Flying Kiwis – April 5
Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)
It’s a good week for kiwi footballers when Winston Reid is talking all over the media. Okay, mostly only to West Ham TV but all the same, it means he’s playing and being influential. However he might wanna be a little more influential because his manager’s getting slightly pissed at his defence:
Slaven Bilic: “Okay, fair enough but it’s no good if you always need to score three goals to win. I’m not talking that you can win the championship or whatever with winning 1-0, 1-0, 1-0 because it is not only about your defence, it is also about the opponent. But you can’t always score three goals.”
They didn’t lose, it’s just that they should have won. Up against a Crystal Palace team without a league win all year (yes, you read that right), both teams may be getting excited about their FA Cup chances but each still has plenty to play for in the Premier League as well. Palace can still be relegated, while West Ham entered this game a point out of the Champions League places.
Winston held firm at centre back, alongside Angelo Ogbonna. Judging by the recent exploits of Palace (managed by a former Hammers boss in Alan Pardew, of course), they might have hoped for a quiet day’s work but 15 minutes in they were behind. Ogbonna hauled down Yannick Bolasie and the ball curled in by Mamadou Sakho was flapped at by Adrian in goal. He should have left it or slapped it wide, and he probably had second thoughts in the act, but ultimately it fell tamely for Damien Delaney to nod in for 1-0. A rare set piece concession for WHU but only minutes later they were level. Quick feet from Michael Antonio and Manuel Lanzini found some space in the box to sidefoot in the equalizer.
29 minutes in and Reid picked up a yellow for a tackle that would have pleased Sonny Bill Williams back in his shoulder-charging NRL days. Payet was dispossessed on the edge of the centre-circle by a physical Mile Jedinak challenge but that ol’ Aussie vs NZ rivalry was running strong and Winston one-upped him by dropping the shoulder right into Yannick Bolasie as he laid the ball off and looked to turn. Winnie had a little moan at the ref but the yellow card was out before Bolasie even hit the ground. Needless to say the Upton Park crowd weren’t happy and that relationship with ref Mark Clattenburg would not change.
West Ham survived a Jason Puncheon lob at the far post before the break, and they then took the lead through something truly special. Not even a seven man wall (count ‘em) can stop Dimitri Payet from a dead ball. Absolutely incredible, look at the swing he gets! Richard Hadlee never got swing like that. The keeper (Wayne Hennessey) was right there and he never even moved. 2-1 at half time.
A shocking backpass from Cheikhou Kouyate almost cost the Hammers their lead but Aaron Cresswell was able to hook Sakho’s shot off the line with the keeper out of the picture. Nearly some calamitous stuff. Kouyate then made himself the villain again with a poor touch leading to a lunging challenge on sub Dwight Gayle, earning him a red card. Or rather he made the ref the villain, in the eyes of the West Ham faithful. The foot was raised, maybe a bit harsh all the same.
Palace then began to back themselves. Sakho shot wide at the far post. And then the moment that counted: Soaree sent in a supple curling cross, which Winston couldn’t quite reach. It fell at Ogbonna’s fett but the Italian’s clearance was hacked and it hit Winston on the leg off balance. Gayle pounced and made it 2-2. That was the way it ended, West Ham dropping a place to sixth, although still well in the running for continental footy.
Winston Reid: “Europe is still within our reach. There are seven games to play so there is still loads of football to be played, and it is not like we are playing poorly or anything. We are maybe lacking a little bit of sharpness – and a little bit of luck.”
Fair enough, Winston. Keep on the bright side, but how did you feel about that red card to Kouyate?
“You always get frustrated with decisions, but at the end of the day the referee has made it and then that's it, you can't do anything about it, you just have to get on with it. “
Yeah, so it goes, aye buddy? Just a shame you couldn’t hold on to those points.
“Of course, if we had four points more we'd be a lot further up, but it wasn't the case to be. Obviously, when the team's playing really well it's unfortunate not to pick up those extra points.
True, very true. Still, there’s a big game against Man Utd coming up in the FA Cup, you must really want to progress and try get yourself into a Wembley final, right?
“Obviously, we have a big game against Man United at home, which we want to progress and go to Wembley, and try to get ourselves into a final. The possibility is there of course, but it's hard work and we'll have to wait and see. I think everyone can see the team's playing well. It's not like we're playing poorly, we just need to maybe sharpen up a little bit and hopefully better results will come.”
Yeah well like you said, it’s not like you’re playing poorly or anything.
As well as all that, Winston was busy during the international break playing in Mark Noble’s testimonial. He scored a goal too. Look like fun up against a bunch of old teammates and he didn’t even get injured.
Up Next: Home to Arsenal, 11.45pm Saturday (NZT)
Chris Wood – Leeds United (English Championship)
The good news: Chris Wood made his awaited return to the starting lineup.
The bad news: Leeds lost again.
Against a team that the Whites knocked out of the FA Cup in the third round, Rotherham United (who recently beat Smithy’s Ipswich despite being generally rubbish), Wood was given the nod in a two-man attack alongside Mirco Antenucci who had been in top form while Wood was on the physio table.
Sadly he still looks a long way from match sharpness, which is perhaps understandable. In 90 minutes, though, he took three shots, one on target, winning a number of aerial challenges and playing a couple nice passes in there too. Not a horrible return, just not as fresh as he can be.
But the team situation matters in these things and somehow Leeds were able to dominate the game with two-thirds of possession and 26 total shots on the road… yet still lose. The first real chance they had came from Woody holding it up and laying on to Anty, who shot at the keeper. However 15 minutes in and Leeds went behind, a cross from the left looking like it’d be dealt with by Charlie Taylor but it wasn’t. Lee Frecklington slotted it in.
The game seemed to swing after an hour as Leeds were busy hustling for an equaliser. A couple aerial duels, scrappy stuff, and up went Gaetano Berardi and Matt Derbyshire. Derbs won it for Rotherham but he looked to lead with the elbow and Berardi hit the deck in furious pain. Literally hit the deck, he was thumping his fist against the turf in agony. His face was soon drenched in blood and out came a red card to match for Derbyshire. With that boost, Leeds began to press with more confidence. A wily Antenucci run and shot drew a quality save, before a deflected strike from distance courtesy of sub Luke Murphy had it all level with ten to play.
But this is Leeds and they still found a way, with a man advantage, to throw it away. Giuseppe Bellusci made an absolute hash of a lobbed ball to the far post with a minute left in the 90. Keeper Marco Silvestri was left in an unenviable position and a trailing hand brought down the striker and earned him a red. Bellusci took the gloves with all the subs used and an unlikely opportunity to make immediate amends. He didn’t. Greg Halford buried it and Rotherham won 2-1.
“United are badly short of striking options
Souleymane Doukara’s eight-game ban for biting has quiet clearly given Steve Evans one less option upfront but the need for more fire-power was nonetheless highlighted in no uncertain terms on Saturday. Chris Wood still looks some way off the pace and rarely looks like scoring at present. Mirco Antenucci does look like scoring but he remains out of contract in the summer. Other than that, United basically have Lee Erwin who has yet to prove he is good enough for the first team. Then really that’s it. New options are badly needed in the summer.”
Former Leeds striker Noel Whelan was less generous talking after the game to BBC Radio Leeds:
“Look I’ve never said he is Tony Yeboah. I have never said he is that good. But we’ve got him, we’ve paid decent money for him. We’ve not seen anything near what is the best from him, in the form and scoring goals. If I had my choice of strikers would Woody be my first? No, he wouldn’t. But we’ve got him and he is our main striker. He is the one that has got to take it on, the pressure on the shoulders, and deal with it.”
Here’s a bit of that man Yeboah for ya. Take note, Woody, these are your expectations apparently:
Up Next: Home to QPR at 6.45am Weds then away to Burnley at 11.30pm Saturday (NZT)
Tommy Smith – Ipswich Town (English Championship)
It’s starting to look now like the sun is setting on Ipswich’s playoff chances. They haven’t been able to put together that run of wins that they need to climb the ladder and so they’ve slipped to five points off the playoffs with seven games left to play.
The latest effort was actually a really good one. Smithy and the lads kept a clean sheet away at Wolves, our dude putting in a fair shift with four clearances, a couple blocks and an interception. Not an overly heavy workload but Wolves only had two shots on target all game so no worries there. Unfortunately at the other end it was a similar story. Mick McCarthy praised the team’s performance afterwards but bemoaned that they couldn’t test the keeper more often. Liam Feeney smashed one off the base of the post in the first half. Freddie Sears shot one straight at the goalie after cutting in on his right boot. And then Brett Pitman had probably the best chance of the game, picking off a defender as he tried to shield the ball out but instead of squaring it he tried to chip the keeper from a tight angle and it was parried up and cleared. A couple times in the second half they were able to threaten from crosses but nothing came of it. 0-0 the final score.
Tommy Smith: “I thought we played quite well against Wolves. We weren’t happy with our performance against Rotherham so over the last couple of weeks we’ve been working hard on trying to play better football. We also worked on having that ruthless streak, which we need to have, but unfortunately we couldn’t find the back of the net today. We had the chances to win the game, but I think it’s important in these kind of games that you don’t get beat. It’s important to stay resolute and the worst you’ll come out with is the 0-0. If we can keep on keeping clean sheets, we have the players that can score the goals so I’m sure they will come soon.”
In other news, Mick McCarthy has been linked with the vacant Aston Villa job – nothing too substantial with Nigel Pearson the favourite, but apparently he’s tied for fourth in the bookie odds. David Moyes and Hull’s Steve Bruce are ahead of him. Tommy Smith thinks that Mick leaving Ipswich would be something awful:
Tommy Smith: “We’ve improved every season he’s been here so far. It would be a massive loss for us, but hopefully he’ll stay. I know the squad of players are all backing him to stay and there’s not a lot we can do about it, to be honest. We’ve just got to crack on and do our jobs and hope that he does the same. His career in management speaks for itself. It’s no surprise to us that he has been linked with jobs, he’s been linked to jobs previously while he’s been with us. A manager of his calibre is always going to be linked with jobs.”
Ah, and then we have the age old April Fool’s Day prank. Smithy had himself on the end of one this year, which he seemed to see the funny side of. For the record, his birthday actually was on March 3 but he turned 26, not 34. Look, he’s a defender. It’s hard to tell sometimes.
And speaking of young guns, NZ youth international Monty ‘Python’ Patterson returned from his long injury layoff with a goal in a 4-2 win for the Ipswich U21s. Just what we wanna see.
Up Next: Wednesday 6.45am vs Charlton and Sunday 2.00am vs Brentford (NZT)
Marco Rojas – FC Thun (Swiss Super League)
Marco was back in the starting XI this week, playing 72 minutes in a valuable Thun victory. At home against Grasshoppers, Thun were unbeaten in four games but each of them had been draws. So after Ridge Munsy went close in the first half, firing over the crossbar, it was a bit of a frustration to go into the break at 0-0. Especially after Philippe Senderos (!) kicked out at Simone Rapp. But it didn’t take long into the second half for Munsy to get himself hacked down in the box and he stepped up to convert the penalty himself. Ten minutes later the away team equalised. Keeper Faivre made a good save from a counter attack but the ball fell back to the striker Florian Kamberi, who fed Munas Dabbur for a stabbed finish into the bottom corner.
It was a game in which Rojas didn’t find himself very involved. He struggled to make an impact and was subbed off after 72 minutes. The game dragged on and it looked like a fifth consecutive draw was on the cards… until the first minute of injury time when a rapid counter attack ended with Rapp gorgeously dabbing the ball over the keeper for the late winner. 2-1, Thun sitting sixth with ten more games to play.
Up Next: Sion vs Thun, 11.45am Sunday (NZT)
Ryan Thomas – PEC Zwolle (Dutch Eredivisie)
It’s gonna be a while yet until Thommo’s fit again after what he did to his knee a couple months back. He’ll get there, hopefully before the end of the season, but in the meantime he’s had plenty of time to negotiate the specifics in that new contract he’s been working on. Well, it’s all signed now, Thomas is a contracted PEC Zwoller until 2019. Here are some google translated quotes for ya:
RT: "I feel a lot of confidence from the club and PEC is still in development. When I recover from my injury I want to be important again for PEC Zwolle."
Technical Director Gerard Nijkamp: "That a player of this calibre in Zwolle continues to play is both good for the club and for the development of the player."
Thomas hasn’t played since the end of November and without him it’s been pretty up and down. Zwolle’s last six games have alternated between wins and losses and they haven’t gone three games without a loss at any time since September. Five games are left in the season, Zwolle are ninth but only two points off seventh – the bottom Europa League playoff place. Still plenty to play for.
Up Next: 6.00am Saturday at home to Roda JC (NZT)
The Kiwi Trio – GAIS (Swedish Superettan)
There was a pretty interesting article the other day in the Gothenburg Post in Sweden on the three NZers that all signed with GAIS this season. We’ve written about them before, Steven Old, Craig Henderson and Dan Keat. Steven Old is the captain there now, apparently. The thing’s in Swedish so you’ll need a little google translate (the undercover MVP of Flying Kiwis) but there are some top quotes. Here are a few highlights:
Steven Old: “Apart from New Zealand, I don’t think there is a single team in the world with three New Zealanders”
Henderson and Keat first played together when they were six, so this is almost like full circle for them. It’s also a bit weird, Henderson’s wife lives in America while Old’s lives in the UK.
SO: “My wife lives in London so we meet about once a month, depending on our schedules”
Old also suggested that one of his best traits as captain is that he tells it how it is rather than holding those things back. He lived up to that at the end of the article when the writer inexplicably asked the trio their thoughts on the flag referendum. Old told it just as he felt it:
“I did not vote but was pleased that the new flag was voted down. I thought it looked like crap”
The Superettan is the second division in Sweden. It kicked off this weekend (the weather in Sweden means they play it through summer) and GAIS got the ball rolling with a – win at home to Frej. Old played 43 minutes and earned a yellow card before he was subbed off with injury and Henderson played the full game.
Up Next: Away to AFC United, 2.00am Sunday (NZT)