Flying Kiwis – February 10
Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)
Welcome back, New Zealand’s premier football-based player update article named Flying Kiwis is back from a brief summer hiatus, in which the All White lads were mostly pretty busy but catching up on lost time would take all week and there are other deadlines to hit, sorry. So let’s get right back into the weekly swing of things.
Last time we spoke Winston had just gotten himself back in contention after an injury layoff. He was on the bench watching as the Hammers fell 2-1 to Newcastle but then returned to the starting XI with West Ham hosting Manchester City and the chance to do the double over them for the first time in bloody ages. That didn’t happen, Sergio Agüero twice cancelled out Enner Valencia goals in a thrilling game that ended 2-2. Winston played all 90 and Sam Byram had a promising debut, coming on after only 13 minutes at fullback and looking decent. Why him? Well he made the switch from Chris Wood to Winston Reid when he transferred to West Ham from Leeds in January.
That game was followed by a 0-0 draw at Anfield (three games and no defeats against Liverpool so far this season) in the FA Cup. Granted, Liverpool played a weakened team while WHU did not (though Winnie wore the captain’s armband), Winston having a quality game. 13 clearances he made, no other player on either team had more than 6 and that was a big reason why the Hammers were able to repel a LFC team that had far more chances in the game. They’ll play the replay at Upton Park… say, right about now. As you’re reading this. We’ll drop an update in when that’s over (8.45am Wednesday – it’s on ESPN). The winner plays away at Blackburn in the fifth round.
UPDATE: They won! It took 120 minutes but they finally got there with an injury-time of extra-time winner to Angelo Ogbonna. Sadly Winnie went off with a hamstring worry after 63 mins, keep an eye on our twitter and to next week's FK for more on that.
Following that were a couple of Premier League games in the space of four days. Home to Aston Villa and then away to Southampton. Forget the Villa game, they’re abysmal and as soon as Jordan Ayew got himself sent off for reacting wildly to Aaron Cresswell in the 17th minute it felt like a done deal. Michail Antonio scored in the 58th, Cheikhou Kouyaté settled it with five mins to play. An assured but untroubled performance from Reid. The stats were immense but mostly because Villa had zero threat.
Then they travelled to Southampton. The Saints have been resurgent lately and both teams should have designs on European qualification. Before we start, here’s a Shoot.co.uk head to head between Virgil Van Dyk (who’s been brilliant for Soton this season since joining from Celtic) and our lad in question.
Unfortunately this one didn’t go the way that Winnie would have wanted. An early Mayo Yoshida goal was the difference in a 1-0 Southampton win, though West Ham were not without their chances. From whufc.com:
“Forster had no such luxury after 28 minutes. Dimitri Payet’s free-kick was met by a glancing Winston Reid header and Forster reacted smartly to foil the New Zealander. Alex Song tried to send the rebound goalward but there were too many bodies between him and goal. Reid had another go from a Payet corner but his header, from a tight angle, cleared the crossbar.”
Gutted bro. A straight red for Victor Wanyama after 53 minutes for an ugly challenge on Dimitri Payet gave WHU the numerical advantage but they couldn’t make it count in the score. Not ideal but the Hammers do stay in sixth.
And then there were some less pertinent scoops in a few of the less determined news outlets:
Up Next: Away to Norwich, 4am Sunday (NZT)
Chris Wood – Leeds United (English Championship)
Woody? Nope, haven’t seen him recently. Well, that’s not entirely true, he did make one appearance. But after returning to the starting team from a near month-long absence, Wood lasted only 18 minutes before having to be replaced with a new injury.
He went off with a hammy twinge after scoring against Derby in a 2-2 draw late in December and would miss the next four games: a 1-1- draw with MK Dons, a 2-0 FA Cup win over Rotherham, a 2-1 loss away to Ipswich and a 2-0 loss away to Sheffield United. There had been criticism his way (fair enough) for his poor finishing but without his presence up front the Whites seemed to really struggle. Wood was back for the 1-0 win over Bristol City, coming on in the 54th minute and setting up the winner (holding off a defender to drop the ball at Souleymane Doukara’s feet, efficient if not pretty – see below), though the following game saw him leave early with a new, but not directly related, hamstring worry. The hope now is that he’ll be good for the Watford tie in the FA Cup in a few weeks.
Liam Bridcutt (from HITC): “He (Wood) comes on, he gives you that bit of extra,” the 26-year-old told BBC Radio Leeds. “He holds on the ball well, and when he came on, he changed the game for us.”
Steve Evans: “He was out with his hamstring for five or six games after Christmas and then we got him back in good shape. It’s now a different muscle in the hamstring that has got a little strain. The prognosis is a couple of weeks from now. It could be a little more but that’s really down to the healing of the body.”
In Wood’s absence they’ve seen their way past Bolton in the Cup but haven’t otherwise won a game. The most recent loss to Nottingham Forest probably ends any chance they had of making the playoffs and with a few months left to play. Forest sat back and defended for most of the game and then scored with a hint of offside. Leeds just couldn’t break them down. They got the ball into the box and there was nobody there or the finishing was crap.
Steve Evans: "I think we had a good tempo in stages, but we found it difficult, especially in the last ten minutes, to get through them. That's when you need a special player and with Chris out, we're limited with what we've got.”
If Woody’s on pace with his recovery then he may only miss one more game.
Up Next: Home to Middlesbrough, Tuesday 8.45am (NZT)
Tommy Smith – Ipswich Town (English Championship)
A bit of up and a bit of down and the Tractor Boys have slipped back to seventh, out of the playoff spots. Only a win from catching an in-form Sheffield Wednesday team or a woefully out of form Derby team that just sacked their manager.
Ipswich played twice this week, beginning with a midweek battle with Reading. A slack first half was pretty boring, Ipswich had the better of it but nothing clear cut. They made a step up after the half though. It paid off before the hour mark when they finally took the lead, Ryan Fraser spinning and shooting low into the bottom corner. Meanwhile Tommy Smith at the back was having to do the odd bit of work, forcing dudes off the ball and blocking shots. 66 mins in and he had a go at the other end, thumping a header straight at the keeper. But then a brainfade from midfielder Cole Skuse. Sucked across the penalty box by Hal Robson-Kanu, he went sliding in for no reason and conceded a needless penalty, Garath McCleary got Reading back level from the spot. It appeared that Town were gonna let themselves down with a couple dropped points, but then Luke Varney found some space down the side and Brett Pitman’s late run into the box was timed exactly to stab that ball in off the post, two late subs combining for an even later winner in the 89th minute.
Mick McCarthy: “I think me and TC (assistant Terry Connor) made more noise than the crowd tonight with our barking and shouting and growling!”
That got them back up to sixth but a loss to Queens Park Rangers sent them out again.
Tommy Smith: “It’s not a bad thing, obviously, to score late winners but it keeps the punters guessing and that’s probably not so good for their hearts.”
Problem is those words got through to the wrong team. It took a series of stops from GK Bartosz Bialkowski to keep Town in it after a brutal first half but they grew into it as it went along. By the final ten minutes of the game it seemed they might even grab another late goal. A perfect rope-a-dope… except that the 88th minute goal went the wrong way. Matty Phillips with the header at the far post, 1-0 to QPR. There was still time for Ipswich to maybe salvage an equaliser but volleys from Freddie Sears were saved, as was an overhead kick from the corner of the six yard box from Smithy.
We also have a reason for the ‘personal reasons’ that saw him withdrawn from the All Whites last game:
“At the time I didn’t want to say, but my family were over from New Zealand and I proposed to my girlfriend (Leanne). I’d had that planned for ages, but I didn’t want to say that was the case until it happened. She said yes after some gentle persuasion! The wedding is booked for June 2017.”
Hey man, congrats to the happy couple! Also, Smith is also a religious yoga exponent, apparently:
“I’ve been doing it for a number of years now and it started initially when I had an ankle injury back in 2008 or 2009. I wanted to make sure I kept the flexibility going and I’ve carried it on ever since then. It’s something I do every week, religiously, now.”
That’s all from a lil Q&A that he did for the media before the QPR game. East Anglian daily Times got the run on that one, read up here on Smith talking about his hopes for a new contract, thoughts on a Testimonial, and his declaration of availability for the Oceania Nations Cup.
Up Next: Bristol City vs Ipswich at 4am Sunday (NZT)
Marco Rojas – FC Thun (Swiss Super League)
The Swiss league goes on hiatus longer than most, what with it being Switzerland and all. So Marco Rojas had a long time to recover from the injury that ended his 2015 and recover he did. Rojas featured in several winter friendlies, scoring against Lechia Gdańsk and getting that ankle good to go once more.
As such, he was on the bench for Thun’s first game after the break. That’s about where he usually was, beginning as a regular starter but falling to the bench more often as the season progressed. Not always the most influential player, plus Thun got into a domestic hole with their heavy Europa League commitments early on.
Away to St. Gallen, this was a mid-table battle. Thun threatened early on as Simone Rapp made himself a nuisance. However as it progressed it was StG that began to dominate. Guillaume Faivre, Thun’s keeper, had himself a fine first half but he had no chance on 35 minute when Daniel Aleksic rose high from a corner to head the home team in front. That’s the way it stayed into HT.
At half time, it was decided that changes need be made by manager Jeff Saibene and the Kiwi Messi got the call. Not huge fans of that nickname but Frodo hasn’t stuck yet. Anyway, Marco replaced Enrico Schirinzi. A few minutes later it was level thanks to Roman Beuss. It was that dude Simone Rapp who set it up, taking it all the way to the line and pulling it back for the finish.
Twice Rojas had great chances to put Thun in front. First was a ball cut low across the goal by Gonzalo Zarate which Marco couldn’t quite reach. That was about an hour in. With only three minutes left in the ninety he could have had himself an important goal but he sliced his shot over the bar. Frustrating.
Hey but it didn’t matter. Late on and a Sandro Weiser free kick was whipped in and deflected into the net and Thun had themselves a 94th minute winner. Own goal too, rough.
Up Next: Thun vs Lugano, Saturday 5.45am (NZT)
Bill Tuiloma – RC Strasbourg Alsace (French Championnat National)
The winter break came at a good time for Strasbourg, just as they were starting to slump. Since they returned it’s been golden and they’re back clear on top of the table after four good results. Two home wins and two away draws, without a goal conceded in any of them. That’s pretty outstanding.
Although maybe not for Bill Tuiloma, who hasn’t been able to get on the park for any of these games. He was on the bench for three of them, sitting out the most recent game (0-0 at Les Herbiers) altogether. He did get 90 minutes in for the RCS reserves the week before last though, which is pretty handy given he’s played a total of 167 minutes of first team football this season (excluding the All Whites – whom he was dropped by for being out of match fitness).
It’s not like he’s in exile, he’s sat on the bench on 10 occasions. But with Felipe Saad (arguably the leader of their defence) out with suspension for a yellow card too many, it was Yoann Salmier that was called up to replace him and Salmier edged Tui off the bench for that last game which pushed RCS to 488 minutes without conceding. Meanwhile the reserve game that Tui played in? A 5-0 loss. He missed a chunk of December with an ankle injury and now he’s left in the morally precarious position of hoping for something similar for those dudes ahead of him.
Here he is striking a pose with the lads:
Up Next: Saturday at 8.30am vs Sedan (NZT)
Ryan Thomas – PEC Zwolle (Dutch Eredivisie)
Not much to say on Thommo, he’s recently undergone knee surgery and will probably miss the next 4-6 weeks. Maybe two months. He hasn’t played since late in November. It had been hoped that time would do its thing and heal the knee on its own but that hasn’t been the case and instead he’s had to go under the knife. Technical Director Gerard Nijkamp played down the severity of the operation: "He can still play football this season anyway."
Without him Zwolle have failed to win any of their last four games having won 5-2 against Heerenveen in their first game of 2016. Losses to Utrecht (1-0), Groningen (3-1) and most recently Heracles (2-0) with a 1-1 draw at Vitesse in between dropping them down to tenth on the table. That’s five points out of the Europa League playoffs, sounds like they need their kiwi winger back. Unfortunately that ain’t happening for a while.
Also, Ryan’s lost his Aussie buddy Trent Sainsbury, who has ade the switch to Chinese club Jiangsu Suning F.C. Heard of them? Yeah, they’ve been in the news recently, this is the team that bought Ramires and Alex Teixera.
Up Next: vs Feyenoord at 2.30am on Monday (NZT)