Flying Kiwis – November 29

Chris Wood – Leeds United (English Championship)

Everyone loses to Newcastle so there was no worries there with last week’s result (okay not everyone, somehow Blackburn inexplicably broke the Toon’s eight game Champo winning streak on the weekend). Leeds have been playing well and there was no reason to think the results would dry up with that. And indeed they didn’t.

A 2-1 win over Rotherham means they climb all the way up to a season-high of fifth place. Granted Rotherham are bottom of the table by a distance, so they’ve gone from playing the top team to the last placed team in the space of a week, but hey, gotta beat ‘em all regardless. This was a nice straightforward one.

Four minutes in Greg Halford had to be replaced due to injury for the home side, that’s never a good sign. Ever worse is when keeper Lee Camp is going off in the 35th minute – two subs used up in the first half. This wasn’t going to be a great day for Rotherham. So it sure cannot have helped when Chris Wood went and added one to the Flying Kiwis tally in the 14th min:

One touch, all it takes. Shout out to Charlie Taylor with the great work in the lead up, beating a couple players for speed and then coming up with the inch perfect pullback.

You think that all constitutes a horror half for the Championship’s cellar dwellars? Mate, it gets worse. Peter Odemwingie was sent off in the 29th min. He left an elbow in on Liam Cooper and the ref didn’t hesitate to give him the flick from the game. Cannot be doing that, son. That’s a red all day.

Souleymane Doukara then added a second deep into first half stoppage time and that was more or less that. Or… not exactly. Richard Wood pulled a goal back with five minutes to play that meant for an extremely nervous finish but the Whites held on and got the win that they wanted. Thoroughly job done, lads.

That goal was one of two shots Woody had this game, the other off target. He also placed one key pass and fair to say he probably faded from the game a bit at times. Only 37 touches which was as many as Rob Green his goalkeeper. It’s not like they were out chasing goals though.

YEP Player Ratings:

“Chris Wood - Poached the opener with an intelligent run and did his best to give Leeds a focal point up front. 7/10”

Funky Monky was a bit pissed at how they nearly let it slip at the end though:

“We brought it on ourselves. We warned the players at half-time about taking our foot off the gas and that’s what we did. Overall we were worthy winners, no one can doubt that. The first 25 minutes was excellent, we got ourselves into a strong position. The only thing that could hurt us is taking our foot off the gas. We are not good enough to play anything less than 100 per cent, especially in the Championship. Overall we are happy with the three points, we deserved the three points, but it is a lesson learned.”

Here’s a chat Woody had with the Yorkshire evening Post the other day too.

Up Next: EFL Cup, away at Liverpool – 8.45am on Weds - before they play home to Aston Villa at 6.30am Sunday (NZT)

Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)

Suspensions suck but what can you do, aye Winston? When you pick up two yellows in injury time you don’t exactly have a choice but to chill in the stands for a match, just a shame when it comes a game after your last suspension. Yeah so Winston missed out on playing at Old Trafford against Man United and it was a pretty wild game to miss as well.

The Hammers scored after exactly 90 seconds. A Dimitri Payet free kick swung in from the sides and Diafra Sakho headed it in for the early lead. Eventually Zlatan Ibrahimovic was able to take advantage of Reid’s replacement James Collins as he got him for a burst of speed and then the jump in the air (mate, best not to be beaten for pace by Zlatan, jeez) with the Big Swede nodding Paul Pogba’s long ball into the bottom corner.

It was the one time that Darren Randolph was able to be beaten. United pushed and pushed and couldn’t find another goal with the Irish keeper playing a bloody masterclass. He may have coughed one up at Harry Kane’s feet last week but here he completely justified his manager’s faith in picking him ahead of the incumbent Adrian. By the last stretch of the game it was manic stuff, each team gunning for a winner though neither getting one. Oh, and Jose Mourinho was sent off… just as he was when Chelsea played West Ham last season. Kicked a water bottle. Here’s Winston having a giggle in that last season game, presumably he had another laugh here too:

A 1-1 result is really handy for WHU after choking a lead away against Spurs last time. Slaven Bilic needed it for his job security and the team needed it to edge another point clear of the drop zone.

And look, if Winston really wants to play against Man United then he can have his chance in a day or two as they play again in the EFL Cup. His was a double yellow sending off so it sounds like he’s free to play again after the one match off. James Collins did okay in there in his place but it was Angelo Ogbonna who starred in defence and Randolph who was the man of the match so safe to say he ought to walk back in given how well he’s been playing in the new system. Bilic said as much himself when asked how he was gonna replace him:

Also, if you want a clue as to why West Ham are struggling a bit this season, every single player in the starting XI of this match played for them last season. Every single player on the bench excluding the substitute goalie was a summer signing. When the new transfers don’t improve things, you have troubles.

Up Next: Man United vs West Ham, EFL Cup, 9.00am Thursday (NZT)

Bill Tuiloma – Olympique de Marseille (French Ligue 1)

A tough one this week, Tui and the OM CFA side came up against Tarbes who’d won their last three straight. Tuiloma started in the midfield as he’s pretty much always doing now and they started well as Aaron Leya Iseka gave them a 7th minute lead. That dude is the brother of Chelsea/Belgium striker Michy Batshuayi and he signed for OM (on loan from Anderlecht) a month after Michy was sold from OM to Chelsea. He’s played a couple times for the top team but, like Billy, is mostly in the ressies.

But into the second half, Tarbes equalised through Delgado headering one in from a corner in the 54th minute and then with the game seemingly on the way to a draw, Tarbes nicked a late penalty and that man Delgado put it away for the 2-1 win. A bit stink, the OM reserves slip to fifth on the table now.

Better than the top team, they got smashed 4-0 by Monaco.

Up Next: Home to Sete, 6.00am next Sunday (NZT)

Ryan Thomas – PEC Zwolle (Dutch Eredivisie)

What’s worse than losing 3-0 away to Feyenoord, a team that competes in the Europa League? For one thing, losing 4-0 at home to Groningen would be an example. PEC Zwolle have done both of those things lately. The less said about that the better, probably. Especially with Thommo not playing.

According to that tweet, he wasn’t injured but ‘ill’ so that’s a positive. Nothing long term. Right back Bram van Polen added a few things after the game about what they’re missing without Thommo and also Younes Mokhtar:

“We need nothing in winter,” he says (referring to the transfer window). “If Mokhtar and Thomas are with us again, we really do have scoring ability.”

Oh well that’s nice of him to say. They could do with conceding a few less goals too, to be honest.

Up Next: Vitesse vs PEC Zwolle, 8.45am Sunday (NZT)

Jeremy Brockie & Michael Boxall – SuperSport United (South African Premier Soccer League)

A 1-1 draw away at Kaizer Chiefs means that SSU lose a bit of ground on the two team at the top of the table, but honestly they would have had other things on their mind. Thabo Mnyamane opened the scoring for SSU and they were immediately pegged back by George Lebese. That was the score by half time and full time both, Jeremy Brockie and Mike Boxall each playing the full 90 minutes.

That other thing on their mind? That’d be the Telkom Knockout Cup semifinal. Yeah mate, big stuff. Brox and Box have already won a cup trophy in South Africa and here they have the chance to add another following a 1-0 win against a ten-man Orlando Pirates team. The goal was scored by Mnyamane again and this time they protected that lead. Not a perfect performance by any means as they found themselves playing very deep however they got the result that they needed. Which was helped with ten minutes to go when Thabo Matlaba was sent off for a tackle on Brockie. A pretty horrible tackle too. By the look of this, the phrase ‘fully justified’ springs to mind:

But yeah, they clung to it and held on to book a place in the final where they’ll play Cape Town City in two weeks’ time. Although there’s a worry as to whether Brockie will recover in time with that ankle to play in that game. He’ll almost certainly miss the next one or two in the league.

Kickoff.com: “The New Zealand striker somehow managed to finish the 1-0 semi-final win over Orlando Pirates despite an awful studs-up tackle by Matlaba that saw Brockie’s right ankle twist right over under the weight. The way the challenge happened, it is likely Brockie suffered exterior ligament damage on his right ankle, and he is set for tests on Monday morning.”

At least there's no bad blood or hidden grudges though.

Look, they did one of these things:

Up Next: SSU vs Bidvest Wits, Wednesday 6.30am (NZT)

Info
Written by Nick Robinson On Tagged