Flying Kiwis – September 26
Chris Wood – Burnley (English Premier League)
It was only a month ago that The Woodsman left Leeds. It was only a bit over three months ago that he was awarded their player of the season. But times done changed and last Wednesday there he was warming up to play against Leeds for Burnley in the League Cup. And he wasn’t the only one, fullback Charlie Taylor also left Leeds for Burnley in the summer and in less pleasant circumstances.
Thomas Christiansen, Leeds Manager: “If [Wood] plays and I see him I will say hello to him, like other players. He’s started well in his team. If he plays we know which type of player he is, and he knows our team.”
Stuart Dallas, Leeds winger: “I don’t need to explain how good Woody is, he showed that last year. First and foremost he’s a good lad. He was good to have about the place and he’s still a good friend but when we step over the line, whether he’s playing or not, we’re enemies for a night.”
Woody didn’t get picked to start as Sean Dyche rotated out half his team but to be honest he didn’t miss much in the 72 minutes he spent on the bench. It was midweek, off-brand cup football at its most typical. Burnley ended up with more than double the shots though their direct approach gave up a lot of possession. It should be said at this point that Leeds are doing magnificent in the Championship so far this season, sitting top despite suffering their first defeat the previous weekend to Millwall and bouncing back to beat Ipswich (sans the still-injured Tommy Smith).
And, yeah, not too many chances here to mention… mostly due to some average Clarets finishing. So on came Woody with 18 minutes left (to chant of being a “greedy bastard” from the LUFC fans) alongside Robbie Freakin’ Brady.
Which is about when this tie briefly became incredible. Pablo Hernandez caught the Burnley defence out with ten minutes left by playing in Hadi Sacko who then scored from what felt like Leeds’ first decent chance of the night. Poor Nick Pope missed it between his legs in his first start for the club. Right on the brink of the end of the ninety a handful of jersey pulling by Gaetano Berardi led to a Burnley penalty and Woody stepped up to be the hero. No worries there, mate.
Except that the game continued and James Tarkowski was also called up for shirt-tuggin’ and Leeds had a penalty of their own. Seriously, this was as soft a call as you’ll ever see, though he definitely did grab a pinch of cotton. Hernandez scored the spottie and Leeds were seconds away from winning when Brady buried an incredible free kick in the sixth minute of injury time. That meant 30 more minutes of this but the extra footy was as bland as the first 80 minutes and it went to penalties. Wood scored his first up for Burnley but Leeds won it in the end, Stuart Dallas slotting his after Tarkowski had missed.
Strangely, while the Leeds fans were mostly decent about Wood and Taylor’s return (it helps that they won), a British bookie trying to play the banter game (yawn) got in a bit of trouble for this tweet, since deleted:
Ladbrokes: “These were very poorly conceived tweets which we have since deleted. It was only intended to be a bit of fun but failed completely in that regard, and we have apologised to Burnley FC and would like to sincerely apologise to any fans of the club that took offence.”
Sean Dyche: “It’s a strange business, football. Twenty-odd million they’ve made for a club [in transfer fees] and they get slaughtered. I don’t know any more how fans react to players, ex-players, all that stuff, but that’s football now. Those two have been fantastic servants to Leeds, if I’m honest. But Woody has done fantastically, walking on to our pitch and scoring, and again in the shootout.”
That’s all well enough but what’s truly weird about this saga is that a mere month ago Ladbrokes were unveiled as a new major sponsor of Burnley FC – there’s a section of their bleeding stadium called ‘The Ladbrokes Stand’! Bit silly, that.
Then on the weekend the Clarets took on Huddersfield in what might be remembered as one of the least entertaining… nah jokes, nobody will remember this game at all. Again starting up front by himself, Woody played the whole game for just the second time in six appearances in a Burnley kit. He took three shots while the rest of his team had only two combined. Huddersfield popped nine attempts but seven were from out of the box (three from free kicks). Basically neither team ever looked much like scoring.
- Chris Wood Shot #1: Lovely cross in from Ward on the left and Wood gets up but glances his header wide, shoulda done better.
- Chris Wood Shot #2: Scrappy little stab towards goal in the six yard box which is smothered by the goalie. Tough angle to do much more with it.
- Chris Wood Shot #3: Turn and shot late on which he absolutely hammered from outside the box but straight at the keeper who held it.
He might have had a few more efforts were it not for the marking of the CB Schindler, who barely gave him an inch all game. Here, see, The Guardian agrees:
“The centre-half Christopher Schindler’s shackling of Burnley’s £15m striker Chris Wood was the highlight of an otherwise dreary game. Schindler has been a staple of the Huddersfield defence that has conceded just three goals.”
Not this guy though…
You know what? It’s fine. The draw means that Burnley have still only lost one game and it keeps them in the top half for another week. The end target for both Burnley and Huddersfield is avoiding relegation, no matter how well they’ve started, so these points keep that total ticking over towards that aim.
Lancashire Telegraph Player Ratings: “Chris Wood 6 - Should have done better with a header from Ward’s cross in the first half, but aside from that service was limited.”
Up Next: Away to Everton at 2.15am on Monday (NZT)
Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)
Full credit to the other guys. They’re the ones who swapped in to allow Winston a game off as the Hammers hosted Bolton in the League Cup. It was a completely rotated defence with Declan Rice and Angelo Ogbonna at CB (Adrian played in goal too instead of Joe Hart) but it made for one of their better performances in a while. Granted, you can’t read too much into a 3-0 win over a Championship club swamped with ownership dramas and without a win in their opening eight league games of the season. Ogbonna, Diafra Sakho and Arthur Masuaku scored the goals. West Ham drew Tottenham away in the round of 16.
Funny that because they also played Spurs at London Stadium in the Premier League a few days after that draw. Winston Reid starting at CB with Ogbonna and Fonte alongside… and for the opening stages it was a bloody masterclass from the kiwi. He was launching himself at everything, no cross into the box went un-cleared. Winston was completely bossing the show…. right up until Harry Kane scored twice in five minutes and blew the top off of it.
Slaven Bilic: “The best compliment I can give [Kane] is that - put it like this - we play with three centre-backs and I really think that Fonte, Reid and Angelo Ogbonna had a really good game. Still he was using those situations and basically he decided the game for them and my centre-backs were good, so that tells a volume.”
Christian Eriksen then slotted a quality finish after the break and Spurs were 3-0 up, disaster time. Michail Antonio had already come off injured which sort of spoiled West Ham’s attack but they were given a lifeline when Serge Aurier picked up two quick yellows for fouls on Andy Carroll after Javier Hernandez had pulled one back. Cheik Kouyate added another and it was 3-2 with just enough time to try force a draw… but it didn’t happen. Fun game for no biscuits.
Having said that, there was some late drama involving Winston. Into injury time Andy Carroll got on the end of a corner but a nudge from Davinson Sanchez sent him swan diving instead. He wanted a penalty. Frustrations emerged. Dele Alli and Pablo Zabaleta got tangled soon after. Andre Ayew smashed Ben Davies in a challenge for a yellow. Then Fernando Llorente and Winston Reid bumped shoulders. Winston ran over and tried to put on NFL block on him as he shielded the ball. Carroll and Llorente clashed on the end of a long ball. That was one too many for Winnie, Big Andy’s his best mate, and he ran in to fire away some heavy words. Love a bit of biffo in the footy!
Llorente, Carroll and Reid all got yellows.
Football.London Player Ratings: “Winston Reid - Immense performance as he threw his body at absolutely everything. Reinforcing the point he is the Hammers best defender by some distance. 8/10”
Up Next: Sunday morning at 3.00am vs Swansea (NZT)
Kirsty Yallop – Klepp IL (Norwegian Toppserien)
Not much else to add to that which Kirsty didn’t say herself. Congrats on a fine international career and best of luck for the future at club level. Yallop has started all 17 games for Klepp this season in the league, scoring three goals.
A 2-0 defeat to Lillestrom coming back from international duty didn’t help things for them. Including the cup defeat on penalties a few weeks back that makes it three defeats in a row for Klepp, who have dropped to seventh on the table, albeit with a game in hand on the two teams directly above them. Lillestrom are running away with the title now while Klepp have five more games to edge themselves up a few places on the ladder.
Up Next: Home to Avaldsnes, 5.00am on Thursday (NZT)
Ryan Thomas – PEC Zwolle (Dutch Eredivisie)
Midweek KNVB Cup stuff over in Holland and it was positive news for the kiwi lads. Part of Zwolle’s success so far has come from the continuity of having been able to name the same starting XI in all five Eredivisie games ‘til now. So an away trip to De Meern in the Cup offered a rare chance to rotate some… but van’t Schip only bothered making three and that meant ninety more minutes for Thommo on a Thursday night. Zwolle won easy too, 5-0 in the end. Thomas set up the first goal. The only negatives were a couple injuries to Younes Namli and Philippe Sandler that had then in doubt for the weekend away to VVV-Venlo.
“An inch-perfect pass by Ryan Thomas is exactly customized for Nijland, who put aside his opponent with a feint and completes. (0-1)”
Because of the two injuries, Zwolle therefore had to make their first two changes to the starting team for the Venlo game. Wouter Marinus came in for Namli and Nic Freire came in for Sandler. Otherwise it was business as usual – meaning that Thommo ended the match as one of only five players at the club to play every minutes in the league so far and one of only three (Thomas, Kingsley Ehizibue and Bram van Polen) to be ever-present in all comps.
Did they roll with the two changes? Not quite. Ehizibue put them in front at the break as the right back slammed a loose ball in after a corner. It wasn’t Zwolle at their most fluent but they looked like they were heading for three points until Clint Leemans scored a wicked free kick and the match instead ended as a draw. Diederik Boer made a couple of sharp saves towards the end just to hold onto that draw too.
Nonetheless we still saw another masterclass of midfield play from Thommo. No player touched the ball more times than he did in this contest. He created three goal scoring opportunities and won five aerial challenges. His two shots were off target but his passing was quality and he was even skipping past a few defenders with the ball at his feet. Had a decent shout at a penalty declined too.
Up Next: Home to Groningen at 6.45am on Sunday (NZT)
Marco Rojas – sc Heerenveen (Dutch Eredivisie)
In the wake of his first goal for the club – first goal for the senior team anyway – Rojas was given his maiden start for Heerenveen as they played Excelsior in the KNVB Cup. Cool, man. Coincidentally it was Excelsior that Rojas scored against last week in a league fixture, then they played them four days later in the Cup, also away and it also ended 2-1. But this time Arber Zeneli scored both goals.
The Heerenveen striker scored twice in the opening 15 minutes and despite a nervous second half - in which Wouter van der Steen saved one penalty before being beaten by a second - SCH held on to advance to the second round. Rojas was subbed off in the 86th minute.
And they won again on the weekend too. Four league wins in a row and they’re now only one point off the top of the table and the only team remaining undefeated in the Eredivisie. It was back to the bench for Rojas although again he was first off the pine, coming on for Zeneli in the 66th minute.
Heerenveen fell behind in the game’s nascent stages with Elmo Lieftink putting Willem II in the lead. SCH went looking for the leveller and right smack bang in the middle of the game they got it thanks to Stijn Schaars, making it 1-1 at half time. Yuki Kobayashi then smashed one in about an hour in and Rojas entered things soon after. Despite some late pressure from Willem the scores remained 2-1. Good win.
Hey and that Kobayashi bloke? Good chance he and Rojas go from teammates to opposition as the All Whites play Japan next month, keep an eye out (Yuki isn’t a regular for Japan but he should be in the squad at least).
Up Next: Monday morning at 1.30am vs Ajax (NZT)
Olivia Chance – Everton / Anna Green – Reading (English Super League)
The top flight of women’s footy in England began amidst some unfortunate circumstances regarding the former manager of the national team, one more reason why the new season was so overdue. Well, here it is and it couldn’t have begun with much more of a glamour fixture as Olivia Chance’s Everton, newly appointed to the WSL, took on their closest and fiercest rivals Liverpool.
Chance, who fares to be the likely replacement for Kirsty Yallop in the Footy Ferns XI, based on the subs against USA at least, didn’t get to start in the season opener. She didn’t even get to play at all as she watched the game form the bench. Maybe it was for the best because even though Everton managed to hold on until the 70th minute before finally conceding, they were always on the back foot. The Reds had five times as many shots with 11 of them on target. Jess Clarke hit the crossbar. Eventually Natasha Harding and Niamh Charles scored, the latter in stoppage time, for a 2-0 LFC win.
Reading began things two days later against Sunderland and, just like Chance, Anna Green was left on the bench the whole way. Reading played better than Everton did, albeit against weaker opposition, but a sloppy back pass early on allowed Simona Koren an open goal and despite controlling plenty of the ball they couldn’t quite carve the chances to score to reflect that and went down 1-0.
Bit stink, that. Next time unleash Livvy and Anna, please.
Up Next: Reading are away to Liverpool at 7.000am on Saturday while Everton are away to Birmingham at 23.30am on Monday (NZT)
Michael Boxall – Minnesota United (American Major League Soccer)
It’s taken until there’s only a month left in the season but Minny have finally won back to back MLS games. First time in the team’s history, being an expansion team and all. It was coming too. The Loons have stumbled on some decent form lately and this latest win makes it 10 points claimed from their last five games. Clearly gotta be that Boxall effect, right?
- Minnesota United with Mike Boxall: 4 W | 1 D | 4 L | 15 GF | 17 GA | -2 GD | 13 PTS
- Minnesota United without Mike Boxall: 5 W | 4 D | 11 L | 25 GF | 42 GA | -17 GD | 19 PTS
It’d be a great big lie to say that this one came easy though. At home to FC Dallas and they were 1-0 within quarter of an hour. Tesho Akindele put Dallas up with a tap in from a square ball which Boxall probably fell asleep on – looked like he could’ve got a foot on it for sure. Defending hasn’t really been their strength this season, way too much rotation although Boxall’s played every minute since he arrived which seems to have helped (only one clean sheet in nine, however).
Christian Ramirez equalised as he got in behind the defence ten minutes later and then set up Miguel Ibarra’s goal to go ahead before the break with a stunning chipped ball over the backline. Minny then gave up a silly penalty but keeper Bobby Shuttleworth dove low and brilliantly saved to preserve the lead. Which Ethan Finlay added to almost immediately. Tesho Akindele got sent off with ten left and Abu Danladi padded it at the end. Had to scrap for it but ended up with a 4-1 win.
Mikey Boxall was one of the first players to congratulate Shuttleworth after his penalty save. So… what’d you say there bro?
MB: “I don’t know, probably a couple words starting with F and maybe that I loved him.”
He had some more words to say about the Minnesota keeper afterwards too, a keeper who has now saved penalties in consecutive games just as his team has finally won consecutive games. No coincidence.
MB: “Every day, breaking the ice and grilling all the youngsters whenever they come in wearing some inappropriate clothing or have made questionable decisions. It’s great to have that sort of guy on the team.”
And, uh, make what you will of this Marist Minnesota supporter’s group:
Up Next: Trip to Houston Dynamo at 1.30pm on Sunday (NZT)
Rosie White – Boston Breakers (American National Women’s Soccer League)
The Breakers had been on a terrible run of form, losing six straight and without a win since July 2, going back ten games. Before that last win they also had a winless streak of eight games. In between those two long stretches? A 1-0 victory over Washington Spirit. Good thing then that they were playing Washington Spirit again here, this time away.
Rosie White played the full game despite playing both times for New Zealand the other day and running herself into the ground. Injuries haven’t helped Boston at all but they’ve got a few key players back now and they looked kinda solid. Lacking in confidence but solid. Sometimes all you need is that first goal to fly in though and the belief comes soaring back. Such was the case as Boston, after a scoreless first half, finally put one away with Natasha Dowie’s header. Soon after they benefited from a couple own goals (the second later credited to Adriana Leon, who was quality all game). White got involved in the build-up for the third goal, check it out. Great ball over the defence, assisting the assist.
Poor old Mallory Pugh then had not one but two goals disallowed for the Spirit. Count it as a 3-0 win for Boston, which was enough to put them ahead of Washington on goal difference and off the bottom of the table – hooray. Don’t wanna be logging back to back wooden spoons.
One problem, however. Rosie White picked up a yellow card in the second half which means she’ll miss the final game of the season with suspension. Her eighth booking of the season, which is two more than anyone else.
Odd thing is she never had that trouble in England (probably something to do with playing in the midfield these days).
Up Next: Last game of the season against Sky Blue, 12.00pm on Sunday (NZT)
Jake Gleeson & Bill Tuiloma – Portland Timbers (American Major League Soccer)
Jeff Attinella continues to start for the Timbers, patrolling between the sticks even now that Gleeson is back to fitness. Seems like his injury might have cost him his starting place for the foreseeable future. Granted, that could all change based on how Attinella continues to play – though with playoff placings on the line Portland can’t really afford that. Hmm, conflicts of interest. This is from after last week’s game, a 2-1 loss to Real Salt Lake…
Vavel USA: “Speaking of "don't mess with what's working", Caleb Porter probably stuck with Jeff Attinella in goal now that Jake Gleeson is healthy because, like a lot of sports people, he believes in the hot hand, even though the gambler's fallacy is pretty much what built all those giant casinos in Las Vegas.
And there's no doubt Attinella has played well and made some nice saves in his time covering for Gleeson. But then, last night, this happened. He was slow off his line, he was slow to react, but even still, he got to the ball - only to see it ping off his hands into the net.
He did redeem himself later in the game, for sure, but I don't think the Gleeson v Attinella debate is as cut and dried as a lot of people have wanted to make it seem in the last few weeks.”
Against Orlando this week it was a different story. Attinella played wonderfully, making a few smart saves as the Timbers strolled to a 3-0 victory. Diego Valeri scored twice (that’s nine games in a row with a goal for him). Jonathan Spector was sent off early in the second half. Not that Gleeson didn’t have himself a worthwhile week though, as reserve keeper he spent a fair bit of time with a young lad named Derrick Tellez. The five year old was made the (symbolic) youngest player ever in the MLS as he signed a one-game contract as part of the Make A Wish programme.
That’s that now how about Bill Tuiloma. It was said that Tui would swap time between the Timbers and the T2 squad but so far it’s been all T2. His opportunity will probably come next season. He was at centre back again as the team took on Reno 1868. And… they got thrashed. To the tune of 6-1. It was bad and they were bad and T2 remain comfortably at the bottom of the table with just two wins from 27 games.
You might have noticed another familiar name in there as Kip Colvey played for Reno. He set up the first goal with a fine lobbed cross and it was all guns blazing from there. Colvey has jumped between the MLS and USL, having a stint sitting on the bench recently for San Jose but he never got on the park. While we’re at it, same goes for James Musa who having played one MLS game has had to be content with the pines since then and he played for Swope Park Rangers who won 3-1 over Colorado Switchbacks to clinch a playoffs spot. This after Sporting Kansas City won the US Open Cup for a fourth time in its history a few days earlier, though The Moose was nowhere to be seen.
Up Next: San Jose Earthquakes vs Portland Timbers, Sunday at 3.30pm (NZT)
Rebekah Stott – Seattle Reign vs Katie Bowen – Kansas City (American National Women’s Soccer League)
The final Flying Kiwis derby of the NWSL season and that’s confirmed after the result here officially eliminated Seattle from semi-final contention. It was already a long shot, to be fair, so no major freak outs required. Also, nobody seems to have taken notice of the result anyway.
That’s because in the lead in to the game reports emerged about the precarious situations that both teams are in financially. FCKC have been operating under the bare minimum financial requirements this season and these latest sources reckon they dipped under those at times. That could lead to the team being sold and/or relocated - the MLS side Sporting Kansas City have been mentioned as potentially taking an ownership stake – which seems like a happy compromise. As for Seattle, the same report in FourFourTwo also alluded to the Reign running “unsustainable losses”, although those worries were batted away by the co-owner over here.
Wow and as if that wasn’t enough the game was also overshadowed by anthem protesting. Or, as they’re properly known: ‘police brutality/civil injustice/racial inequality protest’, since those are the things that are actually being protested. NFL bloke Colin Kaepernick was doing this all last year, and it probably cost him a job on a team this season, and several other players have followed for the cause. Donald Trump had a whine about it recently and that led to a massive amount of demonstrations this week over there in that other kind of football. And also in this game too.
Megan Rapinoe, of the USA national team and also Seattle, was kneeling for the anthem way before it was cool. Her solidarity with Kaepernick led to the US Soccer Federation banning that action. So she and a bunch of other players instead stayed in the sheds while the anthems were played – a loophole in the new law.
Stotty started but Bowen was named on the bench and neither participated in the anthem boycott. No biggie, they’re not even American (they don’t play the anthem before English Premier League games do they? Two flippin’ domestic teams, what’s the point?). With their season on the line, Seattle came out desperate and were unlucky not to strike first. She may be a central defender for the Ferns but Rebekah Stott’s a right back at club level and she got all the way up the park for this strike, only narrowly dragging it across the goal.
That was far from their only threat at goal either and they had 74% possession in the first 20 mins. Yet in the 23rd minute it was Sydney Leroux who played in Shea Groom down the other end for the only goal of the match. The second half was a lot more even despite the Reign pushing for a goal and that meant we never did get to see Katie Bowen called upon. We did almost get to see a ripper of a goal from Stotty, who left a dent in the crossbar with this drive…
Nah but 1-0 it ended and neither team will make the playoffs. Both teams have one more game remaining now and then that’s it for 2017.
Up Next: Seattle goes to Washington Spirit at 12.00pm on Sunday while Kansas City hosts Houston Dash at 11.00am Monday (NZT)
Steven Old – Morecambe (English League Two)
Say, would you look at that? Stevie Old scored for Morecambe! Tough diving header to equalise against Stevenage in the 36th minute, almost getting horizontal on it. Old has worked his way in as a regular for the Shrimps since earning his place, appearing in eight of their nine league games now. This was his first goal, unfortunately it ended up for naught as some bloke (Kyle Wootton) came off the bench to score the winner for Stevenage. Ah well.
Old’s faring better than old buddy Rory Fallon at his new English club too. Sad to report that Fallon’s been released from his contract at Torquay. Five appearances, four of them off the bench. Fallon had only been there on a non-contract deal and with Torquay winless through 12 games and sitting dead last it only made sense. Ah well.
Up Next: 7.45am on Wednesday at home to Luton Town (NZT)
Abby Erceg – North Carolina Courage (American National Women’s Soccer League)
Abby always plays, no worries there. She’s one of the stars of the best team in the division and going into their second to last match all they needed was a win to secure the top spot for the regular season. They’ve already booked a home semi. But Sky Blue weren’t so easy to brush off. They were trying to get Aussie Sam Kerr (and borderline the best player in the world right now) the goal that’d break the golden boot record. First ten minutes and she had a couple half-chances too.
After that the Courage started to dominate and when Ashley Hatch put away the opening goal in the 27th minute it was definitely coming. NCC aren’t a team that score a lot of goals though and they couldn’t find that second one to kill it off. Instead they left the door open and if they weren’t warned by Sam Kerr’s disallowed header from an offside position after the break then they were with 15 minute left when Kerr got in behind the defence from a long ball after a set piece and Raquel Rodriguez was able to poke it into an empty net before Erceg could get a foot in to deny her.
1-1 the final score and the Courage will just have to do it next time instead.
Say, here’s one for ya:
Up Next: Houston vs North Carolina, 1.00pm on Thurs & NC vs Orlando at 12.30pm on Sun (NZT)
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