Flying Kiwis – November 10
Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)
Finally, by the grace of the footballing gods, Winston Reid was back in the West Ham line up to face Everton on the weekend. His hip injury had kept him out far longer than expected, but he’d been back in training for two weeks and there was optimism he’d play. He did.
Reid returned for the suspended James Collins (after Collins’ horror tackle on Ighalo got him a red last week) and immediately looked like he’d ever been out. Manuel Lanzini gave the Hammers the lead on the half hour with a sumptuous chipped finish into the top corner, but Romelu Lukaku hit back 13 minutes later. Lukaku has a knack for scoring against West Ham it seems, seven games in a row with a goal vs these guys.
“I was hoping he [Lukaku] was injured but he wasn't,” Reid joked. “To be fair, we should have dealt with it a little bit better, but they're a good team.
There was controversy in the 34th when James McCarthy only picked up a yellow for an awful challenge on Dimitri Payet, somehow managing to hook two legs around him as he dove in on the Frenchman. A yellow was all from the ref, Payet hobbled on until the 50th minute when he was finally taken off and West Ham never had the same threat without him. There’s a worry that the playmaker may miss three months with an ankle injury now.
There wasn’t a whole lot that the defence did wrong for Lukaku’s goal, it was just Gerard Deulofeu threading the needle to find the big Belgian through a tiny gap between the centre backs. Incredible pass it was. There weren’t too many clean chances after that, perhaps the best one was Winston rising to head narrowly over from a corner in the second half. The game finished 1-1 which was probably fair.
“I think the fans saw two open teams that wanted to go at it and play football. We tried to get the three points but maybe we lacked a little bit of quality in the final third and I guess a point was a fair result at the end of the day.” – Winston Reid
Up Next: Tottenham vs West Ham, 5am Monday 23 (NZT)
Chris Wood – Leeds United (English Championship)
Well that’s more like it, Mr Evans. Leeds’ new boss will be sleeping much easier after back to back wins this week saw them sky rocket up to… fifteenth on the table. But more importantly it snapped them out of their funk and, finally, provided their fans with a home field victory for the first time since the start of March.
Sometimes what it takes to get over such a psychological crutch is a bit hard work. Other times it’s nothing but luck. And sometimes it is a piece of sublime skill. Leeds had at least two of those against Cardiff midweek, with Alex Mowatt’s 63rd minute screamer settling the accounts in a 1-0 win at Elland Road. It was also the first game of owner Massimo Cellini’s exile.
Steve Evans had vowed to shake things up but that threat didn’t extend to Chris Wood, who played all 90 minutes of this one. He scrapped hard in a lifeless affair that opened up a little in the second half but there really wasn’t much between the teams. Leeds shaded the shot column but Cardiff had more of the ball. Chris Wood had the chance to seal the points late on as he harried a defender off the ball and rounded the keeper but his shot hit the side netting from a tight angle, albeit with an open goal before him. It didn’t matter, Leeds held on for a cathartic victory.
And then in an early, televised kick off on the weekend, the Whites came up against rivals Huddersfield. There was an interesting call from manager Evans to leave out captain Sol Bamba in favour of the centre defensive pair that had kept Cardiff at bay while Bamba was suspended. That benching didn’t last long for Bamba though, he was on after 18 mins when Liam Cooper was taken off with a head injury that caused a significant delay in the game.
That delay would work to Leeds’ favour, in one manner of thinkinh. After withstanding a positive start from their hosts, Leeds rose to the challenge and would eventually score twice in the eight minutes of injury time allotted. The first from Mirco Antenucci, getting on the end of a low cross from Stuart Dallas after he’d worked a clever one-two with Chris Wood down the sideline. Only minutes later Antenucci was able to go beyond the keeper after finding space down the left flank and angling in on the counter. His ball back across the goal was snuffed out but it fell right to the feet of an on-rushing Chris Wood. 2-0.
That was Woody’s sixth goal of the campaign and his seventh in nine career games against Huddersfield Town. He likes playing them even more than he likes playing Japan it seems. Huddersfield came back in the second half and created several chances to get back into it but some desperate defending, solid goalkeeping and an unhealthy dose of bad luck denied them, before Mowatt came up with his second long range thunderbolt in as many games, this one even better than the last. 3-0 was the final score.
It’s not been pretty for Wood recently, personally or team-wise, but all of a sudden they seem to have turned a corner. The big fella will be stoked to have snapped a six-game streak without a goal from open play.
Up Next: Home to cellar-dwelling Rotherham, 4am Sunday the 22nd (NZT)
Tommy Smith – Ipswich Town (English Championship)
Ipswich also had themselves a couple of games and – lo and behold – they also came out of them with two victories! The dire trends are coming to an end for the English based lads. Hallelujah.
Seven games without a win had given Ipswich’s playoff chances a big hit as they’d slowly slipped down the table after a hot start. They needed a win desperately. They got it. Ipswich dismantled Bolton with a fine defensive performance, headlined by Christophe Berra (ably aided by Mr Smith) and decided by a first half goal to Ainsley Maitland-Niles and a second halfer to Brett Pitman. The defence had come good last week but this was the best the attack has looked in a while.
Bolton had started brightly but once Town got on top they didn’t let up, pressing hard and creating a number of opportunities. 2-0 was a comfortable win for a team that snapped out of a drought that had seen them only score once in five game. They had 10 shots on target.
And if you wanna see how infectious a performance like that can be, check out Tommy Cruyff here, pulling out tricks from the bag and making defenders look like chumps. What a player.
“I’ve got a headline for you – thank f*** for that! Excuse my language, I do apologise, but I think it’s appropriate.” – Mick McCarthy starts off his press conference with a bang after beating Bolton.
To be fair, Bolton are now sitting second to last on the table so this may have been a rebound game but it wasn’t a statement. There’s only one team playing worse than Bolton (especially after Charlton’s win over Sheffield Wednesday) and that team is Rotherham. Ooh and look who Ipswich had on the weekend!
Maybe the only thing that didn’t come good against Bolton was that Daryl Murphy didn’t end his goal drought. He was yet to score this season after bagging 27 last time. He scored a hat-trick against Rotherham.
It was the team’s first hatty since Connor Wickham got one in 2011, they were thoroughly comprehensive. 4-0 up after 55 minutes, Smithy even grabbing a couple of assists, both for Murphy. The first he stabbed a foot at a loose ball from a corner and inadvertently dropped it at Murph’s feet, the second a powerful header on halfway that bounced in behind the defence, allowing the Irishman to score.
Rotherham came firing back with two quality goals somewhat against the run of play but then Murphy sealed the deal with a driving volley, on the run, from the edge of the penalty area. He was rewarded with a spot in the Irish squad for their Euro 2016 qualifying playoff.
The victory wasn’t enough to get them back into the playoff spots but it’s a long season. Town are up to tenth. These were two games they always should have won but it was the performances that will have been most promising.
Hey, wouldja look at this? Just look at it:
Up Next: Hosting Wolves at 4am on Sunday 22 (NZT)
Bill Tuiloma – RC Strasbourg Alsace (French Championnat National)
Tui was missing from the RCS side as they drew 0-0 with Marseille-Consolat this week, a result that snaps their recent winning run. It was a game made easier by Myriam Hamzaoui’s first half red card, and one that they absolutely will have expected to win at home. Especially after having a marginal offside flag costing them a goal early on. And a shout for a penalty declined. And a shout for a penalty upheld but the penalty fired over the crossbar. And another penalty shout declined. And another goal disallowed for offside. And a header off the post. And a shot cleared off the line. And several other chances.
But on the plus side, that’s six games without conceding now, even if it drops them to second on the ladder.
As we said, Tui didn’t play. He’s got to grind away in training if he’s gonna earn a spot in this team, such is the way that they’re playing, but he did get himself a nice feature in La Provence, a local newspaper. In it he talks about adapting to a new team, having to fight for his place and the quality of his team and teammates. When asked about the difficulties of only having started one game for RCS so far, he replied:
“No, no, it's fine. I think I played well when I did start. In addition, we won. I was happy, it felt good because obviously, I want to play more. But I have to work in training to win my place.”
Up Next: A French Cup tie with Sochaux away on the 16th at 8.45am (NZT)
Ryan Thomas – PEC Zwolle (Dutch Eredivisie)
Zwolle were on the utter brink of a fourth consecutive loss on the weekend. A decent start, highlighted by a top save to deny Lars Veldwijk, was undone by a mistake at the back by Thomas Lam in getting dispossessed in the box after some initially hesitant defending, not clearing the ball when he had the chance to. 1-0 to Heracles.
Thommo had a chance to level it after 67 mins, holding off a marker on the turn to fire across the goal, but it seemed they were headed for another defeat, right up until the 94th minute of the game when Stef Nijland drove in a fantastic equaliser to salvage a point and a 1-1 draw. Far from vintage but still a positive as they enter the international break.
Up Next: Roda JC vs PEC Zwolle, 6.30am on Sunday 22 (NZT)
Jake Gleeson - Portland Timbers (Major League Soccer)
Gleeson hasn’t started a regular season game for the Timbers since 2011. He spent last season on loan at Sacramento Republic FC (where he conceded less than a goal a game in 17 matches) and spent most of this season with the Timbers’ lower division second team. But when regular number one, 22-game Ghanaian international Adam Kwarasey, was taken ill before the first leg of their playoff Conference Semi-Final against Vancouver, it was Gleeson that got the nod.
And it was Gleeson that impressed in a 0-0 draw, keeping a crucial clean sheet at home. They might have won it too had Maximiliano Urruti kept his late effort inside the post instead of straight into it. Gleeson had a relatively comfortable time of it, making three saves, but he won a lot of people over by having the guts to walk into a playoff game as a late inclusion and show the composure that he did. Very cool.
Gleeson was back on the bench for the away leg, which Portland won 2-0 thanks to goals from Fanendo Adi and Diego Chara (who had missed the first leg). That puts them through to the Conference Finals where they’ll play FC Dallas in a couple weeks, once the international break’s over.
Here’s a story about Gleeson’s lower league experience in America helping him prepare for this moment. Warning: It contains several Americanisms.
Up Next: 1.30pm, Monday 23 – Portland vs Dallas (NZT)
Dan Keat - Falkenbergs FF (Swedish Allsvenskan)
Generally this column is limited to the fellas at the highest levels but every now and then there's a wildcard entry. Dan Keat is such a bloke this week, on account of an absolute screamer that he slammed away for Falkenberg in the top Swedish division this week.
The Falkers haven't been travelling all that flash at all, finishing third to last and having to play a two-legged playoff to salvage their top-tier status (the Swedish league runs over a different calendar since winter play is pretty impossible there). A 2-2 draw away to Sirius got them a couple valuable away goals but when they fell behind in the return leg they were staring hard at relegation. Until this moment:
That was with 56 minutes played and the side held on for the 1-1 draw that kept them afloat thanks to the old favourite away goals rule. Keat's had a mixed season, going from a regular over the past couple seasons to having to be content with a spot on the bench for most of this one. He didn't play in the first leg of the playoff, though if you notice closely he actually got to wear the captain's armband in the second.
"It's always frustrating to sit on the bench, especially when you're not used to it. But I knew that my chance would come sooner or later. Even if it wasn't until the last game!" - Dan Keat
Incredibly, this was the second year in a row in which a rare Keat goal has avoided relegation for Falkenberg, though this one was a little more dramatic.
Up Next: Well, that depends on how good his agent is. This was actually the last game of Keat's contract.