Flying Kiwis – February 9
Winston Reid - Brentford FC (English Championship)
It’s a debut. Just days after signing with the club on loan, Winston Reid was named on the bench for the game against Bristol City and with a 3-1 lead and only about five minutes left he was chucked on for a sneaky runabout. He then swiftly got the runabout himself by Nakhi Wells as that fella pulled one back late on for BCFC... though that was more about a lazy giveaway by his CB mate Ethan Pinnock and then a deflection off his midfielders that played the Bristol City strikers onside behind him. Little bit of a fluke goal, to be honest. Bristol City had scored in the third minute to take the lead and then they got that late one but other than that it was a pretty convincing effort in the second half from Brentford for the 3-2 win which lifted them up to second on the ladder with a game in hand.
By the way, there was a fair bit about Winston Reid and the club of Brentford FC in last Friday’s Substack newsletter, so sign up for that sucker if you wanna get those bonus yarns straight to the inbox.
Then it was pretty much the same story on the weekend as they travelled to Middlesbrough. Reid came on late for another stretch of the legs after Brentford had rallied for an impressive win despite conceding early. A more impressive win this time, 4-1 away from home. One thing about this team is that there’s no shortage of goals... they won 7-2 against Wycombe the game before Reid joined them which makes it 14 goals in three games... but only one clean sheet in their last ten in all comps. Hence the Reid signing.
Boro were in the lead on three minutes thanks to a goalkeeping error, David Raya having a ‘mare coming out for a cross which bounced into his own goal off himself. But before the end of the first half Ivan Toney had Brentford on the board after combining with Tariqe Fosu for the tap in. Boro nearly retook the lead before the first half was out but Raya made a wonderful save tipping Britt Assombalonga’s shot onto the post then he scrambled away the seconds. Raya also produced bang-bang saves off Assombalonga again and then Marc Bola both with his feet before Brentford took the lead through Vitaly Janelt in the 58th minute. Very tidy first-time finish from the edge of the area.
About six minutes later Mathias Jensen busted through with numbers in support but he didn’t need them as he rounded the keeper to score himself. Then with ten to play Toney bagged a second via an alert header after Brentford had just hit the post. In between those two goals Raya made another fantastic stop... while Jensen also hit the post late on. When it was time for Winston to enter the arena he replaced a midfielder with Brentford settling into a back three to close it out. Brentford moved within one point of league leaders Norwich with this win and that’s with a game in hand... plus this made it 20 Championship games in a row without defeat for The Bees. This team is legit.
Additional yarns with Winston on Brentford's pre-game show from about 33:55 in the video (lasting about ten minutes)...
Up Next: Reading away on Thursday at 8am, then Barnsley at home on Monday at 2am (NZT)
Ria Percival – Tottenham Hotspur (English Super League)
Sometimes you play well and you still lose, even in games you’d expect to win, such was the case for Tottenham this week as a 12th minute strike from Mana Iwabuchi condemned them to a 1-0 loss versus Aston Villa. Absolute banger from Iwabuchi too, just ripped it into the top corner curling away from the keeper the whole time despite a tricky angle and a fair bit of distance. Can’t really complain when you concede one like that.
But you can complain when you otherwise dominate a match and don’t score. Ria Percival moved to right back here with Ashleigh Neville not in the side, and Cho So-hyun (on loan from West Ham – a former teammate of Percival’s at the Hammers... she’s also South Korea’s most capped female footballer which is something else she has in common with RP) starting in midfield alongside Alanna Kennedy. Cho was on debut so it’ll be curious to see how the CM minutes are rotated going forward – Percy did move into midfield for the last half hour as Spurs switched to a back three.
Also, yes, Ria Percival was still rocking the face-mask...
Iwabuchi was a constant menace for Villa but other than her Spurs had by far the better of the first half. Quite a few little chances ranging from set pieces to Angela Addison nearly chipping the keeper from range. But scoring goals has been a problem for them all season, a mere 13 of them in 12 league games and the only two players with more than one are Ash Neville, who wasn’t in the squad, and Alex Morgan, who doesn’t even play for this club any more. So that was an issue. Nearly 70% possession yet very few of their shots even looked like threatening. Cho did have a great chance in the second half but by then Villa had fully established their defensive shield on the way to protecting that 1-0 win – Villa’s first at home all campaign.
On a positive note, Ria Percival has played every WSL minute for Spurs this season. In fact she’s the only Spurs player to have played in all 12 games (and one of only ten remaining ever-present WSL players league-wide – four of whom are goalies). And she leads the comp in tackles won too.
Meanwhile as that game went the wrong way, the other two NZers with WSL clubs had incredible results. Reading beating Manchester United 2-0 while Brighton went even better in busting Chelsea’s record undefeated streak with a 2-1 win. But of course neither of the kiwis played. Erin Nayler was an unused sub and still hasn’t played a league game for the Royals while Rebekah Stott has gone AWOL for Brighton. Presumably injured, she last played in the week before Christmas and hasn’t been in a matchday squad since. All the BHA website had to say was that she was “not available” for the Chelsea game.
Up Next: Spurs vs Bristol City, Thursday at 8.30am (NZT)
Ryan Thomas – PSV Eindhoven (Dutch Eredivisie)
This was a bit of an annoying week with folks not playing. Chris Wood was injured and missed two games (both defeats) for Burnley. Libby Cacace was suspended for yellow card accumulation. Hannah Wilkinson and Jana Radosavljevic both had their Bundesliga games postponed due to bad weather. There were a few other ballers left on the bench. But thankfully Ryan Thomas is here to fill out the pages because despite going off injured last week he was still fit enough to make the subs list for PSV as they faced FC Twente and bounced back from defeat against Feyenoord with a healthy 3-0 win.
Donyell Malen was the hero of the day. He put PSV in front on half an hour as he poked in from close range after the Twente keeper had parried a gentle Eran Zahavi shot/cross into his path which was otherwise gonna evade him. Five minutes later Denzel Dumfries played a super ball back across for Zahavi to double that lead and then some sharp footwork from Malen earned him a double on 53 mins. Convincing stuff from PSV.
Ryan Thomas was then brought on along with Marko van Ginkel (both attacking midfielders replaced at once) with fifteen minutes remaining after a couple nervous moments at the back. Two ball-playing midfielders to help bring some more control to the game... though they got that control back anyway because basically immediately after those subs Luka Ilic was sent off for a studs-up challenge followed by a headbutt. Dude went feral for a second. Malen shoulda had a third but for a useful save. PSV closed it out regardless. A win, three goals, a clean sheet, and a fit Ryan Thomas despite that injury scare a week ago which is key with a few big games coming up.
Up Next: KNVB Cup quarter-final, Ajax vs PSV, Thursday at 9am (NZT)
Katie Rood - Lewes FC (English Championship)
They left it late but they got there in the end, bagging the three points against relegation threatened Coventry with a last-gasp goal and a 1-0 triumph. Katie Rood was a 65th minute substitute as they chased that elusive breakthrough. There’d been an early Simran Jhamat goal disallowed for offside while Jhamat also had a shot tipped onto the crossbar later in the first half, as well as a header saved early in the second. Lewes left wondering how they weren’t already winning when Coventry suddenly had a decent spell of their own midway through the second stanza, just before Rood was introduced, and it was end-to-end the rest of the way. Both keepers with important stops. Rood nearly got one to stick at the far post but after cutting past one defender she was closed down by another as she tried to shoot. Then Emma Jones set up that lovely goal for Georgia Timms – two 85th minute subs combining for the 93rd minute winner.
Up Next: Monday at 3am against London City (NZT)
Meikayla Moore – Liverpool (English Championship)
Chilly. That’s the first word that springs to mind about Liverpool’s snow-covered clash with Charlton. But there are plenty of others too. Initially the hope had been that the Reds would bounce straight back up to the top flight after relegation but that’s proved tougher than they were maybe ready for. Now with an interim manager (Amber Whiteley) but without star forward Rinsola Babajide who has requested a transfer, they drew 2-2 in that game against Charlton due to a late penalty conceded. Came back from going 1-0 down in the 18th minute to score a pair of goals in the last quarter of an hour including what they thought was an 89th minute winner from Ceri Holland, who had earlier hit the post, but then the spot kick killer.
It was a wild, crazy game... but we’re breezing through it because Meikayla Moore was named on the bench and ended up being an unused sub. This was Liverpool’s first game for three weeks and just their second of 2020... it was also the first game that Moore has missed since November having started the previous four in a row. Charlton move off the bottom of the table with this draw while Liverpool sit stranded in fourth.
Up Next: Liverpool vs Coventry on Monday at 3am (NZT)
Callum McCowatt, Elijah Just & Dalton Wilkins - FC Helsingør (Danish Division 1)
First thing to say about FCH is that they’ve made the tragic and unforgivable decision not to sign Sean Bright after his trial spell. He played a couple friendly games during the winter break but they ultimately figured that the 19 year old (who was still 18 when he showed up in Denmark) wasn’t first team material quite yet.
Morten Eskesen, SCH head coach: “He is one we brought in for trial training through our American owners. I’ve assessed that he’s not yet at the level required. He is a great talent, but he has a long way to go. The club is in the process of helping him further at some level. Now I took him with me today in case something should happen for extra squad depth, but the intention is that he will move on to another club. It is something Gellert [Brian Gellert, sports manager] and the American owners are working on. He is a man for the future and it is better for his own development that he moves on because he will not get many minutes here. I would say that he is a 2nd division player.”
That’s quite nice of the bloke actually, maybe we’ll forgive him after all.
Note the mention of the American ownership, that’s a situation that’s been explained a few times but yeah they’re looking to do something similar to what the Ole Academy set up with Torslanda only for all American players to get a window into European footy. Except they don’t seem to have any American players in the squad at the moment... but they do have a trio of kiwis thanks to a relationship they developed with Ole x Torslanda, using that as a touchstone for their own project. Bright is also an Ole grad so that’s where that came from. As for ‘taking him with me today’ that’s in reference to their last friendly against Brondby, a 1-1 draw. McCowatt was the only NZer to feature in that one.
One bloke who FCH have signed however is Liam Jordan. Briefly of Auckland City back in the day, son of Keryn Jordan. After scoring 11 goals from 87 games for HB Køge at this level he’s joined this lot until the end of the season with an eye on a longer contract if he catches fire. Top scorer Jeppe Kjær is out injured for a while so they needed some help there.
Up Next: Back at it away to Kolding IF on Saturday 13 Feb at 6am (NZT)
Claudia Bunge – Melbourne Victory (Australian W-League)
No Annalie Longo again this week as the Victory decided not to risk her against the Newcastle Jets when they’ve got a bye week to follow (before the play these same opponents in the away fixture). But that’s all good when we can have a Claudia Bunge first ever W-League goal instead... not including the own goal she scored a few games back, of course.
Bunge’s goal strike came late in a dominant first half for the Victory. Melina Ayres had gotten them started in the 13th minute with a smooth effort off the left foot that left the keeper stuck in the metaphorical mud and they continued to threaten from there. Bunge so nearly had her goal in the 34th minute as her deep header from a corner was cleared off the line by a defender (then her follow-up blocked) but then she bundled in that 41st minute effort, also coming after she went forward for a corner kick, her crouching header too strong as it squeezed under Nicole Simonsen. And there was no coasting into the break either as Kyra Cooney-Cross ran away to slot in a third a mere minute later.
3-0 up at the half and they should have coasted from there however the Jets scored almost straight away through Tara Andrews in the 48th minute. Bunge had misjudged a header from a long ball and the touch from Kayla Ann Morrison was a mess but super finish from Andrews. Then with fifteen to play Rhianna Pollicina ran onto a lobbed pass over a scrambled defensive line and lifted the ball side-footed over the goalie for 3-2 and this one had officially gotten scary... until Ayres went and scored her second in the 81st minute and the Melbourne Victory claimed it 4-2.
Up Next: Saturday 20 February at 6.05pm away to Newcastle Jets (NZT)
Paige Satchell - Canberra United (Australian W-League)
Two undefeated teams matched up here as Sydney FC hosted Canberra United but only one undefeated team remained at the end of it. And it wasn’t Paige Satchell’s crew. Satchell was named on the bench for the Green Machine and would be brought on at the break for Hayley Taylor-Young on the right wing with the idea to try and change the course of a game that had begun with some nice stuff from Canberra but then Mackenzie Hawkesby gave SFC the lead from close range and Sydney never looked back.
Satchell did get to stretch her legs a couple times... but nah she couldn’t fix the slide. Remy Siemsen appeared to have made it two for Sydney off the crossbar except the ref didn’t think it had crossed the line (the replays suggested otherwise) but 64 minutes in Cortnee Vine converted from just inside the box then a five-minute double from Siemsen made up for that earlier one as Sydney rocked to a 4-0 victory. No shots or chances to mention for Satchell... a pity because this was part of a double-header with the Wellington Phoenix vs Sydney FC A-League game and the Nix coulda used a few lessons in goal-scoring.
Up Next: Sunday at 8.05pm away to Adelaide (NZT)
Sarpreet Singh - Bayern Munich (German Bundesliga)
Look who’s back. Sarpreet Singh named on the bench for Bayern Munich 2 as they hosted Uerdingen in their latest 3. Liga match. He got a decent little run too. BM2 fell behind midway through the first half as Mike Feigenspan put one away. They then made two subs at the half and another two twenty minutes into the second half, Sarpreet Singh a part of the latter duo, as they chased their way back into the contest. Which led to heaps of shots... but no goals, losing 1-0.
Quite a few other fellas in Singh’s situation left the Bayern reserves after last season so they haven’t been at that same standard in trying to defend their championship... they’re currently only four points off bottom, albeit with games in hand it’d be more reflective to say they’re in the mid-table mush. And Singh’s return from loan was not a planned thing so it’s unlikely there’s much room for him in the first team which means that chances are we see him playing at this tier for most of the rest of the season. Which is cool, it’s a level he excelled at a year ago and there’s clearly room for him to play regularly. He’s halfway through that three-year contract now so can’t be wasting time out on loan not hardly playing at all.
Up Next: BM2 vs Zwickau on Thursday at 7am (NZT)
Dan Morgan – Maritzburg United (South African Premier Soccer League)
Cup football. Gotta love it. Maritzburg were drawn against Sekhukune United in the Nedbank Cup round of 32, a lower division team but we all know how cup footy doesn’t play to the rules (remember how Tommy Smith’s Colchester fared in the FA Cup this season). This was the top team in the second tier up against a team that’s only off bottom of the top tier thanks to goal difference. But Dan Morgan was named amongst a Team of Choice back three and played ninety minutes so that automatically improved their chances (well, sort of... they’ve not won a PSL game in which Morgan has started this season but to be fair they’ve only won two in total so that’s not saying much. Morgan came off the bench in both wins).
Maritzburg have been awful this season so probably to be expected that they started this cup game looking nervous and inviting some unnecessary pressure upon themselves. It wasn’t actually until the second half that they settled down and took a hold of things. A few subs helping matters instantaneously as a long throw into the box by the fella Morgz 48 seconds after the kickoff bounced around a little and then was thumped into the roof of the net by Tebogo Tlolane for the lead. Those HT changes saw Morgan move out to fullback and he was creating chances all over the show. There was a cut-back to the edge of the box, an inswinging free kick delivery, then in the 70th minute a big ol’ lifted ball into the box which Sibusiso Hlubi ran onto and then somehow (accidentally?) managed to bring the ball down and slip it past the keeper for 2-1 in one motion. The cheeky up and under, aye? Sekhukune United pulled a goal back in stoppage time from an uncleared corner but Maritzburg survived to advance.
Elsewhere in South Africa, no sign of Myer Bevan for a little while. He was just starting to make an impact for TS Galaxy (who were knocked out of the Nedbank Cup on penalties this week) but there’s a fair few strikers vying for places in that squad and that’s seen Bevan, who remember missed the first few months as he awaited his work permit, drop out of the last couple matchday squads. Here’s the club’s twitter page being nice and positive about it...
While as for Andre De Jong, it still seems like he’s on the outer though he hasn’t left the club yet. AmaZulu manager Benni McCarthy (once a teammate of Ryan Nelsen’s at Blackburn) had this to say about his quest to trim the squad into a more workable size:
Benni McCarthy: “To be honest with you I can't remember the list [of players to be offloaded] because I've done the list from the first week or two, I don't have a list in front of me to know which players were on that list. For me it's also for respect for players that you don't want to make it public, so I'm looking to offload players because working with a big squad is just frustrating and hard, and you don't get out the best of the players. You can't focus on every player because the squad is too big, the quality gets missing because you can't pay attention to details. So yeah there's a big list of players that asked to be released to seek opportunities and that is true, but the names I can't disclose with you.”
Up Next: Maritzburg vs TTM on Saturday at 4am (NZT)
Nik Tzanev – AFC Wimbledon (English League One)
Annoying happenings with the Dons as keeper Connal Trueman, who had been keeping Tzanev on the bench all season, was recalled from his loan by Birmingham but instead of promoting Tzanev they’ve signed a fella on loan from Reading: Sam Walker. Who is 29 years old and has played 250 times in the Football League.
Walker has signed for the remainder of the season and has already played six league games but has conceded 14 goals in those six games and the Dons have won just one them. Tzanev has taken a step forward this season emerging as the backup/cup keeper featuring five times this season (although Walker played in a 3-1 loss to Oxford in the EFL Trophy quarters last week) but yeah apparently not yet at that stage where the gaffer is happy to go without a more experienced starter. Though if Walker keeps leaking goals then you never know.
Up Next: AFCW vs Rochdale at 4am on Sunday (NZT)
Tommy Smith – Colchester United (English League Two)
Solid little 0-0 draw there against Leyton Orient. Tommy Smith captained the side with regular skipper Harry Pell finishing off his suspension for a red card a couple weeks back and he did a fine job marshalling the troops, winning headers, blocking shots, feeding the ball forward, etc. as this one petered out into a tame goalless affair.
New signing Frank Nouble hit the crossbar from close range for Colchester in the first half. Almost too close to the line to be able to get over it however his manager insisted afterwards that the ball had secretly crossed the line as hit hit the ground and bounced back up. Not sure about that one. That was the only real chance that the U’s created all game, who had to survive a couple half-chances for Orient down the stretch for the clean sheet and a point. Makes it four games in a row that Colchester have failed to score in but the defence has at least earned them a couple away points during that slump.
Up Next: Colchester vs Mansfield Town, Sunday at 4am (NZT)
Ali Riley - Orlando Pride (American National Women’s Soccer League)
From the Orlando Sentinel: “Despite their limited time on the pitch together, Riley said last season’s experience reinforced the bonds between the core group of Pride players. After landing in Orlando days before international travel ceased, the defender spent months isolated in a city she didn’t know with teammates she’d mostly just met. The experience forced her to bond with new and old teammates alike. She spent hours kayaking with former defender Shelina Zadorsky and began plans for a vegan cookbook with current defender Toni Pressley.
‘You just become so close, like family,’ Riley said. ‘This was probably one of the hardest things that’s happened in my career... It’s even different than an injury when they can give you a time when you are expected to return to play. We had no idea when we would be playing again.’”
Ali Riley has been an Orlando Pride player since February 2020 but still hasn’t played for the club after they pulled out of the Challenge Cup last year due to covid stuff and then Riley obvs went out on loan to Sweden with her old club Rosengård where her partner (and their dog) lives. Gonna be a pretty cool story when she finally gets out there, Riley seems like somebody who is genuinely grateful to be able to have this chance after it was taken away from her last year. Especially as the once upon a time Rookie of the Year in the previous incarnation of the NWSL (the Women’s Professional Soccer league) was forced to leave America for Europe against her will early in her career when that competition folded. She speaks of that a little in that article. Still waiting to hear about the release date for that vegan cookbook though.
Up Next: NWSL schedule should be released any day now...
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