Flying Kiwis – August 21
Ryan Thomas – PSV Eindhoven (Dutch Eredivisie)
Medical all sorted, first training sessions with the new teammates completed, and Ryan Thomas was ready to face the media as an official member of PSV Eindhoven. He signs on a four year contract and will wear the number 30 jersey, same as he did with PEC Zwolle. His new jersey was handed to him by PSV icon Willy van der Kuijlen.
It’d taken a while for him to get his transfer but it’s also since been revealed that there was strong interest from AZ Alkmaar, though Thommo chose the team with the better chance of Champions League football, no surprises there.
RT: “I cannot deny that. Interest from a good club is always beautiful, but PSV got in on time and I really wanted to go here. The Eredivisie had been my preference for my next step anyway and it's great that I can now play for the title. I know this competition, I have mastered the language a little bit and I don’t think it's time to go to another country.”
Mark van Bommel called him up directly, apparently. Nice touch. Enjoyed what he’d seen of him and that’s been a confidence boost for old mate, who is aware that it might take time to settle but he wants to play as many minutes as possible. Keen to play for titles. Keen to play Champions League. Sweet as.
As for that Champions League dream, he’ll get his chance pretty soon as PSV have drawn BATE Borisov in the final qualifying round after the club from Belarus outdid Qarabag (Azerbaijan) in the previous round. As Dutch champs, PSV went straight into this final round with a place in the group stages on the line for the team that progresses. PSV will be favourites but that’s a tricky draw.
It was all pretty positive from the Dutch media with this signing but few personal references came more glowing than from his old manager at Zwolle, Ron Jans. A year ago Jans tried to tell people that Thomas has the potential to maybe play for Real Madrid one day. This week he took that further by directly comparing him to Luka Modric which is about as good as it gets for a central midfielder in 2018.
RJ: “I think Ryan is an extremely good player and it actually surprised me that it took so long until a club came in for him. He’s not at that level yet but I see similarities with Luka Modric, for example. The clevernesses in his game, always well poised, and also a career that got going quite late. Ryan only needs to prove it to PSV now. That is difficult to predict, because you do not know whether he will get the confidence and the minutes to grow. There are no bad players at PSV. A boy like Bart Ramselaar is currently on the second or third plan. But I don’t see that happening to Ryan.”
Jans agreed that physicality is going to be Thomas’ biggest weakness but said he makes up for that with his playmaking, his passing ability, his positioning and his control. He also challenged him to surpass Wynton Rufer as the greatest New Zealand footballer ever. Love this guy!
We do have to wait another week for his club debut though. Thomas was available to play against newly-promoted Fortuna Sittard but wasn’t considered due to either a minor injury or a lack of match fitness, depending on what you read. He didn’t miss any training sessions so it’s nothing major, just not chucking him straight in there when Pablo Rosario’s having a strong start to the season anyway. PSV did manage to beat Fortuna but it was a scrappy game, needing a late winner for the 2-1 result.
Of course, it’d be rude not to say cheers to PEC Zwolle for taking a chance on a young kiwi kid and developing him to this level. His most famous performance was the 2014 KNVB Cup final against Ajax, in which he scored a double and helped PEC to the upset victory and the club’s first bit of silverware in its history (excluding a few second division titles). All up Thommo played 143 times for PEC Zwolle and scored 12 goals. He arrived as nobody in particular and he leaves a bit of a legend.
Up Next: BATE vs PSV, Weds at 7am, then away to PEC Zwolle on Sunday at 6.45am… could be a very dramatic week (NZT)
Abby Erceg – North Carolina Courage (American National Women’s Soccer League)
Back in North Carolina now and that meant the Courage got to lift the Shield that they won a couple weeks back. Abby Erceg raising that thing to the sky as they continue on their quest for the championship trophy to go with it. But, mate, it took a while. 22 minutes into their Saturday night game it was postponed due to terrible weather. So 13 hours later, on Sunday morning, they picked up where they left off and the Courage were simply too good against Orlando Pride. It took some time to turn their dominance into goals, with Debinha having a 55th minute opener denied for an offside in the build-up but an own goal with fifteen minutes left opened the floodgates and soon enough NCC had won this thing 3-0.
Fittingly another clean sheet for Abby Erceg’s team on the day they lifted the Shield. They’ve also now tied the NWSL record for wins in a season and can break that as well as getting the two points needed to break the record points tally and four goals needed to break the record for goals scored in a season. It’s been incredible. Just one defeat all season. Ten clean sheets in 22 games. They have two more matches remaining, away to Seattle and then home to Houston.
Up Next: Seattle Reign vs NCC, Sunday at 8am (NZT)
Chris Wood – Burnley (English Premier League)
Burnley are really doing this Europa thing the hard way. With a small squad, there’s only so much rotation you can do despite having to balance these games with Premier League footy – which is always going to take priority. One position they can rotate though is striker, hence Chris Wood got to sit out 82 minutes of this latest one.
Following on from a 0-0 draw away to Istanbul Basaksehir, it was a matter of needing a win to advance to the final qualifying round. And their chances were boosted by a weird situation in which the away team didn’t sell any tickets to their fans, meaning an empty away stand and a strange atmosphere in the ground. As such Basaksehir were a bit rubbish for most of a cagey first half but they did finish strong, forcing Joe Hart into a couple nice saves. Burnley knew they couldn’t really afford to concede an away goal so they didn’t overcommit going forward, though Ash Barnes and Sam Vokes threw their weight around.
But it was still 0-0 at the half and it was still 0-0 with eight minutes left when The Woodsman and Jack Cork were both introduced to try and win this thing. On in response to the introduction of Emanuel Adebayor for the visitors, who had already missed one quality effort. Nerves running high and all that. The game went into extra time. Throw this one over to the Lanky Tele…
Lancashire Telegraph: “Dyche had responded to the introduction of Adebayor by bringing some of his own heavyweights off the bench and both Chris Wood and Cork were involved in the goal early in extra-time. Wood won the initial header before Jeff Hendrick fed the ball wide to Johann Berg Gudmundsson and then took the return pass by turning Kahveci and teeing up Cork who curled a fine 20-yard finish into the top corner.”
And that was it. Burnley clung on to win 1-0 and will face Olympiacos in the next round – yet another tricky tie. Shout outs to Ash Westwood on a brilliant game, to Jack Cork on a second straight extra-time goal in the Europa League and new signings Ben Gibson and Joe Hart for settling in excellently. And Chris Wood for a sneaky but crucial impact in getting his team the win.
Resting up for most of that game meant The Woodsman was always going to start against Watford a few days later and that’s exactly what happened. Burnley hitting that game up with a six-hour clean sheet intact across all competitions while Watford incredibly hadn’t scored an away league goal since January… so naturally it took less than three minutes before ex-Claret Andre Gray banged in a superb finish on the volley for the opening goal.
Guess what though? Just minutes later Matt Lowton swung in a low cross from deep towards Woody only for a defender to sneak in desperately and clear it for a corner… which James Tarkowski buried with his head, his first goal since 2015. 1-1 after six minutes.
The rain came as the half progressed and Chris Wood spent most of his time hanging out at the far post trying to get on the end of crosses that never seemed to find him. That and a whole lot of trying to hold the ball up in crowded areas. He took a knock at one point and needed treatment but was all good to continue and the whistle called pause to a 1-1 game after forty-five. Then the second half started the same as the first with an exquisite pass from Abdoulaye Doucouré sliding in Troy Deeney and Watters were up 2-1 and as if that wasn’t enough then Will Hughes smashed in a beauty and five quick minutes had swung this game completely.
Woody was replaced by Ashley Barnes with 25 minutes to go. Sam Vokes came on soon after and it was frustrating, to say the least, that Woody didn’t get to play with a second striker during this one as you got the feeling he needed that other bloke around him to play off of, someone to direct his lay-offs towards and someone to draw the defence away from him. Precious few shots to follow up here either with the one-dimensional focus on crossing from deep. Ah well, there’s always next week.
Lancashire Telegraph Player Ratings: “Chris Wood 5 - Looks better with a partner next to him and struggled to impose himself on the game.”
Up Next: Friday at 6am away to Olympiakos and then away to Fulham at 3am on Monday (NZT)
Katie Bowen – Utah Royals (American National Women’s Soccer League)
Shot Katie.
Next up was Sky Blue and that almost meant a Flying Kiwis Derby with Rebekah Stott except that a lower back strain cost Stotty the chance to get back into the starting XI after coming on as a first half sub last week for the injured Christina Gibbons. Which sucks. But Katie Bowen did start at right back again for the Royals – quick note on how impressive it is that KB lost her spot in central midfield when the club relocated to Utah and has instead forced her way in at right back, that’s some premier quality whatever-it-takes-ism.
Only thing here was that Bowen was involved in two goals for Sky Blue. First as the last defender when Katie Johnson held her desperate cover efforts off to finish coolly in the 14th minute and then again as she blocked an attempted through ball from Johnson, only for her namesake to smash it into the top of the net instead. Neither KB’s fault but yeah. Johnson came incredibly close to a hatty a few minutes later when she hit the crossbar. Lucky break considering Sky Blue are still winless this season but surely even they couldn’t have blown it from 3-0 up.
2-0 up though, that’s a different story. An own goal got Utah back into it and then the heroic Amy Rodriguez smashed in the equaliser with injury time already run down. Some scrappy build up play but then a magical finish. Nineteen games in and Sky Blue are still winless. But Utah keep their playoff hopes alive with two games left to play.
Up Next: Away to Washington Spirit, Thursday at 11.30am (NZT)
Tyler Boyd – Vitória de Guimarães (Portuguese Primeira Liga)
Monday night in Portugal, Tuesday morning in Aotearoa. At home against Feirense. And there was Tyler Boyd starting out on the right wing, very much established amongst the first XI these days. Fair enough too because watching him out there he doesn’t look out of place at all. He’s good in possession, very rarely coughing it up and hardly misplacing a pass, while still bringing an aggressive approach to the game. Dude can cross a footy, that’s for sure. They even had him on corners for most of the night.
Feirense were happy to play without the ball for a lot of this one and for most of it we seemed to be headed for a typical weeknight 0-0 draw. Chances were few and far between. Tyler Boyd had one shot blocked but otherwise was hanging wide trying to create rather than finish. After clinging to the right all first half, he mixed it up a few times in the second by swapping with his left winger, then when the manager went for a double attacking sub just before the hour mark it was his striker and a midfielder he replaced, not his kiwi winger. When he brought on Dutch winger Ola John with quarter of an hour left it was the left winger replaced, not Tyler Boyd.
Hell, Tyler even finished the game at right back. His 19 year old fullback, whose name is Dodô because he’s a rare ol’ bird, went down injured in a challenge, appearing to pull a hammy or something. The guy was down a while and needed the stretcher to carry him off… but a minute later he popped up limping on the sideline and came back on, the team having already used up their subs. So since he was hobbling, he just stood up front while Tyler covered for him. Did a few handy defensive things too, including a sweet sliding challenge to dispossess Fábio Sturgeon… except the ball fell to a fellow Feirense player, who slipped in Sturgeon and the fishman buried it for the only goal in the 89th minute.
Boyd had a shot from distance straight after which went a mile over the bar. He had another shot on the half-volley which might have been a heroic and incredible equaliser in the seventh minute of injury time if only it hadn’t also ended up ten metres over the top. Annoying 1-0 defeat then for VSC in a game they held most of the ball in but were unable to carve out the goals to show for it. Still, ninety solid minutes for the kiwi winger. Can’t sleep on that.
Up Next: Porto vs Vitória on Sunday at 8am (NZT)
Stefan Marinovic – Vancouver Whitecaps (American Major League Soccer)
That’s Marinovic’s first Team of the Week nod this season (having also made the bench once) although he’s far from the only kiwi to have cracked it in 2018. Bill Tuiloma made it in Week 4 with Deklan Wynne following a week later. Tommy Smith has earned the honour twice. Plus Mike Boxall was on the bench for this latest selection too.
Big Stef is back to his best, no doubt about it. However it didn’t help him in the midweek as Toronto stormed to a 5-2 victory in the second leg of the Canadian Championship final, enough for a 7-4 aggregate win. Blame that on some shocking defending, the better team won so can’t complain.
Eighty-Six Forever Player Ratings: “Stefan Marinovic: The New Zealander made eight saves including a few sharp stops in the second half. Unfortunately, the Whitecaps defending was completely shambolic on the night, for 4 of the 5 goals there was very little Marinovic could do about it. There could perhaps be some question on the first TFC goal as Altidore slid it through Marinovic’s legs, but this is the kind of save that you would hope your keeper could make and not necessarily one you expect. 6.5”
Luckily there’s a bigger picture to focus on. Specifically a late push to make the MLS playoffs, which can’t really sustain too many more defeats. Yet at home to New York Red Bulls the Whitecaps found themselves trailing after five minutes as Brad Wright-Phillips’ teasing low ball across goal evaded a couple hesitant defenders, then Marinovic rushed out too late and couldn’t get to it. Miscommunication all over. Dan Royer tapped it in.
Yordy Reyna nearly levelled it with a nice give and go and then in the 42nd minute he laid one on a platter for Kendall Waston from a corner. That gave us a scrappy second half and it only took a couple minutes for that to peak as Stef made a remarkable save off crossbar then somehow smothered the loose ball… here, take a look with your own eyes.
Waston did it again from a corner for the lead before New York were reduced to ten men when Mike Murillo got marched for being a dirty bugger. But in the ninetieth minute, those three points right there for the taking, Daniel Royer whalloped a wonderful volley on the end of a deep free kick which even Marinovic couldn’t touch, in off the frame of the goal from the angle. He had to hit it perfect to score and he did, the bollocks. Vancouver are eighth in the conference with a five-point buffer ahead of Minnesota in ninth but they’re three points back on sixth place and the final playoff spot and the two teams directly above them have games in hand.
Eighty-Six Forever Player Ratings: “Stefan Marinovic: 7.5/10 - A case could be made that he should have done better on both goals but both balls were played into difficult areas that are difficult for goalkeepers to come for. He also made two very important saves that potentially saved the point for the Whitecaps”
Up Next: San Jose vs Vancouver, Sunday at 2pm (NZT)
Grace Jale - Sparta Praha (Serbian 1. Liga)
Up Next: Season’s already started so hopefully straight into it pretty soon
Rosie White – Chicago Red Stars (American National Women’s Soccer League)
Nice boost here for Rosie as she was named to start up front alongside Aussie icon Sam Kerr for the Red Stars in a midweek game away in Seattle. Just her third start since returning from that long-term foot injury and her first in over a month. Sweet as.
Both Chicago and Seattle were desperate for points and that sorta cancelled out for a 0-0 draw, though not for any shortage of chances. Both teams had the shots to win this thing easy. In Seattle’s case they didn’t get any of their 8 shots on target so obvious what to blame there. Chicago though, they were a little more unlucky. Rosie and Sam Kerr linked up well in the second half but Kerr put her shot just wide. One of five attempts she had this game, with Rosie also ripping off a couple both off target. But yeah, a 0-0 draw. White was replaced for the last minute.
Then she was back on the bench for the 2-2 draw with Portland that followed. Sam Kerr scored both goals because she’s incredible. But a goalie mistake allowed Portland to get one back off of Tobin Heath’s head before Heath turned provider for Christine Sinclair and this game was all tied up.
Rosie was subbed on for the last ten minutes of the game to try and find a winner and she almost did, dodging the offside flag on a cross to the far post with less than thirty second remaining but she couldn’t get a difficult header on target. She did, however, get her first yellow card of the season. Not bad lasting this long without a booking after leading the NWSL in them last season (granted, she was injured for half of it).
Two draws are not what the Red Stars needed at this point in the season but they do still sit fourth on the ladder with three games left to play. It’s all in their own hands – Katie Bowen already said this in that telly interview in her bit but the final game between Chicago and Utah could be a virtual semi-final eliminator.
Up Next: Orlando Pride vs Chicago Red Stars, Sunday at 11.30am (NZT)
Michael Boxall – Minnesota United (American Major League Soccer)
If the Loons were looking to keep up the momentum after finally getting another point away from home last week against LA Galaxy, they failed. Away again, this time to FC Dallas, they conceded just before the break and then again in the 57th minute – goals to Maynor Figueroa and Michael Barrios – to lose 2-0. They had only one shot on target all match.
Unfortunately after his goal scoring heroics of last week, Mike Boxall was in the mix in the wrong way this time. Defending a corner in stoppage time, keeper Bobby Shuttleworth initially made a nice save to keep the scores level but the ball fell to Figueroa who stretch to tap it in only to see the offside flag go up. Except that on closer VAR examination, it turned out that somehow Boxall had been the one to smash that header back at his own keeper, thus playing old mate onside for the goal to stand. At least the second goal was a ripper that nobody could do much about.
FC Dallas are top of the Western Conference and one of the favourites for the title this season but that result does huge damage to any chance this club still had of making the playoffs. And they have to play them again in a couple weeks too, bloody hell.
Boxy: “For me, to try to impose myself on attackers and stop them from doing what they like to do and make them feel a little bit uncomfortable. It’s more mental than anything physical, I think. That’s the kind of stuff I draw from those (rugby) days.”
Up Next: Sporting KC vs Minny, Sunday at 12.30pm (NZT)
James McGarry & Michael Woud – Willem II (Dutch Eredivisie)
A lot of English clubs like to send their fringe players on loan to Holland for experience because the average age of players there is something like 23 years old. Bit easier to adapt to than getting belted by 30 year old Italians or whatever. But even by that measure Jimmy McG is still ahead of schedule.
McGarry started his second Eredivisie game in the 1-0 win over Groningen. Dan Crawley, an ex-Arsenal youth teamer, scored the only goal. A real stunner of a goal too. The kiwi got a little over an hour before he was replaced with the official twitter account giving him a positive report for his performance.
Again McGarry played a little further forward than expected, technically thrown in at left back this time but mixing it up a fair bit with winger Diego Palacios. No cracks at goal this time and his passing stats were pretty average, plus he gave away three fouls and was called offside twice… but there were some sharp moments in there too. Might have some competition for his place now, however, with new signings Aras Özbilis and Donis Avdijaj, the latter replacing McGarry in this game, both expected to compete for minutes on the wing. Credit to Willem II for the first win of the season. Nice goal from Crawley.
No sign of Mike Woud though, he would have been on the bench except he hurt his knee during the week and ended up in hospital for an MRI… fingers crossed that’s all right. Way too early in the season to be dealing with long-term injuries. Then again, it’s always too early for injuries.
Up Next: Willem II vs Heracles at the tasty time of 10.15pm on Sunday (NZT)
Aimee Phillips – Cardiff Met WFC (Welsh Premier League)
Up Next: Back to the Welsh stuff, which begins with a trip to Briton Ferry on Monday 3 September at 2am (NZT)
Hannah Wilkinson & CJ Bott – Vittsjö GIK (Swedish Damallsvenskan)
Not sure what’s happened since CJ Bott joined the team but Vittsjö have taken seven points from a possible nine since she did, leaping from serious relegation threat into the middle of the table. They’re six games unbeaten all up and they just got their best result of the lot of them with a 2-1 win over first-placed Piteå.
As is becoming the custom, both kiwis started with Hannah Wilkinson replaced late on. Wilko playing 87 minutes this week after 89 the week before. But those last few minutes meant she missed the best bit which was Michelle de Jongh’s injury time winner from a difficult angle, snatching back the points they nearly lost when Cecilia Edlund levelled in the 82nd min. Still no second goal this season for Wilko but she almost had one early on, breaking in behind the defence and rounding the keeper only to have her finish cleared by a retreating defender.
Highlights are right here for the indulging…
Up Next: Away to Växjö at 3am on Monday (NZT)
Katie Rood – Bristol City (English Super League)
The English season has begun with the WSL Cup group stage but unfortunately Roodie wasn’t able to take part because of injury, so she missed Bristol City’s 2-2 draw away to Leicester. City twice had to come from behind, their second equalising goal only coming in the 86th minute.
In fact it was a pretty scant matchweek for all the kiwis in England. Not sure why Ali Riley wasn’t involved for Chelsea in their 3-1 win over Brighton but you can assume it has something to do with the injury that held her out of preseason action. At least with half a season under her belt in Sweden already this year she should be fairly match-fit once she’s back. In the meantime, overcome those withdrawal symptoms with another episode of Girls With Balls.
West Ham lost 3-1 to Arsenal in their first game of what’s technically now known as the FA Continental Tyres Cup although we did at least get a kiwi appearance in that one with Ria Percival on to make her club debut in the fourth minute of stoppage time. Better late than never. As for Livvy Chance, she’s still injured but hold up a sec.
Up Next: WSL Cup Matchday two next week, Bristol City vs Sheffield United, Monday at 2am (NZT)
Olivia Chance – Everton (English Super League)
Right so about Liv Chance. Still recovering from that ACL tear at the end of the last season, it’s probably unlikely we see Chance kitting up for Everton for at least a couple more months, maybe not even until early 2019. But gotta see how it goes. Just know she’s out for the foreseeable future but is all contracted and raring to go once she’s able.
Up Next: Rehabbbbbb
Jake Gleeson & Bill Tuiloma – Portland Timbers (American Major League Soccer)
Got some bad news to report. The puzzle about Jake Gleeson’s recent absence from the bench in Portland has been cleared up with a report out of Timbers HQ detailing a little bit of season-ending surgery…
“The Portland Timbers today announced that goalkeeper Jake Gleeson has undergone successful surgery to repair bilateral tibial stress fractures. The procedure was performed by Timbers chief medical officer Dr. Richard H. Edelson at Sports Medicine Oregon. Gleeson, who is expected to be out approximately two months, will conduct his rehabilitation with the Timbers sports medicine staff at Providence Park and at the Providence Sports Care Center.”
So that’s not the best for ol’ Jake, who began the season as the fill-in starting keeper for Jeff Atinella but was dropped back to the bench when the numero uno returned. Atinella’s not exactly been playing great lately however Gleeson never got that second chance – the last of his six games in 2018 came in April. The Timbers acquired backup keeper Steve Clark on waivers from DC United to replace him.
In better news, Billy Tuiloma was getting too used to that subs bench himself but he finally got back out there as a 45th minute replacement for Larrys Mabiala in a 3-0 defeat against Sporting Kansas City. Mabiala didn’t appear to be injured and he had played every minute this season before he was subbed off so a weird one there. They were already 2-0 down when Tui was introduced and the third came in the 89th minute with the result looking pretty settled already, although Tui might get a yapping from the coach for stepping out of the defensive line in the build-up. This was Tui’s ninth MLS appearance and first since June 30.
Up Next: Timbers vs Seattle Sounders on Monday at 1.30pm (NZT)
Erin Nayler – Girondins Bordeaux (French Division 1 Féminine)
Up Next: Season begins next week away to Metz at 12.30am on Sunday (NZT)
Tommy Smith & Deklan Wynne – Colorado Rapids (American Major League Soccer)
Double up in Los Angeles for Uncle Huddo. Two games in five days, against the Galaxy and then against LAFC. First things first and Tommy Smith marking Zlatan Ibrahimovic wasn’t the complete mismatch that most MLS defenders have been against that dude and for an hour or so we had a very close game… but Smithy can’t be everywhere at once and Ashley Cole – remember him!? – skipped around a couple defenders to give LAG the lead in the 59th minute.
Edgar Castillo got Colorado back on even pegging fifteen minutes later with a thunderous strike but it lasted only three more before Sebastian Lletget struck and the Galaxy were back in front. Both teams had had to deal with injuries and early subs and nobody really saw this all coming when things were a boring 0-0 early in the second half. But we weren’t done yet. 82nd minute and Niki Jackson’s shot from the left took a deflection and somehow snuck past a wrong-footed keeper for a 2-2 draw. Have that, then.
Got to hang out at the beach in between games and maybe they had a hangover from all that sun and sand because they were then beaten by LAFC. Kept it tight in a cagey first 45 before Deklan Wynne was happily subbed on at the break. Been waiting a while for him to get back into the team – Wynnebags played every minute of Colorado’s first 18 games but once he fell out of the lineup he didn’t play a single second for the next seven contests, until coming on for Kortne Ford at HT of this one. Glad to see him back, although he was put on a swivel by Lee Nguyen for the opening goal pretty swiftly after getting out there. A rude welcome back.
Jack McBean missed an outrageously good chance to tie things in the 78th minute but then Diego Rossi beat Tommy Smith for pace and scored past Tim Howard to kill it off. LAFC with the 2-0 win. Colorado are no chance to make the playoffs with 24 points from 25 games but still have nine games left to earn some of Huddo’s beloved pride and moral victories.
Important message now…
Up Next: Colorado Rapids vs Real Salt Lake on Sunday at 1pm (NZT)
Steven Old – Morecambe (English League Two)
One thing we can gather early on is that it’s going to be a looong season for the Shrimps. Most of the NZers in the footy league are having trouble getting games at the moment, through injury or form or whatever, but Steve Old is a lock for Morecambe. He has to be because they only have a couple fit defenders. And you get the idea about that from their early season results, which read as follows…
- Lost 6-0 to Crewe Alexandra (League Two)
- Lost 2-0 to Exeter City (League Two)
- Lost 3-1 to Preston North End (League Cup)
- Lost 1-0 to Stevenage (League Two)
Oldy’s played every available second so far but that’s nothing to brag about when you’ve conceded twelve goals in four games, scoring just one. The Shrimps had to scrap to avoid relegation out of the footy league last season. Looks like they’ve got an even tougher task on their hands now. The latest game was their best effort yet but a goal right before the half ended up doing them in. No points and no goals through their first three league games.
Up Next: Morecambe vs Northampton, Weds at 6.45am (NZT)
The USL Crew
James Musa (Phoenix Rising) – No sooner is The Moose back from suspension than the Rising are back to winning ways, shutting out Las Vegas Lights on the road for a 2-0 win that has them looking good in third place of the Western Conference.
Cory Brown (Fresno FC) – A 2-0 win over St Louis but Cory Brown was an unused sub and Myer Bevan wasn’t included in the matchday squad having only just arrived on loan.
Kyle Adams (Rio Grande Valley) & Monty Patterson (OKC Energy) – Great opportunity here for a FK Derby in the lower league… except both Kyle and Monty were left on the subs bench the whole way as OKC won 4-2 away from home. Bit of a bummer.
Elliot Collier (Indy Eleven) – A debut start for the Indies. Collier played 80 minutes before being replaced, unable to find a goal in a 0-0 draw away at Ottawa Fury. Still a feisty battle for the playoffs there but Indy have a couple games in hand. Also, here’s an interview he did this week.