Flying Kiwis – October 4
Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)
Times have been tough for Winston and the Hammers and what they needed more than anything was a nice comprehensive win going into the international break. They didn’t get it. But they also didn’t lose so it was better than anything else they served up last month.
Playing Middlesbrough at London Stadium, it was a game that both teams would probably be happy enough with a point from and that was the way it ended. Christian Stuani scored for Boro in the 51st minute from a corner and six rotations of the clock later it was Dimi Payet with a brilliant equaliser. He was skipping by defenders with ease before picking out the corner of the goal like a champion and didn’t they bloody love it?
Say, that was Winston with the pass in to him as well, looping long ball to the left flank. Anyone got the kiwi in their fantasy team?
In fact Winston had his best game of the season. After patchy form all the way, he was brilliant here. It helped that Pedro Obiang came into a 4-5-1 formation to add an extra midfielder in there but Winnie, mate. He was class. A little bit of everything at the back, partnered again with James Collins.
For the record, his interception total in this game was better than any other player in the league this weekend. This from HITC Sport:
“[Winston] registered 11 in total more than any other player in the rest of the Premier League games this weekend. His closest competitor was Manchester City’s Nicolas Otamendi, who posted eight, while Manchester United’s Ander Herrera and Sunderland’s John O’Shea managed seven.”
VAVEL.com Player Ratings: “Winston Reid (7) - He was one of the better players for West Ham. He rarely gave Jordan Rhodes a sniff and looked very disciplined. Showed shades of the type of player he can be and on his day he is a great asset to the side.”
ESPN Player Ratings: “Winston Reid, 7 -- The good news is that Reid looked assertive and assured against Middlesbrough and that's encouraging.”
Pleasant thoughts there but they clearly didn’t see the interception stats with their 7/10s. The Sun must have, because they gave him a 9 and the Star Man label.
Most important of course is that the Hammers didn’t lose again. They didn’t concede any ridiculous goals to horrific errors and they even added a point to their season’s tally. Keeps them in the relegation zone but something to build from all the same. In the wake of this game, Jamie Carragher had some words in his Mail column:
“Talks haven’t taken place over a new contract for Bilic but I hope the board don’t do anything silly. He is a good manager and circumstances have contributed to this start, such as Winston Reid — a player I hold in high regard — struggling for form and Cresswell’s long-term injury.”
You know what ended the rot? A good old fashioned night out. It got a bit of publicity too because a bunch of the Hammers ended up at McDonalds at 6am leading to some snappy amateur twitter pics and there was even a minor drama when a WHU fan tweeted one of those picks out alleging (jokingly) that a couple of them were back on the piss the next day – the club didn’t realise it was a joke and launched an investigation. Internet hilarity ensued. Anyway, true or false James Collins reckoned it helped:
“If it was last year and we were seen out nothing would have been said. Sometimes a night like that when we are all sat around the table with people chatting about different ideas it is as good as a training session. Obviously it worked, we knew what we had to do and we were better today but obviously we would have liked the win.”
Reido seemed to enjoy it at least. Bro, that jacket is hideous.
Up Next: Crystal Palace away, 5.30am on the 16th of October (NZT)
Chris Wood – Leeds United (English Championship)
What’s this, a week went by without a Chris Wood goal!? It’s a flippin’ travesty.
Or maybe not quite that bad, though it started a bit stinkish. Midweek they took on Bristol City away after three wins on the trot and a whole lotta Woody goals but BC have been onto something good themselves.
Leeds had a few chances early on but Woody wasn’t the man on the end of them, rather Pablo Hernandez and Haidi Sacko linking up a bit. Lee Tomlin was shades away from scoring for Bristol as half chances appeared at both ends. Stuart Dallas buggered one up for Leeds with a heavy touch.
Unfortunately the tale of the first half this game for Leeds was injuries to defender Pontus Janssen and captain Liam Bridcutt. Janssen’s seemed worse initially but it turns out El Capitan is the one who’ll miss an extended period while Pontus was back in the line-up on the weekend.
Yorkshire Evening Post: “But Leeds then squandered a big opening six minutes after the break when Hernandez fed Wood on the edge of the area but the ball caught his heel and the opportunity was gone.”
Goddammit, Woody! He also had a late shot saved by the keeper which he probably should have buried without even thinking. That later effort was his only shot on target from three total attempts. At least he didn’t give the ball away in his own half like Hernandez did though. 59 minutes in and the Spaniard cocked it up to allow the big fella Tomlin to slide Marlon Pack in for what eventually proved to be the winner. 1-0 to Bristol City and a four game winning streak in all comps ends for Leeds.
It all got a bit much for Garry Monk who was sent to the stands on the brink of injury time.
YEP Talking Points: “Who is going to score goals for Leeds when Chris Wood draws a blank? Leeds quite clearly should have bagged at least a share of the spoils from Tuesday’s visit to Ashton Gate with Hadi Sacko in particular missing a series of decent chances. Wood also squandered decent opportunities and Leeds have a worrying lack of players who seem to be capable of regularly finding the net when their Kiwi international draws a blank. Sacko should be credited for regularly getting himself into decent positions but the Frenchman has to start to bulging the net or wasted games like Tuesday’s affair will become more frequent. But Leeds cannot be relying solely on Sacko as back up to Wood and the lack of goals overall is a definite problem. Wood has nine for the current season with Marcus Antonsson second in the goal-scoring charts with two. If Antonsson and Wood are both to play then United will have to abandon the 4-2-3-1 formation that clearly suits the current crop of players best. Sacko, Pablo Hernandez, Kalvin Phillips, Kyle Bartley and Tyler Denton all have one each. Fourteen goals from 12 games in league cup which is obviously problematic. Stuart Dallas, who has admittedly been playing well of late, has none, and he, Hernandez and Sacko in particular need to start bulging the net more.”
So an off day for Wood but the problem appears to be that when he’s off his game the Whites simply can’t find a plan B. Which leads to columns like this:
Wood also went scoreless on the weekend against Barnsley but this time things went much better around him. Again, this was an evenly matched affair and again Woody wasn’t exactly at his best either. But after barely even threatening for most of the first half, a corner was swung in towards the near post where Wood charged towards it, leaping high above any defender and flicking his head at the swirling ball… except he missed it entirely. Good thing Kyle Bartley was running onto it behind him. He scored, 1-0 to Leeds at HT.
Nine minutes after the restart it was 2-0. Hernandez had already come close since the resumption and he made the clever run into the gap created in the defence as Woody and one of the Barnsley defenders colliding dropping back for a long ball. A further long ball picked out Pablo and he picked out the back of the net. Charlie Taylor scored an own goal with 20 minutes to play to ensure that nobody was too comfortable but Leeds took the win in the end. 2-1, not bad at all against a fellow pack of Yorkshiremen. Apparently “Wood came close to adding further goals, volleying over from 12 yards and shooting high and wide from the edge of Barnsley’s area”.
YEP Player Ratings: “Chris Wood - Not his day. Had a couple of half-chances but the ball always seemed to be yard ahead of him. 6/10”
Up Next: Away to Derby County, 3am on the 16th (NZT)
Ryan Thomas – PEC Zwolle (Dutch Eredivisie)
Two things to read into hat tweet: the first that Zwolle FINALLY won a game (hooray!) and the second that Thommo didn’t play. No shocker that he was absent, his last two starts he hasn’t made it past half time in either of them. Clearly battling something or the other.
The word had already circulated that Thomas was unavailable to play ADO Den Haag due to a thigh injury. NZ Football went further with that by diagnosing him with a “significant haematoma to his quad muscle” as they replaced him in the All Whites squad with Louis Fenton (which is weird because Fenton was named unavailable through injury a few days earlier when the squad was named days earlier).
Anthony Hudson: “It’s a shame for Ryan as I know he was desperate to play on this tour and get back into the All Whites environment. We wish him all the best in his recovery and hope to have him back for our home qualifiers.
Anyway, Youness Mokhtar scored a double, he plays in the same attacking midfield positions as Thommo so that’s relevant. But more relevant is that his brace helped them overcome a 1-0 deficit and claim their first win of the season. Enough to get them out of last place as well. Bonus!
Up Next: FC Twente vs PEC Zwolle, 11.30pm Sunday 16 Oct (NZT)
Jeremy Brockie & Michael Boxall – SuperSport United (South African Premier Soccer League)
Another game and another damn draw for SSU, their third in five games this season. What’s more is that for the trip to Lamontville Golden Arrows (who to be fair were sitting atop the table) saw Jeremy Brockie dropped to the bench without a goal to his name this campaign. That golden boot is a way off for now. Michael Boxall played the full game though, and so he had himself a nice view as Kingson Nkhatha slipped around the keeper and gave SSU a 14th minute lead.
It didn’t last though. Half an hour in Musa Bilankuluwas on hand to pop the ball in the net after a free kick was squared back across goal. Boxall plugged away at right back and Brockie eventually got onto the pitch with 20 to play… though that was after Onismor Bhasera had been dismissed for a second yellow leaving United with ten men. And, mate, it coulda been worse had Ronwen Williams not made a smart save from a penalty in the final quarter of an hour. All in all, 1-1 ain’t the worst result there. Coach Stuart Baxter was seeing the positives:
“I think we rode out the storm well and at the finish we were giving as good as we got and could have sneaked it. That resilience, you know we’ve been on the road nine days with three away games and they’ve done well, we’ve picked up five points. Tonight I was hoping for more because we went out for more but as the game unfolded I think both teams are probably happy with a point.”
There’s now a break for two weeks to coincide with the FIFA window which will see Boxall fly off to America to play for the All Whites – though Brockie was left behind. On form, not the most surprising. SSU have several players out injured at the moment so the break comes at a good time.
Up Next: SSU vs Highland Park, 2.30am Monday 17 October (NZT)
Jake Gleeson – Portland Timbers (American Major League Soccer)
Say, whadaya know, the Timbers finally won an away game and all they had to do was travel to El Salvador. Yup, they were there to take on CD Dragon although it didn’t look to great when they were down 1-0 early in the second half. It was a very rough game too, which the ref predictably was super lenient with. Ah but no worries because Fanendo Adi slotted an equaliser from the edge of the box and Darlington Nagbe scored a beaut for the injury time winner.
Gleeson wasn’t especially busy in this one but he’ll be perfectly happy with that given the victory buts the Timbers back with a really good chance of advancing to the quarters now.
Pity it wasn’t the same a few days later when they travelled to Colorado and lost 1-0. Jakey Boy was definitely more involved as he made a couple of important stops between the sticks. There was no stopping Sébastien Le Toux’s 62nd minute winner though. Maybe see if you can get those outfielders of yours to learn to shoot on target, aye son?
Two games left in the regular season and the Timbers are in a tricky spot if they’re gonna make the playoffs and attempt to defend their title.
Fun stuff here, the MLS are typically American in how they integrate their sponsors into things and on their website they have this Audi Player Index thing that judges player performance. And look who’s the top ranked goalie this season:
Up Next: Home to Colorado Rapids at 10am Monday 17th (NZT)