovski agreed to take part of the U21 friendly match against Albania that will be played on 28, March.

Everybody wanted Slavkovski
Swedish-born by Macedonian parents Goran Slavkovski is raising heads all over Europe, already earning the nickname “Ibrahimovic the Second.” Born April 8, 1989, in Skravlinge, Sweden, the 17-year old Slavkovski shares much in common with Serie A’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic. For starters, both players began their careers with Swedish side Malmo FF, and before that Rosengard club FBK Balkan, and both players have family origins in the former Yugoslavia. But this is just the tip of the iceberg as Slavkovski, like his childhood role model Ibrahimovic, currently finds himself at Italy’s FC Internazionale Milano, hoping to further develop the goal-scoring prowess he has shown thus far. The fight for Slavkovski also transcended the European club level, with recent media outlets reportedly alleging a “war” between the Macedonian, Swedish, and Croatian football federations to woo the youngster to their respective national teams. Slavkovski has stated it would be an honor to play for Macedonia, and even received an official invitation from Macedonia’s Prime Minister to discuss his possible future with the FFM.

Pandev on the top of Europe

2007-02-20T15:06:00.000+01:00

Once again the best football player from Lazio draws the European attention
With the 2 goals scored this weekend and the win that he brought to Lazio over Torino, Goran Pandev drew the European attention and was named as man of the match, elected in the team of the round by the Italian medias, Eurosport...

Pandev keeps Lazio amongst Serie A top five
Goran Pandev was twice on target as the Bincocelesti edged closer to the final Champions League place. Pandev opened the scoring in the 11th minute, the striker opting to clip the ball over Toro keeper Christian Abbiati when a powerful strike was expected by all. The Macedonian sealed the win with his second on the hour mark after Stefano Mauri had played him in with a lovely reverse pass. Pandev did the rest, finishing with typical aplomb to give Delio Rossi's side all three points.

Going for the record
For the second time in his career Goran Pandev scored two goals on one match in the Serie A. With the two goals against Torino, Pandev now has 7 goals scored this season in Lazio's jersey in the Serie A matches. On 15 matches from the end of the season it's very likely to expect from him to improve his personal record of 11 goals scored in the last season.

The great form of the leader of the Macedonian national team and current Lazio best player is another positive factor for the whole atmosphere of the Macedonian football fans on a month before the most important match for the Macedonian NT in the EURO 2008 qualifications away to Croatia.

Stevica Ristic joins the Asian Champion

2007-02-18T17:14:00.000+01:00

The best striker of the Macedonian league joins the Korean club Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors
Stevica Ristic, the best striker of the Macedonian league for the last 3 seasons and the new name in the Macedonian national team, joined the Koren club Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, last years winner of the Asian Champions league.

Long awaited move
Stevica Ristic, the 24 years old Serbian born striker signed 2 years long contract with the K-League team Jeonbuk. Born on 23/05/1982, Stevica Ristic affirmed himself in the last 3,5 seasons spent in the Macedonian League. He scored 103 goals for his club Sileks and was the best striker in the Macedonian league. Many foreign big clubs were interested to see him in their squads but the moves to the clubs like: Greuter Furth, Krilya Sovietov, Steaua, Lokeren... all failed because of the big transfer fee that Sileks asked for him. But this time the Korean team was very determined to have him and Sileks were not able to reject their offer, 6 months before his contract expiration.

New member of the Macedonian national team
Stevica Ristic is born in Serbia but with Macedonian origins. After 3 years spent in Macedonia he got the Macedonian passport and it was question of time when will he have the debut in the Macedonian national team. And it was the 7th of February, 2007 - the date that changed his life. Srecko Katanec gave him the chance to be in the starting line-up for the friendly match against Albania and Stevica Ristic made great use of his debut appearance for the Macedonian national side by scoring the winning goal. This goal had big effect on his future career because the next day many offers from big clubs came on his address and the best one came from the 2006 AFC Champions League winners Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.

Artim Sakiri signed for Vaduz

2007-02-18T10:19:00.000+01:00

The Macedonian legend will spend the next 6 months in the Swiss Challenge League

After some period without a club and no competitive football Artim Sakiri signed for the Liechtenstein club Vaduz which competes in the Swiss Challenge League. The period without a competitive football cost him the place in the Macedonian national team and it's unlikely that at age of 33 the attacking midfielder will ever get back in the form that he was in his good old days. In his rich career he played in many leagues and gained big experience in clubs like Vardar, Halmstads, TB Berlin, HIT Gorica, Malatyaspor, CSKA Sofia, West Bromwich Albion, AaB and his last club was Inter Turku from Finland.
Sakiri played 73 times for the Macedonian national team and scored 15 goals and we'll remember him as the player who retired David Seaman after scoring the fantastic goal from a corner kick against England in 2002.

Aco Stojkov signs for Debrecen

2007-02-09T14:36:00.000+01:00

Macedonian striker finally leaves Partizan
The 24 years old striker finally managed to leave Partizan after the agonizing 7 months with no first team football

Stojkov signs for the Hungarian champion Debrecen VSC
Earlier this season Aco Stojkov was announced as the biggest reinforcement for Partizan but coach Jesic was ungracious for him and Stojkov was left without a first team football for 7 months. This cost him the place in the Macedonian national team when Srecko Katanec left him out because of his non-playing form. Finally today this agonizing period came to end when he signed for the Hungarian champion Debrecen VSC.
Aco Stojkov born on 29 April, 1983 was proclaimed as one of the biggest Macedonian future stars. At age of only 17 years Stojkov together with Goran Pandev were transfered to Inter Milan where they won the youth league title. Before joining Partizan he was loaned to Italian lower league teams and La Louviere from Belgium where he scored 7 goals in 14 matches. He has 25 appearances and 10 goals for the U21 and with the 4 goals on 20 matches he was valuable member of the Macedonian senior national team. By signing for Debrecen a quick return in playing for is expected from him and we should see him back in the national team in short time.

Albania - Macedonia 0:1

2007-02-07T17:56:00.000+01:00

Good first half, but awful second half
Macedonia won the friendly match away to Albania as Stevica Ristic made great use out of his 1st appearance for the MKD national side by scoring the winning goal. The Macedonian striker netted the only goal in this friendly, leaving the Croatian chief at helm of the “Black Eagles” Otto Baric to witness his team's struggle for an equalizer resulting in nothing but missed chances and a defeat.

Solid performance in the first half
Macedonians started the first half with attacking formation and it wasn't a big surprise to see them dominating the pitch during that period. The striking duo Naumoski-Ristic, supported by Pandev had many chances and it was in the 33rd minute that the crucial moment of the match took place. Stevica Ristic got in the chance and really used it well by signing in the score-sheet after being picked up by Pandev's assist in a counter attack operation . The Macedonian international with Serb roots had another good chance as the game continued, but his effort same as Pandev's free kick and then Noveski's shot that even shook the woodwork didn't bring any changes on the score board. During this period the Albanian team struggled with the organization of their game and the Black Eagles had almost no serious chances to jeopardize Nikoloski at the Macedonian goal.

Awful second half
Considering this match was only a friendly, Srecko Katanec used it for testing all his players. That's why he given an opportunity to Polozhani, Tasevski, Pacovski, Maznov and Jancevski at the beginning of the second period. However those substitutions, when Pandev, Naumoski, Ristic, Shumulikoski and Nikolovski left the pitch, were a crucial fact why the performance of the Macedonians gone downwards. The newly entered players struggled to hold to the ball and organize some offensive actions, leaving the pitch completely to their opponent's domination. The Albanians on the other side, have made a very good impression in the second half, managing to create many good chances to score. However the goalkeepers on both ends were the "ones to take the blame" for the low amount of goals at this game because they made some excellent saves.

Srecko Katanec sent off
The awful refereeing by the Italian referee Bertini also marked this match. He made many mistakes, especially against the Macedonians. That's why the Slovenian coach at Macedonian post, Srecko Katanec was complaining all the time and in the 83rd minute the Ref showed him the red card and the former Slovenian National Side chief had to leave the pitch.

Albania - Macedonia 0:1 (0:1)
Goals: Stevica Ristic 33'

Macedonia:
Nikoloski(45' Pacovski) - Noveski, Sedloski, Mitreski - Lazarevski, A.Mitreski, Shumulikoski(73' Jancevski), Grozdanovski - Pandev(45' Polozhani) - Ristic(61' Maznov), Naumoski(45' Tasevski)

Albania - Macedonia betting preview

2007-02-07T15:30:00.000+01:00

A short preview and advice for betting:

The match is friendly and both coaches will use this match for testing players, so the prediction is:

Go for Over 2 goals at Pinnaclesports

Good luck

Scandal after scandal

2007-02-06T08:50:00.000+01:00

Here's mu column written for Nogomania.com, the biggest Slovenian football website:
http://www.nogomania.com/Default.asp?podrocje=32&novica=6720

Scandal after scandal

Macedonia hired Srecko Katanec as coach… Macedonian national team playing great… 0:0 in England… Macedonia in the top 50 on the FIFA ranking list…

You must have reacted: “WOW, the Macedonian football has improved a lot”, or maybe even: “What a good work by the Football Federation of Macedonia (FFM)”. Yeah, I know you’ve reacted like that and I know that everyone outside of Macedonia and everyone who’s far from the reality in Macedonia have reacted like that and have the best opinion about the current situation of the football in Macedonia.

But what actually is going on in here? Hmmm… Where should I begin? Do you have time? How many pages I’m allowed to use for this column?

OK, I’ll try to be short. I’ll go back in 2004, 13^th October, Andorra – Macedonia 1:0. No, it’s not a typing mistake, the match really ended with 1:0. Yes, Andorra won. In the country where a hotel worker, baker, police officer… are playing for the NT, they have only one single win in the whole history of the football played there. Can you imagine the shame? The only win in the history of Andorra is over Macedonia. And only couple of weeks later the reports came that one bookmaker from Asia and one from Portugal have bankrupted after huge amount of money staked on the big odds for Andorra’s win over Macedonia. Hmmm… What actually was going on there? No one knows and no one will know and nothing will be ever proven. No one actually saw that match. Strange but the national TV had no live coverage for that match and the next day we only saw a video of the goal.

Let’s skip the other smaller scandals that happened in between and move to the near past. I don’t want even to start about the situation of youth football in Macedonia or the lower leagues. The quality of the Macedonian First League is on very low level so you can imagine what happens in the lower leagues and there’s no program or plan for advancement of the youth schools and youth players.

We all knew in what miserable situation are the domestic competitions but couple of weeks ago we all got shocked when the government’s labor inspection body reported that 7 out of 12 clubs did not have a single player registered as a professional player although all players in the Macedonian First League are playing professionally. The players are instead playing illegally, they do not have contracts and the clubs are not paying social insurance for them. Normally the FFM has given up taking action against the clubs because to be effective they would have to close down almost all of the clubs. But the question here is on what basis did the FFM give licences to the clubs for playing in the European competitions. For example in the most famous Macedonian club Vardar, the inspectors discovered that there are only 10 people employed and all of them are coaches and the club has no contracts with players and wages and social insurance hasn't been paid since January 2006. But still FFM gave Vardar a license so they can play in European competitions. Pobeda (owned by FFM’s president Haralampie Hadzi-Risteski) has only 6 employees and no one of them is a player. They have 22 players, 4 of them are foreigners and all are without professional contracts. Wages and social insurance hasn't been officially payed since 2002 at Pobeda… If only UEFA knew what kind of clubs are playing in their competitions…

But this was just a beginning of the shocks that the Macedonian football fans “survived” in this period. Only the next day the daily sports newspaper “Makedonski Sport” revealed that the Secretary General of the FFM Lazar Mitrevski was employed on his position with fake diploma from faculty. Than, trying to escape from this he made even bigger criminal acts by destroying his fake diploma and placing a new diploma (from lower education level) into his records. But normally all this was discovered by the Macedonian police and now they have pressed charges against him.

But wait, the scandals didn’t stop there. In the next few days again “Makedonski Sport” revealed another big scandal. FFM have ordered 4500 football kits with false PUMA (FFM’s official sponsor) trademarks from a sports equipment factory in Prilep (the home town of FFM’s president).

The Macedonian police decided to investigate the cases and they closed down and searched the FFM offices on 15 January and questioned some of its managers for hours at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. A week later UEFA and FIFA wrote the Macedonian Minister of Internal Affairs complaining that Macedonia had violated the principles of autonomy that applies throughout the sports movement. But couple of days later they all got it clear that the Macedonian police is just chasing criminals and the president and the secretary general are not immune.

On of those desperate moves for salvation by the leadership of the FFM was the support from Srecko Katanec. I don’t know how they managed to manipulate him but in the first days of the scandals Srecko Katanec gave his support for the leadership of the FFM and said that he will leave the Macedonian NT if the current leadership leaves FFM. But couple of days later Katanec got it all clear and saw who he’s dealing with and he “soften” in his statements by saying that he’s not well familiar with the situation in FFM and he didn’t care so much and he’s concentrated on his job with the NT.

Finally on February 01, the secretary general resigned. Mitrovski said he was quitting to protect the federation but we all know that the FFM can’t be protected any more. Changes in the FFM must come and it must happen sooner! People who care about the Macedonian football have already started taking action and an initiative committee for changes in the FFM was formed. Former Macedonian football players, referees and coaches form the committee and they work for immediate changes and saving the football in Macedonia.

As I said changes in the Macedonian football must come sooner because “the thing” that is currently played on the stadiums in Macedonia and organized by the Football Fakers of Macedonia (FFM) can’t be called football at the moment.

Gjurovski: Macedonia is my choice

2007-02-05T15:34:00.000+01:00

Mario Gjurovski made the decision
The big talent hopes that soon he'll wear the Macedonian jersey, following the steps of his father Milko and uncle Boshko

Bright future in front of Mario
Mario Gjurovski is one of the most talented players currently playing in the Serbian league. He drew the attention on him with the great performances for his club Bezanija. Born in Belgrade, Serbia but with Macedonian origin there were many big doubts about his choice for the national team. The older football fans remember the great performances of his father Milko and his uncle Boshko. Serbian sport journalists admire his skills comparing him like a mix of his father's Milko attacking and his unlces Boshko defensive skill. Mario Gjurovski is a player that every coach would like to have in his squad.

Red and yellow jersey is Mario's choice
For couple of days now Mario is in Macedonia with his club Bezanija on their winter preparations. In the past few weeks there were a lot of speculations about his future because some bigger clubs like Crvena Zvezda, Partizan and Panathinaikos are interested for him, but Mario brought another very important decision for his future:
- I'm here in Macedonia for a couple of days and I can say that I feel like home. This is the country of where my origins are and the country that I want to play for, said Gjurovski for "Makedonski Sport". I think that I can help the Macedonian NT together with Pandev, Stojkov...

This is real good news for all the football fans from Macedonia and we should gladly expect to see him in Katanec' squad in some of the next matches for the EURO 2008 qualifications.

Lazar Mitrovski resigns

2007-02-01T23:20:00.000+01:00

The Secretary General of the Football Federation of Macedonia resigns
After all the scandals and affairs in which the leading people of the Football Federation of Macedonia (FFM) were involved, the Secretary General Lazar Mitrovski finally resigned today

Scandal after scandal
It all started couple of weeks ago when the Macedonian labor inspection revealed the illegal working of almost all Macedonian football clubs. And in the next few days more scandals were revealed by the daily sports newspaper "Makedonski Sport" when they publish how the Secretary General of the FFM, Lazar Mitrovski was appointed at his job with fake faculty diploma, and than followed by the big scandal about the falsifications of the PUMA equipment made by the FFM.
In those days the struggling leadership of the Football Federation of Macedonia involving the President Haralampie Hadzi-Risteski and the Secretary General Lazar Mitrovski tried some ways to escape from the responsibility for all those scandals. They tried to get the support and some immunity by UEFA and FIFA. But it didn't took so long for them to understand that the Ministry of Interior is only doing their job when they fight against criminal and they are not trying to interfere in the work of FFM.

Mitrovski resigns
The problems in the FFM are drown to the boiling point. The Ministry of Interior have questioned the President, the Secretary General and many other people and witnesses involved in those cases and the Macedonian Police pressed criminal charges against Lazar Mitrovski, Secretary General of the FFM for suspected use of forged university diploma during his electing in 2003 and also suspected to have destroyed the forged diploma last year, in fear of being discovered. There are no doubts that the police has hard evidences against him and he;ll get charged for all his actions. So it was question of time when will those people leave the FFM and finally today Lazar Mitrovski resigned.
But this is only the first step of the big changes that should follow later. Yesterday an initiative committee for changes in the FFM was formed. The committee is formed by former Macedonian football players, referees and coaches and they work for immediate changes and saving the football in Macedonia.

Goce Toleski signs for Burghausen

2007-02-01T14:48:00.000+01:00

The Macedonian striker moves in Bundesliga 2
Goce Toleski the 29 years old striker and former member of the Macedonian national team will try to help Wacker Burghausen to survive in the German Bundesliga 2.

One of the best strikers in the Macedonian league and former member of the Macedonian national team, yesterday signed for the member of the German Bundesliga 2 team Wacker Burghausen. This year Burghausen are struggling in the fight against relegation and Goce Toleski is their new reinforcement of the attack. Goce Toleski has been part of the Macedonian national team for 16 times and scored 1 goal. This year he had great performances in Renova's jersey where he managed to score 13 goals in the 18 rounds played so far in the first half of the season of the Macedonian First League.
The former member of Rabotnicki, Napredok and Tikvesh so signed for Wacker Burghausen until June 2008.

MacedonianFootball.com

2007-01-28T23:48:00.000+01:00

The blog is moved to http://www.MacedonianFootball.com

Dinamo Zagreb interested for Slavkovski

2007-01-25T15:07:00.000+01:00

The Croatians want Slavkovski
Dinamo Zagreb president Zdravko Mamic in talks with Inter Milan for the young striker Goran Slavkovski

Mamic confirms Dinamo's interest for the "wonder kid"
As the Croatian medias present, Zdravko Mamic confirmed the interest of Dinamo Zagreb for seeing Goran Slavkovski on "Maksimir". For a long time the name of Slavkovski was connected with Dinamo but this is the first time that it's officially confirmed.
- I'm in talks with Inter about Slavkovski's arrival. He's only 17 years old and he plays great. Many big clubs are interested in him. Goran wants to play for Dinamo but also he would like to play for the Croatian NT, said Mamic.
This is another confirmation that the Croatins want to see Goran Slavkovski with the Croatian NT jersey. He has no connection with Croatia but if he plays at least 2 years in Croatia he can get Croatian passport and we'll be allowed by UEFA to play for the Croatian NT.

Everybody wants Slavkovski
Swedish-born by Macedonian parents Goran Slavkovski is raising heads all over Europe, already earning the nickname “Ibrahimovic the Second.” Born April 8, 1989, in Skravlinge, Sweden, the 17-year old Slavkovski shares much in common with Serie A’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic. For starters, both players began their careers with Swedish side Malmo FF, and before that Rosengard club FBK Balkan, and both players have family origins in the former Yugoslavia. But this is just the tip of the iceberg as Slavkovski, like his childhood role model Ibrahimovic, currently finds himself at Italy’s FC Internazionale Milano, hoping to further develop the goal-scoring prowess he has shown thus far. The fight for Slavkovski is also rumoured to have transcended the European club level, with recent media outlets reportedly alleging a “war” between the Macedonian, Swedish, and Croatian football federations to woo the youngster to their respective national teams. It is also said that the still undecided Slavkovski has stated it would be an honour to play for Macedonia, and even received an official invitation from Macedonia’s Prime Minister to discuss his possible future with the FFM.

Noveski in the best ex-Yu squad

2007-01-22T22:45:00.000+01:00

Macedonian defender in the best ex-Yu squad poll organized by JadranSport.org

It's not a secret that many football fans in Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Macedonia in the past fifteen years speculated how a team would look like, that would unite all players from all Ex-Yu republics. How strong would that team be and would it be able to win gold medals, European or even World Cup glories, of which we all dream of. Therefore we at JadranSport.org together with our friends and partners from the Former Yugoslav sports press have decided to give it a try and vote the best squad made of Ex- Yugoslav players for the year 2006.

PARTICIPANTS
Apart from the JadranSport crew, which covers football events that relate to all Former Yugoslav Republics, we had the honor to receive the opinions & votes of following media: Nogomania.com (Slovenia), Kurir Press (Serbia), Nogometni Magazin (Croatia), Makedonski Sport (Macedonia), Radio Tivat (Montenegro). We wish to thank all journalists and editors involved in this year's Press Award Poll.

Read the rest of the article here

Filip Ivanovski signs for Groclin

2007-01-21T19:30:00.000+01:00

The young Macedonian striker to continue his career in Poland
Filip Ivanovski, the best striker if the Macedonian U21 NT was transfered in the Polish club Groclin Dyskoblia.

Filip Ivanovski, a player to watch in the future
Born on 01/05/1985, Filip Ivanovski has already made a big mark in the Macedonian Football. In the season 2005/06 with the 20 goals scored he was second best striker in the Macedonian First League. He also helped his former club Makedonija GP to win the Macedonian Cup ending a 50-metre run through the FK Skendija defence with a late winning goal. This season Ivanovski scored 10 goals and was named as "Man of the match" on 5 in the 18 rounds played so far. In the past few seasons Filip Ivanovski is regular member and best striker in the Macedonian U21 NT and very soon it's expected to have his debut in the senior team. During the winter break many bigger teams from Greece and France showed interest for him but the Polish club Groclin Dyskoblia SSA was most determined and signed him this weekend.

Macedonian FA with PUMA falsifications

2007-01-21T13:50:00.000+01:00

The scandals in the Macedonian football have no end
Macedonian FA has ordered 4500 kits from a sport equipment factory from Prilep with falsification sign of the PUMA trade mark

Another big scandal by the Macedonian FA leadership

The scandals in the Macedonian football can’t stop. After the upsets with the labor inspection which revealed the illegal work of the Macedonian football clubs, after the big scandal with the general secretary’s fake diploma, the Macedonian daily sports newspaper “Makedonski Sport” today revealed another big scandal in which the leadership of the Macedonian FA is involved. In the recent period the Macedonian FA has ordered falsification equipment with PUMA’s trademark from one Macedonian sports equipment factory. According to the information of “Makedonski Sport”, the Macedonian FA has ordered 250 kits with 18 jerseys and shorts or 4500 kits in total with the falsifications of the PUMA trade mark. Part of that equipment has already been distributed among the youth training centers in Macedonia.

Although PUMA as the official sponsor of the Macedonian national football teams gives the equipment for the Macedonian FA by discount prices (recently PUMA sold 2000 balls to the Macedonian FA by price of 1euro each), it’s obvious that the leadership of the Macedonian FA has other “calculations” and they’ve ordered falsifications from the sports equipment factory “V&S” from Prilep, Macedonia. As “Makedonski Sport” informs, a law suite against the Macedonian FA has already been sent by PUMA as samples of this fake equipment has been sent in PUMA’s headquarters and finally after all the scandals involving the criminal leadership of the Macedonian FA, some actions against them must be taken.

Katanec to leave the Macedonian NT

2007-01-16T22:06:00.000+01:00

Another upset for the Macedonian football
After all the chaotic situations and affairs in which the Macedonian football was involved, Srecko Katanec the coach of the Macedonian NT, announced his resignation if the president and the general secretary of the Macedonian Football Federation lose their position.

Complete chaos in the Macedonian Football Federation
Only a day after the big scandal with the illegal working of almost all clubs in the Makedonska Prva Liga (Macedonian First League), the Macedonian daily sports newspaper Makedonski Sport revealed another big scandal in the Macedonian Football Federation in which almost all of the leading people are involved. They revealed that the general secretary of the Macedonian Football Federation (MFF), Lazar Mitrovski, was employed on his position in the MFF with a fake diploma from a faculty in Sarajevo. But this situation has grown in the last few days after the newspaper again published an article about how all of the leading people in the MFF gave big effort in these days to illegally delete the diploma from his record and also what's even a bigger illegal act, they tried to change the statute of the MFF so Lazar Mitrovski can keep his position with lower education. Normally, after all the scandals in the MFF this had to be a boiling point and as some rumors say - they are soon going to "fall" from their leading positions in the Macedonian Football Federation.

Katanec will leave the Macedonian NT
And after all the scandals and shocks, today the Macedonian football fans had another big shock. Srecko Katanec declared that he will leave the Macedonian NT if the president and the general secretary lose their positions in the MFF. The current situation in the Macedonian Football has negatively effected on him and he said:
- I don't want to work with other people. If there's a problem and if they try to change the president and the general secretary, than that means that they will change me at the same moment. The new people that will arrive can bring new coach, I don't want to work like that. I've been brought here by Hari (Haralampie Hadzi-Risteski - the president of the MFF) and Laze (Lazar Mitrovski), so I will leave with them. For all this I've informed the president Risteski and I said the same to him - I'm leaving if they are leaving, he said.
The situation with Katanec is becoming really serious as today he was supposed to arrive in Macedonia to make the final arrangements about the friendly match against Albania next month, but because of the current situation he stayed at home in Slovenia.
After all the heavy evidences against the leading people of the Macedonian Football Federation and all the scandals that they are involved, the current situation with Srecko Katanec and his support of the MFF are very confusing for the fans of the Macedonian football.

Goran Pandev – Where to from here?

2007-01-15T18:51:00.000+01:00

Story about Macedonian hope for Pancev's heir
Macedonian football has long been calling for a genuine superstar and current SS Lazio forward Goran Pandev has the ability and potential to provide the small landlocked Balkan nation with something to cheer about. This is a story about a footballer born on July 27th, 1983 in Strumica, Macedonia.

The beginning...
As a youngster it was clear that Pandev had the talent and potential to make it in the world game, which is what prompted Italian giants Internazionale to acquire his services. Pandev spent some time with Inter's youth team along with fellow Macedonian young gun Aco Stojkov and both helped Inter win the youth championship. While Pandev was ready for first team football, places at Inter being fiercely competitive meant he was loaned out to Spezia in the Italian lower divisions and then to Ancona in order to progress.

Pandev in the Serie A
Ancona gave him valuable Serie A experience helping develop his footballing ability during the 2003/04 season where he played 20 matches, 7 as a substitute scoring one goal. As the 2004/05 season got underway Pandev was on the move to SS Lazio (albeit as part of a transfer that included Stankovic to Inter). Pandev scored the only goal of the game in the 2005 season opener giving Lazio a deserved 1-0 win over Messina. Pandev made over 25 appearances for Lazio in his debut season, 15 as a substitute scoring 4 goals with Di Canio and company making sure starting opportunities were extremely competitive.

2005/06 saw Pandev improve tremendously with 34 appearances, 20 of those as a starter with a great return of 11 goals while during the current campaign Pandev has been an integral part of the Lazio team starting 17 matches and with 5 goals and 1 assist thus far.

His performances for Lazio have ensured that Pandev has been a critical component of the Macedonian national team and to date Pandev has been capped over 25 times and scored 10 goals for the Macedonian national team and there is surely plenty more to come as the Macedonians endeavour to qualify for the 2008 European Championship.

Pandev is one of a few Macedonians to play in the Italian Serie A. Darko Pancev was the first, having had a brief and unsuccessful stint with Internazionale in the early 90's, while players with Macedonian descent such as Marek Jankulovski and Romania’s player of the century Gheorghi Hagi have also plied their trade in the Serie A.

Pancev vs Pandev
Many will argue that Darko Pancev is the greatest Macedonian footballer though it is somewhat contentious to compare the two players who had different playing styles. Both brought different qualities to their respective teams. Darko Pancev was without a doubt a great goal poacher however Goran Pandev has the abilities that Darko Pancev did not posses in my opinion. Playing in arguably the most difficult league in the world, Goran Pandev has been impressive in his few seasons of regular football with Lazio showing his flair, skill and creativity on the ball along with his eye for goal. Who could forget the truly dazzling run where he twisted and turned through the Juventus defence before unleashing a ferocious strike into the Juventus net during the 2004-05 Serie A season. Another truly wonderful Pandev goal came against Empoli where he received the ball just inside the box turned two defenders went past another and smashed the ball home into the roof of the net.
Darko Pancev on the other hand only truly shone for Vardar in their championship winning team and then at Red Star Belgrade where he helped the team to a memorable European Champions Cup triumph in the early 1990s. It is not to say that Darko Pancev was not a great player for Macedonia, Red Star or even the former Yugoslavia. Yet in arguably the world’s toughest league Darko Pancev struggled to adapt to life at Internazionale and the rigours of Italian football and thus can not be seen to be in the same league as Goran Pandev. Pandev has shown in a short time that he is a proven goal scorer for Lazio in the Serie A and for Macedonia at international level.

To leave or not to leave that is the question?
Today the question is not whether Goran Pandev is a great player but whether he will stay at Lazio with the rumoured financial troubles affecting the club. Does Pandev want to stay? Pandev has stated his ambition to move to what is the world’s most popular domestic league – the English Premier League. Rumours were flying last northern summer on his proposed move to Arsenal and then to Everton on loan whilst also being linked with a move to Bundesliga club Werder Bremen yet nothing eventuated. Tactically and technically the EPL is not of the same standard as La Liga or the Serie A, however, it is still of great quality and as an overall product the EPL is hands downs the best league in the world with greatest viewing reach being beamed into over 190 countries world-wide.

With the rumour mill working overtime with the January transfer period just opening the question many football fans of Lazio, Macedonia and Goran Pandev are asking is where will the Strumica born magician end up going?
The Bundesliga is by far the worst option for Goran Pandev as it is hardly going to help him develop as a player anymore than Pandev would do at Lazio or another Serie A club. Interestingly enough there has been little mention of a move to Spain, where a player with Pandev’s qualities would surely settle quickly and truly offer the fans something to cheer about.

The recent speculation linking Pandev to Rangers of Scotland can not be seen as anything but a backward step for the Lazio forward and surely it would be better to stay in Italy than move to Scotland where the league arguably second rate by continental European standards. A move to the EPL is what Pandev reportedly wants yet a move to a club like Arsenal or Chelsea is not the way to go. Pandev would be much better suited at a club like Everton, Tottenham or even Liverpool where he would surely get more game time and could even be used on the flank if need be such is his versatility.

The future
Whether Pandev stays in Italy only time will tell. Whether or not Pandev takes his game and career to the next level is entirely up to him. In order to become the player he is capable of being Pandev needs to find more consistency. On numerous occasions Pandev has won goal of the week in Italy, Europe and has also been picked in the team of the week in Italy. No one will deny the lad has an abundance of skill, potential and that he is already a great talent as many have seen from the amazing examples of individual brilliance already shown. However Pandev needs to exhibit his brilliance more frequently if he is to become a truly recognisable superstar of the world game.
With his current performances for Lazio and Macedonia the future for Pandev surely looks bright. Still at only 23 years of age and not yet reaching his peak, one can be sure that Pandev will be delighting fans at Lazio and around Europe for many years to come and when the this young Macedonian reaches his peak at 26+ defenders of Europe watch out!

15.01.2007 by Michael Pande Kotevski - http://www.jadransport.org

Igor Kralevski to reinforce Luch Energia

2007-01-12T15:04:00.000+01:00

Macedonian defender with a move in the far Vladivostok
After being left out of Hajduk's first team in the first half of the season, Igor Kralevski is now very close to reinforce the defensive line of the Russian team Luch Energia

Igor Kralevski the 28 years old Macedonian defender from Hajduk is very close to a transfer in Luch Energia from Vladivostok, Russia. He has passed the medical tests and has already started to train with his new club on Cyprus where Luch Energia have their winter preparations, reported "Makedonski Sport". According to some rumors in the next few days Hajduk and Luch Energia will sign the transfer contract worth $300,000.
The central defender moved from Rabotnicki to Hajduk Split in 2005. In his first season he had very good performances in Hajduk's team, earning a place in the Macedonian NT where he was capped 2 times. But after the change of the coach he was left out of the first team for the whole first part of the season. Earlier this season many big clubs were interested for Kralevski, among them Torpedo, Saturn, Standard and Bochum but Hajduk asked too much for him. Finally Luch Energia, the team who got promoted in the Russian Premier League last season and a team with big budget and aspirations in this season, were determined enough to offer enough money to see Kralevski in their team.

Macedonian football clubs work illegal

2007-01-10T15:37:00.000+01:00

Complete chaos in the working of the Macedonian football clubs was found by a governmental labor inspection body. The inspectors discovered that there are less than 100 professional players in the Macedonian First League

Seven clubs without a single registered player
Unregistered players, illegal registrations of players, players that have no status as professionals and many other ways of breaking the laws for working relations were discovered by the labor inspectors who visited all 12 teams of the Macedonian First League. Seven of the clubs didn't even have a single player registered as professional player although they're all professionals playing in the First League. The players were playing illegal, they were not employed and the clubs were not paying social insurance for them. There are some irregularities even in the Macedonian Football Federation (FFM), where some of the employees are illegally employed. This is a confirmation of previous media rumors, which said that the Macedonian Football Federation is not trying to solve those problems on purpose, knowing that if they start taking actions against the clubs, they'll have to shut down almost all of the Macedonian football clubs.

Less than 100 professional contracts
In the football club Vardar, the inspectors discovered that there are only 10 people employed and all of them are coaches. The club has no contracts with players and wages and social insurance hasn't been payed since January 2006.
Pelister has 20 players engaged but without any professional contract.
Pobeda has only 6 employees and no one of them is a player. They have 22 players, 4 of them are foreigners and all are without professional contracts. Wages and social insurance hasn't been officially payed since 2002.
Bregalnica from Stip has no professional players also. At the moment of the inspection all of the players of the first team were youth players.
Both the clubs from Kicevo, Napredok and Vlazrimi have no professional contracts with the players although both clubs have 23 players each in their rosters.
Bashkimi from Kumanovo has only 8 employees in the club and only 2 of them are professionals football players.
Shkendija has 19 players with status of amateur players. The coach who is Albanian citizen has a professional contract but he hasn't regulated yet his status as foreign citizen in Macedonia.
Renova has only 7 professional players. The other 13 players are registered as amateurs and students.
Only Rabotnicki Kometal, Makedonija GP and Sileks have professional contracts with their players and those are the only 3 clubs that meet the requirements for a professional football club from First League but even they are late with the social insurance.

Football in Macedonia?
All of the players who play for the clubs in the Macedonian First League are registered in the Macedonian Football Federation but from the report of the inspection we can see that those contracts are not valid. If we sum up we'll see that there are not even 100 professional players in the 12 football clubs of the league and this is real catastrophe. No wonder that the quality of the league is so low and no wonder that our stadiums are empty and there's almost no interest about the Macedonian football. But is there any football at all in Macedonia?

Vladimir Dimitrovski joins Westerlo

2007-01-09T00:02:00.000+01:00

Young Macedonian talent moves to Belgium
Macedonian U19 NT defender makes a big step in his career by moving in the Jupiler League team of KVC Westerlo.

Expected move for the young defender
Vladimir Dimitrovski born on 30/11/1988 with his 18 years was member of FK Vardar and regular member of the Macedonian U19 NT. This season he got the chance to play for Vardar's first team and immediately got the chance to play for the U19 NT of Macedonia. He used his chance very good and proved his qualities. With his good performances in the international matches he got the attention of many bigger European clubs. Earlier it was reported that the Belgium giant Anderlecht was interested for him but KVC Westerlo had the biggest interest for buying this young Macedonian talent. This will be great move for him because at his age of 18 years in a team like Westerlo he can prove his qualities and later to be transfered in some bigger club.

The Collapse of Vardar

2007-01-06T11:05:00.000+01:00

60th anniversary, but chaotic circumstances
The best Macedonian football club of all time ... the club with the biggest successes: 1987 Yugoslav champion, 5 times Macedonian champion, 1960 Yugoslav Cup winner, 4 times Macedonian Cup winner. Unfortunately that's the only thing left from Vardar right now: the famous name and the glorious history. In the year 2007, the year when FK Vardar is supposed to celebrate it's 60th anniversary, Vardar is facing a huge crisis and is endangered of completely falling apart ...

Beginning of the crisis
It all began in 2004, when a "cold war" between the two owners of Vardar started. Sounds odd, but Vardar indeed has two owners: Borce Ristovski and Braco Vujcic. In 2004, the two club owners started a "cold war". No wonder, that this situation reflected on the players and the results of Macedonia's most successful club. Some of the players were divided between the two sides, but all of the players suffered because of the financial crisis, which resulted from that absurd situation. The owners were not able to agree about the share of the profit and debts. Almost a year ago Borce Ristovski announced his resignation, but he still didn't leave the club completely. He still owns all of the club documents, so that Braco Vujcic couldn't take over the club after Ristovski's resignation. Vujcic even brought the Macedonian legend Darko Pancev into the club but the 1991 Golden Boot winner is still without a function, because of the current situation.

Ristovski in jail - Vujcic with no interest for the club
Borce Ristovski was delaying the handover of the club for a long time. The situation for Ristovski and Vardar became even worse, when a month ago the former Vardar owner went into jail ... becaue of corruption. Since several months the situation for the players at Vardar was completely chaotic and therefore it was no wonder, that no player wanted to stay at the once so prestigious club. Since Ristovski was jailed, nobody seems to be responsible to pay wages to the players. Braco Vujcic lives in Germany and he visits Macedonia very rarely. Rumours have it, that even when he comes back to Skopje, he's not paying his players regularly. On one occasion some of the players rebelled and asked for their money, but Vujcic replied, that he just bought new a roller for the pitch, so that he has no money for them now.

From 38 players down to 15
Naturally, no professional wants to play under such miserable conditions and the most Vardar players were looking to run away from Vardar as quickly as possible. A total of 23 players left the club since the start of the 2006 / 07 season. Vardar had 38 players in the roster in August 2006 - now there are only 15 players left. 15 of the 23 players who left the club were regular first team players in the last two season. Two of the remaining 15 Vardar players are suspended and 3 of them had not significant appearances this season. That means that only 10 players are available for Vardar's coach at the moment. Luckily the Macedonian League has a pretty long winter break and hopefully the board can start to improve things. Otherwise the 60th anniversary celebrations of Macedonia's most famous club will turn into an absurd farce.

Boban Jancevski free for transfer market

2007-01-05T16:39:00.000+01:00

Macedonian "goal-wonder" in search for a new club
The leading striker in the Macedonian league, with amazing 19 goals after 18 rounds, is out of contract and free for a transfer to a bigger club.

Bashkimi's best player free for transfer market
The first half of the season was definitely marked by Boban "The Bomba" Jancevski. He was the best striker in the Macedonian league with 19 goals scored. He was also named 6 times as Man Of The Match in the 18 round played in the first part of the Macedonian Prva Liga 2006/07 season. In the 17th round where Bashkimi won with amazing 8:1 over Bregalnica Stip, Boban "The Bomba" Jancevski, scored an incredible amount of 6 goals. It was expected that a club like Bashkimi would not be able to hold a player with his qualities in their roster. After some financial problems and misunderstandings they had to let go their best striker for free. It’s still unknown where he will continue his career, but there are already some bigger clubs from Europe and even South America interested to see him in their team, as the Macedonian press reports. In case he fails to find some interesting offer, he’ll be most probably welcomed back at his former club Bashkimi.

Jancevski ready for a bigger league
Jancevski started his career in Teteks from Tetovo and after a few great seasons at Makedonija GP, Tikvesh and his great performances in the Macedonian League, he was transfered to the Bulgarian side Lokomotiv Plovdiv. There he was their best striker and one of the main reasons for Loko's big success. In 2004 Lokomotiv won their first ever title in the Bulgarian league and Boban Jancevski was Loko's best striker of the season. But in 2005 Loko's owner was killed and that changed many things at the club and also influenced their financial situation, so that Jancevski hat to leave Bulgaria. After being unable to find a bigger club, he decided to come back to Macedonia and join Bashkimi from Kumanovo. This was a good decision for his career though, because after his amazing 19 goals in 18 matches he's getting closer to a call for the Macedonian NT and a move abroad.

Grozdanovski to sign with Rapid Bucuresti

2007-01-04T23:10:00.000+01:00

Macedonian youth hope switches from Cyprus to Romania

Vlatko Grozdanovski, the young Macedonian midfielder and the best young foreigner in Cyprus is very close to sign a deal with Rapid from Bucharest.
FC Rapid Bucuresti's technical manager Grigore Sichitiu said that the transfer of Omonia Nicosia’s midfielder Vlatko Grozdanovski to Rapid is 90% sure. According to some rumors Rapid will have to pay 250,000 euros to Omonia for the talented Grozdanovski. The 23 year old started his career in the Macedonian clubs Cementarnica and Vardar and was transfered during the 2005/06 season to Omonia from Nicosia. He has already 13 caps for the Macedonian national team. He was only recently re-called by Macedonia coach Srecko Katanec for the EURO 2008 qualifiying match against Russia, after being left out for a few matches. After his good performances in Cyprus he was elected as the "Best Young Foreigner 2006" in the Cypriot league. Considering the recent great results of Romanian clubs in the European competitions and the growing UEFA co-efficient of their clubs, Grozdanovski truly made a big step in his career in joining Rapid Bucuresti.

By leaving the Cypriot club, Omonia Nicosia will still have a Macedonian player in their team. This week they 25 year old striker Riste Naumov from Vardar was transfered to Omonia as a substitute for the veteran Paolo Rink who left the club this month. Riste Naumov was Vardar's best striker and one of the best attackers in the Macedonian league and the transfer in Omonia is good and very expected step in his career.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2006-12-24T22:08:00.000+01:00

RIP Perica Gruevski

2006-12-24T09:04:00.000+01:00

This is very bad. I'm sick of announcing deaths of Macedonian football workers on my blog. This is too much! I wish we don't have cases like this in 2007

Yesterday at age of 54 died Petre Gruevski, one of the best Macedonian coaches of all time.
He'll be well remembered both as a great football player and great coach.
Gruevski started his playing career in Vardar where he played for long time. After that he played in FK Prishtina and some football clubs in Colombia.
After finishing with playing he started his very successful coaching career. He was leading the teams of Vardar, Pelister, Sileks, Makedonija GP, Sasa, Tikvesh, couple of teams from Greece and his last current work was as team manager of the second league team Cementarnica 55 which he did great and was on good way of bringing the team back in the First League. He'll be remembered also as one of the best youth coaches and as one of the better coaches of the Macedonian youth national team.
Perica Gruevski will be remembered as a big fighter and great football expert who
spent all his life in the football fields in Macedonia.
Rest in peace Petre Gruevski.

Vance Sikov in Olympiakos

2006-12-21T15:07:00.000+01:00

The transfer period is coming soon and again Vance Sikov is the main name mentioned by all Greek medias. This time he's mentioned as a reinforcement for the defensive line of Olympiakos. In the last couple of months Vance Sikov played for Pobeda from Prilep after his scandalous leaving of his former club Skoda Xanti.
This is third time when Shikov is connected to Olympiakos but this time it seems like his transfer is done deal. Even his manager confirmed that he is very close to a transfer in the Greek club.
The vice president of Olympiakos, Mr. Luvaris was in Macedonia couple of days ago and he had talks with Vance Sikov and hi managers and they have arranged his transfer and if everything goes by the plans, he'll be promoted as a new player of Olympiakos on 26th of December. In the meantime Olympiakos have to sell one of their foreign players because at the moment they already have 5 foreigners in their squad.
This summer after the scandalous leaving of Skoda Xanti and their parting with negotion of FIFA, Vance Sikov had a trial in Birmingham and Dundee United but after failing to sign a contract with the clubs, he decided to sign a contract with the Macedonian club Pobeda from Prilep.
Olympiakos, AEK, PAOK, Bochum...
It's not only Olympiakos who is interested for Vance Sikov. Ilija Ivic, AEK's director had a special task by AEK's board to bring Sikov in AEK this winter. In order to complete the task, Ilija Ivic used all his contacts in Macedonia. There are also some rumors that after joining Olympiakos, he'll be loaned out to some other Greek club and one of the interested clubs for loaning him is PAOK. In the mean time some German clubs are also interested to see him in their squad and Bochum is one of the clubs who is mentioned as very interested.

The best from Macedonian football in 2006

2006-12-21T13:58:00.000+01:00

The Football Federation of Macedonia yesterday awarded the best players, teams and workers in the Macedonian Football. As expected most of the awards went for the champion Rabotnicki except the award for best player in the Macedonian league that deserved Artim Polozani from Makedonija GP.
The best in 2006:
Best player: Artim Polozani (Makedonija GP)
Best international: Goran Pandev (Lazio, Italy)
Best club: Rabotnicki Kometal
Best coach: Gjore Jovanovski (Rabotnicki)
Best striker: Stevica Ristic (Sileks)
Best foreigner: Ivan Pejcic (Rabotnicki)
Fair-play team: Makedonija GP
Best football worker: Kosta Kostovski (Rabotnicki)
Best young player: Samir Fazli (Makedonija GP)
Best youth team: Sloga Jugomagnat

Artim Polozani - best player in the Macedonian League for 2006
As expected and totally deserved, the award for best player in the Macedonian league went for Artim Polozani. This season he was the key player in the midfield of Makedonija GP and on of the main reasons for the success. With his great performances he earned a call by Srecko Katanec for the Macedonian NT.
His main skills are the great ball control, good dribbling skills with both feet, perfect field overview and great goal assistant. With his fierce long shots he has suprised many goalkeepers and scored some of the best goals in the league. Artim Polozani is born on 25/06/1982. He has 75kg and is 180cm tall. He started his career in Karaorman from Struga where he played from 1996 to 1999. In 1999 he was transfered in Apolonia from Albania and from 2002 he played for Dinamo from Tirana, Albania. He came back in Macedonia in 2005 when he played a season in Shkendija from Tetovo and this season he signed a contract untill 2010 with Makedonija GP but very soon we'll be able to see him in some of the foreign bigger clubs.

Best Macedonian XI
The visitors of the official website of the Macedonian Football Federation (www.ffm.com.mk) in the past month were able to vote for their ideal starting XI. Knowing that the defensive line is the strongest part, it wasn't so weird to see that the best Macedonian line-up according to the Macedonian audience will have 5-3-2 formation, a formation that is totally opposite of the ideas of Srecko Katanec.
The ideal starting line-up according to the Macedonian audience looks like this:
- - - - - - - - - - - - Jane Nikolovski - - - - - - - - - - -
R. Petrov - A. Vasoski - N. Noveski - I. Mitreski - G. Sedloski
- - - - A. Mitrevski - V. Shumulikoski - D. Tasevski - - - -
- - - - - - - - - I. Naumoski - G. Pandev - - - - - - - - -

RIP Rogerio OLIVEIRA

2006-12-20T12:09:00.000+01:00

The Brazilian international Rogerio Oliveira died yesterday in Skopje at age of 29. The cause of the death is probably a heart attack but also there are some speculations that the probable cause of his death are drugs.
Rogerio Oliveira is a real leagend of the Macedonian football. At age of 20 he arrived in Macedonia in the club Pobeda from Prilep. He was an extraordinary player for our league and in the season 1998/99 he was the best striker in the Macedonian league with 22 goals scored and also he was named as best foreign player by the Macedonian Football Federation.
He built his football career in Macedonia in many clubs: Pobeda, Rabotnicki, Vardar, Shkendija, but also he tried his luck in the Turksih club Trabzonspor, Antwerpen from Belgium and the Greek 2nd league club Janina. At the beginning of this season he came back to Macedonia in Shkendija from Tetovo but he had no luck and he was out for longer period because of an injury. After couple of months and no luck with returning in his form, he went back to Prilep in Pobeda, the club where he started his Macedonian career. But there he had some administrative problems with his former club and also he had problems with his form so he didn't get the chance to play a single match this season.
But the tragedy is even bigger for his family. Oliveira is father of two children and he got his son 3 months ago but he never got to see him. Because of his financial and administrative problems he wasn't able to go back to Brazil to see his wife and new born son.
Maybe that's the main reason for his death. His friends say that he wasn't the same as he used to be. In the last period he was more depressed and he started drinking more and also there are some speculations that he started taking some "medicines" so he can get back in his form faster. It seems like his heart was not able to hold all those things.
The night before he died he played indoor football with his friends. After the match he felt pain in his chest but he still went in a bar with the friends. He spent the night at the apartment of Braga (Brazilian whit Macedonian passport), who found him early in the morning in the toilet. He took him in the Medical Center but all the efforts were too late.

Vardar better than Dinamo

2006-12-15T00:01:00.000+01:00

The football club Vardar that is functioning in the prison Scheveningen in Hague is better than the Croatian Dinamo. A prove for that are many matches played so far and even the last one finished with 15:12 win for Vardar
Vardar and Dinamo are football clubs made by the political prisoners from the Ex-Yugoslavian countries. The football club Vardar was formed by Johan Tarculovski who's the only Macedonian in the team. Johan Tarculovski is very big fan of the real football club Vardar from Macedonia and he's also known as the former leader of Vardar's fan group Komiti. Besides Tarculovski, other Vardar players are: Milan Martic, Mile Mrksic who's the goalkeeper of the team, Ljubomir Borovcanin, Milorad Trbic and Miroslav Bralo. The Serbian general Miloshevic is coach of Vardar's team.
Members of Dinamo's team are: Slobodan Pranjic, Valentin Gjorovic, Bruno Stoic, Jadranko Prlic and the Serbian generals Pavkovic and Lazarevic. Dinamo's coach is the Serbian general Dragoljub Ojdanic. The most famous Croatian in Hague's prison, the general Ante Gotovina is not playing for Dinamo. He was the only one who didn't get Dinamo's jersey and he got mad to his Croatian friends and especially to Dinamo Zagreb's director who supplied them with the original jerseys from the famous Croatian football club.
When the players of Dinamo got their jerseys, they started making fun with Vardar's players because they were still playing with their normal t-shirts. Luckily Darko Pancev, the former Macedonian football star, heard about the club in Hague's prison and sent them couple of jerseys through Johan's wife - the famous Macedonian folk singer Sonja Tarculovska. After this Vardar's players in Scheveningen got back their pride and are regularly winning their matches against their rivals Dinamo.

Macedonians rated high in Europe

2006-12-13T23:49:00.000+01:00

Goce Sedloski is named as best defender in Austria

Only a few months have passed since Sedloski moved under the Alps and he managed to prove that he is one of the best Macedonian players and one of the best defenders in Europe. After the winter break Mattersburg is surprisingly placed on the 2nd place and big part of this success is earned by Goce Sedloski. He's the only player of the club who played all 21 matches so far this season and with maximum time on the pitch, 1890 minutes. And it wasn't a big surprise that he was named as the best player of this club coming from the small town of Mattersburg.
Earlier this week a jury of 20 medias have decided the best players in the Austrian T-Mobile Bundesliga. Only one player from each position was rewarded and after all this great performances of Goce Sedloski in Mattersburg's team and in the jersey of the Macedonian NT, it wasn't a big surprise to see his name in the list of the best players in the Austrian T-Mobile Bundesliga.

Vlatko Grozdanovski is the best young foreigner in Cyprus
The young Macedonian NT midfielder Vlatko Grozdanovski in the traditional ceremony organized by a TV station and a sports magazine was elected as the best young foreigner in Cyprus. This reward came after his great performances in the the team of Omonia from Nicosia and this is great success for him, when knowing how much is invested in football in Cyprus and all the foreign star players that were transfered in the bigger clubs.

Nikolce Noveski in the Bundesliga team of the round
The best defender in the team of Mainz, Nikolce Noveski, was elected in the team of the round by Eurosport after the 1:1 with Monchengladbach. This is the 3rd season as Noveski is defending the colors of the German Bundesliga club Mainz and as mentioned by Eurosport, he's been the key player and the main reason for Mainz winning a point in the last round and that's why he deserved to be named in best 11 of the round.

Whatever Happened to Artim Sakiri?

2006-12-13T15:42:00.000+01:00

From fame to disfavour in four quick years…

On the night of October 16, 2002, Artim Sakiri’s tenth minute goal silenced a loud Southampton crowd: a wonderful, swerving corner shot that managed to beat a visibly humiliated David Seaman. The Macedonians continued to shoot from long distances on that occasion, earning several nervous fumbles from the soon-to-be replaced English goalkeeper. Macedonia earned a memorable 2-2 draw with their Euro group rivals, with another historic move to follow: the transfer of Artim Sakiri to Premier League club West Bromwich Albion.

Short and Unsuccessful Stint in England
Sakiri’s departure from Bulgarian side CSKA Sofia was met with much anticipation, even prompting Albion fan songs like “Artim Sakiri - He scores from corner kicks/Artim Sakiri - He knows that Beckham’s sh*t/Artim Sakiri - Lobbing Seaman all day!” Unfortunately, the Macedonian midfielder failed to live up to all the hype, making only 33 appearances for the English club before going on to join Danish outfit Aalborg BK in 2005.

Next Up: Denmark and Finland
Sakiri has since failed to improve on the single goal he scored with West Bromwich, showing poorly in Denmark before his release from that side earlier this year. His services are currently being solicited by FC Inter Turku, a team that finished tenth in the 2006 Finnish Premier League (Veikkausliiga): a far cry from Southampton, and hardly a Mecca of soccer stardom.

Poor Showings for Macedonia
Sakiri’s latest appearances for the Macedonian national team have been equally disappointing, fielding only occasionally since Srecko Katanec’s arrival, and failing to impress in a 2-0 loss to Russia in Skopje. It was the first time in more than a handful of games that Sakiri started for Macedonia, although he was replaced before the first-half whistle blew.

Was Sakiri Worth the Hype?
33-year old Sakiri had some memorable moments for Macedonia, earning three international goals, and demonstrating flashes of brilliance and creativity more akin to more popular soccer talents. His club resume also boasts meaningful periods with teams such as FK Vardar, Tennis Borussia Berlin, and Maltyaspor, among others. The relevant evidence suggests that Sakiri is not as good as the highly talked-about goal he scored at Southampton in October 2003, but what that goal did do-and what the classy and confident Sakiri continues to do-is affect a positive change in the way Macedonians of all ethnic extraction see their country and themselves. More than a few Macedonians, including a few dozen Albanians, witnessed Ambassador Sakiri descend from the team airplane after the England triumph with the red and gold flag draped around his shoulders, while more than a few Macedonians and Albanians continue to believe in the Ambassador’s conviction that the country will qualify for Euro 2008. This, if anything, will be Sakiri’s soccer legacy-a legacy that transcends the simple realm of sport.

13.12.2006 by Steven Vasilevski - htpp://www.jadransport.org

Watch Sakiri's famous corner kick goal against England

Aleksandar Vasoski: "Why is it always me?"

2006-12-04T01:12:00.000+01:00

Three red crads within three months is a new Bundesliga record

The 27 year old Macedonian international is speechless: "Why is it always me?". The Eintracht Frankfurt defender received 3 red cards within 3 months and set up a new Bundesliga record. Former Bayer Leverkusen defender Jens Nowotny (now at Dinamo Zagreb) holds the Bundesliga record with 8 red cards ... but unlike Vasoski, Nowotny received them within 10 years!

New Bundesliga record
The biggest German football magazine "Kicker" recently speculated about the reasons for Vasoski's three red cards he received within 13 Bundesliga matches and 82 days: 3rd round in Mainz: red card; 9th round in München:yellow-red card; 13th round in Bochum: red card. Thats a new Bundesliga record! In the last season the Macedonian defender didn't receive a single red card during the whole season. He was booked with yellow 8 times in the 2005/06 season, which is an avarage amount for a defender in the Bundesliga. But this season everything seems to go wrong with the Macedonian and he himself doesn't understand why this is happening to him.

Psychological problems?
"I don't understand why this is happening to me", Vasoski said recently. But the Kicker magazine speculates, that it might be some psychological problems, the Macedonian international faces during the past months. Regarded as one of the best Eintracht Frankfurt defenders of the past season, Vasoski has claimed a formidable reputation in Germany as a high class defender. Nevertheless the 27 year old was relegated onto the bench by Macedonia coach Srecko Katanec, due to an incident last June, when the defender refused to appear to a friendly match, although being injured. Perhaps this relagation to the bench, caused a lack of self confidence and a lack of concentration on the pitch. Above that Vasoski seems to have been quite an unlucky fellow with women. A seperation from his girlfriend recently was a real blow for the Macedonian, especially after some German tabloid newspapers revealed that there was a marriage planed, just a few weeks before the seperation.

Macedonian defenders in the Bundesliga
Quite an interesting fact is, that there are a total of 4 high class Macedonian defenders right now playing in the Bundesliga. All of them received calls by Srecko Katanec and have been major contributors to Macedonia's solid defence until recently. Two of them, Alkesandar Mitreski and Igor Mitrevski play for Energie Cottbus, who are the surprise team of this season. Nikolce Noveski is probably the Macedonian defender with the highest reputation in Germany, although his team Mainz 05 has a very bad run this season and is currently on the 18th rank of the Bundesliga table. Finally our unlucky fellow Aleksander Vasoski at Eintracht Frankfurt has had a terriffic 2005/06 season. Hopefully he will recover from his psychological setbacks caused by the seperation from his girlfriend, bench warming in the national team and the three red cards within 82 days, so he can continue with his fine performances in the Bundesliga.

29.11.2006 by Igor Krstic - http://www.jadransport.org

Macedonia disappoints against strong Russians

2006-11-15T23:16:00.000+01:00

Katanec' EURO 2008 campaign becomes a "mission impossible"
Igor Krstic - http://www.jadransport.org

The Macedonian national team seemingly plays a much better football, when they are on foreign ground. Until now Srecko Katanec' team won all of their 7 points in away matches, while they lost both of their home matches in the Gradski stadium in Skopje. In their second home match defeat today against Russia, they lost all the 3 points already after 30 minutes ...

Dominant Russians - Insecure Macedonians
The first 30 minutes of the match must have been a nightmare for coach Srecko Katanec, as his team completely failed to produce any meaningful action on the pitch. Usually the strongest part of his team, the defence around Noveski, Petrov, Sedloski and Mitrevski looked amateurish at times, losing easy ball posessions and producing one mistake after another. It might have been the loss of their two most prominent players, Goran Pandev (S.S. Lazio) and Ilco Naumoski (SV Mattersburg), which caused that lack of self-confidence. Nevertheless their absence was a clear fact since several weeks, which the team should have been prepared for and so this can't be an excuse for the very weak perfromance of Katanec' team in the first half. The Russians clearly dominated the first 30 - 40 minutes and deservedly went in front by goals from Bystrov (18') and Arshavin (32'). Especially Russia's No. 10, Andrei Arshavin (Zenit St. Petersburg) proved to be an insolvable task for Macedonia's shaky defence. On the other side, the Macedonian attack produced near to nothing in the first half. Especially Partizan attacker Aco Stojkov seemed to be completly overstrained with his Russian defenders and barely could get a hold of the ball.

Better second half
After the break, we saw a much better Macedonian squad on the pitch of the cram-full Gradski stadium in Skopje. Aging midfielder Artim Sakiri was substituted after only 35 minutes, as he probably displayed one of his worst and also most probably last performances in the Macedonian national team. His irresponsibly sloppy performance today must be a clear sign for Katanec to better rely on younger players in the future. The Macedonians came out of the half time break with a fresh brease of new self confidence and less insecurities, which also resulted in a more aggressive attitude and several chances. It was especially Goran Maznov who had 2 good chances to score with his head during the second half. The previously disappointing Aco Stojkov also improved quite a lot and showed, that he was rightfully selected into the squad. The Russians though were always dangerous with their quick counter attacks, lead by the magnificent Andrei Arshavin, who without doubt proved to become "Man of the Match". At the end, even the improved performance in the second half was not enough to score at least one goal against a strong opponent, who was tactically superior on this evening. Although there was no superiority visible by means of football, Katanec' EURO 2008 mission has become nearly a "mission impossile" now.

Match Stats:
Macedonia vs. Russia 0:2

Goals:
0:1 Russia, Bystrov (18')
0:2 Russia, Arshavin (32')

Line Ups
Macedonia
Nikoloski, Noveski, Petrov, Sedloski, I. Mitrevski, Lazarevski, Sumulikoski, Sakiri (35' Tasevski), A. Mitreski (45' Jancevski) (71' Grozdanovski), Maznov, Stojkov

Russia
Akinfeev, V. Berezutskiy, A Berezutskiy, Kolodin, Bystrov, Bilyaletdinov, Semshov, Zhirkov, Titov, Arshavin (90' Pavlyuchenko), Pogrebnyak (57' Sychev)

Yellow cards:
43' Macedonia, Petrov
51' Russia, Pogrebnyak
65' Russia, Sychev
87' Russia, Kolodin

Man of the Match: Andrei Arshavin

Macedonians in tough against Hiddink’s Russia

2006-11-14T20:54:00.000+01:00

Coach Katanec urges patience in what should prove to be a tricky match…

14.11.2006 by Steven Vasilevski - http://www.jadransport.org

Skopje’s Gradski Stadium will no doubt be alight for Wednesday’s encounter with Russia, but Macedonia coach Srecko Katanec is urging a word of caution: be patient. Katanec has his men playing some excellent football to start their Euro 2008 campaign, earning two wins and a tie, including a 0-0 draw away at England, for seven points from four games-a marked turnaround from previous endeavours. But while there is reason to be optimistic in Macedonia, there is also reason to be vigilant: Russia seems to have returned to form in their 2-0 defeat of Estonia last month, while Katanec’s squad will be without some popular names. Add to this equation a generally irritable mix of Gradski soccer fans, and Macedonia might be in for a rough ride.

Pandev, Naumoski, and Petrov out
Macedonia could be struggling to find the opposing net in the absence of key forwards Goran Pandev (S.S. Lazio) and Ilco Naumoski (SV Mattersburg), both on disciplinary suspensions. PFC CSKA Sofia defender Robert Petrov has also been dropped from the team’s roster due to injury, a considerable blow given his part in a Macedonian rearguard that has allowed only a single goal thus far. Finding suitable replacements could be a problem, although no changes to Katanec’s preferred 3-4-1-2 formation are expected. On a positive note, the return of AC Omonia midfielder Vlatko Grozdanovski will surely provide Macedonia with a much-needed morale boost, while Goran Maznov (KSC Lokeren OV), Aco Stojkov (FK Partizan), and newest addition Stevica Ristic (FK Sileks) are all more than capable up front.

Hiddink: Out with the old, in with the new
After winning much praise for Australia’s admirable performance in World Cup 2006, recent decisions by coach Guus Hiddink have been met with some skepticism. Gearing up for their away match in Skopje, Hiddink has left out veteran players Dmitri Loskov, Vladislav Ramimov, and Aleksei Smertin in favour of youngsters and FK Spartak Moskva teammates Roman Shishkin, Aleksei Rebko, and Dmitri Torbinsky. Also making the cut are 22-year-olds Ivan Taranov of PFC CSKA Moskva, and Igor Denisov of FC Zenit St. Petersburg. Despite their inexperience at the international level, Hiddink is confident that speed and intensity will see his boys through. He is similarly convinced that Wednesday’s game is do-or-die for Russia, which currently finds itself two points behind Croatia, England, Israel, and Macedonia in a tightly contested Group E.

First place up for grabs
A Macedonian win in tomorrow’s fixture could give the perennial underachievers sole possession atop Group E, depending on the outcome of Croatia’s encounter with Israel. Russia can also steal first place after Wednesday’s match-ups, speaking to the quality and unpredictability of this group. Hands-down favourites England have already had a rude-awakening, losing most recently to Croatia in Zagreb. Anything is possible in soccer-as they say, “the ball is round”-but a win for Macedonia or Russia will see them well into the new year. Surely these two uncertain sides will spend some time feeling each other out, but after the anticipated early jitters dissipate, tomorrow’s game at Skopje’s Gradski Stadium is poised to be a dandy for devoted fans and casual spectators alike.

Euro 2008 Qualifying Table - Group E
Team Played Points Goals
England 4 7 6:2
Croatia 3 7 9:0
Macedonia 4 7 4:1
Israel 3 7 6:2
Russia 3 5 3:1
Estonia 3 0 0:4
Andorra 4 0 1:19

KATANEC - RUSSIA TOUGHER THAN ENGLAND

2006-11-07T00:18:00.000+01:00

Macedonia coach Srecko Katanec believes Russia will pose a greater threat than England when his side take on Guus Hiddink's men in a Euro 2008 qualifier on November 15.

Macedonia claimed a goalless draw against England last month, having lost narrowly against the same opponents four weeks earlier.

Katanec reckons Russia will be an even tougher nut to crack.

He said: "This opponent is even harder than England, because they are unpredictable. They keep the ball a long time, so we will have to be patient and cautious."

Macedonian squad for the match against Russia:
Goalkeepers: Jane Nikolovski (NK Slaven Koprivnica), Tome Pacovski (FK Rabotnicki).
Defenders: Goce Sedloski (SV Mattersburg), Igor Mitreski (FC Energie Cottbus), Nikolce Noveski (1. FSV Mainz 05), Aleksandar Vasoski (Eintracht Frankfurt), Robert Petrov (PFC CSKA Sofia), Robert Popov (PFC Litex Lovech), Vlade Lazarevski (Groclin Grodzisk Wielkopolski).
Midfielders: Igor Jancevski (Enosis Neon Paralimni FC), Velice Sumulikoski (Bursaspor), Darko Tasevski (FC Metalurh Zaporizhya), Artim Sakiri (FC International Turku), Aleksandar Mitreski (1. FC Köln), Vlatko Grozdanovski (AC Omonia).
Forwards: Aco Stojkov (FK Partizan), Goran Maznov (KSC Lokeren OV), Stevica Ristic (FK Sileks).

10bet now offering odds for Macedonian football

2006-11-03T09:07:00.000+01:00

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Pinnacle now offering odds for the Macedonian league

2006-10-17T15:16:00.000+02:00

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Routine 3:0 victory over Andorra

2006-10-11T17:24:00.000+02:00

Macedonia had an easy and routine 3:0 victory over Andorra. Very convincing start when Macedonian players scored 3 goals within 30 minutes. But the rest of the game was pretty diappointing and boring to watch, as Katanec' team didnt find any keys to unlock the crowdy Andorran defence wall in front of the box, although they were down to 10 men for more than an hour. In the 10th minute it was Macedonia's star player Goran Pandev who opened the score with a beautiful goal, shortly to be followed by Nikolce Noveskis 2:0 and Ilco Naumoskis 3:0 in the 14th and 30th minute. Andorra were then down to 10 men, after Antoni Sivera received a red card for a bad start and so consequently the Andorrans started to defend with 10 men in front of the box, which made it quite hard for the Macedonians. It was very expected style from Andorra as they played with no attacker for almost whole match. The only attacker in Andorra's squad entered the match in the 87th minute.
But this is match that to forget very soon, the only thing important for marking from this match are the yellow cards for Pandev and Naumoski. They will both miss the important match against Russia next month (15th November in Skopje). A pretty unnecessary outcome of this match! Katanec will have to think about a replacement for the two attacking players. Both first eleven players were therefore substituted early in the match for Aco Stojkov and Darko Tasevski. Partizans Stojkov, Tasevski, Sakiri or Ristic might slip in for Pandev and Naumoski against Russia.

England easier than Andorra

2006-10-09T12:42:00.000+02:00

Sakiri: England easier than Andorra

England have come under fire from Macedonia midfielder Artim Sakiri, who has claimed Steve McClaren's men were 'easier opponents than Andorra'.The attack follows England's drab 0-0 draw against Macedonia in Saturday's Euro 2008 qualifier at Old Trafford.
Sakiri, who was on the bench for the game, said: 'It is easier to play against England than Andorra.
'Andorra played with 11 players 20 yards from goal and just kicked the ball away. England had confidence at the start but saw it wasn't as easy as they thought. I was expecting more attacking play from them.
'Sakiri was in the Macedonia team beaten 1-0 by Andorra in a World Cup qualifier two years ago.
He added: 'I don't know if they will qualify for the European Championships. If they play like that again they will struggle. They have to do better. The game in Croatia will be very tough.'

The article is "borowed" from ESPNsoccernet

England - Macedonia 0:0

2006-10-08T00:48:00.000+02:00

Mission accomplished!!!
Macedonia managed to win a point in England. Considering the unlucky defeat in Skopje, this point was hugely deserved, although England had the better chances althrough the match. Katanec' tactics paid off well at the end, even though the Macedonians didnt manage to make the big sensation happen, as their counter attacks were too harmless in the sedond half. Nevertheless, respect for Katanec' once again bravely fighting team and the 1 point in England! The Macedonian NT showed their real side on the pitch.

Venue:
Old Trafford, England
18.00 CET, Saturday, October 7, 2006
Audience: 71.000

Line ups:
England:
1 Robinson, 2 G. Neville, 3 A. Cole, 4 Gerrard, 5 King, 6 Terry , 7 Carrick, 8 Lampard, 9 Rooney (72' Defoe), 10 Crouch, 11 Downing (69' S. Wright-Philips)

Macedonia
1 Nikolovski, 2 Noveski, 3 Petrov, 4 Sedloski , 5 I. Mitreski, 6 Sumolikoski, 9 Maznov, 11 Naumoski (45' Stojkov), 14 Lazarevski, 6 A. Mitreski, 19 Pandev (83' Tasevski)

Referee: Markus Merk

Bookings: Petrov (47'), Gerrard (48')

England - Macedonia

2006-10-07T13:26:00.000+02:00

Today is the day many Macedonians were waiting for since weeks: the revenge match against England in Manchester. Will Macedonia be able to strike back and get their 3 points, which they lost undeservedly in Skopje?

Venue:
Old Trafford, England
18.00 CET, Saturday, October 7, 2006

Possible line ups:
England:
(4-4-2): Robinson - Neville, Ferdinand, Terry, Cole - Gerrard, Carrick, Lampard, Downing - Rooney, Crouch.

Macedonia
(3-5-2): Nikoloski - Sedloski, Mitreski, Noveski - Lazarevski, Petrov, Popov, Shumulikoski - Pandev - Maznov, Naumoski
There is a big chance, that the naturalised Serbian striker Stevica Ristic (Sileks Kratovo) plays instead of Naumoski or Maznov. Ristic is the best striker in the Macedonian League for the last 2 years and might get a chance for a debut today.

Big media interest sorrounds the game. Not only Macedonian and English TV channels will broadcast the game, but also several Asian and other European TV stations. Additional to that, the Old Trafford is sold out since days and there are 71.000 visitors expected today and a great atmosphere, but only 500 Macedonian fans are awaited. Nevertheless Katanec said in an interview that he doesn't fear a packed crowd: "There's no better feeling then to play in front of a jam-packed Old Trafford. There's no fear of the crowd because most of the Macedonian players are used to it."

For all who are not able to watch the match live, you can folow it here:

JadranSport.org reports and comments live on the most interesting match of this weekend's EURO 2008 qualifiers

2006-10-05T13:45:00.000+02:00

Macedonia vs England - 06.09.06

We're close to the day when Macedonia will have the revenge so let's have a little reminder of the way England managed to get the (undeserved) win in Skopje a month ago

Week of strikes

2006-09-24T20:29:00.000+02:00

The strikes because of financial reasons have marked the past week. And those strikes of the footballers who missed the trainings have reflected on their performances.
Vardar's players missed their last 2 trainings because their owner who lives in Germany was late with some of the salaries. Because of that they even lost the match that was knows as big "derby" in the past, against Sileks with the only goal scored by the best striker in the Macedonian league for the past 2 years, the Serbian Stevica Ristic.
The crisis are even bigger in Stip. Bregalnica's players are not satisfied with their owner who owns them many salaries and they want his resignation. That's why all of the 26 first team players missed their match against Bashkimi who took advantage of the situation and had an easy 0:5 win over the youth squad of Bregalnica.
The "derby" of the round was played in Prilep where in a boring match Pobeda played 1:1 with last year's cup winner Makedonija GP.

Results from the 6th round:

Stip	0-5	Baskimi 24', 57' Jancevski, 51', 91' Alomerovic, 86' Alimi
Renova 46' Toleski	1-1	Rabotnicki 32' Nedzipi
Pobeda 55' Geshoski	1-1	Makedonija 84' Shcepanovic
Vlazrimi	0-1	Pelister 66' Talevski
Vardar	0-1	Sileks 17' Ristic
Napredok 15', 74' Stojanovski	2-2	Shkendija 14' Idrizi, 86' Velija

Makedonska Prva Liga

	Team	Pld	Pts

1	Vardar	6	13
2	Makedonija	6	12
3	Sileks	6	10
4	Rabotnicki	6	10
5	Pelister	6	9
6	Napredok	6	8
7	Pobeda	6	8
8	Shkendija	6	8
9	Baskimi	6	7
10	Renova	6	6
11	Vlazrimi	6	5
12	Stip	6	2

Shame or Reality?

2006-09-15T09:09:00.000+02:00

This was supposed to be thier historical chance...
After being eliminated from the Champions League bye Lille OSC, Rabotnicki got another chance - the UEFA Cup. They were very happy after the draw. Basel is not so strong like in the previous years, they said. Basel is out of form now, WOW this is our historical chance... Macedonian team can qualify in the groups... We will not defend in Basel... We will go to score a goal there... Everything will be decided on the re-match in Skopje...
And they went there. The live TV broadcast didn't even started. And... BANG! BANG! BANG! 65th second Kuzmanovic 1:0, 6th minute Petric 2:0, 34th Majstorovic 3:0, 40' Petric 4:0, 71' Christiano 5:0, 73' Christiano 6:0... The record defeat of a Macedonian team is the 7:0 of Makedonija Gj.P. away to Bastia in the 1998 Intertoto Cup, so we got some thoughts that we'll have new record.
But luckely Basel had mercy for Rabotnicki. They were playing arround like with small children and got relaxed in the last minute. The crowd was already leaving. The ones who were still there, stayed to finished their beer and cigar.
But Basel got relaxed too much. Pejcic scored a goal in the 89' for Rabotnicki. The guy was happy like he scored the decisive goal in the CL final. Buckley from Basel saw that and he felt sorry for the Macedonians so he said what the hell and in the 92' he scored an own goal.
And that's it, 6:2. Was this neccesary? Why did Rabotnicki conceded 6 goals? I know that they missed Jovanovski, their best defender, but can this be the excuse? Why were you so greedy??? Why did you go in Basel to score a goal?! Here you go, you scored 2 but how much did you concede? 6!!! Why didn't you go in Switzerland with the thoughts "not to concede a goal"? Defend, defend and defend and get a chance from counter attack. In Macedonia we say "Greedy ass eats 3 $%&*s. There you go, you ate 6!
They will come back in Macedonia today with their head down and they will feel ashamed. But this shouldn't be for shaming because this is the reality. This showed us the level of Macedonian clubs in Europe.

Tags: UEFA, Cup, FC, Basel, Rabotnicki, Kometal.

I am confused

2006-09-07T00:23:00.000+02:00

I'm really confused. I watched a match tonight but I don't know who was playing. Can someone help me?
I saw one tall guy scoring lucky goal. That guy looked like that English player from Liverpool. What was his name? Oh, Crouch, yes. But wait a sec. Crouch is Engish guy right? So he plays for national team of England right? So this was England tonight? No way!
All right, maybe it was England but it seems like they played against some very good opponent. Was it Brasil? Argentina? Italy maybe? Yeah I know, Englan was playing against Germany. No? Macedonia??? Who? No way England played against Macedonia! You have to be kidding me! C'mon, Macedonia is ranked 67th on the FIFA ranking list. Are you sure that England played against Macedonia. Because from my point of view they were totaly outplayed.

The Brasilians, oh sorry Macedonians, had most of the game in their feet. Liechtenstein had to, ups sorry, England had to defend with 1o players in their field. When was the last time that you saw that? When was the last time that you saw England to shoot the ball out of their field in order to save their goal? When was the last time that you saw England to hold down the ball in order to save time? When was the last time you saw England to make 27 fouls and 3 yelow cards against a team ranked lower than 50? When was the last time you saw England to have only 51% ball possession against a team ranked lower than 50?

Macedonia has never been part of a big competition but with this kind of playing against England, they deserved more than 0 points. With this kind of playing Macedonia deserves to play on some big competition.
I'm Macedonian. Tonight I'm sad as same as my team lost the World Cup Final. I'm sad, but also I'm proud. I'm proud with my NT and I'm proud to be Macedonian

Tags: England, Crouch, Macedonia, footbal, soccer, score, Macedonia, Македонија, Vardar

Are you ready for surprises?

2006-09-03T23:31:00.000+02:00

Let me present you the Macedonian NT and the reasons why I think that Macedonian NT is ready for surprises

First of all, the Macedonian NT is getting better and better on every match. You all remember those matches against Andorra and you probably say "Oh Macedonian lost and drew against Andorra and they are very poor". But you can forget about that because matches like that happen once in 100 years and also happen to much stronger NT (remember England-Macedonia 2:2 ). Now we even have new coach, the famous Srecko Katanec who took Slovenia in the sky by leading them to the WC and EC. Changes happened in the Macedonian NT after his arrival and I can say on better. We saw that by the 2 great results from the friendlies against Ecuador and Turkey and in the first official match against Estonia. I think that this trend will continue. The main reasons for that are that we have great coach (probably the best so far) and also the current team is probably the best team that has ever played for the Macedonian jersey:

Goalkeepers: Nikoloski and Pacoski; Nikoloski is excellent and very experienced goalkeeper who's probably the best player and named as MOM in 3 matches so far played by Slaven Belupo in the Croatian championship. Pacovski is the best goalkeeper in the Macedonian league and probably very soon he'll be transfered in some foreign team. He's the one to blame that Rabotnicki didn't lose from Dudelange, Debrecen and for the 3:0 against Lille (it could have been 10:0)

Defenders: Noveski-Sedloski-Mitreski-Vasoski - the best part of the team. Noveski and Vasoski are leaders of the defence in Mainz and Frankfurt, Mitreski has just been transfered in Cottbus and Sedloski is the new (and probably the best) defender of Mattersburg.

Midfield: This is our weakest part, but it's being improving in the last few matches. Sakiri (remember him? Seaman remembers him very well ) is back in the team and he'll help with his experience but I'm not sure about his playing because he was out of club for some time and probably he's out of form now.

Attack: Pandev is in excellent form now and he's been scoring goals on every friendly match for Lazio this summer and in the Italian Cup (15 so far). Maznov or Naumoski will join him up front. Both players will be good addition for Pandev in the attack. Both of them are tall players and with good long balls from our wings I think that they could be serious threat to the opponents goal.

Macedonia had serious problem in the past with the stamina and concentration in the 2nd half and we always were losing the points in the last minutes. But now I see that even that is improved. Katanec is like magician. He knows how to work with mediocre teams with no stars and knows how to make them stars.
He even worked on the confidence and the motivation. All the players are now extra motivated for this match.
The players will give 100% on the field on Wednesday and they will die to take some point(s) from this match and I wouldn't be so surprised if the Albion leaves Macedonia with their head down.

Tags:Macedonia, England, football, soccer, Makedonija, Македонија, Anglija, Англија, Katanec, Pandev.