Flying Kiwis - August 24
Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)
One thing that screams loud and clear from the start of West Ham’s season is that they’re very much a work in progress. The win over Arsenal showed what they can be, this latest game at home to Bournemouth showed how far they have to go. It’s not often a team will score three times at home and still lose.
Adrian was suspended after his flying kick last week, in his place between the sticks came Darren Randolph. The Irishman played for Birmingham in 2014-15 and was making his Hammers debut but he came with some baggage. Specifically, the 16 goals he’s leaked against Bournemouth in his last 3 games against them. Most notably an 8-0 loss at St Andrews last October. You can make that 20 in 4 now, though he has plenty of reasons to blame the defence in front of him.
Actually, Winston Reid nearly gave West Ham the lead after 6 minutes but his headed goal was disallowed for a push in the back of his marker. Soon after, Reid was beaten to a cross by Callum Wilson for the proper first goal of the contest however it was with Aaron Cresswell’s failed clearance that it really went wrong. That was 11 minutes in. In the 28th minute, Cresswell (The team’s Player of the Year last campaign) went and did it again, an inexplicable back-pass intended for Reid getting picked off for Wilson’s second.
Mark Noble won and converted a penalty straight after half time though, and within 8 mins of the start of the second stanza they were level. Sahko’s shot parried into the path of Kouyate, 2-2.
Oh, but the WHU defensive worries were far from over. Angelo Ogbonna had been subbed off after 35 minute despite no visible injury worry, and in the 65th they were caught playing far too compact on the break and Mark Pugh was able to find acres of space in the box. He cut inside the desperate lunge of Carl Jenkinson and curled his shot past Randolph in goal. Jenko then got caught waiting to clear a ball down the line only to lose it with open pasture behind him. He’s a quick one, the Arsenal loanee, but only quick enough to drag down Max Gradel in the box as he cut back across him. Red card without hesitation, WHU’s fifth red in nine competitive games this season. Penalty scored by Wilson for his hat-trick.
Madibo Maiga quickly pulled one back for his first Hammers goal after nearly two years at the club (playing mostly striker too, for the case against). It wasn’t enough. 4-3 final.
Compared to his fullbacks, Reid had an absolute blinder against Bournemouth. Compared to his Arsenal game this was pretty disappointing. He did the work of two men there in the middle and it wasn’t nearly enough. Meanwhile Ogbonna made the ill-advised move of tweeting his frustrations at being subbed off. At least he had a case given that his fullbacks were playing like they’d strapped their boots on the wrong feet.
But all is not bad for Winnie. There’s talk of a possible change in captaincy coming now that Alex Song is returning, leaving Mark Noble’s place in the first XI under threat. Technically Noble isn’t really the captain either, Kevin Nolan is, but Nolan’s certainly out of Slaven Bilic’s inner circle of key players and could well be leaving. If so then there’s no guarantee that the vice, Noble, gets the gig. Instead the new captain could well be an All White, he’s filled in before in the past. Plus the way they’ve played the last two weeks, it looks like Reid, Dimitri Payet and Cheikh Kouyate are the only three meriting their places.
Also he scored this ripper in training. Counts for the square root of bugger all, but makes for a pretty highlight at least:
Up Next: 2am Sunday, set the alarm for a trip to Anfield as WHU play Liverpool (NZT)
Chris Wood – Leeds United (English Championship)
Well, he promised to make up for The Worst Penalty Ever Seen, and so far Chris Wood appears to be doing just that.
Leeds played twice this past week and Woody scored in each game, his first two competitive goals for the club. First up was a game against Bristol City that should have been the Whites’ first win of the season. Wood fed through a lovely ball to strike partner Mirco Antenucci late in the opening half, Ante being cut down by the keeper as he tried to round him. Penalty. Antenucci took it himself and Leeds were up 1-0. Then, on the other side of the break, Wood’s moment in the spotlight.
Picking up a loose ball, he turns and sprints forward on the counter. Feeding a ball wide to the left, Wood then drifts the other way into a pool of open space, taking the return pass back inside the nearest defender and punting it past the keeper. Slick finish, really.
That should have been enough but incredibly it wasn’t. Bristol City made a game of it with an 89th minute goal and the collapse was complete in injury time as a corner was weakly dealt with, leaving an open man to flip in the loose ball.
Leeds then made it four draws from four league games (and their league cup loss was 1-1 after extra time too), but this time it was slightly more palatable. Sheffield Wednesday visited and they took the lead through a Marco Matias wonder goal, an early candidate for the best of the season. Seriously, this is exquisite.
They then had big problems trying to break down their local rivals as Wednesday sat in and defended stoutly. But cometh the hour and cometh the man. Okay, he was slightly late for the hour mark, but with 63 mins played Wood made a clever move behind the defensive line, demanding the ball where he wanted it (about three inches off the line) and you’d be hard pressed to miss from there. Stuart Dallas with some brilliant work to set it up.
A 1-1 draw in Leeds’ fourth game in nine days. Manager Uwe Rosler was surprisingly upbeat.
“We came back from 1-0 down against a team who didn’t attack us in any form or shape. My players knocked on the door and did everything we asked. Yes, there were mistakes but we made it up with endeavour, with character, with everything. What more can I ask for?”
Despite a solid week though, Wood is soon to have a little more competition up front. Leeds have all but completed the signing of Fernando Forestieri from Watford, it’s just personal terms to be concluded. Forestieri was a big player in Watford getting promoted last season but doesn’t look like he’ll be getting much time in the Premier League, something Woody can sympathise with. He can play across the front line and will bring a bit of versatility to what has been at times a completely one-dimensional Leeds attack (Wood as target man, maybe one guy running off him, everyone else watches).
Here’s an article where Chris Wood talks up his ambitions in the great line of Leeds number nines.
Up Next: 11.05pm away to Derby on Saturday night (NZT)
Tommy Smith – Ipswich Town (English Championship)
Ooh, look at that league table, will ya?
via whoscored.com
Yeah, Mick McCarthy’s Tractor Boys sitting atop the whole thing after a couple of ground out wins.
The first came against relegated Burnley. They had the post to thank for keeping them level after seven minutes but after that it was a game of relatively few chances. A matter of “who blinked first”, as Mick put it. Two teams playing traditional 4-4-2’s, both very well organised at the expense of any excess creative flair.
A couple of second half goals in the space of five minutes from Freddie Sears (his first game after signing a four year contract extension) and David McGoldrick (who later signed on for three more himself) were the difference on the night. Though it was the first clean sheet in 13 competitive games that might please Smithy and company the most (besides the three points, naturally). The All White defender played the full game and his 9 clearances were more than any other player on the park.
Then on the weekend it was a superb finish from Ryan Fraser that made the difference against Preston North End. Brett Pitman had given them an unlikely lead before PNE scored a very deserving leveller. But Fraser’s curling effort split the teams again and Ipswich were able to hold on for their first win at Deepdale since 1966 (Preston North End having just been promoted from League 1). Town scored with each of their only two shots on target in the game. Again, Smith’s passing out from the back was far from precise but there’s little you can say to criticise his defensive play. He was there late on for a clearance off the line that preserved the win.
Hey, and while we’re on the topic of English-born All Whites playing in the Championship… there’s an All Whites squad to be named this week and word is a bloke by the name of Henry Cameron will be included. Another one from Hudson’s global scourings (cheap shot: So they DO know the rules!), he qualifies for NZ thanks to a kiwi parent. Cameron’s an 18 year old midfielder who played 11 times for Blackpool last season in the Champo, even scoring against Smithy’s Ipswich. Blackpool were relegated to League One, but he’s been ever-present so far in 2015-16. Sounds a good prospect.
A further shout out while we’re at it to Cameron Howieson, since he hasn’t been mentioned here yet. Released by Burnley last season, he’s now at St Mirren in Scotland and has started two of their three Scottish Championship games – even scoring in a 3-1 loss to Rangers.
Up Next: League Cup vs Doncaster on Wednesday Ipswich vs Brighton, 2am Sunday (NZT)
Marco Rojas – FC Thun (Swiss Super League)
Sometimes you just have to take them anyway you can get them and Thun will be ecstatic over their 1-0 win against Vaduz on the weekend, even if the only goal came from the penalty spot. Marco Rojas has had a couple of games on the bench recently but he got the full 90 in this one, Thun registering just their second win of the season in their sixth league game. Gianluca Frontino scored the penalty midway through the first half after there had been a handball from a Nelson Ferreira shot (debatable if it was in the box too). The second half was a bit of a mess as Vaduz stretched to tie the game while Thun blew chances to seal it. Rojas hit the crossbar. It should have been more but 1-0 will do fine, hauling Thun off the bottom of the table.
Now thoughts turn towards the second leg of their Europa qualifier. Funnily enough, Vaduz were the team that Thun beat in the last round but they’ll have a tough ask to overcome a 3-1 deficit in the final qualifying round against Spartak Moscow. Playing in the Czech Republic last week, Thun took the lead early thanks to a deflected volley over the keeper from Nicola Sutter – a crucial away goal (to use the standard adjective there). Yet Sparta Prague were the team on the front foot. They scorned a few chances before hitting the Swiss team hard before the break. A goal in the 43rd minutes and another in injury time… they say right before half time is the worst time to concede, how about conceding twice? The first from a corner, the second a beauty from the edge of the box.
2-1 with an away goal wouldn’t actually have been that bad a result for Thun. If Simone Rapp’s 72nd minute header had stayed under the crossbar, then it could have been a fantastic result. Instead they may just have made it a bridge too far by conceding, again, in injury time. Right as the final whistle loomed, Prague lined up a free kick and Bořek Dočkal buried it in the top corner. Marco Rojas played off the bench, coming on for the last 20 minutes or so, having just the one shot and it was off target. The return leg is Switzerland and Thun need to win by two goals or more to advance to the Europa League group stages.
Up Next: Thun vs Sparta Prague, 5.30am Friday (NZT)
Bill Tuiloma – Olympique de Marseille (French Ligue 1)
Marseille unveiled their new manager this week, former Real Madrid winger Michel. Looks like it had an immediate impact too because they went and pummelled Troyes 6-0 for their first win of the season, the pick of the bunch being an absolute beauty of a goal from Lassana Diarra.
However it does seem that Billy’s slipped back down the charts ever so slightly. In what turned out to be Marcelo Bielsa’s last game in charge, Tuiloma was an unused sub but since then he’s been back in the reserves. To be fair, the second team didn’t start their season ‘til a week after the top side, so that could have just been for the experience or something. We’ll definitely be seeing more Tui in the reserve team than anything else, a team where he has more or less a starting place.
In their latest game, their second of the CFA season, OM2 were held to a 1-1 draw against Sete. Their first point of the season after a 1-0 loss in their opener. Tuiloma played 90 minutes in midfield as Michel looked on from the stands scribbling down notes, picking up a yellow after 19 minutes. Abdelkader Kraichi gave them the lead after 14 but they were pegged back after half time from some shocking defending. A better, more physical performance from OM2, it seems. Here are the highlights, which begin with a couple of towering headers from Tui:
Up Next: Toulon Le Las vs OM2, 4am Sunday (NZT)
Ryan Thomas – PEC Zwolle (Dutch Eredivisie)
Third game of the season and Thommo’s back in action. After missing the first couple games with a knee injury, he was fit enough to take the bench against Twente and ended up coming on for the last third of the game. He was fairly active too, getting 22 touches and unleashing one shot at goal in his 32 minutes on the field.
Thomas came on at an important time with Zwolle having coughed up a well-earned HT lead within 120 seconds of the restart. The PECers soon wrestled back the momentum though, and five minute after Thomas came on, Ben Rienstra gave them back the lead and they held on for a 2-1 victory. Unbeaten to start the season, Zwolle have 7 points from 3 games and sit third on the table.
Up Next: Heerenveen vs PEC Zwolle, 5.45am Sunday (NZT)
Tyler Boyd - Vitória S.C. (Portuguese Primeira Liga)
Given the injuries and the teething problems that Marco Rojas had after leaving the A-League for Europe (granted, as a better player but also to a better team), it’s great to see Tyler Boyd featuring on what appears to be a regular basis for the Vitoria B side. This from a dude who couldn't break into the Phoenix first XI last season, great little undercover flyer. The latest was a 0-0 draw with Freamunde in what was described as an “intense match but of poor quality”. Boyd played all 90 and threatened once with a shot from range.
Up Next: VGSC B Team are away to Famalicão, 4am Thursday (NZT)
Jeremy Brockie & Michael Boxall – SuperSport United (South African Premier Soccer League)
Jeremy Brockie bagged his first league goal of the season as SSU picked up a point away from home against Mpumalanga Black Aces. They were down 1-0 when Brockie found a lil space in the box on the end of a nice chipped ball from Dove Wome and he finished from close range. 68th minute equaliser. Both kiwis in the game had the chance to steal the biscuits but Boxall headed over the bar late and Brockie dragged a shot past the post. 1-1 it finished, a draw that has each of the two teams among the five all tied for first place with 4 points after 2 games.
Brockie also this week spoke to Soccer Laduma about his motivations for his (very successful) move to South Africa:
"In the MLS and the A-League, there’s a salary cap. You’re sort of limited to what you can earn as a footballer. It only allows you to earn a certain amount of money. That’s why leagues outside the MLS allow you to earn more money. I could’ve earned a lot more money in Asia but I thought moving here was best in terms of my family, the lifestyle and returning to the New Zealand national team.”
Up Next: Home against Jomo Cosmos, 5.30am Thursday (NZT)