Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)

Three weeks out from the World Cup qualifying playoffs, it seems like every game involving a New Zealand or Peru player has taken on this extra context now. That context being a simple one: DON’T GET HURT!

Winnie didn’t quite follow that mantra, although not as badly as certain others. Before he clashed heads at the end of things though there was the majority of a terrible performance from West Ham to digest. They hosted Brighton & Hove Albion, a team they certainly expected to beat, yet after getting rushed early on they conceded a stupid goal from a long free kick in to the box – Winston losing his man Glenn Murray, sad to say – to go behind after ten minutes.

The Hammers then turned it on in terms of possession and whatever but they couldn’t barely make a thing happen with all that ball thanks to their one-dimensional attack. Brighton sat deep and defended valiantly before scoring on the brink of HT through Jose Izuierdo, who was allowed to cut in and shoot too easily (not Winnie’s fault this time, at least) with Joe Hart’s attempted save only tipping the ball further into the corner. They were booed off the park when the first half ended and the second wasn’t much better.

Winston did get a few shots off, two of them in fact. Both were him getting up for corners… of which nothing came in the end. Then Pablo Zabaleta gave away a dumb penalty and the game dribbled away to a 3-0 defeat. Could say they were booed again at the final whistle except it seemed like most home fans had already left by then. Here’s a thing from elsewhere in the great tome that is The Niche Cache exploring a few tactical issues with Slaven Bilic’s team.

Oh yeah and Winston Reid hurt his head. It was in the 89th minute, Reid came rushing forward on a defensive clearance towards Izzy Brown and they clashed heads. Winston went down clutching his and the ref called a halt to the game so they could each get treatment. Most of the TV coverage at the time was all about the pressure on Bilic rather than the injuries sustained so you knew it was nothing serious. Brown had to change his shirt after spilling a bit of blood on it while Reid looked uncomfortable as he walked to the sideline but came straight back in as soon as the ref allowed him. Probably popped a couple panadols that night but otherwise no dramas.

The bigger worry was that he played a bit crap… though you could say that about everyone on that West Ham team on this occasion so no reason to single out their stand-in captain.

Awkward too because this is what he said after drawing with Burnley last week:

Winston Reid: “We would have liked to have kept another clean sheet, but it didn’t quite pan out that way. We will look to bounce back next week, we have a game against Brighton on Friday night and we have to win that game.”

Have to… but you didn’t. Slaven Bilic has been given a few more games to save his job now, apparently.

Up Next: Away to Spurs in the League Cup at 8.00am on Thursday then away to Crystal Palace on Sunday at 3.00am (NZT)

Chris Wood – Burnley (English Premier League)

The Clarets were absolutely abysmal away from home last season but somehow they’d flipped the script with an unbeaten away start to the season. That was always likely to come to an end against this incredible Manchester City team but at least it wasn’t without it’s dramas. Here’s a rare description of a Burnley attack…

Lancashire Telegraph: “City were bossing the early stages as the Clarets struggled for a kick, but on 15 minutes they had the first real opening as Chris Wood fought gamely to make something of Jack Cork’s long clearance, out-muscling Kyle Walker and getting past Nicolas Otamendi only for Ederson to just beat the Kiwi striker to the ball.”

Yeah… the only problem with that, other than that Woody didn’t score, was that he also bloody hurt himself. You could see it as he stretched for the ball while Ederson was sliding out. Even as the game briefly continued, with Scott Arfield fouling Ederson, Wood seemed to wheel off to the side in discomfort. He got some treatment and carried on for a couple more minutes before slumping to the ground on halfway and he was swiftly replaced.

Obvious All Whites implications there, although with a couple more weeks until that first Peru game there’s time for him to recover and the replacement definitely looked at least partially precautionary. He probably had those playoffs in mind thinking: “I can’t risk this”. Whatever it was, he walked off under his own control.

Not so long after that City figured things out and began threatening with those silky passes in behind the defence and the rapid but deliberate movements and all that. Nick Pope had to make a nice save from Bernard Silva’s shot and then soon enough he did the same diving at Kevin de Bruyne’s feet. Except the game continued and as Pope went in at Bernardo again, the Portuguese playmaker (remember when he scored against the All Whites at the Confederations Cup?) went down in a heap. Controversial to say the least as there wasn’t much contact. But Sergio Aguero buried the penalty to become the tied-top goal scorer in Man City history. He almost went top on his own but Pope made a nice save with his foot before the break.

Burnley had a couple half chances, sure. And they defender pretty well as they have all season. But it was all over once Nic Otamendi headed in from a corner with 17 minutes left. Then Leroy Sane finished off a beautiful move - including a pass of the season contender from Kevin De Bruyne – and it ended 0-0. Burnley had 22% of possession and had 0 shots on target.

Lancashire Telegraph: “The loss of Chris Wood after just 20 minutes against City certainly didn’t help Burnley’s chances of troubling the scorers. The New Zealand striker had already marked his threat, battling against Kyle Walker and Nicolas Otamendi to come away with the ball before Ederson averted the danger. That would prove to be his last action. Wood can lead the line expertly. He’s no slouch when he gets going and the runs he makes to try and give the Clarets an out ball are clever. After he departed Ashley Barnes battled away, but he couldn’t offer the same threat in behind and Burnley’s attacking edge was blunted.”

Sean Dyche (on the penalty): “The problem is with the game at the moment, there is contact. But if I contacted my kid in the garden, you know you mess around and you trip him up, I’d be amazed if he got that high off the floor. It’s a skill in itself I find now.”

Here’s a blast from the past:

Up Next: 9.00am on Tuesday at home to Newcastle (NZT)

Jeremy Brockie – SuperSport United (South African Premier Soccer League)

Holler at a taste of that spicy bit of news. The dream lives on! SuperSport had made things tough for themselves by drawing the home leg of the Confederation Cup semis which meant they had to go to Tunisia and get a result if they were to compete for the trophy. Club Africain vs SuperSport then, here we go…

That away goal deficit? It only lasted 15 minutes before Thuso Phala set up Bradley Grobler who thumped his header into the net and while there were a couple nervous moments that followed, Jeremy Brockie was able to bust in behind the defence early in the second half and you know what he does in cup games: he scores. Which is what he did.

Times Live: “United retained the lead until half-time and doubled it eight minutes into the second half when leading Confederation Cup scorer Jeremy Brockie notched his 10th goal of the campaign. The recently off-form New Zealander timed his dart forward perfectly to spring an offside trap and steer the ball wide of goalkeeper Atef Dekhili.”

Africain pulled one back from the penalty spot very soon afterwards and Brockie was replaced after an hour. Five minutes later Grobler scored his second to make it 3-1 and it was gonna take three goals in 25 minutes from the home team to advance. SSU killed it off from there to win the tie and confirm a place in the final, where they’ll play Congo’s TP Mazembe – a club they played twice already in the group stages, drawing both times.

Up Next: SuperSport Utd vs Golden Arrows at 6.30am on Wednesday

Ryan Thomas – PEC Zwolle (Dutch Eredivisie)

It doesn’t look like there’s any ending to the fantastic start to the season that the PECers have made, in fact they’re starting to seem like the real deal. Their latest trick was in travelling to NAC Breda and then travelling back with a 2-0 victory.

NAC are well established around the European spots too, they’re no mugs. Hence it was a pretty entertaining game which might not have had the clear cut chances but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Eventually it was a bit of a fluke that broke it open. Menno Koch had the ball in the NAC penalty area, turning away towards the sideline, when Mustafa Saymak rushed him on the high press, stealing the ball away and then going down under (very minimal) contact to win the penalty. Bram van Polen slotted it.

The second half then began with Thommo, who is still yet to miss a minutes in the league season, picking up his first yellow card of the campaign, the naughty boy. It then ended with Saymak adding a deserved second goal with eight minutes left. Poor bugger had already hit the post once, he definitely deserved it. The win put Zwolle all the way up to second on the ladder before the rest of the fixtures were completed!

John van’t Schip: “If you are realistic, nobody would have ever expected that after nine games that PEC Zwolle would be second in the Eredivisie. We deserve to be where we are at the moment. There is a lot of confidence in the squad and the players have a lot of belief too. We created chances tonight and played well on the counter attack. I also believe that we could have scored more goals tonight and we deserved our victory. Everybody has come together and we have had a good start. We were even strong in pre-season. There is a good atmosphere in the squad and we keep looking to improve.”

Up Next: Sunday at 7.45am vs ADO Den Haag (NZT)

Marco Rojas – sc Heerenveen (Dutch Eredivisie)

On the positive, Rojas seems to be first choice now after easing his way on into the XI for the third straight time. On the negative, those three games have all been defeats and that streak has spoiled the great start to things that they’d made prior. So… maybe he won’t be in the starting XI for long.

Marco Rojas to Leeuwarder Courant: “It was a hugely frustrating match.”

To be fair, that publication also singled out Rojas as “the only one in the first half who was somewhat dangerous after a beautiful individual action”. At least it wasn’t his fault then. They were much more scathing of Martin Odegaard, the Real Madrid loanee. That’s because at home against Vitesse they got absolutely spanked.

Milot Rashica scored first after a failed defensive clearance in the 17th minute. Bryan Linssen added another before HT. Navarone Foor made it three in the 50th and then Tim Matavz completed the scoring in the 72nd minute. A 4-0 defeat. Quite embarrassing. Rojas was subbed off in the 77th minute so that Nemanja Mihajlovic, who signed for SCH in the same week as Marco, could have a run around. It means that Heery have now conceded 11 goals and scored only one in their last three games. It’s gonna be hard to fix that against AZ next weekend, although they do have a KNCB Cup game against Willem II (the last team they beat) in between then and now.

Up Next: Heerenveen vs AZ Alkmaar at 4.45am on Monday (NZT)

Tommy Smith & Monty Patterson – Ipswich Town (English Championship)

Smithy’s been working his way back for a few months now and he’s even had a couple goes alongside Monty Python Patterson in the under-23s although that wasn’t an option this week. Neither was a stint on the bench for the seniors as they lost 1-0 to Norwich in the derby. Probably best to dodge that bullet then, even if it did mean back spasms ahead of the intercontinental games.

Speaking of the U23s: “…It was Town who went in front as Kiwi international, Patterson confidently slotted home a through ball by Shane McLoughlin to give his side the lead at the break.”

Sweet as. Patterson scored the first goal in a 2-1 win over QPR although his strike was comfortably overshadowed by what ended up being the winner. Scored by a damn Aussie too. Ben Folami.

To be fair, that was one helluva goal!

Up Next: Away to Burton at 3.00am on Sunday (NZT)

Stefan Marinovic – Vancouver Whitecaps (American Major League Soccer)

Another one of those good news/bad news situations over here. The Vancouver Whitecaps lost their last game… but they still made the playoffs! But they dropped out of the top two, meaning they miss out on a bye first up. Stefan Marinovic got picked ahead of David Ousted, meaning he’s basically confirmed as their new number one! But there’s drama about that too, hmm…

Oh, sorry. No drama then, jeez. Marinovic didn’t help his cause with a less than flattering showing against the Portland Timbers in their final game but it’s not really about him, it’s more about benching a favourite player and long term servant of the club without hardly a nod or a wink. Ousted has been anticipated to leave at the end of the year from the moment Marinovic was signed but getting pushed aside on the verge of the playoffs has been labelled harsh by a lot of fans. Hard not to see their point of view either.

And these goddamn Timbers fans don’t bloody help. Considering Jake Gleeson’s been benched there too, watching another one from the stands here, they oughta know better.

Them chants were in response to the first goal that Portland scored. A shot came in from Darlington Nagbe which Mari parried but right into the path of Liam Ridgewell. It wasn’t a bad shot but it was one he maybe could’ve held… or at least gotten a heavier hand onto to keep it away from the poachers. He doesn’t make many mistakes (which the Whitecaps fans will come to learn soon enough) but no goalie is ever perfect. Oops.

Vancouver had already taken the lead before that. Lovely curling cross from Yordy Reyna on the free kick and Kendall Waston headed it in. That’d be Peruvian international Yordy Reyna for all y’all scoring at home. That lead only lasted three minutes before Ridgewell’s goal, although a draw still would’ve gotten them second place ahead of the Timbers.

Problem was barely two mins after HT some crap defence on the edge of the box allowed Sebastien Blanco to feed a wide open Vytautas Andriuskevicius (say it five times fast) in the box. Marinovic rushed out to close him down with the rest of his defence in the spin cycle but the ball was cut back past him and Darren Mattocks buried it. Maybe he could have gone more aggressively at the ball… but that could also be a penalty waiting to happen. So it goes.

The Timbers had 60% of the ball and more than twice as many shots so they were good value for it in Portland. Stefan made a couple easier saves to keep it at 2-1 while his team pushed for the leveller. He even got to go up for a late corner but it never happened, a 2-1 defeat and the Caps end up third in the conference.

The Province: “Robinson, as it happens, left himself wide open to second-guessing when he opted to start Marinovic in goal over David Ousted, the Whitecaps starting goalie for the last four years. You couldn’t pin this one on the New Zealander but he could have done better on Ridgewell’s goal when he failed to parry Darlington Nagbe’s shot to safety.”

Up Next: Knockout footy, at home to San Jose at 3.30pm on Thursday (NZT)

Emma Rolston – Sydney FC (Australian W-League)

With all the major women’s leagues off with an international window this week – one which the Footy Ferns aren’t taking part in – there’s very little oestrogen involved in Flying Kiwis this week. At least we have this though, great news outta Aussie where kiwi youth international Emma Rolston has put ink on paper to play for Sydney FC in the upcoming W-League season. Rolston is a two-time U20 World Cup attendee and won the 2016 Knockout Cup with Forrest Hill Milford.

Last year’s edition saw Melbourne City claim the championship which meant a medal for the mantle for Rebekah Stott before she headed off for the Seattle Reign’s 2017 season in America. Meanwhile the Julie Dolan Medal winner for the player of the season last time, Sam Kerr, went on to win the MVP in the American NWSL this year so don’t doubt the standard of competition either (Kerr will be back with Perth this season). Kirsty Yallop also played a bit for Melbourne Victory as an injury replacement player in 2016-17.

Up Next: Season kicks off this weekend, Sydney host Brisbane at 7.20pm on Friday (NZT)

Clayton Lewis – Scunthorpe United (English League One)

That’s just so you know that Clayton’s getting close to playing. He was on the bench as they drew 1-1 with Fleetwood Town and then again a few days later for the 2-1 win over Peterborough which puts Scunthorpe back up to eighth on the ladder. Unused on both occasions but it means he’s been cleared to play and hopefully it’s only a matter of time from now.

Up Next: Away to Oldham at 3.00am on Saturday (NZT)

Michael Boxall – Minnesota United (American Major League Soccer)

It’s season over for Boxy, sorry to say. Boxall only signed with Minnesota United in July but he didn’t waste much time in becoming a regular for the new expansion MLS side. He played every minutes of the 12 games he was available for (there was All Whites duty in there too), perhaps sliding under the radar a little but it was always gonna be a thankless task on a new franchise.

• MU with Boxall: 4 W | 1 D | 7 L | 18 GF | 25 GA | -7 GD | 13 PTS
• MU without Boxall: 6 W | 5 D | 11 L | 29 GF | 45 GA | -16 GD | 23 PTS

Those stats are pretty even thanks to a win while Boxall was with New Zealand and then a couple bad losses to end things. His contract situation’s slightly unclear but supposing he’s back in 2018 then the first thing they’ll wanna work on is all those goals they concede. Boxall was only a part of one clean sheet and while results were better with him for the most part, they never stopped leaking the odd goal – as well as the periodic thrashing’s they’d get, like the 3-0 and 4-0 defeats Boxall experienced within his first three games. In the end their 70 goals conceded were the worst in the MLS regular season, although they did manage to finish ninth out of the eleven Western Conference teams, thanks largely to the goals of Christian Ramirez and Ghanaian rookie Abu Danladi.

Michael Boxall: “I think since I’ve been here, I wasn’t too sure what I was coming into, and I think coming into it, there’s a lot of talent in this room. I love playing under Adrian [Heath]. He gets us going the right way, and any time where we failed on the pitch, it’s because us players haven’t done the job or haven’t shown up. So I think over the offseason, we need to take a massive look at ourselves and just do everything we have to do to show everyone that we want to be here, and we want to do something next year.”

To complete the campaign they travelled to San Jose to play Kip Colvey’s Earthquakes, a team that knew they had to win to make the playoffs. They did win too… although Colvey wasn’t involved. However Mike Boxall was and he was left fuming after he missed his attempted header from Florian Jungwirth’s long ball and then turned to see his mate Francisco Calvo standing way too square before then getting beaten to the ball by Danny Hoeson, who ran through and put San Jose in front.

But Jerome Thiesson equalised in the 36th minute with a screamer off his left peg from the edge of the box. Don’t expect to hear his name again next season, the coach banned him from talking to the media afterwards, claiming to be “fed up” with him. Better get a loan for Deklan Wynne going then, aye? Boxall almost cost them that goal, btw.

E Pluribus Loonum: “Just before the goal, a no-call by the referee towards Michael Boxall on Hoesen was taken into question on whether or not the goal should have counted. Both players fell after going up for a header, and Boxall seemed to pat/grab Hoesen’s hair. Despite pleas from the players and San Jose’s announcers, the goal stood.”

Chris Wondolowski put San Jose back in front in the 55th with a tap in at the far post. Boxall was inches from sliding in to block the cross but he couldn’t quite get there. Fast forward to ten minutes left and Calvo made amends for his earlier error with a headed goal to tie things up. Would’ve eliminated San Jose… but two mins into stoppage time Marco Urena whacked in the winner from close range after Wondo had kept it alive from Quincy Amarikwa’s shot. Boxall got a heavy toe on it too but not enough to fully block it. Bloody hell, game of inches.

Up Next: Well there is that All Whites game…

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