Tag Archives | football

Al Ahed FC Wins the AFC Cup For Lebanon!

By Rami on November 5, 2019 in Sports

As we go through turbulent times in Lebanon, Al Ahed Football Club became the first Lebanese club to claim the AFC cup after winning 1-0 over DPR Korea’s 4.25 (April 25) club in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

I personally didn’t watch the game and was following the updates online, but I found the highlights on the AFC website here. Al Ahed missed several chances before Issa Yakobo scored the winner in the 74th minute.

The fact that Korea’s April 25 club is backed by the North Korean army while Al Ahed is linked to Hezbollah, of course made it interesting enough for some international websites/newspapers to be highlighted in their headlines like these two below.

Original article here

Anyway, congratulations to Lebanon, and here’s a video of the champions celebrating their win at the end of the game. To note that goalkeeper Mahdi Khalil was named the MVP of the tournament while the team also got the fair play award.

2019 AFC Asian Cup Starts Today – Good Luck to Lebanon!

By Rami on January 5, 2019 in Lebanon, Sports

The AFC Asian Cup starts today in the United Arab Emirates, and football fans throughout Lebanon will be rooting for the national team to hopefully advance to the knockout stage!

Our first and only participation in the tournament dates back to the year 2000. Back then, we were automatically qualified since we were hosting the event, so this this counts as the first time we make it to the tournament with our own effort (bear in mind that the 2019 tournament was be expanded from 16 teams to 24 teams).

In Group E, Lebanon will be facing Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and North Korea, and our matches schedule will be as follows (all in our local time):

Lebanon Vs. Qatar – Wednesday January 9th at 6:00PM
Lebanon Vs. Saudi Arabia – Saturday January 12th at 6:00PM
Lebanon Vs. North Korea – Thursday January 17th at 6:00PM

You can of course watch the games on biIN Sports channels, and Télé Liban seems to have bought broadcasting rights but I have no idea for how many matches.

So until our first game against Qatar, here’s to Lebanon making good results and hopefully advancing to the next stages. Good luck to the Cedars!

FC Barcelona Legends VS Real Madrid Leyendas in Beirut – Full Match Highlights

By Rami on April 30, 2017 in Sports

Barcelona won a second Clasico within a week on Friday but this time when their legends team beat the Real Madrid legends 3-2 at Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium in Beirut.

Barcelona legends were led by Ronaldinho, and even though he didn’t score, he showed he still got the magic with three assists in the game. Giuly scored twice for Barcelona and Simao also scored a goal, while Fernando Sanz and Javi Guerrero scored for Real Madrid.

The game was broadcasted live on MTV, and for those who missed you can still check the highlights as posted on FC Barcelona’s YouTube channel.

On a side, the game was very well organized and security forces were all around the Sports City Stadium to ensure it goes smoothly. If only we see the same energy put by the Lebanese Football Association to make the Lebanese league more interesting to watch and follow!

Ronaldinho is in Beirut!

By Rami on January 31, 2017 in Sports

I just spotted a tweet by Ronaldinho posted a few hours ago stating he’s in Beirut with a photo of himself in Zaitunay Bay.

I didn’t find any accurate details about the purpose of his visit anywhere on the web, but let’s hope he’s negotiating playing a game in Lebanon along with other football legends like the one that took place at Fouad Chehab stadium last summer.

P.S: I hope people stop posting jokes about him signing for Al Ahed because they’re so lame!

Update:

Here are some more photos courtesy of a friend of mine.

Nostalgic Highlights Video of a Lebanese Football Match From Early Nineties

By Rami on July 6, 2015 in Lebanon

This is one blast from the past! Nejmeh Sporting Club page on Facebook posted a nostalgic video from the early ninties of a football match between Nejmeh and Ansar on the club stadium in Manara.

The video shows the stadium in bad shape with no grass and a funny way to level it since the game took place shortly after the civil war has ended, moreover due to the limited role of the Lebanese security forces at that time you will notice that the Syrian army was in charge of keeping order.

The fans’ chantings sounded pretty amusing by the way and I wish the sport remained popular till our days since it really helped easing the struggle between the Sunna who in general used to cheer for Ansar and Shia who on the other hand cheered for Nejmeh. Back then there was really very little tension in the streets between the two sects and the implicit hatred towards each other used to be expressed in the stadiums only. Nowadays a simple disagreement between members of these sects threatens a new civil war. Time do change as they say…!

Anyway, make sure to watch the video as I’m sure it will bring you a lot of memories if you were born prior the mid eighties. Hussein Dokmak who joined Nejmeh in 1997 and later died in 2007 by the car bomb that targeted Walid Eido also appears in this video at the 1m10s mark, he’s the kid on the left holding the Nejmeh flag.

If the video doesn’t load then you can watch it here on Facebook.

Brazilian Olympic Football Team migth call off their trip to Lebanon

By Rami on August 12, 2014 in Lebanon

football fans

Too bad for us, the much anticipated football game between the Brazilian Olympic team and the Lebanese national team might get called off due to the crisis in Arsal earlier this month!

According to this article in Al-Akhbar today, the Brazilian Football Confederation is now considering moving their training camp to Qatar to guarantee the safety of their players away from the security incidents here in Lebanon.

The friendly game will still take place though even if the Brazilians insisted on going to Doha but will be postponed till September 6th instead of September 4th.

Video of the Mannschaft fans going crazy in Hamra

By Rami on July 14, 2014 in Lebanon

This is insane! Check how the fans of Germany celebrated in Hamra following the win over Argentina in the world cup final last night!

On a side note, I’m a fan of Germany too and have been waiting for this moment for 24 years now! 😀

Hilarious Netherlands football fan from Lebanon

By Rami on July 6, 2014 in Lebanon

This video was taken when Arjen Robben won a penalty against Mexico. I hope this guy doesn’t get a heart attack by the time the world cup ends!

Update:
I just noticed the video has been removed from Facebook. I will share it again once I find it somewhere else.

Fight breaks out after Nejmeh – Akhaa Aley game

By Rami on May 19, 2013 in Lebanon

A fight broke out today following the game between Nejmeh and Akhaa Aley in Bhamdoun. I’m talking a wild guess that politics must have something to do with it!

That’s another proof why Lebanese Football is a big fail.

Photos via Nejmeh Sporting Club’s page on Facebook.

Update:

Here’s a video of the fight posted by Al Jadeed.

The reason why Lebanese football is miserably failing

By Rami on May 6, 2013 in Lebanon

I’m not sure when was this video taken, but it pretty much explains why Lebanese football and sports in general is failing miserably. The video shows the Nejmeh Sporting Club fans chanting for their team then suddenly cheering for Syria and Bashar El Assad proving one more time that every sports club in this country is destined to be associated with a certain political view, political party, sect, etc…

This by the way kind of reminds me of the golden days of Lebanese basketball when Riyadi’s crowd (mainly muslims) used to chant for Syria while Sagesse’s crowd used to chant for USA! And I would never be surprised if Lebanese fans of European football teams get divided following their sects and parties one day.

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