Flying Kiwis – December 22
Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)
& Chris Wood – Leicester City (English Premier League)
It was a battle between All Whites in the Premier League this weekend as Winston Reid’s West Ham hosted Chris Wood’s Leicester City… except that Chris Wood didn’t play. Not even on the bench, in fact.
That left an open goal for Winston to convert and his Hammers did what they planned to do. A goal in each half from Andy Carroll and Stewart Downing respectively gave them a 2-0 win and fourth place at Christmas time. Unbelievable given the pressure Sam Allardyce was under to keep his job six months ago.
The scripts have been flipped in Leicester too, but for the worse. Nigel Pearson was playing with house money after taking this team so convincingly to promotion only to now find them well off the pace at the bottom of the table, without a win since September and not too many goals in that time either. Pearson’s currently appealing a one-match touchline ban for some unsubtle suggestions he had for an abusive fan the other week. They have two points from the last available 36 and only one team has ever avoided relegation after being bottom at Christmas (Pearson was a coach on that West Brom side).
So with one overachieving and the other underachieving, this game went exactly as expected. Both Sahko and Carroll missed early chances that they at least should have put on target, however Carroll very quickly made up for his with a lovely dinked effort over the keeper following Paul Konchesky’s gift of a back pass. The Hammers were well on top and Stewart Downing scored a beautiful second after 55 minutes, not just the finish but the control too – it was gorgeous.
Leicester had a couple late efforts to get back into it but Winston Reid and co. were in control all day. Reid won 11 headers, made 14 clearances and a couple tackles, giving Leicester’s uninspired attack the old ‘Return to Sender’ stamp in one of his better games of the year.
It’s a shame we didn’t get Reid marking Wood but LCFC are too busy trying to get something out of their top three strikers to be worried about number four. Maybe he gets a go in place of one of them though? Wood has as many EPL goals in 6 subs appearances as Dave Nugent has in that many plus 8 starts. Jamie Vardy only has one as well in his 12 starts (and three apps off the bench), while Leonard Ulloa’s early season form – 5 goals in 5 – has slumped enormously to just one in his last 12 appearances.
Up Next for Winnie: Brutality is next. Chelsea away on the morning of the 27th before hosting Arsenal two days later (NZT)
Up Next for Woody: The Foxes host Spurs on the 27th, and visit Hull on the 29th (NZT)
Tommy Smith – Ipswich Town (English Championship)
Could promotion really be on the cards for Ipswich? Might we have three All Whites in the Premier League in 2015/16!? (Probably not, unless Chris Wood gets transferred…)
It’s a legitimate goal for The Trotters. Their 9 game unbeaten streak is only bettered by first placed Bournemouth (12 in a row) and they trail them by just a single point at Christmas. 22 games through a 46 game season – there’s a long way to go yet, but second place with 41 points is not a bad platform to launch from!
The latest scalp was a 2-0 win over Middlesbrough. The star of the show was 18 year old Town midfielder Teddy Bishop, as the kid played a part in each goal. Daryl Murphy and Jay Tabb got those goals in a fairly straightforward win. Boro had a few chances but it was Ipswich that had all the better ones and it probably could have been more - Tommy Smith squeezed a loose ball onto the post after a corner and Dave McGoldrick also got booked for diving for what looked like a decent penalty shout.
Smith had a good, solid game – to be expected in a win like that. He made his share of clearances and provided a threat up front from set pieces – he almost headed in the opener in the first minute of the game. Ipswich get a bit of a long-ball tag, which is fair but it also isn’t all of how they play and Mick McCarthy tends to take those claims personally. It doesn’t really matter when you’re staring at automatic promotion as things stand – whatever’s working.
Up Next: I’s a festive season double header, away to third placed Brentford (2am Dec 27) then home to mid-table Charlton (8.45am Dec 31) (NZT)
Ryan Thomas – PEC Zwolle (Dutch Eredivisie)
Zwolle enter the Christmas break (the next Dutch games aren’t until mid-January) in fourth place and a Europa League spot, despite falling to Cambuur in their final game. A 1-0 half time lead and a relatively harmless opposition attack to that point had Zwolle looking good for the win but Cambuur picked it up in the second. Sander van de Streek cancelled out Thomas Lam’s opener, before the game got pretty feisty with each team searching for a winner to finish the year off in style. 5 yellow cards were dished out in the final 17 minutes and so it wasn’t a surprise to see this game decided from the penalty spot - Erik Bakker converting in the 88th minute to snatch the points for the home team.
Ryan Thomas sat that game out, after playing 75 minutes in the midweek as Zwolle kept their KNVB Cup defence alive into the quarter finals. Thomas was one of the stars in that historic final late last season, where Zwolle destroyed giants Ajax 5-0 to win the first ever trophy in the club’s existence. The All White winger scored a double in that game.
An early Tomas Necid goal was the only thing to separate Zwolle from second division VVV-Venlo, who battled extremely hard and had the chances to snatch the game, or at least equalise, only for Zwolle to cling to the tight win. Thomas played 75 minutes before being replaced.
Last year’s finalists Ajax were again bundled out of that competition in embarrassing circumstances, getting pumped 4-0 at home to Vitesse. No doubt Zwolle will have their eyes on a repeat when things get back underway in the New Years.
And a happy 20th birthday to Mr Thomas for Saturday too!
Up Next: A well-earned break.