Dundalk delighted with Europa tie
Credit:
Extratime spoke to Colm Crosson the Dundalk FC Communications Manager
about how the Lilywhites have reacted to their pairing with
Grevenmacher of Luxembourg in the Europa Cup first qualifying round.
"Delighted with the draw, in that it gives us a sporting chance of progress and the away fixture being first, with the reversal of order has worked out very well from a sporting point of view. It's no foregone conclusion obviously and you can be sure that the manager (Ian Foster) and his team will be mindful of that. From the club point of view its a very good draw, the relative in-expense of travel and the very real prospect of making the second qualifying round," he said.
The first leg of the tie was drawn to be played at Oriel Park but the order was reversed to give Dundalk crucial home advantage in the second leg, we asked what had prompted this reversal.
"It was always something that was a strong possibility and it relates to the UEFA regulation where teams from the one city are drawn together on the same leg. So the other Luxembourg team, Dudelange were drawn at home at the same time and Dudelange had a higher ranking as I think they won the cup so the other tie was reversed."
When asked if the Lilywhites had any knowledge of their opponents Crosson was able to supply the following information with us.
"They lost the cup to a last minute goal. They finished their season at the end of May and took a two week break and have been back in training since mid June so whilst they are not in competitive season they are in training."
Dundalk are not expecting a large number of travelling fans but it would appear that a good number of Louth fans have a wanderlust, we asked how many visitors they were expecting "We don't know at this stage, they'll be modest in number, 50 or so are our expectations but who knows. On the other side there seems to be swell of interest for Dundalk fans to travel to Luxembourg, it's hard to get a handle on it at this stage to know what the numbers are, but we suspect there will certainly be over a hundred," he insisted.
Grevenmacher may well have a Bosnian native, Adis Omerovic, lining out for them so fellow country man Fahrudin Kudozovic will be able to catch up on news from home Crosson could see greater communication possibilities "Well not just Faz, if you've been following his blog on the Dundalk website you'll know that he has been giving Dundalk fans Bosnian language lessons so, maybe the travelling support will be able to communicate/barrack the Luxembourg Bosnian in his native tongue."
Dundalk have of course embarked on an expensive ground upgrade to meet UEFA ground regulations to host the tie rather than move the tie to a Dublin location. The club hope that this expenditure will be paid back many times over in future years with further big European ties at Oriel. We wondered how quickly the outlay will be recouped.
"From the club point of view having two rounds is a really very important element to the whole finances of it. The gate receipts for a sell out crowd in Oriel doesn't meet the cost of upgrades on the stadium, it cost more than what what we can take in in one game. So getting to the second qualifying round is important in terms of the whole finances of it. We probably couldn't have got a tougher onward draw, they (Levski Sofia) are one of the top seeded teams for the second qualifying round."
Looking forward to Fridays game at Bohs the Lilywhites will once again be without centre half and captain Liam Burns as his full recovery from an abdominal muscle tear is still some way off. Peter Cherrie their Scottish netminder who has been in such inspirational form will also miss the game as he damaged a foot during the summer break so Matt Gregg will make a rare appearance between the sticks.
"Delighted with the draw, in that it gives us a sporting chance of progress and the away fixture being first, with the reversal of order has worked out very well from a sporting point of view. It's no foregone conclusion obviously and you can be sure that the manager (Ian Foster) and his team will be mindful of that. From the club point of view its a very good draw, the relative in-expense of travel and the very real prospect of making the second qualifying round," he said.
The first leg of the tie was drawn to be played at Oriel Park but the order was reversed to give Dundalk crucial home advantage in the second leg, we asked what had prompted this reversal.
"It was always something that was a strong possibility and it relates to the UEFA regulation where teams from the one city are drawn together on the same leg. So the other Luxembourg team, Dudelange were drawn at home at the same time and Dudelange had a higher ranking as I think they won the cup so the other tie was reversed."
When asked if the Lilywhites had any knowledge of their opponents Crosson was able to supply the following information with us.
"They lost the cup to a last minute goal. They finished their season at the end of May and took a two week break and have been back in training since mid June so whilst they are not in competitive season they are in training."
Dundalk are not expecting a large number of travelling fans but it would appear that a good number of Louth fans have a wanderlust, we asked how many visitors they were expecting "We don't know at this stage, they'll be modest in number, 50 or so are our expectations but who knows. On the other side there seems to be swell of interest for Dundalk fans to travel to Luxembourg, it's hard to get a handle on it at this stage to know what the numbers are, but we suspect there will certainly be over a hundred," he insisted.
Grevenmacher may well have a Bosnian native, Adis Omerovic, lining out for them so fellow country man Fahrudin Kudozovic will be able to catch up on news from home Crosson could see greater communication possibilities "Well not just Faz, if you've been following his blog on the Dundalk website you'll know that he has been giving Dundalk fans Bosnian language lessons so, maybe the travelling support will be able to communicate/barrack the Luxembourg Bosnian in his native tongue."
Dundalk have of course embarked on an expensive ground upgrade to meet UEFA ground regulations to host the tie rather than move the tie to a Dublin location. The club hope that this expenditure will be paid back many times over in future years with further big European ties at Oriel. We wondered how quickly the outlay will be recouped.
"From the club point of view having two rounds is a really very important element to the whole finances of it. The gate receipts for a sell out crowd in Oriel doesn't meet the cost of upgrades on the stadium, it cost more than what what we can take in in one game. So getting to the second qualifying round is important in terms of the whole finances of it. We probably couldn't have got a tougher onward draw, they (Levski Sofia) are one of the top seeded teams for the second qualifying round."
Looking forward to Fridays game at Bohs the Lilywhites will once again be without centre half and captain Liam Burns as his full recovery from an abdominal muscle tear is still some way off. Peter Cherrie their Scottish netminder who has been in such inspirational form will also miss the game as he damaged a foot during the summer break so Matt Gregg will make a rare appearance between the sticks.
