Pre-Season Round Up
by Ayrton Galea - 13th September 2010
Birkirkara will be involved in their first match of the new league on Monday after a tough pre-season in which Birkirkara must have been the most active team locally.
.The Birkirkara FC squad had started their training sessions on Tuesday, 1 June when 'The Stripes' had their first training session at the St. Aloysius Training Grounds.
On their 3rd week of training, Birkirkara FC was involved in the first cup of this new season, the Euro Challenge Cup. Birkirkara's performances were very lacking from a few months before. A 3-1 defeat in the opening match against Sliema Wanderers, followed by an other loss against eternal rivals Valletta saw Birkirkara finished in the 3rd and final spot for this cup.
This Euro Challenge Cup competition gave the chance for the two new recruits to make their debut as both Andrew Decesare and Brazilian Goalkeeper, Esequiel Lovizon played all the ninety minutes in their first game with our shirt.
On the 21st June, Birkirkara were drawn against the current champions of Andorra, Santa Coloma, in the Champions League qualifying round. The first leg was scheduled to be played in Andorra and on June 27, the Birkirkara FC squad travelled to Andorra. On Tuesday 29June, the first leg match was supposed to take place but due to the bad condition of the pitch, the match was cancelled. Few days later, Birkirkara were handed a 3-0 walkover victory after a decision by the UEFA. This walk over victory was the first victory that Birkirkara registered in this competition.
One week later , on Tuesday 6 July, Birkirkara registered another win, this time in the field when they beat Santa Coloma with a 4-3 score line when both Michael Galea and Trevor Cilia scored a brace.
One Tuesday, 13th July Birkirkara were scheduled to play their first leg of the second qualifying round against MSK Zilina. Knowing the fact that MSK Zilina are one of the biggest clubs in Slovakia, and that they had managed to beat such famous teams like Aston Villa and Hajduk Split, many thought that the game was over before it had even started for 'The Stripes'. However, after just forty seven seconds, Nikola Vukanac opened the score for Birkirkara and they managed to kept the lead till the end of the match. With this win, Birkirkara wrote history as they are the only local team that managed to win a game in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League. After Birkirkara registered a victory in the home leg, the away leg was not an easy task and, all the Birkirkara clan was alerted that there will be no defensive tactics from the Slovakian side. Birkirkara lost the away leg which was played on Wednesday, 21 July with a 3-0 score line. Despite the loss, they ended their adventure with heads held high especially for what they had managed to do in the first leg.
On Tuesday, 3 August Birkirkara were involved once again, this time in a friendly tournament against Qormi and Marsaxlokk which the tournament consists of three matches with a duration of forty five minutes each. Birkirkara won this friendly tournament by beating both sides, as first they defeated Qormi with a 2-0 score line and in their second and final match, Ryan Scicluna scored his first and winning goal for 'The Stripes' as they managed to beat Marsaxlokk with a 3-2 score line.
Few days later, exactly on Saturday 8 August, Birkirkara were involved in another friendly match against first division side Mqabba. Birkirkara had several players missing for this match and the score ended in a 1-1 draw.
In the week from Monday 9 to Sunday 15 August, Birkirkara were involved in another two friendly matches. On Tuesday 10 August, Birkirkara beat Luxol with a 2-0 score line. On the other hand, on Thursday, Floriana managed to beat the current champions with a 1-0 score line.
Finally, Birkirkara were involved in the second cup of the season - the Super Cup. The match pitted Birkirkara against Valletta on Saturday, 21 August. A five star performance by all the team especially by the Brazilian goalkeeper, Esequiel Lovizon was not enough for 'The Stripes'. After the first ninety minutes which ended in a 1-1 draw, Valletta managed to notch the winning goal in the injury time of the second period of extra time, to end with a final score of 3-2.
One Week later, Birkirkara took part in the Hibernians Carlsberg tournament. 'The Stripes' ended this tourney in the second place after the organizers and winners Hibernians. On the first match, Birkirkara ended their first match in a goal less draw against Qormi but they bounced back with a 3-1 score line. In the third and final match, Hibernians managed to beat Birkirkara with a 2-0 score line.
On Friday 3 September, Birkirkara played their last friendly match for this pre-season and they managed to beat Melita with a 3-2 score line.
As the assistant coach, Branko Nisevic told this website a few weeks ago, it was quite a tough pre-season but he thinks that the squad is ready for another Premier League, in which anything may happen including defending the Championship title.
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