Flying Kiwis – February 14
Liberato Cacace – Empoli (Italian Serie A)
For the first time since December, Empoli are out of the relegation zone. They’ve been experiencing a funky uptick of results since Davide Nicola took over as manager, with the latest being a 3-1 win over last-placed Salernitana. Cashing in when they need to. Nicola is a former manager of Salernitana, famously keeping them from relegation a few years back. Last year they fired him, then rehired him two days later, then fired him again within a month. Now he’s trying to keep Empoli up at his old club’s expense.
For an important game like this, of course Liberato Cacace was going to be starting. He ended up doing a full game despite Giuseppe Pezzella having returned from his long term injury to make the bench these past few matches (Pezzella had been starting ahead of Cacace earlier in the term). The switch to wing-backs under Nicola seems to have been a positive thing for LC, who was heavily involved up that left flank from the get-go against Sals.
This was a rare game in which Empoli could maintain control of the ball and the field position and most of both were spent on Cacace’s side, with the kiwi left-back whipping over a few tasty crosses that were headed off target. Mostly, though, he was there to support his winger Nicolò Cambiaghi who was hanging wide and doing funky stuff like setting up the opening goal with a deflected cross that looped over the goalie for the 23rd minute own goal lead.
Cacace copped some friendly fire when a teammate stumbled over his leg during the first half. That required brief physio treatment... and was one of several instances of Empoli lads hurting each other accidentally. Keeper also barged into one of his own defenders later on, while a couple of attackers fell on each other challenging for the same header. All were fine. No dramas.
That Empoli keeper, Elia Caprile, didn’t have much to do for most of this thing but he did make one top save late in the first half. Keeping everyone on their toes. Cacace’s positioning put him into shooting range a few times with two blocked efforts before a sweet curler that drifted narrowly wide after about 65 minutes. Problem was, Salernitana equalised soon after that with a super header from a cross that had come from Cacace’s edge (albeit it was the winger’s responsibility – Empoli’s wing-backs tend to tuck inside while wingers mark wingers). But not to worry, as Empoli immediately made a couple of substitutions. One of those was new signing M'Baye Niang who scored an 88th minute penalty on debut, another was Matteo Cancellieri who scored a runaway goal in stoppage time for the 3-1 win.
That’s now four games without defeat for Empoli. Slowly rising up the ladder. Just got to keep this going for another 14 games and they’ll be sweet – although they are still the lowest scoring team in Serie A. Cacace has started two of those four games, playing at least 30 minutes off the bench in the other two. He’s been contributing. That first goal/assist surely isn’t far away.
Up Next: Monday at 3am against Fiorentina (NZT)
CJ Bott - Leicester City (English Super League)
CJB: “Coming back from injury isn’t easy, but I think having such a busy period of fixtures, I knew I was fit and ready to go but not having too much time between games has boded quite well for me. I like getting back into the swing of things and having that challenge quite early on. Against Manchester City, it was the wake-up call and the game I needed to get back and I know I’m ready to go.”
There were two sets of cup rounds during the past week. Leicester City did not make the Conti Cup quarters but several other New Zealand players did. Unfortunately they’re mostly all at the Oceania Olympic Qualifying tournament with the national team, so for example there was no Anna Leat for Aston Villa (who went with their usual number one Daphne von Domselaar) against Brighton. Good news there is that, after a 1-1 draw, Aston Villa won the penalty shootout 2-0... with DVD saving three spot kicks and seeing another miss the target. Villa had two misses of their own and still progressed.
Leat will be available for the semi-finals next month, where AVFC will face either London City Lionesses or Arsenal. That game got postponed due to the weather and will be played tomorrow morning (Thursday 14 Feb NZT)... which doesn’t make a difference for Grace Neville who would’ve loved the chance to play against her old youth team, but it’s good news for Paige Satchell who made her return from injury off the bench in a 2-0 loss to Liverpool in the FA Cup over the weekend. Satch got the last five mins off the bench, her first appearance of the calendar year. Liverpool scored early and looked comfortable throughout though... and Arsenal will be an even trickier task.
Also in the Conti Cup we had Sunderland losing 3-0 to Chelsea with no Katie Kitching. Plus while Ria Percival isn’t in that Football Ferns squad, she also doesn’t currently play for Tottenham Hotspur who lost 1-0 to Manchester City. Which brings us to to the FA Cup fifth round where CJ Bott and Leicester City faced second-tier Birmingham City and found themselves in a bit of a mess after Missy Goodwin scored an own goal inside of two minutes from kickoff. Nah, chill, there was nothing to worry about...
Yep, after that OG concession they levelled up on 19’ through Janice Cayman who polished off a beautiful team move that started with a charging run forward from CJB. Shannon O’Brien put scored four minutes later, and although LCFC conceded again after CJB got tackled in the other half trying to repeat the dose, leading to a counter attack, they swiftly restored their lead heading into half-time via O’Brien again. Saori Takarada headed in from a free kick (59’) before Deanne Rose buried another (66’) to make it safe. Bott was subbed off with quarter of an hour remaining, already on a yellow card. Aileen Whelan (82’) added another goal anyway. 6-2 to Leicester City who progress to face Liverpool in the quarters (a very good draw dodging the elite sides).
Up Next: Home vs Bristol City at 4am on Monday (NZT)
Ria Percival – Tottenham Hotspur (English Super League)
Meanwhile Ria Percival got her first ninety-minute show for Crystal Palace, playing as a left-back in a necessarily defensive formation designed to contain and frustrate the powerhouse of Chelsea. Not a first eleven Chelsea team... but their reserves are better than most clubs can muster so that hardly makes a difference. Especially when up front they had Mayra Ramirez, the Colombian striker who was recently signed for a new world record fee (£426k)... a record which lasted about two weeks before Bay FC coughed up £685k to sign Racheal Kundananji.
With a timely understanding of the concept of narrative, Mayra Ramirez would eventually score the winner with a delicious heel-flick finish. However it took until the 82nd minute for that to happen. Palace hardly attempted a shot in anger but they defended with great heart and organisation – with Percival heavily in amongst that making six clearances and four interceptions. Got to admit that Chelsea’s goal did feel inevitable when it finally arrived though – they’d already hit the crossbar and had another disallowed in the ten minutes prior. Courageous effort from second-tier Crystal Palace but against a team with deep Champions League pedigree that wasn’t going to be enough. Still, another milestone ticked off by Ria Percival at her new loan club. Now it’s back to the promotion race.
Up Next: Monday at 3am, Crystal Palace vs Blackburn Rovers (NZT)
Ollie Whyte - FC Haka (Finnish Veikkaugsliiga)
Another week and another Ollie Whyte contribution. This time he got himself on the scoresheet, albeit in a 2-1 defeat against SJK, following on from his two assists last match. Whyte’s goal was a skilfully converted finish to tie things up with five minutes to go... only for his team to concede a penalty immediately afterwards. To be fair, it was a very soft decision. So it goes.
Haka have a win, a draw, and a loss from their first three (out of five) Liigacup matches. They currently sit second in their group and next they face Ilves who are first with three wins from three. Haka have scored four goals and Whyte has been involved in three of them despite being one of a small handful of players (all attack-minded folks) on trial with the club during what is effectively a glorified preseason competition. At least one of the other trialists has already parted ways with the team so Whyte’s hanging in there. As he ought to with that level of influence. Frankly it’s about time they gave him a damn contract.
Up Next: Saturday at 4.30am against Ilves in gameweek four of the Liigacup (NZT)
Callum McCowatt - Silkeborg IF (Danish Superliga)
The Atlantic Cup is hardly a title that’ll live long in the minds of the supporters. It’s a winter break tournament held in Portugal, with 11 teams from a bunch of different countries only playing three games each with no final/knockout rounds. The competition aspect is just a gentle excuse to get teams back into the swing of things leading into the resumption of their league seasons. But if you’re in it, you might as well win it... and that’s what Silkeborg did.
A 3-2 win against Göteborg, a 3-0 win against KI, a 2-1 win against Elfsborg. And, as you can see, Callum McCowatt scored in two of those games – with the opener in the KI match and the winner against Elfsborg. He was in and out of the starting line-up but he made things happen either way. Two very slick goals. They face the defending champs in their first competitive game back so fingers-crossed there’s more where that came from.
Up Next: Silkeborg vs FC Copenhagen at 4am on Monday (NZT)
Meikayla Moore – Glasgow City (Scottish Premier League)
Captain Mouse, how do you like that? Lots of changes for a midweek clash against Hamilton Accies left the armband unclaimed... giving Meikayla Moore the chance to lead the side out. Turned out to be another simple win as they bounced back from their Scottish Cup defeat with three more points in the SWPL. They were only 1-0 up at the break but then ran away with it in the second stanza for a 6-0 victory.
Following that, Moore got a rest against Montrose Ladies... where they were actually 1-0 down after 20 minutes. They managed to level things back up before half-time and then again scored a bunch in the second half for a 5-1 to thoroughly shrug off that early scare. That goal was Montrose’s only shot on target. Moore played the last five minutes off the bench at right back.
A six-point week, can’t complain. What’s more is that Rangers were held 0-0 by Partick Thistle on the weekend which is only the second match in which they’ve dropped points this season, allowing both Celtic and Glasgow City to close the gap slightly. Rangers are on 56 points, Celtic on 52, GC on 50. There are two more rounds before the league splits into top and bottom so those top three teams will meet several more times before this championship is decided.
Up Next: Motherwell vs GC at 5am on Monday (NZT)
Matthew Garbett - NAC Breda (Dutch Eerste Divisie)
Wait, wasn’t this bloke supposed to be injured? When he hurt his shoulder a fortnight ago it was said that he could miss up to a month of action... but some folks are built different. Garbs was back on the bench for the visit of FC Eindhoven in half that time. Not only that, but an injury to Roy Kuijpers in the midfield meant that Garbs was out there in just the 27th minute.
Dominik Janosek had already given Breda a fifth minute lead thanks to a lovely direct free kick curled top corner. The same bloke would later double that lead, a few mins before HT. A fine position to find themselves in as they chase points in hopes of promotion... but if you’ve been following NAC Breda closely this season then you’ll not be surprised they found a way to bottle it.
Eindhoven had clawed things back throughout the second half, leading to goals on 76’ and 84’. Both coming about from being stuck too deep in defensive mode. Another thing you won’t be surprised about is that after the equaliser there was fan trouble, with plastic debris thrown onto the pitch causing the referee to temporarily take the players off (as they’re instructed to do). But they returned to finish things and Matthew Garbett was so close to being the hero when a cross found its way to him at the back post on the bounce. Alas, he side-foot volleyed it into the crossbar. Huge chance deep into stoppage time. Should probably have buried that. 2-2 final score. Oh well, onto the next.
Up Next: Telstar vs NAC Breda on Saturday at 8am (NZT)
Jay Herdman - Vancouver Whitecaps (American Major League Soccer)
Spot that Herdman on the bench. Both Herdman and fellow academy lad Jeevan Badwal were given short-term contracts in order to fill out the squad for their CONCACAF Champions Cup first round tie against Tigres UANL of Mexico. As expected, both were then included on the bench for the first leg in Vancouver. This was the first time that Jay Herdman has been involved with the Whitecaps senior team on a matchday.
Neither of them got onto the pitch so Herdman’s debut will have to wait. Perhaps they were never really going to, though the situation didn’t exactly call for it either. Vancouver took the lead through Damir Kreilach on 32’ with his team’s only shot on target all game (not for lack of trying, to be fair), a little against the run of play but that’s how these ones go. They seemed to have scored a second on 55’ until the VAR took it off them for one of those phantom offsides. Then Andre-Pierre Gignac scored a beaut of a free kick in the 88th minute just as Vancouver fans would have been starting to think about a first leg lead. Instead they had to settle for a 1-1 draw. All to play for in the second leg in Mexico.
Up Next: CONCACAF Champions Cup first-round second-leg away to Tigres UANL on Thurs at 2pm (NZT)
Kees Sims - GAIS (Swedish Allsvenskan)
In the last friendly before the Svenska Cupen group stage begins, GAIS were able to give their depth fellas a decent run around in a 3-0 win against Oddevold. That meant Kees Sims getting a start and playing 45 minutes. That means he’s gotten minutes in both friendlies that he was available for after his transfer. Encouraging signs. Will be curious to see if he features in any of the cup games.
Up Next: Elfsborg vs GAIS on Monday at 1am to begin the Svenska Cupen (NZT)
Tyler Bindon - Reading (English League One)
Weird to think it, but after the desperate shambles that Tyler Bindon found himself in at Reading FC a month or two ago... suddenly things are going alright for them. They cleared up some (some) of their financial woes with January player sales, which also cleared the path for Bindon to become a starting CB again, and now they’re grinding out results like they haven’t done all term. It was last week that they jumped out of the drop zone. This week they’ve gone surging into the mid-table.
The 2-0 win over Charlton on the weekend was the big one. Taking points off a fellow relegation battler, serving new Charlton boss Nathan Smith a defeat in his first game. Reading were really good. Bindon had them steady at the back while they created several chances up the other end, with only some inspired goalkeeping denying them. However the denials could only last so long. Femi Azeez scored on 66’ and 76’ to secure the points. There was one brilliant Bindon tackle to prevent a 1v1 situation – he’s got a boyish face but know that TB definitely does not hold back from a challenge. He’s a menace in the aerial duels too.
They were then so close to making it three wins in a row. Up against Fleetwood Town in the midweek it was looking like a casual nil-all draw for the longest time until suddenly Lewis Wing scored a belter of a goal on 74’ and Reading began thinking about victory. Yet having looked sturdy at the back for most of the match, that extra layer of desperation saw the home side snatch an equalised in the 90+5th minute. 1-1 final score. Unable to quite hold on... but still a decent point that keeps them undefeated in six matches. Bindon was booked after 21 minutes yet otherwise looked as calm and composed as he has done throughout that unbeaten streak.
Up Next: Portsmouth vs Reading at 4am on Sunday (NZT)
Jamie Searle – Forest Green Rovers (English League Two)
It’s been an odd first season for Searle at FGR. Brought in as a backup goalie, he played regularly in the cup competitions yet they seem to have gone out of their way not to play him in the league. When Luke Daniels was injured earlier in the campaign, they brought in James Belshaw on a seven-day emergency loan that ended up lasting a couple of months. Right before Troy Deeney was sacked they loaned in youngster Tommy Simkin, but after Deeney was sacked they cut that deal short.
So it was that Searle found himself back on the bench for the 4-0 loss to Mansfield Town... when Luke Daniels got injured making a save midway through the second half, immediately calling for medical attention and having to be stretchered off. Sounds like it was a bad gash. He had to be substituted and with that came a league debut for Jamie Searle at FGR. Rejoice!
They had been 1-0 down since the 11th minute but were battling away. Take this with a grain of salt but their manager reckoned they were “the better team for 60 minutes by a mile”. Sadly, Searle got beaten by a laser at his near post on 68’ and that broke the spirits. A similar goal followed from a cut-back. Then an emphatic fourth right at the end, also from a cut-back though this one was blasted high into the net. It kinda fell to pieces after Searle came one, though manager Steve Cotterill was quick to (rightfully) defend his sub keeper due to the quality of those finishes.
FGR manager Steve Cotterill: “I don’t think anybody who would have been in goal would have saved any of them, they were that close. Where they have got the ball and rolled it into the box, all of a sudden they have got runners and those finishes were clinical. We got into the same sort of areas with Matty Stevens in the first-half and we didn’t have enough runners off of him so we can’t expect him just to do it by himself.”
Of course, Forest Green being Forest Green they quickly went about signing another emergency loan fella for the midweek game that followed. 20-year-old Vicente Reyes, a Chilean-American prospect on the books of Norwich City, was brought in and given the start ahead of Searle for the game against Barrow. FGR won that match 2-1 to give them a jolt of much-needed positivity following a 15-game winless drought. Reyes didn’t do much. His distribution was astray, mostly because he kept going long, and he didn’t make any notable saves. But he still got to play ahead of Jamie Searle.
That means that there have now been three different loan goalies to start ahead of Searle this season, despite him largely impressing in his cup matches (including some shootout glory and a man of the match). At least James Belshaw was a seasoned veteran. That made sense, especially because he ended up playing ten league games. Tommy Simkin was less acceptable but in fairness he is an England youth international who’d started a game for Stoke in the Championship a few weeks earlier. But this latest fella’s only previous senior football was four games for Braintree Town in the English sixth tier (the same level as Henry Gray is currently doing mean things at with Chelmsford City). Not having that. Make it make sense, please.
Up Next: Crawley Town vs Forest Green at 4am on Sunday (NZT)
Matt Dibley-Dias - Fulham (English Premier League)
Steadily building back that fitness, MDD has played twice now for the Fulham U21s since his injury. He set up the goal in a 1-1 draw against Burnley. Played the first half of that one. Then he got a full hour in a 2-1 loss to Blackburn Rovers – captaining the side in each of those matches. That’s what we want to see. Still plenty of time to sneak a Premier League debut before the campaign is over.
Up Next: Norwich U21s vs Fulham U21s, Saturday at 8am (NZT)
George Stanger – Ayr United (Scottish Championship)
Stanger may have gotten sent off last week, against Alex Greive’s Dundee United, but this was a cup game so his suspension didn’t count. Only applies to the competition he got sent off in. Which is convenient because Ayr United had a Scottish Cup game against Scottish big dogs Rangers to play and this way Stanger got to play the full thing in central defence.
The match began with Stanger pumping a long ball into the other half after it had been sent back his way after the kickoff. They didn’t spend much more time in Rangers’ territory though. RFC hit the post inside of 90 seconds and took the lead after 10 minutes. Didn’t add a second until the 76th but there was never much doubt. Although Fabio Silva, who scored the second, might have been sent off for crashing into Stanger whilst already on a yellow card. Ayr’s manager went off on one about that decision, also praising his team for how well they defended against a far more lucrative outfit.
Up Next: Sunday away to Airdrieonians at 4am, though presumably GS will be suspended for that (NZT)
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