Flying Kiwis – October 3
Chris Wood – Burnley (English Premier League)
Seems now like Woody’s a regular for the Clarets. Another ninety without a goal means he’s officially in a drought by his recent standards but, coincidence or not, Burnley have also only conceded one goal in the 390 Premier League minutes that he’s played for them. The Woodsman has started the last four PL games straight and that includes back to back clean sheets lately. It’s been a remarkable start to the season for Burnley, alright.
This time it was Everton who felt the wrath. The Toffees were at home but they’ve also been struggling for form despite a hugely impressive summer. Yet here they were with only two wins in the league. Fixtures weren’t kind to them – they’ve already lost to Chelsea, Spurs and Man United, meaning this was their chance to strike back… yeah, that’s not what happened.
Burney won 1-0 thanks to a Jeff Hendrick goal in the 21st minute. Chris Wood didn’t score it and he didn’t assist it and perhaps that makes it look like a game in which he didn’t do a whole lot but this is the Premier League and those margins are so much slimmer now. Wood was crucially involved in the goal, a 24-pass move that stunned the Toffees and probably stunned a few people thinking that a team like Burnley and a player like Chris Wood are incompatible with that kinda footy.
Jeff Hendrick: “We get branded with being a long ball team and there will be times like that but we always pass and move, penetrate and create something. People have branded us with one style of playing but I think we’re slowly proving them wrong and showing we can score all sorts of goals.”
Everton had their chances. Gylfi Sigurdsson and Oumar Niasse both had disappointing finishes early on while Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s pace was a bit of an issue for the Burnley back four. That was about their only issue though, they defended fantastically after those couple early scares – Nick Pope in goal included. Then Burnley scored and you could blatantly see which team was the more confident. Wayne Rooney came on, same story. One or two scary moments with shouts for handballs but Burnley held on for a famous win – their first at Goodison Park since 1976 and with eight points in their unbeaten away start that’s already one more than they took in all last season!
Woody got up for a strong header in the build-up for the goal. He also struck a nice move together with Robbie Brady that earned the Irishman a shot at the near post. Only two shots for Wood, one on target, but he won an incredible 12 aerial duels in this contest (up against former Burnley defender Michael Keane too) and while the task on the day called for lots of tricky hold up stuff, trying to link in players, meaning that he did lose possession a few times, you could also see the combinations growing between him and the likes of Hendrick, Brady and Scott Arfield – which is very promising.
Lancashire Telegraph Player Ratings: Chris Wood 8 - Did really well to offer the Clarets an out ball down the channels and kept the ball alive in build-up to goal.
Football365: “The arrival of Chris Wood from Leeds to play the lone frontman has also had a significant effect. When he signed, I assumed he was just another Turf Moor homage to the days of George Beel. But he’s much more than a mere revival act. He combines Ashley Barnes’ movement with Sam Vokes’ skills, and while that won’t win you the Ballon d’Or, it makes for a perfectly serviceable Premier League number nine. Big Dunc was on the touchline at Goodison on Sunday, and may very well have nodded his head once or twice.”
Still one or two things to work on, of course. This from The Independent:
“There came a fierce audible reprimand from first team coach Tony Loughlan for Chris Wood when the powerful centre forward did not stretch to intercept a slightly loose pass from James Tarkowski, the centre back. It meant the next time the chance came for Wood to win the ball, he lunged into a challenge with Jack Cork. Cork was in heap but back on his feet seconds later, ready to receive possession. Kick-off was still 20 minutes away.”
Up Next: All Whites on Friday night then back to take on West Ham at 3.00am on the 15th… a Flying Kiwis Premier League Derby! (NZT)
Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)
Winnie’s melee inciting against Spurs might have gotten his club in some trouble, the FA formally charged both clubs for not controlling their players properly. Haha, nice one Winston. This particular game it wasn’t the other players he was looking out for… it was the fans. Some bugger jumped the barriers at the end but Winston gave him the compassionate treatment rather than what he tried to give Fernando Llorente last week.
Reid’s not the problem for the Hammers. Neither is Jose Fonte, who is finding his feet at CB alongside him. Even Joe Hart’s not the problem, as well protected as he is. The problem is everyone in front of them. Against Swansea, West Ham were imperious at the back, albeit versus a team that barely scores any goals either, without being able to muster anything at the other end. They were booed off the pitch at the break, such was their boredom.
Other than a couple Andy Carroll chances the fans had to wait until the last few minutes for things to get desperate enough for anything to happen. They’d booed even louder when Chicharito was subbed off but right at the end Arthur Masuaku’s delicious cross was turned in at the far post by Diafra Sakho – both subs combining to justify their manager after all. A hugely unconvincing but hugely crucial 1-0 win for West Ham.
WHUFC.com: “Reid was at his consistent, physically-dominating best, making a team-high 14 clearances – twice as many as Swansea leader Alfie Mawson’s seven.”
And best of all he came out of it with no new or lingering injuries which means he’ll be available for the All Whites vs Japan in a few days. Been close to a year since he last played for New Zealand thanks to those pesky injuries of his.
GO ON WINSTON, TAKE HIM!
Up Next: Exact same as Woody, since you ask
Clayton Lewis – Scunthorpe FC (English League One)
It’s been a bit of a wait for Clayton to join the pro circuit, having done the trial rounds plenty of times, but the wait is no longer as he’s signed on up with Scunthorpe in the English third tier. According to reports he had offers from Germany, Russia and Sweden but he says he preferred the way Scunthorpe were doing things and that’d make sense after a few of the other trials he’s had at similar standard clubs. Gotta do what’s best for the career... and Lewis is still only twenty years old.
Scunthorpe are a team that’s only occasionally found themselves as high as the Championship in the past and they’re trending back upwards at the moment. They’ve a good mix of players with a lot of club experience and also plenty of young players trying to establish themselves and Lewis oughta fit right into that. It’s especially nice ahead of the All Whites’ upcoming schedule what with his getting dropped for fitness reasons for the Solomon fixtures. That more or less comes down to playing amateur football – he’s not played a competitive game since the Confederations Cup. Lewis wasn’t selected for the Japan friendly but that’s more down to the timing of completing this deal.
Scunthorpe have only lost twice this season, the second coming away to Shrewsbury on the weekend as they spurned a bunch of chances in a 2-0 away defeat. Before that they’d only conceded once in their last six games. Goals have been more of a worry and hopefully Lewis can help with all that. Paddy Madden is their main striker but winger Josh Morris and American midfielder Duane Holmes have scored as many goals so far (four each in all comps). The Shrewsbury defeat knocks them back to seventh and out of the promotion playoff spots (early days yet). 11 games played, 11 goals scored, 5 goals conceded in League One play.
They’re managed by Graham Alexander, who got a specific shout out in Lewis’ quotes about the deal. Alexander played 40 times for Scotland and over 1000 times as a professional – with a single season in the Premier League for Burnley late in his career. His only yellow card for Scotland came in a 2003 match against New Zealand and he’s been in charge of Scunthorpe since March 2016.
Graham Alexander: “He is someone we have been tracking and speaking to since the summer. It has just been a case of getting everything in place. The deal was done quite a while ago but there was an awful lot of red tape to get through in terms of his visa, work permit and so forth.”
A lot of red tape meaning his work visa and international clearance which has left Clayton training with Auckland City during their preseason trying to stay up to scratch physically – which given his situation with Anthony Hudson a few weeks ago might mean it takes him a few weeks to get up with the pace of it all in England.
Graham Alexander: “He is a little bit of an unknown but he has played at a good level, playing international football against good opposition over the summer. We were impressed with what we saw and we were itching to get him over here to get him into the swing of things. It seems like ages ago since I spoke to him in between his games in the Confederations Cup. He was eager to get over here so I understand his frustrations over having to wait around for things to get cleared up but we know these things take time.”
Lewis would be the third kiwi-born player to take the field for Scunthorpe, after David Mulligan and Rory Fallon. Jason Batty was also on the books but never made an appearance.
Up Next: EFL Trophy at 7.45am on Wednesday if he’s ready… (NZT)
Ryan Thomas – PEC Zwolle (Dutch Eredivisie)
The one thing Thommos’s stellar season so far was missing was a goal and luckily this chap knows a thing or two about dramatic timing. Not quite like his mate Younes Mokhtar but still. Ritsu Doan had given Groningen the lead after quarter of an hour but Stef Nijland was able to tie things back up with an easy tap in from a rebounded shot. That was the case at HT but Tom van Weert was awarded a second goal for the visitors with his header apparently crossing the line.
No worries though, five minutes later Ryan Thomas went bang.
That’s him off the mark now but with the game there for the winning for each team (Gronginen were absolutely worth their two leads), the players instead got feisty towards each other which led to an epidemic of yellow cards in the last ten minutes – culminating in a straight red for van Weerta after he crunched Dirk Marcellis. Oh and then Mokhtar scored an injury time winner for the PECers. How about it?
Naturally Thommo’s performance also featured a variety of clinical and creative passing (his pass success was 90.9%, aka ‘Top Notch’) and a couple ball-winning tackles too. He’s eighth in the entire league for passes this season. Plus you’d best start the countdown because seven rounds in there are 52 players left who haven’t missed a minute of action and Thomas is right there amongst them.
By the way, right now… and there’s a long, long way to go… both Zwolle and Heerenveen are putting together seasons that might challenge for European footy next season.
Up Next: A bit of Feyenoord vs PEC but not until after the All Whites play
Abby Erceg – North Carolina Courage (American National Women’s Soccer League)
It was all about Abby this week and it will be for the rest of the NWSL season. The Boston Breakers lost 4-3 in their final game of the season but that happened with Rosie White out suspended. The Seattle Reign were eliminated from the playoffs and Rebekah Stott was an unused sub in their final game, a 3-2 win over Washington Spirit. Katie Bowen was left on the bench for FC Kansas City too although she at least got on for the last 25 minutes of a 1-1 draw against Houston Dash.
So that’s the season over for three of the lasses while for Erceg it’s about to get serious. The Courage played twice this week, two chances for the win that’d secure top spot on the league table heading into the semis. Turns out they weren’t gonna need two chances.
Also turned out that Erceg wasn’t gonna get two chances, or else she might have added a goal of the season contender. Regardless, despite an intense start by the Dash, Sam Mewis put NCC up in the 13th minute and despite Erceg’s shot missing by an inch or two they were able to pad that lead before HT thanks to Lynn Williams – both really slick individual goals too. Debinha added a third soon after the break and Ashley Hatch finished it off with a few minutes left. The 4-0 win meant top spot on the table and it also meant a record 12th clean sheet for 2017. Alright.
They had another game too, against Orlando Pride. With nothing left to play for this was a banana peel game for the Courage while the Pride were out to jump from fourth to third on the ladder. Which has plenty of relevance for NCC – if the Pride won then they’d be playing Portland instead of North Carolina themselves. Portland who beat Chicago to allow Orlando the chance to rise a spot. And, ah… Orlando went up 2-0 early in the second half.
The Courage had been awarded the NWSL Shield before kickoff for their first place antics and they showed a bit of that champion spirit to fight back to level things up through a Lynn Williams double. However Alanna Kennedy scored a direct free kick in stoppage time for the Orlando winner. Pretty stink ending for NCC’s biggest home crowd of the season but then it’s next week that counts anyway. North Carolina Courage vs Chicago Red Stars. Get at it.
If you read Flying Kiwis regularly (smack an ad!) then you probably already know that Katie Bowen is definitely the most fun of all the folks featured in FKs. Sorry Winston, but nobody draws more laughs per minute than KB. And with the season drawing to a close, there just happened to be a couple more classic moments to share…
Up Next: NCC vs Chicago Red Stars, 8.30am on Monday (NZT)
Stefan Marinovic, Deklan Wynne, Myer Bevan & Francis de Vries – Vancouver Whitecaps (American Major League Soccer)
This was the game that Stefan Marinovic has been waiting for to stake his claim at that starting gig. He’s been a regular in match day squads but his ratio of bench sitting to goal keeping was at 9:2 before he got his third start against Sporting Kansas City… who had James Musa on the bench. Didn’t play but at least he was there.
Vancouver had already played once late last week, a disappointing 3-0 defeat to Seattle Sounders in which they made five changes and got smashed. That tightened the pack right up at the top of the Western Conference and thus Sporting and VW were playing for top spot. Lots on the line… yet the busy schedule meant the Whitecaps made another seven changes – including being without Tony Tchani who’d been sent off against Seattle and Cristian Techera who was back in his homeland Uruguay for the birth of his son. So definitely something of a B team then.
Not for Sporting KC, who immediately went on the attack and bowled through that midfield all game. Marinovic got off easy when Seth Sinovic hit a volley wide after someone had left him open at the far post but a few minutes later some truly shambolic defending from Kendall Waston gave away a foul which the VAR confirmed had occurred inside the box and Big Stef was up trying to save a spottie inside ten mins. He went the right way but couldn’t get a hand on it… only to see it rock back off the post. Phew.
SKC had 75% of possession in the first half, this was not a close game. The heavily rotated VW team struggled against a team with title pretentions and the shots kept on coming. It was only four minutes after the penalty miss that Marinovic was forced to pull this stunner off…
Incredibly Erik Hurtado scored for Vancouver shortly after half time. A goal as much against the run of play as you’re likely to see and it came at exactly the right time to galvanise the Whitecaps with something to defend now. Graham Zusi beat Marinovic with a great free kick but it smacked the crossbar. This save wasn’t half bad either...
More saves, more escapes. The VeeDubs now began to sneak the odd counter attack in and they maybe shoulda doubled the score once or twice. Dunno what Yordy Reyna was doing not to just shoot when he got free against a keeper well off his line but he hesitated and ended up drawing a foul… and a red card for Zusi who tripped him to deny the goal scoring oppo. Christian Bolanos also got a red, for VW this time, for an elbow in a tackle which looked harsh on replay but it helped take the spice outta the clock for a stunning 1-0 smash and grab victory.
Eighty Six Forever: “We need to see more of the New Zealand international to be sure but Saturday could have been a real statement of Marinovic as he potentially could be set to take over the number one kit next season. Marinovic put in an Ousted-like performance, making Save of the Week candidate stops on at least two occasions. As Ousted ages, we may shift from having a Great Dane to a Great Kiwi in goal.”
Stefan Marinovic: “The first 20 minutes, we were swimming a little bit. We were having a little trouble dealing. We changed up our formation to deal with it and we dealt with it much better. We got off a little bit easy when the penalty hit the post, but the rest, that’s just what we do, we defend well.”
That’s a playoff spot clinched now with three games to go, by the way. Marinovic will miss their next game as he heads off on a ten hour plane trip with a couple other All Whitecaps – though he probably wouldn’t have played anyway. Still, he’s earning a reputation in the right way.
As for the ressies, they lost again. To Bill Tuiloma and the Portland Timbers. Francis de Vries was left on the bench while Myer Bevan and Deklan Wynne both started, having said that Bevan was subbed off in the 66th min. Both those teams suck and this was a scrap between the two bottom teams in the conference which the Timbers 2 took out with a 1-0 win. Victor Arboleda scored the only goal. Just two games left for them now and Wynne and Bevan will miss the next one for All Whites duty.
Hey and while nobody is ever likely to claim Katie Bowen’s most entertaining off the pitch crown, Stef’s making a decent go at it lately with some of his promo work. He even went baking this week.
Up Next: NY Red Bulls vs VW, 10.00am on Sunday (NZT)
Marco Rojas – sc Heerenveen (Dutch Eredivisie)
Only the one change for Heerenveen as they hosted Ajax… Arber Zeneli was out injured and in came Marco Rojas to start. Yes boy, a first Eredivisie for the Kiwi Messi. And, honestly… it didn’t go too well. Unbeaten Heerenveen were humbled by the reigning champs to the tune of a 4-0 defeat. David Neres scored twice while Lasse Schone and Maximilian Wober adding the others.
It wasn’t as one sided as it sounds but once Ajax took the lead late in the first half they quickly added a second and Heerenveen just couldn’t seem to take their opportunities. Kobayashi forced a good save. Van de Beek hit the crossbar. Heerenveen lost 4-0. Meanwhile Rojas touched the ball 13 times in an hour before he was replaced so hardly the ideal starting league debut – he barely impacted the game at all. He’ll get a few more chances to shine though: Zeneli has a broken foot and is unlikely to be back within a month.
Up Next: International duty before the Eredivisie resumes for Heerenveen away to Utrecht at 7.45am on the 15th (NZT)
Jeremy Brockie – SuperSport United (South African Premier Soccer League)
There are gonna be a few catch up PSL games to be played later in the season because SSU’s Confederation Cup run has taken them all the way to the semi-finals. Only barely, granted. Thuso Phala scored the decisive away goal in the 90th minute of the second leg against ZESCO United in the quarters to get them as far as they’ve gotten.
The Pretorians will have their work cut out for them in the second leg after only narrowly managing a 1-1 draw at home to Club Africain. It coulda been a lot better but Brockie was one of a few players to miss early shots at goal and it didn’t get any better when he missed the target with a close range header in the second half. By then the team from Tunisia was already 1-0 thanks to a handball in the box by Morgan Gould (it was… controversial) which Saber Khalifa buried.
Things were getting mighty nervous until a penalty of their own was awarded with only a couple minutes left and Thabo Mnyamane put it away for the draw. Beats losing, at least, but they’ll have to score in Tunisia now if they’re gonna take it to the big final. That second leg is in three weeks.
Up Next: 18 October at 6.30a away to Bidvest Wits (NZT)
Jake Gleeson & Bill Tuiloma – Portland Timbers (American Major League Soccer)
Defeat to San Jose means Portland’s hopes of a top two finish, skipping the first round of the playoffs, is well up in the air. They’re one of three teams tied on 47 points and not only do they have the worst goal difference of the trio but they’ve also played two more games than Sporting KC. But that doesn’t mean a lot while Gleeson is sitting on the bench (he’s already won the MLS title once while sitting on the bench) and Tuiloma is playing reserves.
So that’s that. Tuiloma played twice for the T2 side, however. Tui is still technically a first team member, he trains with them and everything, but the firsties are doing so well these days that it ain’t an easy XI to crack and so for the meantime he’s probably better playing as regularly as possible rather than sitting on the bench. All these T2 appearance have got him back in the All Whites after all.
Like in the game against Phoenix Rising FC (what kinda team gives themselves a verb for a nickname?). Tui’s team may have lost 2-0 but he was heavily involved. Almost set up a goal when he picked out Michael Amick with a header. Another time he went up for a header and got flipped, which left him needing some treatment. See, here’s the proof…
Shaun Wright-Phillips had already put the Rising ahead in the eighth minute – yes, that Shaun Wright-Phillips – but they wouldn’t score the killer second until the last ten minutes and even then Portland were still creating. Tuiloma in particular. He was surprisingly involved on attack from central defence. A menace from set pieces and danger from distance. At one point with about ten minutes left he stepped up outta defence and smashed a low one at goal from distance. The keeper saved it well.
Then they conceded the second almost straight away. Gutted. Tuiloma nearly salvaged one for the highlight resume in the 89th minute when he ripped at a hazardous free kick and, tell you what, that sucker was going in until the keeper got a diving hand to it. The bastard…
His performance against the All Whitecaps was less notable but it did result in a rare win, so that’s pleasant. They were due a lucky win eventually and time is fast running out in the season.
Also shout out to Kip Colvey who got 78 minutes in for Reno 1868 as they lost 3-0 to Real Monarchs, the top team in the Western Conference. Unlike the rest of the kiwis in the USL, with the exception of James Musa when he’s around, Reno and Colvey will actually make the playoffs – this was Kip’s ninth start for them this season, having sat on the bench for San Jose in four MLS games.
Up Next: Portland vs DC United, 9.00am on Monday Oct 16 (NZT)
C.J. Bott - USV Jena & Amber Hearn – FC Koln (German Frauen-Bundesliga)
Erm, not a great week here for either Footy Fern. Cool to see Bott getting a full game at left back against Frankfurt but Kumi Yokoyama’s goal late in the first half condemned Jena to a 1-0 defeat. At least they only conceded once after leaking 11 goals in three games before that but that still leaves them without a win so far. Consecutive starts for Botty at her new club, if nothing else.
And the news there was better than what Amber Hearn had to put up with for Koln. Up against Freiberg at home they were left stunned as Lina Magull scored twice in three minutes and then Klara Buhl added another three minutes later to have the home side down 3-0 inside 32 rotations of the old analogue clock. Then it got worse. One of those days where playing striker is no damn fun at all – Buhl ended up with a hatty in a 7-0 result. Bloody hell.
Up Next: Jena are away to SGS Essen while Koln host Hoffenheim – both could use a damn win
Michael Boxall – Minnesota United (American Major League Soccer)
Kinda crazy that Mike Boxall is the guy playing most regularly in the MLS these days. Shows how much things can change over a season, don’t it? He’s on a new team still trying to figure things out at this level so can’t really say he’s hit top form yet but as soon as he went into that starting XI he did enough to make himself a regular.
Minny played away to Houston Dynamo on the weekend, a team still trying to force a way into the playoffs. You could tell from watching it. Houston were thoroughly on top from the start and it was only some lazy shooting that cost them from hitting the net before they eventually did. Not a fun night… although it did mean lots of defending.
That they held out until Alberth Elis’ 69th minute header from a brilliant deep cross from Vicente Sanchez was a minor miracle in itself. Romell Quioto killed it off with five minutes to go although Sam Nicholson did pull one back in injury time to make it 2-1 with a sharp curling finish. That was only Minnesota’s second shot on target and while they had comfortably more possession, they had less than half as many shots as their opponents. Ah well, four more games to go. Boxall blocked a couple of shots for his troubles but he also got booked.
MU Coach Adrian Heath: “I didn't think we were very good this evening. I thought we had a lack of energy all over the field, lack of desire to win the game. It's another timely reminder for me that we're not good enough and we need to get better and the offseason can't come quickly enough for me in terms of trying to shake this roster up, because that wasn't acceptable for me tonight.”
Up Next: Away to Atlanta United at midday on Wednesday (NZT)
Monty Patterson – Ipswich Town (English Championship)
Eh, can’t have ‘em all go your way but the more goals he scores for the U23s the sooner The Python will get his chance with the first team in a Championship match. Already had that one showing in the League Cup off the bench and with some of their injuries lately he can’t be all that far off. Patterson’s already a regular at international level, after all. As for Tommy Smith? Pencil in a return after the international window though probably not straight into the game squad. Ipswich just lost 3-1 at home to Bristol City so the sooner they can get back to full strength the better.
Up Next: All Whites & the international break
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