GREENLAND - REVIEW OF 2019: B-67 TRIUMPH INDOORS

The 2019 edition of Greenland's Futsal championship was held in late April at Nuuk's Inussivik sports centre, which is becoming the traditional venue for the game in the country, but there was something of a new look to the competition, which was rebranded as the Grønlandbanken Final 6, due to the fact that only six teams took part in this year's tournament.

Two of Greenland's big four clubs - B-67 and Nagdlúnguak-48 - were involved (the others, namely G-44 and IT-79 both failed to qualify for the tournament), as were Kagssâgssuk, Kugsak-45, rank outsiders N-85, who hail from Narsaq in the extreme south of the country, and Sineriak Futsal, which could best be described as a Futsal team comprising of the best footballers from outside Nuuk who happen to study in the country's capital, including the likes of Nagdlúnguak-48's Kunuuteeraq Isaksen and Nick and Lars-Erik Reimer.

N-85 had qualified for the tournament via the southern regional tournament and were always going to find it difficult against five sides who were peppered with players who regularly take part in the national championship both indoors and outdoors, and lost the tournament's opening match against Kugsak-45 by seven goals to two. Søren Thorning Hansen scored three goals for the team from Qasigiannguit, who, along with N-48, were representing the country's northernmost clubs at the Final 6. N-48 squeaked past Kagssâgssuk, making sure of victory when the unfortunate Nikki Petersen scored an own goal with just a few minutes remaining.

In the game which concluded the first day's action, B-67 got their campaign off to a winning start with a 7:2 victory over Sineriak, but it could have all been so different for the team in black if, with the game still scoreless midway through the first half, the linesman had spotted Nukannguaq Zeeb's shot, which had smashed off the underside of the crossbar, had seemingly crossed the goal-line before bouncing back out into play. Ari Hermann put B-67 in front, before Charles Petersen levelled and Zeeb proceeded to get himself sent off before the game restarted. Right at the end of the first half, Sineriak had claims for a penalty waved away when Nick Reimer's shot hit Niklas Thorleifsen's upper arm as he was defending his near post. Christian Bohmann Knudsen put B-67 in front early in the second half, and it rapidly turned into a rout.


The first match of the tournament's second day saw four players scoring three goals or more for Kagssâgssuk as they put their opening-day blues behind them by walloping N-85 18:2. Søren Kreutzmann led the way with five goals as his team built on an 8:0 half-time lead, Jørgen Willy Eiliassen and Markus Maratse both scored four and Phillip Holmene scored a hat-trick.


N-48 and B-67 then served up another of those classic encounters for which the two teams have become renowned, this time indoors. B-67 went ahead after Nagdlúnguak-48 keeper Gabriel Petersen fumbled a low cross over his own goal-line. Christian Bohmann Knudsen extended B-67's lead from close range before a superb move was finished off by Peter Leibhardt to bring N-48 back in the game. John Ludvig Broberg crashed home a third from a seemingly impossible position to extend B-67's lead. Kaali Lund Mathæussen rampaged past, over and through opponents before lashing in a shot to reduce the arrears, which were wiped out when Markus Jensen evaded the B-67 defence with a diagonal run and shot into the top corner. It was fast and furious as both sides went for the win, before B-67 won it with four minutes to go when Karl Peter Street inadvertently diverted Patrick Frederiksen's cross into his own net.


Lars Erik Reimer scored a hat-trick as Sineriak defeated Kugsak-45 6:3 in an entertaining encounter to round off the second day of the tournament. Day three opened with B-67 struggling to overcome a game Kagssâgssuk team, but eventually won by goals to 2. Kugsak-45 also made things devilishly difficult for Nagdlúnguak-48, going two goals up through Jakob Hansen before N-48 pulled it back to 2:2 before the break. Markus Jensen put N-48 ahead at the end of a counter-attack before Søren Thorning Hansen equalised. Both teams had chances to win the match before Markus Jensen did just that for N-48 with 80 seconds remaining.


The third and final game of the day was a veritable goal-fest, but it was also as one-sided as it is as possible to get. It took Sineriak two and a half minutes to open the scoring against N-85, and they led 14:1 at half-time. They struck another ten goals in the second half as eight of the men in black got on the scoresheet. Brothers Nick and Lars Erik Reimer each scored five of Sineriak's goals, whilst Kunuuteeraq Isaksen weighed in with four.


The goals continued to flow on day four; Kagssâgssuk swept aside Kugsak-45 11:2, helped in large part by Jørgen Peter Petersen's four goals and Phillip Holmene's hat-trick. The duel between N-48 and Sineriak was a much closer affair, with Sineriak winning by four goals to two. It was perhaps ironic that the Reimer brothers, Bruno Sandgreen and Kunuuteeraq Isaksen, who were turning out - and scoring for - Sineriak are regulars for N-48 during the outdoor season; both Reimers netted for Sineriak against their parent club. Ari Hermann and John Ludvig Broberg each scored hat-tricks for B-67 as they mauled N-85 15:1, and they were joined on the scoresheet by six of their team-mates.


Sineriak had remained unbeaten since their opening-day defeat to B-67, but their three-match winning run was brought to an abrupt end against Kagssâgssuk, despite Nukannguaq Zeeb opening the scoring for them after just seven seconds. It was the start of an eventful day for the man who normally turns out for G-44, as he was later sin-binned after one of team-mate Nick Reimer's three goals. Søren Kreutzmann and Kaaleeraq Pavia Lyberth both grabbed hat-tricks for Kagssâgssuk as they marched into the semi-finals alongside Sineriak.


Nagdlúnguak-48 had already reached the semis, and were expected to round off their group stage with a comfortable win against N-85, but the team from the far south declined to study the form-book and were ahead at one stage during a fascinating first half, which saw the teams go into the break level at 3:3. Markus Jensen put N-48 in front from close range after less than a minute gone in the second half, and Karl-Louis Sandgreen doubled his team's advantage a few minutes later when he side-footed the ball past Kunuk Petersen after a long period of possession football. Petersen was perhaps slightly at fault for Jensen's second-half goal, but he had an impressive match, pulling off a superb triple save at one stage.


Meanwhile, in the final match of the group stage, B-67 kept up their unbeaten run when they took on Kugsak-45; eight different players scored as they rattled in eleven goals against their opponents, condemning them to a battle against N-85 to avoid the wooden spoon.


The first of the semi-finals saw B-67 pair off against Sineriak Futsal, and it was nip-and-tuck all the way, but B-67 prevailed by 4 goals to 2, though not without some controversy. After a see-saw first half which ended with the score level at 2:2, Ari Hermann put B-67 ahead in the 26th minute after squeezing the ball past the goalkeeper and over the line as three defenders scrambled back and farcically got in each other's way, ending up in an heap on the goal-line with the ball in the back of the net.


With a just over a minute to go on the clock and Sineriak on the attack, John Ludvig Broberg cleared the ball down towards Karsten Møller Andersen, who trapped the ball, turned and shot only for Isak Olsen to block the shot with his knees. The ball then deflected against Møller Andersen's elbow, who reacted first to the loose ball and hooked it past Olsen for B-67's fourth. Despite vehement protests from the Sineriak players, the goal stood and B-67 were on their way to the final; there was little Møller Andersen could have done to move his arm out of the ball's way as it rebounded off Olsen's knees.


In the other semi-final, Kagssâgssuk went two up in the first ten minutes through two good finishes from Markus Maratse and Gerth Skifte before N-48's Markus Jensen did what Markus Jensen does best: he picked up the ball in midfield, went on the run and struck the ball into Henning Bajare's bottom right-hand corner. It was a fine goal, and one which sent his team on to a 5:2 victory (with Peter Leibhardt scoring two of them) and a place in the final against their eternal rivals, B-67.


There were the fifth and third-place play-offs to get through first, however, as the tournament entered its final day, and Kugsak-45 took on N-45 to decide who came away with the wooden spoon. Both teams had experienced a torrid tournament up to this point, with Kugsak-45's 7:2 victory over their opponents on the opening day of Final 6 their only bright spot in the tournament. They were to beat them again, but it was a much closer affair this time around. Kuluk Davidsen put N-85 ahead after 42 seconds, and Nuka-Mark Nielsen doubled their lead after a lightning-quick counter-attack. Arkalo Zeeb pulled one back for Kugsak-45 before the break, but Nielsen struck again early in the second half to put N-85 two goals in front.


Ado Løvstrøm reduced the arrears and then equalised with seven minutes left to turn the game on its head. Nikki Nathansen missed the proverbial sitter for N-85 before Løvstrøm hammered home a strike from distance with three minutes left to put Kugsak-45 in front for the first time. Peter Frederik Samuelsen scored a fifth for Kugsak-45 with just over a minute left when goalkeeper Kuluk Petersen fumbled his shot over the line. It was a shame for the N-85 shot-stopper, who had performed well during the match and had done his level best to stem the flow of goals against his side during the tournament. Kugsak-45 endured a miserable outdoor tournament in 2018, losing every match and conceding a large number of goals, so their second victory of this tournament was a welcome consolation.


Sineriak lost a closely-fought semi-final against B-67, and were looking to bounce back against Kagssâgssuk in the third-place play-off. Phillip Hølmene gave Kagssâgssuk the lead in the fifth minute with a drive that went in off the post and crossbar, and it was the start of yet another feast of goals. Charles Petersen equalised with a shot from an acute angle which deceived two defenders and goalkeeper Henning Bajare. Hølmene put Kagssâgssuk in front before, after having three bites at the cherry seconds earlier, first hitting the post, then having a shot cleared off the line by Moses Maratse and then having a third attempt saved and cleared by Bajare, Kunuuteeraq Isaksen equalised. and then Lars Erik Reimer gave Sineriak the lead. Nikki Rosing equalised in the 17th minute, and so it went on.


Forty seconds into the second half, Phillip Hølmene's good work down the left paid off when Nikki Rosing scored again to put Kagssâgssuk in front. Lars Erik Reimer spectacularly equalised a minute later when he thrashed in a free-kick from just inside the Kagssâgssuk half. Sineriak would've scored a couple more goals only for a series of good saves from Henning Bajare, and then Nikki Petersen tapped in in the 25th minute to bring the sides level once again. Nick Reimer then capitalised on a loose ball inside the area to put Sineriak in front with eleven minutes left, and, barely a minute later, Isaksen scored again to double Sineriak's lead.


And, perhaps bizarrely, so ended the scoring, despite the best efforts of both teams to find a way through each other's defences. Sineriak took bronze, thanks to the efforts of, above all, the Reimer brothers, Isaksen, Charles Petersen and Isak Olsen, and, despite running out of steam and just failing to finish in third place it was a good performance by Kagssâgssuk to finish fourth. Markus Maratse, Phillip Hølmene and goalkeeper Henning Bajare were outstanding all the way through the tournament, whilst Søren Kreutzmann's goal-glut in the group stages was of immense importance.


Matches between B-67 and Nagdlúnguak-48 are the most eagerly awaited in the Greenlandic football calendar, be they indoor or outdoor, and the final was no exception. Inussivik was full to the rafters for the latest meeting of the two teams, although N-48 were hampered by the absence of the Reimer brothers, Bruno Sandgreen and Kunuuteeraq Isaksen (who all had a starring role in Sineriak's third-place finish); so much so, in fact, that they struggled for goals throughout the group stage and limped into the semi-finals in fourth place.


And it showed almost literally from the kick-off; in fact, it took just 19 seconds for B-67 to take the lead before a hall 90 per cent filled with their adoring fans. Ari Hermann dispossessed Markus Jensen, rampaged past another defender and rounded goalkeeper Gabriel Petersen before delivering a cross-cum-shot into the penalty-area, which was tapped in on the goal-line by Karsten Møller Andersen, who got there just ahead of defender Peter Leibhardt.


B-67 increased their lead in the sixth minute, and the goal came from perhaps the unlikeliest source: goalkeeper Malik Heimarij, and it was brutally simple. Heimarij threw the ball from his own penalty-area towards team-mate Patrick Frederiksen, who was standing in the N-48 box along with opponent Kaali Lund Mathæussen with Petersen just behind them. All three rose for the ball but appeared to miss it completely - although Petersen may have got the merest touch on the ball as he flapped at it - and it sailed behind them into the back of the net. A flurry of chances followed for both sides as both goalkeepers were kept busy, but B-67 held on to their two-goal advantage at the break.


It didn't take N-48 long to reduce the arrears, and Minik Svendsen did so in spectacular fashion. Collecting the ball on the half-way line, he went on a little diagonal run before letting fly from distance; the ball whizzed into the roof of Heimarij's net before the goalkeeper even had time to turn his head to watch the ball fly past him. The shouts of joy from the Nagdlúnguak-48 contingent in the stand barely had time to subside before Ari Hermann restored B-67's two-goal advantage by drilling a free-kick from the right low across the box and into the bottom right-hand corner of Petersen's net.


B-67 now had one hand on the title, and with six minutes to go, they scored a deceptively simple fourth goal, just to round things off; Niklas Thorleifsen tapped a free-kick in the direction of John Ludvig Broberg, and he flicked the ball past Petersen and the wall into the top corner to complete the scoring.


It was the fitting end to a tournament where B-67, as is usually the case, came good at the right time and always had a little left over in the tank to get them through when needed. Ari Hermann and John Ludvig Broberg excelled, as did Malik Hermarij between the sticks, but goals and good performances came from all sides, with Karsten Møller Andersen performing particularly well and Patrick Oteri Frederiksen a model of quiet efficiency at the back.


As mentioned earlier, Nagdlúnguak-48 were without a number of regulars who had turned out for Sineriak, but depleted or not, they were good enough to reach the final and give B-67 a decent game. Perhaps inevitably, Markus Jensen led the way, ably assisted by old hands such as Kaali Lund Mathæssen, Peter Rosbach, Peter Leibhardt and Minik Svendsen, with Gabriel Petersen in goal having a good tournament. Well beaten at the end they were, but they would be looking forward to taking part in the outdoor national championship later in the year in Sisimiut and planning their revenge..


RESULTS



GROUP STAGE

22/04/19 N-45 2:7 Kugsak-45 (Mikaaleeraq Enoksen, Jakob Hansen OG; Søren Thorning Hansen 3, Peter Frederik Samuelsen 2, Laban Berthelsen, Arkalo Zeeb)
22/04/19 Kagssâgssuk 3:5 Nagdlúnguaq-48 (Søren Kreutzmann 2, Gerth Skifte; Markus Jensen 2, Kaali Lund Mathæussen, Peter Rosbach, Nikki Petersen OG)
22/04/19 B-67 7:2 Sineriak Futsal (Christian Bohmann Knudsen 2, Ari Hermann, Niels Svane (pen), Patrick Oteri Frederiksen, Bastian Rosing, Rene Eriksen; Charles Petersen, Kunuuteeraq Isaksen)
23/04/19 Kagssâgssuk 18:2 N-85 (Søren Kreutzmann 5, Jørgen Willy Eliassen 4, Markus Maratse 4, Phillip Holmene 3, Jørgen Peter Petersen, Robert Nathanielsen OG; Kilaasi Ludvigsen 2)
23/04/19 Nagdlúnguaq-48 3:4 B-67 (Peter Leibhardt, Kaali Lund Matthæussen, Markus Jensen; Gabriel Petersen OG, Christian Bohmann Knudsen, John Ludvig Broberg, Karl Peter Street OG)
23/04/19 Kugsak-45 3:6 Sineriak Futsal (Alaba Thorning, Laban Berthelsen, Peter Frederik Samuelsen; Lars Erik Reimer 3, Kunuuteeraq Isaksen, Bruno Sandgreen, Nick Reimer)
24/04/19 Kagssâgssuk 2:4 B-67 (Jakob Petersen, Søren Kreutzmann; Niklas Thorleifsen 2, Ari Hermann, Karsten Møller Andersen)
24/04/19 Nagdlúnguaq-48 4:3 Kugsak-45 (Klaus Jeremiassen, Ado Løvstrøm OG, Markus Jensen 2; Jakob Hansen 2, Søren Thorning Hansen)


24/04/19 N-85 2:24 Sineriak Futsal (Nuka-Mark Nielsen, Kulaasi Ludvigsen; Lars Erik Reimer 5, Nick Reimer 5, Kunuuteeraq Isaksen 4 (1 pen), Brian Geisler 2, Lukas Aqqa Lings 2, Nukannguaq Zeeb 2, Bruno Sandgreen 2, Charles Petersen, Kuluk Davidsen OG)
25/04/19 Kagssâgssuk 11:2 Kugsak-45 (Jørgen Peter Petersen 4, Phillip Holmene 3, Søren Kreutzmann 2, Nikki Rosing, Markus Maratse; Karl Leander, Arkalo Zeeb)
25/04/19 Nagdlúnguaq-48 2:4 Sineriak Futsal (Kaali Lund Mathæssen, Karl Peter Street; Lars Erik Reimer 2, Lukas Aqqa Lings, Nick Reimer)
25/04/19 N-85 1:15 B-67 (Nuka-Mark Nielsen; Ari Hermann 3, John Ludvig Broberg 3, Niklas Thorleifsen 2, Niels Svane 2, Mikki Brønlund, Rene Eriksen, Kent Jermiassen, Bastian Rosing, Nuka-Mark Nielsen OG)
26/04/19 Kagssâgssuk 9:5 Sineriak Futsal (Søren Kreutzmann 3 (1 pen), Kaaleeraq Pavia Lyberth 3, Nikki Rosing 2, Nikki Petersen; Nick Reimer 3, Nukannguaq Zeeb, Miki Therkelsen)
26/04/19 Nagdlúnguaq-48 5:3 N-85 (Karl-Louis Sandgreen 2, Markus Jensen 2, Peter Rosbach; Kuluk Davidsen 2, Martin Sikemsen)
26/04/19 Kugsak-45 2:12 B-67 (Peter Frederik Samuelsen, Arkalo Zeeb; Niklas Thorleifsen 2, Rene Eriksen 2 (1 pen), Ari Hermann 2, Patrick Oteri Frederiksen 2, Bastian Rosing, Rene Eriksen, John Ludvig Broberg, Mikki Brønlund)

TEAM	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	PTS	GD
B-67	5	5	0	0	42	10	15	32
KAGSSÂGSSUK	5	3	0	2	43	18	9	25
SINERIAK FUTSAK	5	3	0	2	41	23	9	18
NAGDLÚNGUAK-48	5	3	0	2	19	17	9	2
Kugsak-45	5	1	0	4	17	35	3	-18
N-85	5	0	0	5	10	69	0	-59

SEMI-FINALS

27/04/19 B-67 4:2 Sineriak Futsal (Mikki Brønlund, John Ludvig Broberg, Ari Hermann, Karsten Møller Andersen; Lars Erik Reimer, Kunuuteeraq Isaksen (pen))
27/04/19 Nagdlúnguak-48 5:2 Kagssâgssuk (Peter Leibhardt 2, Markus Jensen, Klaus Jeremiassen, Minik Svendsen; Markus Maratse, Gerth Skifte)


FIFTH-PLACE PLAY-OFF

28/04/19 Kugsak-45 5:3 N-85 (Ado Løvstrøm 3, Arkalo Zeeb, Peter Frederik Samuelsen; Nuka-Mark Nielsen 2, Kuluk Davidsen)


THIRD-PLACE PLAY-OFF

28/04/19 Sineriak Futsal 7:5 Kagssâgssuk (Kunuuteeraq Isaksen 2, Lars Erik Reimer 2(lashed in ld free-kick), Nick Reimer 2, Charles Petersen; Phillip Holmene 2, Nikki Rosing 2, Nikki Petersen)


FINAL

28/04/19 B-67 4:1 Nagdlúnguak-48 (Karsten Møller Andersen, Malik Heimarij, Ari Hermann, John Ludvig Broberg; Minik Svendsen)


SQUADS


B-67: 99 Malik HERMARIJ; 3 Niels SVANE, 6 Patrick FREDERIKSEN, 9 John Ludvig BROBERG, 10 Ari HERMANN, 11 Rene ERIKSEN, 15 Mikki BRØNLUND, 19 Karsten MØLLER ANDERSEN, 20 Kent JEREMIASSEN, 21 Niklas THORLEIFSEN, 43 Bastian ROSING, 62 Christian BOHMANN KNUDSEN


KAGSSÂGSSUK: 1 Henning BAJARE; 3 Jørgen Willy ELIASSEN, 4 Markus MARATSE, 6 Søren KREUTZMANN, 7 Phillip Heilmann HØLMENE, 9 Nikki PETERSEN, 11 Jørgen Peter PETERSEN, 12 Klaus EGEDE, 17 Nikki ROSING, 18 Kaaleeraq Pavia LYBERTH, 23 Jakob PETERSEN, 33 Gerth SKIFTE


KUGSAK-45: 16 Steven SKADE; 2 Karl LEANDER, 5 Leo SANDGREEN, 6 Alaba THORNING, 7 Ado LØVSTRØM, 8 Laban BERTHELSEN, 9 Arkalo ZEEB, 10 Jakob HANSEN, 11 Peter Frederik SAMUELSEN, 14 Angerlannguaq SANDGREEN, 17 Søren THORNING HANSEN


N-85: 4 Mikaaleeraq ENOKSEN, 22 Kunuk PETERSEN; 5 Nikki E NATHANSEN, 6 Nuka-Mark NIELSEN, 7 Martin SIMEKSEN, 8 Robert NATHANIELSEN, 10 Aqqa LYNGE, 11 Kilaasi LUDVIGSEN, 15 Gert-Villads KRISTOFFERSEN, 18 Niels FONTAIN, 19 Kuluk DAVIDSEN, 28 Kiiu POULSEN


NAGDLÚNGUAQ-48: 1 Gabriel PETERSEN; 2 Karl Peter STREET, 3 Peter LEIBHARDT, 4 Minik SVENDSEN, 5 Karl-Louis SANDGREEN, 6 Aqissiaq GABRIELSEN, 7 Nukannguaq PETERSEN, 8 Markus JENSEN, 9 Hans-Peter PARS, 10 Klaus JEREMIASSEN, 11 Peter ROSBACH, 14 Kaali LUND MATHÆUSSEN


SINERIAK FUTSAL: 1 Kali MATHIASSEN; 4 Charles PETERSEN, 6 Kunuuteeraq ISAKSEN, 7 Nick REIMER, 8 Brian GEISLER, 9 Niki THERKELSEN, 10 Lars Erik REIMER, 11 Lukas Aqqa LINGS, 12 Isak OLSEN, 23 Amos ROSBACH, 45 Bruno SANDGREEN, 95 Nukannguaq ZEEB


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Much of the above statistical information came from Sermitsiaq, KNR and Facebook. Kindly note that the squad-lists may be incomplete, and that these shall be amended as and when further information has been received.