Flying Kiwis – August 11
Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)
You could be forgiven for getting pessimistic about West Ham’s season a few days back. Many were. Knocked out of the Europa League while fielding a second string XI, manager Slaven Bilic has been dealing with the fallout of that all week. Winston Reid and the entire first team (barring Carl Jenkinson, who couldn’t play his parent club Arsenal) sat out the trip to Romania. That looked like a fair gamble when Manuel Lanzini put them ahead early on but they eventually succumbed 2-1 to Astra Giurgiu and tumbled on out of Europe.
To be honest, they threw it away in the first leg when they blew a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2. The away loss was just a matter of going through the motions. It’s not that anybody at the club was happy with the exit but they won’t be crying in their beers either. West Ham only snuck in on their Fair Play record and their squad was clearly too stretched to make a serious run in the competition. Maybe a competitive group stage showing was possible? That’ll just have to be filed in the ‘Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda’ folder.
As far as resting dudes for the Premier League went, however, it was a masterstroke. West Ham travelled across town to the Emirates Stadium to face Arsenal, fresh off their Community Shield win, and they did so with their best possible available team (minus Jenkinson). Reid partnered Angelo Ogbonna at the back, Dimitri Payet started in an attacking midfield role, while 16 year old Reece Oxford was surprisingly included for his PL debut.
Reid was almost punished a dozen minutes in when a poor clearance landed bang on the end of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s foot at the edge of the penalty area, only for his volley to fly past the frame of the goal. That was about all Winnie did wrong all day. He was confident and assured, he organised the back four and supplied the platform for their midfield to assert themselves all over the Gunners. Cheikh Kouyate had a monster game. Young Oxford too, he specifically mentioned the encouragement he got from his centre backs and he looked far from out of place despite his age.
It was Kouyate who opened the scoring, heading home from the edge of the box as Payet curled in a lovely ball from a deep free kick. Petr Cech came rushing out to meet a very high Arsenal defensive line, only to leave his goal wide open, and he couldn’t meet the ball before the Hammers’ midfielder did. That was in the 43rd minute. In the 57th it was 2-0 as Mauro Zarate crept up on a loose ball and slammed his shot low into the goal past a wrong-footed Cech. Two opportunistic goals, but ones that came on the back of a supreme team performance. Not even the introductions of Theo Walcott and Alexi Sanchez could claw Arsenal back into the game (though they got a whole lot more urgent with them around). 2-0 it finished and suddenly Bilic doesn’t look so careless.
There was widespread praise for how Winnie played too. The best he’s looked in ages, no signs of any injury doubts (he was only ever precautionary in preseason). He blocked three goal-bound shots, more than any other player on the park, as he threw himself about, picking off loose passes and calming things down in possession. Fantastic start to the season for him.
Up Next: Hanging out at home for a game with Leicester City, 2am Sunday (NZT)
Chris Wood – Leeds United (English Championship)
It wouldn’t be unfair to say that Chris Wood was a little rusty for Leeds in his competitive debut. Last season was a stop and start one for a few different reasons. But he got the start with his new team and he features to be one of their main attacking weapons this term.
First up, Wood’s Leeds hosted recently-relegated Burnley. In front of a great crowd, poised for the early kickoff, Leeds were fully up for the challenge. They attacked early on and Wood was in the thick of it all in his usual indomitable fashion. Within 10 minutes he’d mishit an acrobatic volley (which fellow new signing Stuart Dallas was denied a goal on the rebound of thanks to an incredible save by Tom Heaton). His best chance of the game was probably the one he blasted first time over the crossbar on the run in the second half. Still, there was a fair bit to like about what he did and plenty of promise for what could be to come.
Leeds thought they’d stolen it with seven minutes to play when Mirco Antenucci scored a beauty of a left-footed curler off the bench, however Burnley hit straight back with a fine header from Sam Vokes, the score finishing 1-1.
Up Next: Away to Doncaster in the League Cup midweek (Fri 6.45am) then away to Reading three days later (Mon 2am) (NZT)
Tommy Smith – Ipswich Town (English Championship)
It’s a new look Ipswich team in many ways but they’ve still got a few of the same old faces. And lo and behold, come game one of the Championship, there was Tommy Smith lining up at centre-back.
They played Brentford away, putting in a pretty fantastic first 90 minutes of football to start their season… it’s just a shame about the rest of the game. Two stoppage time goals cost them the lead and meant the Tractor Boys had to settle for a 2-2 draw and a single point to open the new campaign.
Kevin Bru had given Ipswich the lead right before the break with an airborne effort from around 8 yards out, with Ryan Fraser bookending the half time oranges with a goal soon after the restart. It was a game that never seemed to hint at the drama that it would end in. Ipswich sat back as they tend to do but counter attacked with a real threat. If it weren’t for the Brentford keeper (David Button) then this result would have been in the books as a convincing Ipswich win. There were good performances from Arsenal loanee Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who was full of trickery and pace, as well as goal-scorer Fraser and 17 year old debutant right back Josh Emmanuel.
Tommy Smith made at least one crucial tackle to prevent a shot, while also getting down with a game-high 15 defensive clearances. But he’ll be fuming at the way that he lost his man for the first Brentford goal, as well as the shambles that was the 95th minute corner from which the equaliser came. The keeper was up and everything.
Up Next: A midweek league cup tie at home to Stevenage before hosting Sheffield Wednesday in the league on Sunday (NZT)
Bill Tuiloma – Olympique de Marseille (French Ligue 1)
There’s good, bad, expected and shockingly unexpected news with Billy and Marseille this week. The expected is that he didn’t play. The good is that he was on the bench. The bad is that they lost 1-0 away at home to Caen. The Marseille reserves start their season next week, so it will be interesting to see which group Tui is more involved with, based on this opening weekend selection it looks like he’s got a decent shot at a few more senior showings in the near future.
Oh, and the shockingly unexpected news? Well, their manager resigned. Marcelo Bielsa walking away after just a single game in 2015-16, citing an unacceptable “situation of instability”. He had actually just agreed on a contract extension within the last couple weeks after a summer of speculation (he was linked to West Ham and Leicester City, among others). This followed a pretty terrible transfer window that saw them lose several key players (Andre Ayew had a great debut for Swansea against Chelsea). Bielsa leaves after less than 16 months in charge, but his work last season – they were challenging for the title at the midway point – had already made him a hero. Needless to say the board are quite pissed.
"I am, of course, like all supporters of OM, stunned by the sudden decision of Marcelo Bielsa." - Marseille president Vincent Labrune
Bielsa announced his decision at the post match press conference, reading from a seemingly prepared statement (though he managed to squeeze in how there were no excuses for losing a game in which his team had 70% possession and most of the chances). Apparently he told the media before he’d even told his unsuspecting players. No wonder they call him El Loco.
Assistant Franck Passi will take over in the interim. A very eventful few days for a Flying Kiwi who didn’t even play.
Up Next: Midnight next Monday morning away to Reims (NZT)
Marco Rojas – FC Thun (Swiss Super League)
Thun’s disappointing start to the league season continues but so does their Europa League run. Unfortunately the two are probably related.
Ah well, so it goes. Thun’s 3-1 loss to Young Boys was pretty unremarkable from a Flying Kiwis point of view. While Rojas started, he was subbed off after 63 minutes and he didn’t do a whole lot before that (nearly stealing a back pass in the opening stages was the closest he came). But as a spectacle for the neutrals? Damn, this Bernese Derby had plenty to savour.
Like two goals conceded by Thun from tight-angled free kicks, one on the brink of half time immediately following a red card for Young Boys’ Guillaume Hoarau (dismissed for lashing out against his marker as the free kick was being set up, actually). Both were soft goals. In between them there were large periods of defence, trying to play on the counter, and one real moment of glory when Simone Rapp equalised with a towering header. But even with the man advantage in the second half, Thun couldn’t get too much going. Nicolas Schindelholz hit the post with their best chance, before the game was sealed with a runaway third for the home team.
But a few days earlier there was plenty of glory to go around. Thun travelled to Liechtenstein to play FC Vaduz after their 0-0 home leg in Europa qualifying. They needed some kind of positive result after that first game and things looked dire when they fell behind after half an hour as Moreno Costanzo got in behind the defensive line to finish. Yet, only a few minutes later, up popped Marco Rojas to tie things with an all-important away goal. Just a tap in but they all count the same.
A score-draw would be enough for Thun to go through on away goals. However they then went and conceded once more to go into the break down 2-1, despite probably having the better of the stanza, a direct free kick from Markus Neumayr rippling the top corner of the net. That made the second half a tight affair with each team knowing exactly what they needed to do.
It was Thun that went and did it. Roman Buess levelled the game up as he sprinted onto a flicked-on header and stabbed a shot past the keeper to flip the tie 180. Now it was Thun holding on to advance and by the skin of their fingers they managed to do it. The European dream lives on.
As for the next round, the final round of qualifying? Well, Thun have drawn Sparta Prague, who now have the chance to establish themselves as the bane of the Flying Kiwis after they knocked Ryan Thomas’ PEC Zwolle side out of this competition at the same round last season. The first leg will be in the Czech Republic on the 21st of August (NZT – a Friday).
Up Next: The fixtures don’t get any easier, there’s a 5.45am start on Thursday away to Basel before they welcome Vaduz back to town at 11.45pm Sunday (NZT)
Jeremy Brockie & Michael Boxall – SuperSport United (South African Premier Soccer League)
Before beginning their regular season, SuperSport had a MTN8 Cup* quarter final away to Bidvest Wits to deal with first. Both Jeremy Brockie and Michael Boxall were in the team.
SuperSport couldn’t have started worse as they fell behind in the third minute, Bidvest passing all around their defence before Sibusiso Vilakazi finally scored. That early deficit was almost doubled in the 11th minute but Dane Klate couldn’t hit the target.
SuperSport came back and Boxall nearly equalised with a header that went narrowly over after half an hour, then in the second half it was his compatriot who finally did make it 1-1. Brockie could hardly miss from Dove Wome’s cross, he gets his first goal of the season. But try as they might, neither team could finish the game off within 90 minutes (though each of them managed a red card in that time).
Sadly, in extra time the home side ran away with it. First a diving header by Klate and then Henrico Botes driving in from outside the box with enough time and space to make a cup of tea before he struck it. Wonderful finish all the same. Brockie had a late free kick palmed away and there was no recovering. 3-1 it finished. Boxall picked up a yellow, both kiwis played all 120 mins.
*The MTN 8 is the oldest tournament in South African football, it’s played between the top eight finishers in the previous league season.
Up Next: Kicking off their league season against Orlando Pirates, 5.30am (NZT)