Abby Erceg – North Carolina Courage (American National Women’s Soccer League)

Leading your sports news tonight… Abby Erceg is one game away from captaining successive NWSL championship teams. She’s already helped lead them to the Supporters’ Shield for topping the regular season table and now the Courage will take on Portland Thorns on Sunday trying to become the first team in this incarnation of the NWSL to win both the Shield and the Championship in the same season.

Backed by a record number of clean sheets, Erceg and American international Abby Dahlkemper have been at the heart of a campaign that began with four straight wins which sent them straight to the top of the table – a position they never left. 2016 MVP Lynn Williams scored nine times to lead the attack and Sam Mewis is on the five-player shortlist for this year’s MVP. It’s been a fantastic effort… but that success comes with expectations and the Chicago Red Stars weren’t gonna be an easy obstacle in the semis – they’d beaten NCC in all three clashes this season.

3-1, 3-2 and 2-1 defeats to Chicago showed a pretty glaring trend. The Courage only conceded 22 goals in 24 games across the entire season and eight of those goals came in three games against the one team. Had to do something about Christen Press and Julie Ertz and all them. Well, that’s Abby’s job after all…

How about keeping the Red Stars to just one shot on target all game then? Yeah, that oughta do it. Which is not to say that they didn’t have their troubles but Katelyn Rowland made a couple nice saves and the rest of the defence did what they had to do.

Still gotta score that goal to win it. A few early nerves meant that NCC spent the early moments on defence and other than a counter attack or two it took a while to really get going. This was a massively important game after all, seasons were on the line. The Courage took over towards the end of that half and almost, aaalmost took the lead thanks to their kiwi centre back. Hovering at the far post with the downwards header but Katie Naughton denied her.

Poor Chicago, they’ve now lost three semi-finals in a row. Last season they went to extra-time against Washington Spirit and this time it looked like we were headed for extras again… until Denise O’Sullivan smashed in the winner in the 89th minute. Took a deflection off of Ertz to beat the keeper but the strike was too powerful to be denied. Absolute drama… and fitting that it came from a corner when NCC has been so good on set pieces all term. They almost ended up in extra-time anyway but Sam Mewis was able to head a late chance off the line to preserve the clean sheet and advance the Courage into the title game.

Where they’ll play Portland who won 4-1 against Orlando Pride in the earlier semi so that one’s gonna be a toughie.

Up Next: El Grand Final, 9.30am on Sunday (NZT)

Chris Wood – Burnley vs Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)

The international window means there isn’t a lot to go on for Flying Kiwis this week but Abby Erceg’s playoffs appearance means it’d be a crime not to put one out there. Luckily even without too many games there’s still plenty going on – like the small matter of the biggest Flying Kiwis Derby of all time, for prime example. Just Chris Wood vs Winston Reid is all, not only going head to head but the lads are gonna be marking each other and everything!

Winston Reid: “I've been joking that I'm going to kick him on the flight back home”

Chris Wood: “I've played with Winnie for a number of years now and he's a very good player, but they have 10 other great players in their starting lineup when it does get round to it, but we're not focusing on that just yet. We're looking to get a result come Friday. It's all geared for New Zealand. There's nothing about clubs at the moment, once we get past this game and have a positive reaction to it, then we can look forward to that sort of encounter.”

Shout out to the Dominion Post for them quotes… a shame we’re not talking about two more, erm, personality driven athletes though. Still, if you get a joke out of Winnie then you’re doing your job well. Neither of them are paid to say interesting things anyway.

This is going to be a famous game. Although Winston and Ryan Nelsen did overlap in the Premier League, Reid was an unused sub the first time he played Nelly and didn’t make the squad for the return fixture. Nelsen actually scored in the first one. West Ham were relegated that season so Reid spent a year in the Championship establishing himself and once they got back up Nelsen had moved from Blackburn to Spurs and then to QPR.

Which is where we come to the legendary day of 1 October 2012 when Queens Park Rangers hosted West Ham at Loftus Road. Ryan Nelsen started for the home side, Winston Reid started for the away side, who won 2-1 thanks to goals from Matt Jarvis and Ricardo Vaz Te. Only problem was Winston went off injured in the 23rd minute. They played again later in the season and this time both dudes got 90 minutes in there as the teams drew 1-1. It would be Nelsen’s second to last Premier League appearance.

Lee Norfolk and Danny Hay were the only New Zealanders in the Premier League when they made their spare appearances. Simon Elliott played 12 games in 2006 but injuries meant he never got to play against Captain Nelsen and Blackburn (although he did play ninety in a 4-0 defeat to Arsenal one time). As for Chris Wood, his three sub showings for West Brom and seven for Leicester managed to avoid Winston Reid. He did get a minute off the bench for WBA against Blackburn in 2009… but Nelsen was out injured that day.

Often FKs includes local newspaper player ratings to give an indication of how the scribes in the thick of it perceived each chap to have performed. None of that this week for Woody or Winston but here’s a thing from a couple weeks ago rating Burnley’s new signings. The Woodsman was gifted an 8/10, tied best with Jack Cork:

Yahoo/Burnley Fan View: “Wood made the perfect start to his Burnley career, coming on as a substitute to score against Spurs in the dying seconds to rescue a point. He drew a blank in one half against Blackburn but got in some dangerous positions and looked threatening all game. He proceeded to score the only goal against Crystal Palace and had a forgettable afternoon against Huddersfield.

I think the fact Wood has already dislodged Sam Vokes in our league starting eleven speaks volumes, and he definitely offers something different to Sam. His pace is much better and whilst he isn’t any bigger he is more physical in his game. He probably lacks Vokes’ technique and he could do a better job of staying onside but I think he will be a big player for us.”

Up Next: Sunday morning at 3.00am, it’s Burnley v West Ham (NZT)

Erin Nayler– Girondins Bordeaux (French Division 1 Féminine)

The French league is amongst the strongest on the old third rock and while Bordeaux isn’t quite of the same pedigree as Lyon, Nayler’s old club they’re sneakily stringing together a strong campaign. Lyon are running away with it already, scoring 28 goals in five wins while conceding only twice but Bordeaux have been good. Three wins and two defeats, the latest being a 2-0 loss to those Lyon jokers. Hey it’s the first time Lyon have been kept below five goals in a game this season. That’s a moral win… except that Emelyne Laurent scored both goals and she’s a former Bordeaux player.

Unfortunately Erin was nowhere near that game, unable to play against her former club. Having started the first four, three of them wins (with two clean sheets), she was injured for the latest one. Alizee Nadal kept goal instead, a 23 year old local with a handful of starts over the last four seasons.

Nadal performed very well in Nayler’s absence and there’s no word on how long Erin might be out for. Here’s hoping we don’t see a Jake Gleeson situation here though and fingers crossed that Nayler’s back in business soon enough.

Up Next: Bordeaux vs Rodez, 4.30am on Monday (NZT)

Kirsty Yallop – Klepp IL (Norwegian Toppserien)

There you go. Three more games in the season after Klepp whipped up a 4-1 win away to Grand Bodø… Kirsty getting herself a yellow card amidst all the goals. Only her second of the season in 19 starts though. The seasons in Scandinavia tend to run through their summer for obvious cold and snow reasons so things are ticking down now for Klepp, who aren’t gonna get anywhere near Lillestrøm, who’ll guarantee the title with a single other point. The win lifts Klepp up to fourth though. Still with a chance to sneak up to third if things really go right, although most likely they’re playing to hold onto fourth now – which would be an impressive enough finish. They were tenth last season.

Up Next: Sunday at 2.00am at home to Medkila (NZT)

Clayton Lewis – Scunthorpe United (English League One)

It’s still too early for Lewis to make his debut in England, gotta wait on that international clearance first. So he cops no blame for Scunthorpe dropping their latest clash 2-1 at home to Wigan. Puts a bit of a stink on their hot start though, the Irons had only lost one of their first ten games but have now lost consecutive games to Shrewsbury and Wigan. Granted, they’re the two top teams on the ladder and everything.

Cool to see this all sorted, now just a matter of waiting out the rest of the paperwork and getting to it:

Up Next: 3.00am on Sunday, the Irons are away to Rotherham (NZT)

C.J. Bott - USV Jena & Amber Hearn – FC Koln (German Frauen-Bundesliga)

Both Bott and Hearn are still waiting on their first victories in the Bundesliga but they’ve each now finally tasted victory with their new clubs in cup competition. Each of them progressed fairly easy in the DFB Pokal. Bott featured in a 3-0 win over Magdeburger FFC while Hearn featured in a 2-0 win over TSV Crailsheim. Both games were away from home. It’s hardly enough to take the pressure off after their poor starts to the league season but maybe a bit of confidence from these ones will do them good. Koln are home to Hoffenheim next, who’ve conceded 12 goals in four games, so that’s potentially winnable while Jena have a slightly tougher task away to SGS Essen.

Up Next: Already kinda did that, both games are on at 1.00am on Sunday (NZT)

Olivia Chance – Everton (English Super League)

Three games into the season, still waiting on Anna Green to get her chance at Reading. She’s been on the bench each time as the team’s taken one of each – a win, a draw and a loss. So it goes early on, she made six starts out of eight in the summer series but Molly Bartrip seems to have nicked her place for the meantime.

Livvy Chance, on the other hand, might be playing for a team that’s lost all three games so far but she’s pushed her way into the starting XI as of the game against Man City this week. Central midfield, having sat on the bench for the loss to Liverpool, come off the bench for the loss to Birmingham and now played the whole match against City. Manager Andy Spence has made constant tweaks to his lineup trying to figure something out that’ll earn results. Jodie Brett’s been a regular at CM but Marthe Munsterman, Megan Finnegan and now Livvy Chance have all gotten goes besides her.

Claudia Walker’s early goal had them up 1-0 inside five minutes too but then three quick City goals meant they were 3-1 down within 15 minutes of going ahead, jeez. Simone Magill pulled one back in the second half while Chance got herself booked an hour in. She also had a shot that would’ve cut into that lead sooner but Marie Hourihan was able to save it. Solid showing against a title contender, to be honest.

The game was overshadowed by a serious injury to City’s Pauline Bremer though – an injury so bad that it made one of her teammates physically sick. Sounds a lot like a broken leg and that led to some serious controversy about the awful state of the pitch… although the Everton boss disputed that the pitch had anything to do with Bremer’s injury.

Up Next: Away to Doncaster Belles in the WSL Cup at 7.30am on Friday (NZT)

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