archives
Bloomy green.
Before this Wednesday’s friendly match in Rotterdam, the Algerian and Dutch national football teams previously faced each other in an official match.
This happened in the same Dutch city, 37 years ago, exactly on January 7, 1989.
This is the second round of the group stage of the FIFA Futsal World Cup. In the first edition organized by FIFA in the Netherlands.
This sport takes place inside the hall, not on the field, and is supervised and organized by the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), as is the case for beach soccer.
The national team attended with 15 teams from around the world, with a list of 13 players, according to the competition regulations at the time. Under the supervision of the late coach Ammar Rawai.
The “Greens” lost to the Netherlands with a score of (1-4), and the only goal was scored by Annaba University Union defender Abdel Rahman Dahnoun (the second and last photo included).
It seems that the first edition began in an improvised manner, at a time when football people did not know what is called today the “FIFA agenda,” “window,” or “week” for international matches. Evidenced by the fact that the Algerian Football Association sent 13 players to the Netherlands, to play the World Cup indoor football between the 5th and the 15th of January 1989, and during that period (month), the national team was waiting for four matches in the group stage for the qualifiers for the World Cup in Italy 1990! The group also included the teams of Côte d’Ivoire, Libya and Zimbabwe.
From another angle, it seemed that “FAF” participated in this competition due to the lack of qualifiers, and with a “generous invitation” (justification for the presence of the players!) from the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA). A group of “tourists” was sent to the country of the “Mechanical Orange”, led by Lakhdar Belloumi, accompanied by Mustafa Boukar, Abdelhafid Tasfaut (Oran Association), Amiroush Lalili (he won the Republic Cup with USM Algiers in 1988), and others.
In order to prove that the participation was just an all-expenses-paid “excursion,” the “Greens” also lost to Paraguay (0-5) and Denmark (4-8). Then they returned home trailing with disappointment!
