Flying Kiwis – March 17
COVID-19 (A Little Bit Of Everywhere FC)
We’re living through history here, folks. It’s not one that we ought to be panicking about, no matter how much it dominates the headlines, but containing the coronoavirus, limiting its spread to within the capacities of our health services, is something that requires we all be sensible sallies about it. Wash ya hands. Cough into your elbow. Don’t touch ya dirty, smelly face. Most important, don’t think about it from your own selfish point of view but consider the sacrifices made from the perspective of the great wide football club that is Humanity.
But yeah part of all this has meant mass postponements/cancellations to sports around the planet which sorta require enormous gatherings of fans to keep up their big business. It’s like grassroots club footy when there’s a month of rain and all the fields get bogged and the fixtures are all wonky and you’re stuck in a sort of limbo not knowing if you’ll get to play them all eventually or not. Only this time it’s Real Madrid and Juventus who are pondering all this. And clearly it’ll wreak havoc upon Flying Kiwis. Not really sure what the next couple weeks are going to be like especially but no dramas, we’ll keep on serving up what we’ve got to serve up and stay chilling in this state of flux.
There’s going to be a lot less sport on for a while though. You might have to find new ways to fill that part of your life reserved for watching your favourite team lose each week. Think of it as an opportunity. All the time you’ve now got to read books and watch shows or movies or learn a musical instrument or take up amateur carpentry or paint or sculpt or design or craft or stitch or sew or knit or whatever hobby you never quite got around to in the past because there just wasn’t enough time. Well, there’ll be even more time if you end up self-isolating (what a weird phrase), might as well use it to better yourself and do something fulfilling. In a weird way it’s kinda exciting from that perspective. Don’t forget the bigger picture though, it’s all about health and protecting those whose immune systems are compromised.
Here’s a bit of a primer as to what various footy leagues, particularly those that involve kiwis, are up to these days... and keep in mind that this is a fluid and quickly-changing situation...
English Premier League, Women’s Super League & EFL: All matches postponed until at least April 3, with the intention of rescheduling them at a later time to finish the seasons.
Champions League & Europa League: All of this week’s games have been postponed already, meetings are ongoing as to whether the international European Champs will take place in their summer – if postponed until 2021, as seems likely, then that’ll be the window a lot of leagues target to finish their seasons.
Bundesliga & 2. Bundesliga: Initially to be played behind closed doors but then ultimately postponed until at least the start of April, as most major European leagues have also done (including Spain and France).
Eredivisie: Last weekend’s games involving kiwis (PSV & Willem II) had already been postponed when the decision was made to suspend the entire league for the rest of March.
Major League Soccer: The whole MLS has been put on hiatus for thirty days, with a training moratorium over the weekend while the league determined its procedures during the hiatus. The USL Championship has also taken the exact same precautions. Very likely to end up being a much longer hiatus than that.
NWSL: All preseason games have been cancelled. The actual 2020 season doesn’t begin until mid-April which is after most of these other postponements around the world so that hasn’t been affected as of yet and it’s way too soon to be making decisions that far ahead when things have been evolving so rapidly (in better news, the NWSL has agreed a new three-year broadcast deal with CBS and Twitch, which long story short means that as international viewers the games will all be free to watch on twitch).
Scandinavian Footy: The Swedish Cup quarters have been postponed. Norway has delayed the start of their season until 2 May. The Danish stuff’s all postponed... all pretty much as per the rest of Europe.
Kiwi International Footy: Needless to say, both the All Whites upcoming friendly games against Bahrain and Oman have been cancelled, as has the Football Ferns’ next friendly against Japan. So it goes.
Rebekah Stott – Melbourne City (Australian W-League)
Here’s your one massive Flying Kiwis fix for the week, Rebekah Stott’s undefeated Melbourne City taking their talents to the semi-finals where they hosted Western Sydney Wanderers and there were goals galore and it was never even close. City came out on the front foot and dominated this show from the start. They’d already gone close a couple times when Claire Emslie tapped in from close range after 13 minutes and less than ten mins later it was 2-0 as Emslie turned provider with a perfect cross for Kyah Simon to head home. Ellie Carpenter then hit the crossbar after a swift run before Steph Catley was denied by the goalie. One way traffic and we weren’t even at half-time yet.
And that’s when the real fun stuff happened...
Boom. Rebekah Stott in on the action. That’s a centreback getting all the way forward and making it count. A second goal of the season for Stotty.
And it should have been four too but Simon couldn’t keep an awkward volley under the crossbar with only nothing but the goal in front of her. WSW struck back soon after the half. Courtney Vine had been the only one to look like she could threaten the City defence and a couple times early in that second forty-five she did, including lashing one in after 50 mins to give her team an inkling of hope. But then Kyah Simon scored her second five minutes later to restore that comfortable lead and then in the 62nd min a Steph Catley free kick was turned in for an own goal and it was all routine from there.
5-1 to Melbourne City who advance to their fourth grand final in five years (which will go ahead, by the way – might as well sneak it in when there’s only one game left). Stott almost added another goal to her collection late on but her shot was too strong, no worries. One more game to go for history.
Up Next: Melbourne City vs Sydney FC, W-League Grand Final, TBD
Annalie Longo – Melbourne Victory (Australian W-League)
But alas, dear comrades, there shall only be one Flying Kiwi in that grand final as Annalie Longo’s Melbourne Victory weren’t able to answer an early Sydney FC goal from Veronica Latsko in their semi-final. Longo was deployed in a crowded midfield for the Victory, who hosted this game, and had the first real chance of this semi-final as she struck one straight at the keeper after a Natasha Dowie lay-off. But soon after Latsko dashed in front of the keeper to get on the end of a teasing Ally Green cross for what would prove the winner, just 14 minutes into the contest.
Sydney were good value. They continued to test the Victory defence and Longo’s shot was about the best thing the Victory could muster in that first half. Into the second spell they ramped up the pressure as desperation compelled them and Longo had a shot deflected over the crossbar. Amy Jackson and Melina Ayres both had attempts. Darian Jenkins too... but a team which had scored 10 goals in their previous two games, including a 3-1 win over Sydney FC two weeks back, just couldn’t find a way through.
Sydney FC with the 1-0 win to set up a grand final against Rebekah Stott’s Melbourne City which will be held behind closed doors because of the COVID-19 stuff. Ninety minutes for Annalie Longo, who finishes her season having played 1062 minutes across 13 games (12 starts), scoring two goals. They gave it everything they had there but no dice. Now Longo gets to return home to a nice peaceful quarantine.
Up Next: Self-Isolation, them’s the rules
Winston Reid - Sporting Kansas City (American Major League Soccer)
A little more context here in what’s been a really weird saga to get a handle on with Winston Reid’s transfer to Sporting KC. The unique situation he’s in at West Ham where he’s not only on a long term contract but he’s probably unwanted and also hasn’t played for two years doesn’t help, nor does the very different footy culture of the MLS where he’s headed. Plus Winnie’s a notoriously reserved character.
Apparently at some point he’d had to go back to London while waiting for that visa to come through which makes a lot more sense as to why he didn’t feature in their first couple games of the season. Hopefully he got in under the travel restrictions. Who knows when he’ll next get to play but that’s the situation, no dramas. Play it as it lays.
Up Next: ???
Betsy Hassett – Stjarnan FC (Icelandic Úrvalsdeild kvenna)
MBL Sport: “Betsy Hassett, the New Zealand national footballer who has played with KR for half a third year, has joined the Star. Hassett is one of the most experienced players for her country, having played 120 international games, most recently in the days of the Algarve Cup where New Zealand lost to Norway 1-2 in the bronze medal match. She has played with New Zealand in the last three World Cups, 2019, 2015 and 2011, and at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Hassett is a 29-year-old midfielder and has played 38 games with the KR's in the Premier League since joining the club in mid-2017.”
There it is. Betsy Hassett has made the switch from KR to Stjarnan, a team that finished four points and two places ahead of her KR squad last year. KR were also the beaten finalists in the cup. Stjarnan actually beat KR 3-1 in the final game of the 2019 season. The weird thing about this transfer is that it first popped up when the last Footy Ferns squad was named for the Algarve Cup and suddenly Betsy Hassett was listed with a new club despite there being nothing out there to confirm that. But it was all just a matter of time. This keeps Hassett in a league where she’s played regularly and played well and should mean she’s at a slightly better team as well, so there ya go.
Up Next: The new season is scheduled to begin in late April although obviously that’s still up in the air at the current moment with all Icelandic football currently postponed
Hunter Ashworth – Pittsburgh Riverhounds (American USL Championship)
Chalk another one up for the USL crew. Hunter Ashworth, a NZ U20 World Cup starting centreback in at the 2017 World Cup, will be doing his thing for the Riverhounds in 2020... as soon as things get back to normality which might be a long while to be fair. But anyway, a one year contract with a club option for 2021, not a terrible place to end up after a four year college career split between the University of Santa Barbara (alongside Noah Billingsley) and the University of San Francisco. He joins Sam Brotherton as a contracted USL player from Aotearoa... though a few of those MLS dudes will spent plenty of time at this level too.
PR head coach Bob Lilley: “Hunter provides a physical presence who is strong in the tackle and very good in the air. He also is a very good passer out of the back and is comfortable with both feet.”
Up Next: Come on, you already know there are no games
Ryan Thomas – PSV Eindhoven (Dutch Eredivisie)
Another bit of news. Ryan Thomas’ next manager will be Roger Schmidt with the German coach unveiled to replaced caretaker Ernest Faber who is seeing out whatever remains of this campaign followed Mark van Bommel’s sacking back in December. That’s Roger Schmidt, not Fritz Schmid by the way. Schmidty is 53 years old and has been coaching in China with Beiking Guoan the last couple years though before that he had decent success with Red Bull Salzburg and Bayer Leverkusen.
At Leverkusen he once got sent off and refused to leave the dugout, causing a delay of eight minutes during which the players were escorted off the pitch. Sounds like a bit of a character then. Hey as long as he recognises the talent he’s got in Thommo then all goods. Schmidt does have a reputation for attacking, energetic and exciting football... and he gave Sadio Mane his debut in European footy. You get the feeling his success with the club might depend a whole lot on what he can do in the transfer window though.
Roger Schmidt: “I had a good feeling with PSV from the first interview. Of course I knew the club professionally, but I had no specific knowledge of philosophy. During the many conversations with Toon Gerbrands and John de Jong I got a good picture of the way of working and I always realised that PSV’s vision of top football suits me. Dutch football has always pleased me and I am really looking forward to working in a completely new environment for me. PSV is completely behind the way of footballs that I stand for. And I support PSV’s demand that the club always play for prizes. My teams play football to win, always.”
Up Next: *shrugs*
Chris Wood - Burnley FC (English Premier League)
Up Next: Not much
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