30 July 2007, Manila, Philippines. Below is the team standings after the heart-breaking and controversial loss of RIFA Philippines to Aurdal/Leirca COOP and the second win of Haugsbygd 1:

RIFA Philippines is in 2nd place although it has the same win-draw-loss card with Aurdal/Leirca COOP due to higher aggregate score of +3 (+8,-5) as against -1 (+4,-5) for Aurdal.

It’s a must win for RIFA Philippines tomorrow if we are to be assured of a passage to Group A as there is a big possibility that the other 2nd placer, Aurdal/Leirca COOP, will win, as they will be going up against cellar-dweller Søre Neset 2.

30 July 2007, Manila, Philippines. There were 38 games played in the V class yesterday, Sunday, at the Norway Cup. The top scoring teams were Blindheim COOP team in group V19 and Hødd 1 in group V14 with an identical 9-0 score over their respective opponents.

RIFA was the 8th-9th best performing team in the first round together with Olsvik of group V12 with an identical 5-1 score over their respective opponents.

Actual goals scored for and against (aggregate) is very important especially if teams in the same group have identical win-draw-loss cards. This is what happened to the team in the Dana Cup eliminations where they were tied for 2nd place but eventually lost due to the aggregate score rule.

Eight-9th best-scoring team out of 38 winners in the first round is not bad. Actually, it’s amazing!!!

28 July 2007, Manila, Philippines.

Hello everyone,

I have “discovered” the reason why there are no details on game skeds and pairings in the Norway Cup site. This is because the English version of the site is not the same as the “Norsk” or Norwegian version. The latter has complete info details. However, I had to grope around the site as I haven’t brushed up on my Norwegian language skills since birth.

V Class:
With some luck, I was able to get information about our team’s game. Apparently, Norway Cup registered our team as Rizal Football and not RIFA. The G14, 7 a-side group is under the V class. There are 19 groups in the class with a total of 77 teams as compared to the 7 groups-31 teams in Dana Cup. All groups have 4 teams each except group 1 which has 5. We are bracketed in group 18 together with 3 other teams:

The link for the complete list under this class can be found here: Norway Cup Age Classes. Please bookmark this site as it is difficult to navigate from the Norwegian version of the site.

Elimination Round Schedule:
Being in a group of 4 teams, RIFA Philippines has 3 games scheduled in the elimination round. The games are as follows as lifted from the site:

29.07.2007 09:00 Søre Neset 2 v. Rizal Football

30.07.2007 12:00 Rizal Football v. Aurdal/Leira COOP

31.07.2007 16:45 Rizal Football v. Haugsbygd 1

Please go to the following link should you want to get updated regularly on the results: Resultater Norway Cup (The Norway Cup Results Page).

I will give additional updates as soon as I get an interpreter, errr, as soon they are available. Again, we have to be with the team in prayer for their upcoming matches.

28 July 2007, Manila, Philippines.

Hi everyone!

I just want to provide a postmortem analysis on how the RIFA Philippines team performed in the Dana Cup. As the subject line indicates, our team placed third in the group B division!!!

The table below shows the performance summary of RIFA Philippines and the other semi-finals loser, Astor FK 1, from day 1 until the semi-finals. In the elimination round, RIFA team performed better with a total of 7 pts. in 4 games as opposed to Astor FK 1’s 3 pts. also in 4 games. The group B final round performance is identical for both teams with 6 pts. apiece.

In effect, the total for RIFA is 13 pts. as opposed to Astor FK 1’s 9 pts., making our team the 3rd placed team in Group B. The links below were the references for my analysis:

Elimination Round - http://www.danacup.dk/www/results/klassex.htm
Final Round - http://www.danacup.com/www/results/slutBX.htm

Dana Cup rules do not allow losers in the semis to fight out for 3rd place, which is instead determined on the basis of total points accumulated for the entire tournament. Moreover, the rules do not provide for medals and “cup” (trophy) for the 3rd place winners in the B group finals.

I propose that we parents do something so that the girls will feel how very proud we are of them for this accomplishment. For example, we can make a large banner indicating their feat and unfurl this when they arrive on Sunday, August 5, and several banners which we can place prominently in their respective schools. We can also provide the medals and trophy during our get-together party. The point is we have to organize ourselves and come up with something that is worthy of the girls’ performance in the Dana Cup. Who knows, we might get busy again after their Norway Cup performance?

Let me know your thoughts please.

28 July 2007, Manila, Philippines.

Norway Cup is much bigger than Dana Cup in terms of number of participant teams and players. For perspective, there were around 850 teams in the 2007 edition of Dana Cup. On the other hand, there were around 1,500 teams who participated in Norway Cup last year and there is an expected increase in the number of participants this year.

Unlike in the Dana Cup where our girls were grouped in the G13 division, RIFA Philippines will now be bracketed in the G14 division (V class) as the youngest group in the 7 a-side competition for girls 14 years old and younger. There is no G13 division this year. This poses a different challenge for the team as their opponents will be at least 1 year older on average.

The rules are similar to Dana Cup. There are 4 to 5 teams per group and the top 2 will advance to Group A. The main difference is that ONLY the 3rd placed team in each group will advance to Group B. Those ranked 4th and below will become instant tourists!

The playing time is shorter which is 15 minutes per half as compared to 20 minutes per half in Dana. The link to the groupings and rules can be found here: Norway Cup Tournament Regulations.

As far as match info is concerned, the Norway Cup website provides only scant information compared to the Dana Cup website. As of today, there is no detailed information on number of teams, competition schedule, pairings, etc. I will give updates as soon as they’re available.

P.S. The team which beat us in the Dana Cup semis, Horsens FC 2, went on to become Group B champions, shutting Hirtshals BK out, 3-0.