Flying Kiwis – August 11
Tommy Smith (East Anglian Daily Times)
Hola amigos! The new season is upon us, and although the Premier League may not kick off for another few days, the Championship (and a few of the continental leagues) got underway this past weekend, which means there are kiwis a-flying in the world of football!
Tommy Smith – Ipswich Town (English Championship)
Smith has emerged in the past few seasons as an Ipswich regular. He barely missed a game last season (and the ones he did were due to All Whites duty), establishing himself as a favourite of manager Mick McCarthy. His partnership with Scotsman Christophe Berra was crucial to Ipswich taking their quest for EPL promotion right down to the wire, eventually falling a few places short of the playoffs. He even popped up with 6 valuable goals in his 47 games.
Ipswich have kept a pretty consistent team going into the new season. A couple of new acquisitions, headlined by Hungarian striker Bartosz Bialkowski, though the loss of highly rated young fullback Aaron Cresswell to West Ham might hurt them. All things go as planned, the Tractor Boys should be challenging for the playoffs and maybe even promotion again.
Smith was in doubt to play the opener but come kick-off there he was lined up at the back as usual (in some conspicuously bright green boots). They played a recently relegated Fulham side, though they looked nothing like the team that went down last season. Fulham named an incredible 8 players for their club debuts, including a few teenagers, with 9 different nationalities on show. Felix Magath is preparing a full on revolution. Clearly there were gonna be issues with the teamwork/communication side of things for Fulham, but they’ll be disappointed all the same with how they conceded the first goal. After a fairly even start, a loose ball in the midfield was turned into an Ipswich counter attack, and striker Daryl Murphy showed a turn of pace to get outside his marker and he buried a strong finish into the near, top corner. Both teams made early substitutes, and it was Mick McCarthy whose paid off. Getting the hook out for Bialkowski, who he reckons was “buggered”, he gave Dave McGoldrick his first competitive game since a medial ligament injury midway through last season. Fulham came out much stronger in the second half and ended up with a dominant 66% of possession but that hardly mattered when Murphy was able to barge his man off the ball and McGoldrick slipped in the cross to double the lead. Fulham brought on England under-17s striker Patrick Roberts, who had an impressively lively cameo, setting up a goal when left back Tyrone Mings slipped over, allowing Roberts to punch a ball through to Tim Hoogland whose shot went in courtesy of a deflection off of Tommy Smith’s chest. But it was just a consolation. 2-1 final score and Ipswich are off to a winning start. Mick was well chuffed.
Smith himself put in a typically solid performance. He tends to play the sweeper role as Berra does the brutal work, so the best games for T.Smith are when you hardly notice him. This was one of those ones. In fact, Smith had fewer touches of the ball than even his own goalkeeper. His passing out was good though and he dealt with every cross that came his way, making 9 effective clearances and blocking a shot for the hell of it. Top, top start.
Up Next: The Trotters hit the road to give Reading what for. That one’s on Sunday morning, 2am (NZT)
Ryan Thomas – PEC Zwolle (Dutch Eredivisie)
Tommy Smith wasn’t the first All White to get back into life at the top. Fresh off of their famous Dutch Cup win over Ajax (in which Thomas was a star), Zwolle played the Dutch league champs in their version of the Community Shield and heywhaddayaknow they beat them again! This time it was only 1-0, not the 5-1 hiding they gave them in May when Zwolle won its first ever piece of silverware. Ajax dominated for long stretches (even without a bunch of their World Cup players) but it was former Brisbane Roar winger/striker Stefan Nijland whose headed goal after 50 minutes proved the winner. Ryan Thomas played 61 minutes as he seems to have forced his way into the first choice starting XI – a long way to come in the space of a year. Thomas has been joined at Zwolle by Aussie Trent Sainsbury, a centre back last seen for the Central Coast Mariners, and the pair seems to be getting on like a house on fire already.
Then this weekend it was the beginning of the 2014/15 Eredivisie. Zwolle hosted Utrecht and the lad Ryan Thomas played 90. In fact he even got credited with an assist, though not one of the more ingenious ones he’ll ever get, a nodded down header that led to a 65 yard speccy with the keeper off the line! A 75th minute goal had the hosts in front, and with time running out Utrecht keeper Robbin Ruiter went up for a stoppage time corner. It didn’t pay off. To make it even worse, the goal scorer, Soufian Moro, is a former Utrecht player and this was his first ever professional goal. Thomas had 51 touches in the game, with a single shot, two key passes and three successful tackles. Solid stuff, all in all.
Up Next: FC Dordrecht line up for the Ryan Thomas treatment, 5.45am next Sunday morning
Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)
Is there anything that really needs saying here? He’s the All Whites captain, and his worth to the Hammers was made pretty clear on their tour to NZ with his leadership and assured defence. That tour wasn’t exactly a success, and although their later friendlies have been a bit better, they’ll start the season with manager Sam Allardyce under some heavy pressure. Yet another injury to Andy Carroll has rocked them, even with Ecuadorian Enner Valencia joining (who’ll probably miss the start through lack of fitness). They’ve got bids in for “three or four” strikers, Peter Crouch among them. Good thing their defence is nice and solid then. Get used to the sight of Winston Reid marshalling the troops.
Up Next: It kicks off for the desperate Hammers 2am Sunday at home to Spurs (NZT)
Chris Wood – Leicester City (English Premier League)
Woody was marginalised a bit last season as Dave Nugent (one cap wonder for England) and Jamie Vardy found some great form in leading the Foxes to the Championship title and EPL promotion. Staring with a shot at the second striker role, injuries and indifferent form saw vardy claim that honour and Wood mostly played off the bench, albeit he bagged some top goals… few better than this stunner against fellow promoted team Burnley.
He finished with 8 goals in 29 games, though 19 of those matches were off the bench. Making the step up to the Premier League (where he had a couple of bench sightings for West Brom as a teen) is tough and teams tend to reinforce their squads with more proven players. Leonard Ulloa joined Leicester over the offseason for a club record £8m. Ulloa is an Argentinian forward, and although Nigel Pearson said he’d ‘compliment’ their current strikers well, you don’t shatter the team transfer record to get another bench warmer. So with Wood seemingly the fourth choice striker now, it sounds like he’s set for a move away before the season begins. Wolverhampton Wanderers, if reports are true, have agreed an undisclosed fee for the All Whites finisher, and it’s just a matter of personal terms.
Wolves got off to a winning start against Norwich, a second half goal giving them a 1-0 win. And that was only after Norwich had a red card. Nouha Dicko was the only striker and he didn’t do a whole lot. Could be a nice landing spot for Wood then. Imagine it: Dicko and Wood. Wolves won 17 of their final 21 games last season as they stormed to promotion from League 1. They’ve only brought in 2 new players since then (both on frees), so Wood would be a welcome addition. Boss Kenny Jackett is a fan, anyway. Wood played for Jackett while on loan at Milwall in 2012. It’ll be a shame to see him leave without getting a shot at the Premier League but this will definitely mean more football which can only be better in the long run.
Up Next: Who really knows? LCFC play Everton at 2am Sunday for what it’s worth (NZT)
Marco Rojas – VfB Stuttgart (Bundesliga)
The Bundesliga kicks off next week, and after his first season was riddled with injuries, Rojas is finally in with a shot at making his first team debut. He’s been a feature in preseason friendlies where he even bagged a couple of goals, so he’ll be in the reckoning. Keep an eye out for Marco off the bench early on, far from a sure thing but it could happen. Getting accustomed to the step up from the A-League to the German leagues must be a challenge, even without the injuries. The pace is so much quicker and the skill and technical ability barely even compares. In his first season, all Rojas could muster was a start and a run off the bench for the reserves near the end of the season.
Stuttgart barely avoided relegation last season, and they’ll be expecting much more in this campaign. With Chelsea youngster Oriol Romeu on loan to shore up their defence, Austrian playmaker Martin Harnik in the middle and the likes of German wunderkind Timo Werner and Bosnian Vedad Ibisevic up front, they certainly have some talent lying around. Marco Rojas wasn’t seen in their final preseason match over the weekend, a 2-1 loss to Hull City, but if he stays fit he’s bound to get an opportunity at some stage.
Up Next: Borussia M.Gladbach away to hopefully open the account at 3.30am Monday (NZT)