The national team coach of Anguilla, newly installed as the official worst team in the world, has something of a story. Born in Poland as Ryszard Orlowski, he fled his homeland in 1984 amidst the political repression of the communist era and escaped to Austria. Subsequently, he was granted refugee status in the United States and made a new life for himself – with a new, anglicised first name - in New York City and then Pennsylvania.
As a player, he was a striker in his native Poland but has become more renowned as a coach being part of a Polish-American duo helping Nepal to a famous win over India. ‘I am very happy and proud of this new chapter in my life,’ he said. ‘The country is surrounded by beautiful beaches, amazing weather, and best of all, friendly people. The Anguillan team is decent, but it needs improvement. This is why I was brought in as head coach. My job and responsibility is to bring this country’s football to the next level. I am always one to take a challenge head on and will not back down from achieving my goals. I create a very good atmosphere and relationship between the players and myself. In football this is very important.’
‘I have a great challenge here in Anguilla but I have faith in the players. I know they have potential and I am here to help them achieve something great.’ He has already had some measure of success with Anguilla, leading them to a pair of wins over the British Virgin Islands and St Martin; Anguilla’s first wins for several years.
Sadly for Anguilla, the clash with St Martin was against a non-FIFA team and so had no bearing on their ranking. Likewise the two games against the British Virgin Islands weren’t officially recognised fixtures. A boost for morale they may have been but they counted for nought in terms of their ranking.
‘It means nothing to me,’ he said of the bottom ranking. ‘We’ve had some bad luck in the past, there’s no denying. But now we play in the present. So whoever says that Anguilla don’t have a chance, I say to them: “This is football and anything can happen.”’
‘I want to make this a winning team by challenging the players to believe in themselves,’ he added. It will be a tough challenge, but in Orlowski they have a man with the pedigree and desire to help them push on and try to rise up the rankings once more.
Thursday 28 May 2015
Richard Orlowski - Man on a Mission
Welcome Back Anguilla
The tiny island of Anguilla, a territory of the United Kingdom, may be one of the first listed FIFA members alphabetically, but once again they are now the last listed in the ranking meritocracy. Having been absent for almost four years Anguilla are once again firmly ensconced as the official worst team in the world after Bhutan’s rise last month.
This will be Anguilla’s eighth spell as the worst in the world and will see the tiny island territory add to its currently tally of 48 months ranked at the bottom of the world.
‘It means nothing to me,’ said the Polish-born national team coach Richard Orlowski to FIFA.com recently – while his team were one place ahead of Bhutan. ‘We’ve had some bad luck in the past, there’s no denying. But now we play in the present. So whoever says that Anguilla don’t have a chance, I say to them: “This is football and anything can happen.”’
Anguilla, at the northern edge of the Leeward Islands, is considered a paradise of tropical beauty and seductive calm even among the rich pickings of the Caribbean. ‘It may be a small island, but these guys have the biggest hearts I’ve ever seen,’ Orlowski added referring to his team of amateurs, who combine international football with careers as construction workers, bankers, teachers and boat builders. ‘They leave work early to train and some even risk getting less pay. I feel so much pride when I see them come out on the pitch, how much they juggle in their lives.’
On four previous occasions Anguilla have spent a solitary month at the bottom of the world - in May 1997, February 1998, July 1998 and November 1988 - before a swift return for a two-month spell in early 1999 and a four month stint at the turn of the century. These were all under the old rankings calculations, and under those initial methods they remained clear of the basement for another six years before the current system was introduced in July 2006. They spent another single month at the bottom at that stage before another lengthy absence.
But come April 2008 Anguilla slumped to the bottom once more, and this time there would be no quick escape. For the next thirty-seven publications of the world rankings, Anguilla would remain rooted to the bottom, taking them up to May 2011. That was when their last significant result took them clear.
The points gained that day have gradually dwindled away, and even had Bhutan not risen from the bottom so spectacularly earlier this year, Anguilla would have joined them in last place once their remaining points vanished. That would have been by June this year. Their renewed status as worst in the world has therefore only been ushered in slightly ahead of schedule.
Looking ahead, Anguilla will obviously have no more World Cup action to look focus on. There will be the 2016 Caribbean Cup for which the qualifiers will hopefully see Anguilla back in action, but there are no dates set for those qualifiers as of yet. It’s possible that the opening qualifiers would take place later this year, but could be early next year instead. It is unlikely that we would see Anguilla in official action ahead of that tournament so it looks like a potentially barren few months for the WITW.
Wednesday 20 May 2015
Bhutan Hit the Heights, Anguilla Fall
After their successful World Cup qualification matches against Sri Lanka, with wins both home and away, Bhutan’s rise from the foot of the world rankings has been confirmed in the latest FIFA rankings.
The fact that their results came in World Cup competition and against a significantly higher ranked opponent has led to Bhutan earning a whopping 128 rankings points for their exploits. From a stone-cold zero beforehand they can no wallow in the untold riches of such a total. It has seen them rise from 209th position to a frankly startling 163rd on FIFA’s world rankings.
This is simply the most stunning rise from the doldrums that the Worst in the World has ever seen. They are now ranked some 32 places above their erstwhile opponents Sri Lanka and had in fact risen to such an extent that they bypassed the lowest seeding pot for the second round of Asian World Cup qualifying and landed in pot 4. This has earned them a second round group alongside China, Qatar, Maldives and Hong Kong, and an unprecedented set of fixtures to fulfil over the course of the next year.
Falling to the bottom, and replacing Bhutan as our new worst in the world, is the tiny British Overseas Territory of Anguilla. They had the chance to avoid this fate in their opening round World Cup play off with Nicaragua recently, but unsurprisingly, given the relative sizes of the two countries, Nicaragua won both legs. That meant Anguilla couldn’t avoid the slump to the basement in spite of having a couple of ranking points to their name.
Anguilla outgunned by Nicaragua to seal fall to Worst in the World
The first leg was away in the Dennis Martinez National Stadium in Managua, where the hosts, sitting at 175th in the world rankings, made short work of the islanders. It took only twelve minutes for Luis Galeano to break the deadlock, and by half-time it was a comfortable 4-0., with the match and the tie effectively over already. That first leg ended 5-0, which was something of a small comfort for Anguilla who mist has feared a more brutal beating.
With their World Cup hopes as good as over after the first match, all that remained was the chance to at least grab a draw in the return leg to avoid the bottom of the rankings, sending the Cook Islands to the bottom instead.