Ryan Thomas – PEC Zwolle (Dutch Eredivisie)

Busy week, this one. Zwolle had two games with the Eredivisie going hard on a midweek set of games and since Ryan Thomas never misses a second that meant 180 minutes in the space of four days. Nothing he can’t handle of course. Thommo’s one of just 17 players across the entire league to have played every minute for their team this season and seven of those are goalkeepers. In fact only three of those blokes are primarily midfielders or attackers: Hakim Ziyech of Ajax, Marco van Ginkel of PSV and Ryan Thomas of PEC Zwolle.

First off they played AZ Alkmaar and if it hadn’t been for Marco Bizot, one of those seven ever-present goalies, then Thommo would have given his side a first half lead. That’s not really doing the chance justice though, you have to watch it to see the work he does in the build-up, from the ground he covers to the sheer skill at the beginning to create the space. Would've been goal of the season quality if he'd stroked it into the top corner.

Later on Bizot also denied Younes Mokhtar’s shot… but Terell Ondaan was there to bury the follow-up and give the PECers the lead. A lead which only lasted two minutes before Alireza Jahanbakhsh headed in from a corner. Ondaan hit the crossbar on the brink of half time but nah, 1-1 at the break.

And it was 1-1 at the end of the game too, though it shouldn’t have been. AZ probably had the better of the second stanza yet when Kingsley Ehizibue was dragged to the deck and the ref pointed to the spot with fewer than five minutes still on the clock, the three points were well within reach for the home side after all. Only for Bram van Polen to smack his penalty over the bloody crossbar and thus a draw was settled for. Still a good result against the third-placed team in the competition to be fair.

VL.nl: “Ehizibue and Thomas are the lucky ones on behalf of Zwolle, who drew 1-1 in the Eredivisie-squeaker against AZ. The latter was the absolute star, Ehizibue was - as has often happened this season - his sidekick.”

It’s not the first time that Thommo has made the VL Team of the Week. They work their thing out with a statistical formula to gauge the levels of performance from players and, oh what do ya know, Ryan Thomas leads the entire Eredivisie in his average performance out of ten. So, according to that measurement at least, he’s the best player in Holland. Sweet as.

Regardless of all that, Zwolle still felt that they dropped two valuable points against AZ. Cool thing then that they had a pretty rapid opportunity to make amends, which they did in exciting fashion. 2-0 down away to Willem II in the first half and you could bugger that thought. Until Erik Bakker scored from the spot to make it 2-1 at HT and Zwolle were back in it. Guts to van Polem losing the spot kick duties but he probably knows why.

Bartholomew Ogbeche has been scoring for fun for Willem lately but he nodded one past the post soon after the resumption. Yeah, that was a costly one. Mustafa Saymak equalised just before the hour mark and then, with five minutes left, was the man on hand to score the winner after Younes Namli’s shot had been saved. A two-goal comeback for three more points and Zwolle are opening up a bit of a gap in fourth place now. What a season it’s been so far!

Ooh and remember the Ryan Thomas doco that got teased last week? It went out on Dutch Fox Sports this week. Here’s a trailer:

And here’s a couple clips. The full thing should be available online for us kiwi plebs soon enough, we'll have it for ya when it does so stay vigilant on TNC twitter or whatever - should be in next week's FKs (which will be on Weds/Thurs coz of the hollydaze).

Curious note on this, Declan Edge gets plenty of time in the docu as the main man in the Ole Academy and it looks like his twitter mentions must’ve gone through the roof from Dutch fans after the thing broadcast over in Holland. Which brought out this nugget:

Left-footed midfielder, 16 years old and also out of Ole. Gonna sign with the club in January and played at the U17 World Cup earlier in the year, so he says. Sounds suspiciously like Elijah Just, don’t you think? (He’s actually 17 but if all tweets were factually accurate then politics would be a different beast).

As for Marco Rojas, the highlights were scarcer but he featured off the bench two times as sc Heerenveen also took four points from the week. A 1-1 draw away to Feyenoord did Zwolle some favours while they did themselves some favours too by beating NAC Brada 1-0 in the weekend. Rojas played eight mins in the first game, 19 mins in the second. Hasn’t started one since October but he’s pushing himself back into contention by the looks of it – thanks to international duty and some slight injury things he only played once for Heerenveen in November and already he’s had three gigs off the bench this month.

Up Next: Zwolle are home to Mike Den Heijer’s NEC Nijmegen in the KNVB Cup on Weds at 6.30am and then away to ADO Den Haag at 8.0am on Saturday (NZT)

Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)

The David Moyes Reputational Resuscitation Mission is well under way, thanks to Winston and his Hammers. Moyes was a surprise winner last week as he masterminded a 1-0 win over Chelsea and, as good as that was, they then had to play Arsenal a few days later at London Stadium so it wasn’t getting much easier. Certainly not when you can only keep 30% of possession at home.

And yet, just like against Chelsea, that West Ham defence was drawing all sorts of thumbs up as an unchanged XI looked solid, organised and committed in ways that until the Chelsea game they hadn’t done all season. And just like the Chelsea game, Marco Arnautovic had the ball in the net early one… although this time he was offside.

Alex Iwobi hit the post but otherwise WHU had them in the pocket during a goalless first half. As the rain fell harder in the second half, however, so did the chances for Arsenal. The Gunners would end up with 22 shots in this one, while West Ham only had the six attempts (none on target). Mesut Ozil put one wide. Jack Wilshere smashed one over. Alexis Sanchez’s free kick needed a quality save from Adrian to deny it. All chances that might have been goals on another day.

But then some sloppy play at the back from Arsenal and a lovely disguised ball from Mark Noble put Javier Hernandez in and Chicharito’s shot… came down off the crossbar and bounced clear just inches off the line. It was the 89th minute and the game for the taking but the Hammers didn’t get lucky twice. Still, a 0-0 draw against a team they traditionally get smashed by is a fine result and a second clean sheet in a row against a top six team would’ve been unthinkable even only a few weeks back.

Winston Reid made seven clearances with a couple interceptions in there too. Another impressive game from him… although he did something very silly in injury time…

Guardian Min By Min: “90 min+3 - A loose touch from Zabaleta gives Welbeck a sniff. Reid dives in to bring him down around 25 yards out. Reid’s booked and Arsenal have one final chance. Reid will miss Saturday’s game at Stoke.”

The chance clearly came to nothing but, yeah, that yellow ruled him out of the game against Stoke. His fifth of the season. Then again, Stoke have been crap lately so it didn’t really matter – other than having to rush James Collins back from injury to make up the numbers.

Stoke really are a bit crap. The Hammers had a nice comfortable 3-0 win against them without Winnie, didn’t even need him. Mark Noble scored from the penalty spot in the 19th minute and Stoke old boy Marko Arnautovic added a second later on before Diafra Sakho killed it off at the end. Manny Lanzini is in trouble for diving but otherwise a happily uneventful win despite the lack of a Winston in there. Moving on now.

Up Next: Weds at 8.45am it’s Arsenal again! This time in the League Cup quarters (NZT)

Chris Wood – Burnley (English Premier League)

Burnley also got their sprigs into some Stoke City, beating them in the midweek prior to West Ham beating them. The difference was that, being Burnley, they had to do it with a scrappy but impressive 1-0 win. Nothing pretty to watch but still they found away.

It was raining and it was freezing at Turf Moor, exactly the conditions that Stoke City’s reputation supposedly lives up to. Incredibly Stoke hadn’t won an away game in the top flight on a Tuesday night since 1906 (!) but they almost took the lead thanks to the loooong legs of Peter Crouch. Then Scott Arfield had his chance with a well-struck but blocked volley before Johann Berg Gudmundsson fired high and wide. And… that was about it for the first half highlights.

This was footy bordering on ugly at times. Both teams had pass success rates in the mid-60s (Burnley’s average of 71.2% is the worst in the PL this season so it’s not a perfect record… but Man City’s average is 88.5% so this game was not exactly a clinic) and the home side only managed two shots on target. Yet right at the end they made the second one count, as Ashley Barnes did his best Chris Wood impersonation, chesting the ball down for Arfield who gave it back and ka-ching.

Woody’s game is best ignored in most aspects. Didn’t have a shot and only had 26 touches all up, very few of those appearing to come with the ball on the floor. He was replaced after 81 minutes. At least he never stop trying while he was out there…

The Woodsman was much more involved as Brighton hosted the Burnley folks on the weekend. A fun game that, as it reunited Woody with one of his old strike partners against one of his old teams. There’s a story in that.

Brighton brought a little more feistiness to proceedings than Stoke did, they were coming off seven games without a win and rather determined to end that run. Burnley had Ben Mee back at the back and they needed him as plenty of early pressure was put on the Burnley goal. Glenn Murray couldn’t direct a header, Anthony Knockaert struck the post. There was a good one up the other end with JB Gudmundsson drawing a save outta Aussie Matt Ryan but then James Tarkowski brought down Murray in the box and the pressure had tolled for a penalty.

Only for Muzza to smash it over the bar, the silly bollocks. Burnley got slightly better after that but more tellingly Brighton seemed to lose a bit of confidence. Murray almost got on the end of a Knockaert shot/cross after the break but it was much more even after that.

Which brings us to the two moments of Chris Wood-ery that could’ve defined this contest. He’d already forced a good save earlier on which was whistled for a foul on the defender and otherwise it’d been a typically battling game for him. Yet right about an hour into things he had the ball in the back of the net. Gudmundsson found Jeff Hendrick in the box whose touch fell fortunately to Scott Arfield. First shot saved, follow up saved… second follow up landed in front of Chris Wood and his close range volley was a sitter. But the flag went up. Probably juuuust the right call. Damn.

Then there was the second opportunity as a sharp run from Wood and an even sharper pass from Ashley Barnes put the kiwi through one on one from the right but with the advancing keeper rushing out he tried to chip him and caught the Aussie on the shoulder with the ball looping to safety. Couldn’t make it count and Wood was replaced with ten minutes left on the way to a shrugging 0-0 draw.

Lancashire Telegraph: “Ashley Barnes had been introduced on his return to his former club and he almost provided the winner, timing his pass perfectly to send Chris Wood in but his attempted chip over the advancing Ryan lacked the requisite loft, and the Clarets had to settle for a point.”

Hey, a third clean sheet in a row at least. That’s worth plenty – it keeps Burnley up in sixth place on the table, incredibly, having reached as high as fourth thanks to an earlier kick-off.

Lancashire Telegraph Player Ratings: “Chris Wood 6 - Had Burnley’s best chance to win it but couldn’t get the better of Ryan. Hold-up play not as good as usual.”

When Wood left Leeds for Burnley, he was actually following in the footsteps of two-time teammate Charlie Taylor who had done the same (for a lot less cash) a few weeks earlier. Here’s Charlie saying some nice things about Wood’s goal scoring:

“No. I genuinely did expect him to come in and hit the ground running, like he has done. If he gets the service he’ll put it in the back of the net. He was the best striker in the Championship last season and he’s continued that form this season.”

Up Next: Home to Spurs on Sunday at 6.30am (NZT)

Anna Green – Reading vs Olivia Chance – Everton (English Super League)

Both of these teams did what they’d planned on doing in making it through their WSL Cup groups. Reading won all four of their games, including a win over Arsenal, scoring 15 goals and conceding just one to top their pool while Everton lost a close one to Manchester City but otherwise did the business with three other wins (amidst some early struggles in the league) getting them through to the quarters as well. Where… where they drew each other!

Reading vs Everton for a spot in the Continental Cup semi-finals. Only problem was that both Anna Green and Olivia Chance were only named on the bench for this one, a game that saw plenty of chances at both ends but no goals during regular time.

Good thing that by then one of the Flying Kiwis had been introduced. Liv Chance had to watch the full 120 minutes from a chilly bench but Anna Green was introduced for the last quarter of an hour of regular time and then got the whole of the bonus footy. The two teams appeared to tire as the game went on, paying the cost for the high tempo of the match, and it took just four minutes into the first half of extra time for Greenie’s fellow substitute Kirsty Linnett to smash one in from 25 yards for the first goal. (By the way, Linnett happens to be Chris Wood's partner, if you're into that kinda gossip).

Reading then went for the kill, coming close to a second on a couple occasions. However it was Everton’s Chloe Kelly who’d score the next one. An easy finish after Gabby George had teed it up for her. 1-1 and although Reading’s Remi Allen went close right at the death, we were off to penalties to see who’d advance. Both sides missed spotties along the way, heaps of drama, and it was Linnett who hit the decider to see Reading through to their first ever WSL Cup semi. Possible opponents? Arsenal, Chelsea or Manchester City.

Guts to Everton but they’ve been doing well in the league lately, good for them. Obviously if they’d started a Footy Fern they probably would’ve won too. Lesson learned. As for Reading, this is just more of the same as they’ve gone unbeaten in their last nine games in all competitions since losing to Sunderland in the first game of the season. Moment of appreciation for Greenie too. Only played seven minutes in the league stuff so far but she’s gotten a good run in the cup games and clearly here time-wasting abilities have been finely tuned as such. (Some Kiwi-As politeness too).

Up Next: The WSL takes a little break ‘til after the New Year

Tyler Boyd – CD Tondela (Portuguese Primeira Liga)

If you read last week’s FKs then you got a heeky update on the plight of Tyler Boyd and his season so far out on loan at CD Tondela. Follow the ‘Flying Kiwis’ tag link on the right flank for all the past versions, by the way. So if you’re all caught up on last week then you’re ready for the latest development which is that Tondela just got pumped 5-1 at home by Benfica… but how about the 1!?

Tondela were already 4-0 down with not much more than twenty minutes to play when Boyd was chucked on as their second sub, replacing fullback David Bruno in an attempt to try and get a bit more attacking threat out there and try salvage anything from this wreck. Seven minutes later and bang, it’s now only 4-1 thanks to Boyd’s strike. It didn’t really matter once Jonas added a fifth for the reigning champs within three more mins but, hey, a second league goal of the season and eleventh Primeira Liga appearance (tenth off the bench) for Ty.

Pretty easy finish, just tapping in after Eli’s shot was saved by Bruno Varela. But he was in the right place at the right time and don’t underestimate how his pressure pushing forward on the right began the whole move by forcing a bad pass.

Stink result but, as you can tell. One which sees Tondela drop to 12th on the ladder and only five points clear of the relegation zone. About where they expected to be but nowhere near feeling comfortable at this stage of things. Benfica, meanwhile, stay third and keep the pressure on Sporting and Porto.

Up Next: A rest for Boyd, as his loan team face his parent team (Vitoria Guimaraes) which’ll presumably mean he’s ineligible to play. That one’s at 7.15am on Sunday (NZT)

Kip Colvey – Colorado Rapids (American Major League Soccer)

Hahaha, but of course! It’s been a fun joke the last couple weeks to say that Anthony Hudson might bring in a few All Whites to his new Colorado Rapids project but footy transfers are always more complicated than that. There are only maybe a handful of teams in the world that can go out there and sign whoever they want… so luckily the MLS is full of weird-ass loopholes for snatching up players from other teams. Trades and drafts and waivers… sometimes all three at once. Last week we looked at the expansion draft, with several kiwi players available for the new Los Angeles FC team to snap up. They didn’t. LAFC took five players, traded two of them and none were the relevant New Zealanders so all goods.

But then like a day later they had this waiver draft thing for players whose contracts were cut by their clubs in the recent offseason roster updates but who also haven’t played the minimum amount of games to enter free agency or the ‘re-entry draft’ (because there’s a draft for everything!). Colorado picked third since they were crap last year and after LA Galaxy and DC United passed on their picks, up came Colly to pounce on Kip Colvey as their favourite of the 59 available dudes. Montreal Impact also grabbed a keeper a few picks later (Clement Diop, Senegal’s backup GK) and… that was it. Only two players picked up in the waiver draft. Everyone else becomes a free agent.

MLSSoccer.com: “After the LA Galaxy and D.C. United passed on their first-round picks, the Rapids targeted 23-year-old New Zealander Colvey, who made three starts and four appearances during the 2016 season for the San Jose Earthquakes. This past year, Colvey was loaned to San Jose’s United Soccer League affiliate Reno 1868 FC.”

Since he was born in Hawaii, Colvey won’t count as an international player. He’ll also be added to the supplemental roster which means an MLS contract but on non-guaranteed money and he won’t count against the salary cap. That makes this a low risk move for the Rapids, who got rid of a few fullbacks from 2017 so could use a dude who can play on either flank. Plus he reunites with a manager who is already familiar with what he can offer, which is helpful for both chaps. Wouldn’t hold out for any other New Zealanders joining Colorado but you never know… Moses Dyer’s still playing NZ Premiership.

Up Next: Still on holiday in Milford Sound, mates

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

So… that belated title run isn’t going too well. SuperSport United came back from their continental jaunts with high hopes of winning a bunch of games in hand and storming up the table with other teams dropping a few points in their absence. Hasn’t quite worked out that way.

SSU went to Free State Stars in the midweek but had trouble getting any control of the match against a solid opposition here and it got worse when Siphelele Mthembu put FSS ahead midway through the half and if it wasn’t for Reyaad Pieterse in goal then Mthembu might have added another one. SuperSport just couldn’t get it going.

Soccer Laduma: “Chances were few and far between for SuperSport throughout the match, although Thuso Phala crossed for Jeremy Brockie, who missed with the goal at his mercy after 65 minutes.”

Then FSS went down to ten men thanks to a shocker of a tackle from Patrick Phungwayo, who had set up the goal. Brockie played the whole thing but couldn’t make amends for his miss. Neither could anyone else as SSU went down 1-0.

Then the mates were back on the road to take on Baroka and that one went about as poorly as the previous one. Coach Eric Tinkler has said that the team are “emotionally and psychologically drained” following their Cup Final run and it’s hard to argue with that. Lucky Nguzana lived up to his name with some lazy defending allowing him to score the first goal before Azukuike Egwuekwe levelled things early in the second half.

Jeremy Brockie was introduced off the bench in the 67th minute with SSU looking for that victory except that up against a team that hadn’t won for seven games it was Letladi Madubanya who put Baroka back in front five minute later. SuperSport went wild for the win and it cost them on the counter attack. Mduduzi Mdatsane put the game to bed in the final minute. 3-1 to Baroka and that’s just one win from five since the Confed Cup final. They have one more game this calendar year before the South African league takes a couple weeks off for the holidays. The next couple Flying Kiwis might be slim pickings outside the Premier League blokes, in fact. Most leagues tend to break around this time.

On the positive side of things, at least that crammed fixture list will get a tad better since their CAF Confederation Cup final exploits might not have gotten them the trophy but it does at least get them a bye through the first qualifying round of the next comp, saving them two games. The draw was made this week and SSU will face either Petro Atlético de Luanda (Anglola) or Master Security Services (Malawi) for a place in the group stages in early March.

Up Next: Away to Bloemfontain Celtic at 6.30am on Thursday (NZT)

Tommy Smith – Ipswich Town (English Championship)

Smithy hasn’t played since the first leg of the NZ vs Peru World Cup qualifiers but he hit a milestone this week as he got back on the bench for the first time, with Ipswich beating Reading 2-0 at home thanks to goals from Callum Connolly and Joe Garner. Enough to get within two points of the playoff spots following on from some good recent form. It’s been a weird season for the Tractor Boys, who won four in a row to start things, then took 14 games to log their next four Champo wins before now bagging nine points from their last four games.

Smith’s only played in two league games all season thanks to his injuries so even now that he’s close to fitness he’s no lock to walk back into that XI or anything. He’s still gonna have to earn that next step… but good to see he’s back in the picture. Might wanna wait to make that full comeback until after they play top-of-the-table Wolverhampton Wanderers next weekend anyway.

Up Next: Wolves vs Ipswich, Sunday at 4.00am

Myer Bevan & Deklan Wynne – Vancouver Whitecaps (American Major League Soccer)

That’s the news we’ve been waiting for. Myer Bevan puts pen to paper on an MLS deal for 2018, with club options for the following three seasons. Hey and thanks to some Canadian relatives he’s able to qualify as a domestic player. Pretty handy, that.

VW Gaffer Carl Robinson: “Myer is an exciting option for us. He's got great movement. He likes to get in the box. He's young, he's hungry, and it will take a little bit of time for us to develop him. We're excited to get him working with the group.”

Myer Bevan: “It’s an honour to be joining the Whitecaps FC first team. Since I joined the club last season with Whitecaps FC 2, the technical staff has helped me grow as a player, and I know there’s a lot of hard work ahead. I can’t wait to get back to training and continue my development.”

It’s news that has been rumoured for quite a while and you can expect Deklan Wynne to confirm a similar contract some time soon. The Whitecaps have already signed Venezuelan striker Anthony Blondell to lead the lines in 2018 and Kei Kamara was picked up a few days before Bevan’s deal was made public. Hence there’s a good chance he doesn’t get a lot of game time this upcoming season, although the club has made it clear that they’re committed to developing him for the future. At just 20 years old and from New Zealand he’d be doing bloody well to crack a few match-day squads (it took Jake Gleeson years to get his first team chance at Portland) but he’ll have the chance to make his case in preseason. Could still be loaned out to Fresno as well for more matches, we’ll see what happens. Exciting developments either way.

Up Next: Waiting on Deklan now...

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

No arguments here. Sneaky rumours are that she might be back in the Fernies in 2018 too, watch this space…

Watch this space and also hit an ad, that’d be sweet. It all adds up to help TNC so we can fund the antidotes that we serve up to the sloppy stuff you read wherever else you’re forced to gather your sports/music wisdom.