Flying Kiwis – March 1
Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)
Slaven Bilic said last week that he was hopeful that Winston would take part against Sunderland, a sentiment echoed by the West Ham Head of Medical and Sports Science Stijn Vandenbroucke. Here’s what he had to say midway through last week:
“Diafra Sakho, Winston Reid and Andy Carroll are all back in training and will now spend the next few days building up their fitness. Diafra has obviously been out for three months and will need a bit more time, while Andy and Winston will hope to play some part in the games that we have got coming up next week.”
As it happens, the Sunderland game was a step too far and Reid wasn’t included in the match day squad. Sparing him a reunion with Big Sam, which maybe wasn’t a bad thing. Allardyce said some weird things about Reid’s contract situation last year (like alleging he’d illegally agreed a deal with another team in January) and it’s probably fair to say that Winston wasn’t too upset when Slaven Bilic came in. Although he was more generous than that when asked about it on the WHU website:
“He teaches you to defend how a defender should do – I know that sounds a bit stupid, but it’s true! In that sense, he knocked good habits into me and I appreciated having him as a coach and enjoyed working with him.”
Poor old Sam though, he couldn’t catch a break against his old team. In blustery conditions, both teams still tried to play around with long balls, making the early stages pretty difficult to watch. But Michail Antonio broke it open in the 30th minute when he pounced on a Patrick Van Aanholt mistake and then pounced again on second invitation as the fullback let him waltz on into the Sunderland penalty area. Shot goes hard across the keeper and into the far post, 1-0.
But Sunderland picked their game up in the second half. In fact they fair dominated it. West Ham may have had one great chance, Andy Carroll coming off the bench to volley into the crossbar, but Sunderland had several. Jermaine Defoe with a couple efforts, while Jack Rodwell had two golden chances that he thoroughly wasted. And after orchestrating their win over Man United last game, Whabi Khazri's set pieces were just awful in the wind. Something of a let off for West Ham as they claimed a 1-0 win that briefly had them up to fifth on the table.
Up Next: WHU vs Spurs at 8.45am Thursday (NZT)
Chris Wood – Leeds United (English Championship)
There were two games for Leeds this week but poor old Woody has to wait until Monday night (which is today in NZ if you’re reading this as it comes out, google the result for spoilers) for his lads’ second one, meaning it’s missed this deadline. Guts bro.
Anyway, Woody still isn’t back so he won't be playing that game. They also drew 1-1 with Fulham in a game in which Leeds claimed a decent point but once again struggled in front of goal. To be fair it hasn’t been that much better when Woody plays but at least he’s a target. Speaking of targets, he was maybe a chance for the Brighton game but after getting rushed back and re-injured last time he was hurt Steve Evans isn’t about to take any chances. Instead they’re aiming for next week’s game against Bolton should everything stay on track.
Evans had a fair bit to say about Wood this week though. Some weird words but also some incredibly generous ones as well:
“With Chris Wood, his body is a temple. But we have made it more lean, more mean and more keen. We have looked at the best stats of his career, what kind of weight ratio he had then and all that stuff and the big man has bought into it.
The performances will be the judge but I’m just saying people will see him leaner and more meaner and I mean meaner in terms of power and performance. Everyone inside the training camp and the training centre here at Thorp Arch sees it on a daily basis, how much sharper he is looking, how much better he is looking.”
It’s all sounding pretty positive for an imminent return not only to the pitch but to goal-scoring magnificence:
“He has worked so hard, the fitness team deserve all the credit and none more so than big Chris himself. He’s put the hours in and he now looks like the footballer I want Chris Wood to be. Now we just need to make sure he’s 100 per cent.”
Up Next: Tuesday 8.45am at Brighton (NZT)
Tommy Smith – Ipswich Town (English Championship)
There are 13 games remaining in the Championship for Ipswich and they’re 4 points out of the playoffs right now. 13 from automatic promotion. They’re more than in line for a late run at things and all it’ll take is a good run of results.
Ipswich played twice over the last seven days, a pair of 1-0 results – one good and one bad. The first was a midweek home match against an in-form Hull City. Not the best time to catch them but Ipswich are usually a decent team at home and they fancied themselves. Hull were coming off that 0-0 draw with Arsenal in the FA Cup, though they made nine changes to that team (which included a few reserves).
Smithy got himself involved early, granted not exactly in a good way. He hauled down Abel Hernandez to keep the striker from a one on one situation ten minutes in and somehow escaped a yellow for it. The break had come from his own poor touch too, getting it stuck under his boot. From the free kick Dean Snodgrass looked to have produced the first bit of quality in the game with a curling shot but goalie Bartosz Bialkowski lopped it away. Great save. Smithy then made an important block from a Mohamed Diamé shot quarter of an hour later.
In a mostly eventless first half, Ipswich’s best chance came via a Daryl Murphy snapper off the inside of the post, while they looked like maybe they’d be able to do something off a set piece too. Yet after the break it was Hull that stepped it up. Christophe Berra was forced into a crucial block almost immediately, before Diame gave them the lead three minutes after the restart. Left back Andrew Robertson picked up the ball on the counter from a keeper’s throw and carried it all the way into the attacking third, where he slipped a ball in for Diame who cleverly took advantage of a disorganised backline to dink the ball over the keeper and into the net. Despite now playing from behind, Ipswich couldn’t hardly gather anything. Hull were able to control the game without really needing to raise their efforts. There was a late push though. Smithy, who had been booked for pulling back Chupa Akpom, was able to get to the ball from a corner at the far post but there were too many bodies around him and he couldn’t keep it under the bar. It finished a disappointing 0-1.
With that Ipswich had taken four points from the last 18 available. Kinda terrible given their hopes and expectations and so they desperately needed to arrest the slide somehow. Cue a trip to Huddersfield Town.
Early stages and Hudders were all over them. A quick start and they had Town on the ropes, Smithy dodging a bullet again in the first quarter of a game, this time losing his balance trying to keep up with Nahki Wells getting onto a long ball over the top, tumbling over him but Wells was already through… only to mishit his shot straight at the keeper. Shoulda scored. That was the way it was going but then all of a sudden, 19 minutes played, and Ipswich take an unlikely lead.
It came from Murphy somehow keeping a ball in play, hooking it back over his marker. He then picked out Fulham loanee Ben Pringle and he drove in his first goal for the club. Huddersfield were straight back on the attack trying to level but as the half dragged on their steam drifted away. Mick McCarthy had made a quick formational switch to get an extra midfielder in there and it made a big difference. There were one or two clear chances but for the most part HF were forced to shoot from deep to no real reward. It ended 1-0 for a crucial Ipswich three points.
Mick McCarthy: “It’s a huge result for us. We needed a win. We needed to stop being beaten after three on the bounce. As usual my players came up trumps when their backs were to the wall.”
Also there’s this:
Up Next: Home to Notts Forest, 4am Sunday (NZT)
Marco Rojas – FC Thun (Swiss Super League)
You know what’s a good result? Hosting the runaway leaders and getting a 1-1 draw from it. Even better from our point of view when that result involves kiwi Marco playing all 90 minutes. These were the first dropped points in the league by Basel since November – they’d won five straight games and many of them weren’t close.
As far as Marco goes, it wasn’t a very busy night. They spent a good deal of time on defence though with good reason after taking the lead less than five minute in. A searching long ball was turned in by Ridge Munsy as he showed good pace to get to the ball first and was rewarding with a solid chunk of luck, his toe poke sneaking past the keeper in a defensive misread. Thun couldn’t quite hold on ‘til half time, however. Renato Steffen slamming in a fine volley on the rise to make it 1-1.
Rojas almost had the chance to but Thun straight back in front Munsy got there ahead of him to fire narrowly wide. But hey, this one was about the defence and Thun were superb in limiting and frustrating the probably Swiss champions (who had played in the Europa League a few days earlier – a 2-1 win vs St. Étienne that got them through by away goals). Solid results that, can’t help but think they’ll take it gladly.
Up Next: FC Zuerich vs Thun at 5.45am Sunday (NZT)
Jeremy Brockie – SuperSport United (South African Premier Soccer League)
Go the Brock! Go on, son! Mate, after that lovely finish Brockie popped last week he must have found a chunk of previously undiscovered form because he responded in his next game with a hat-trick. Not bad, in fact it’s enough to take him to third on the PSL scorers list.
A 4-2 win over Jomo Cosmos it was. Enough to rise SSU up to tenth and drop Cosmos into the relegation zone. The first came from a mistake from the opposition goalie – that would be the score at the break. Dove Wome made it 2-0 after 58 mins before Brockie added his eighth of the season, getting slipped in by Thuso Phala and beating the keeper to make it 3-0. And he wasn’t done there, 69 mins and Brockie had his hatty courtesy of a close range finish. Bloody marvellous, he was subbed off in the 73rd to a nice ovation.
Jomo Cosmos hauled their way back with two late goals to sweeten the scoreline but were never making the comeback from there. Michael Boxall played the full game at the back, he was ready to make sure of that.
Up Next: Wednesday 6.30pm at home vs Mamelodi Sundowns FC (NZT)