Craven Cottage Newsround

I wonder how many holidaymakers google will send us with that headline?

Anyway, we’ve signed Danny Murphy from Spurs, the mooted Rosenior/Seol-Ki-Hyeon swap happened, and we signed Shefki Kuqi from Crystal Palace on a short loan. This latter signing has caused at least one spontaneous combustion on TFI, and a number of other posters are kicking their cats and sticking pins into small Lawrie Sanchez dolls.

But they’re getting worried over nothing. Here’s my initial post over there:

I watched him a bit at Ipswich. For whatever it’s worth, I remember him as one of those players who’s a lot better than he might look.

I say this because he does give the appearance of a big, lumbering lump of not much, but he has an idea of where the goal is and always gives everything.

The trouble, of course, is that that was five years ago and in the division below. It’s quite hard to see him making an impact here and now.

On the plus side, he’s a Finland international so this could be on a recommendation from Niemi. There’s no real downside here: we need a bruiser on late on, send for Kuqi. Might make something happen and is another option. He’ll give his all and might find the net once in a while. It’s not going to set the world on fire, but how many three month loan signings will?

It’s not exactly Ronaldinho, but I don’t see how this deflects from an encouraging start under the new manager.

And it’s true. Kuqi’s going to be pretty fun. For those who don’t know, he has this excellent goal celebration whereby he dives full length into the air, and kind of belly flops down. (see picture). Seriously, I can’t see a problem with this. Worst case scenario we never see him on a pitch. Well we’ve always had a couple of players like that in the squad. But I can see more than that in Kuqi’s future. He really is a handful, and while he’s obviously not a front-line Premiership forward at this point, he can still do a job. And if he doesn’t, well, what have we lost, exactly. Relax.

Murphy’s a nice signing, potentially. It’s hard to know what’s happened to him, but as we’ve seen with Paul Konchesky (whose signing did nothing for me at the time), sometimes new surroundings can make all the difference. Murphy could be dynamite. Or not. Again, it’s not a big price to pay to find out. Nice pickup.

Spurs tomorrow. I’m in the Putney End with my Spurs mate Wilf. Here’s to a good result. We’re due one.

Rich

Deadline day.  Stick anything in the comments as you hear it! 

Moan away, analyse, whatever you like.  Readership figures still rising, so if you’ve just found us, please feel free to add to the comments too.  There’ll be at least two deals today - let us know what you think.

cheers!
Rich 

Amusing comment from b+w geezer on TFI this afternoon about our man Clint:

poster: If Dempsey had taken his chances we would have 8 points by now.

me: here we go… how many forwards put away every chance they get? So far he’s scored once from four presentable chances. Not as good as he might hope, but not bad either. And again, how many other Fulham players have found themselves in a position to score four times in less than 180 minutes play?

b+w geezer: Yes, that is the upside. If he should start banging a few of them in it could develop into a habit. However, to add to the list of misses, I can’t forget the header he put over at Arsenal last season, at a similar key juncture as his miss there the other week. It’s a formidable list of so-nearlies for such a small amount of playing time — he’s not dull.

New signings on the way! 

It’s likely that we’re going to see a couple more signings today, one of whom should be a direct replacement for Zat.   This being so, the team should line up in standard fashion this weekend:  Keller; Baird-New defender/Pearce-Bocanegra-Konchesky; Davies-Smertin-Davis; Dempsey; Kamara-Healy.  Is that a team to scare Spurs?  Is it a better team than we were putting out last year? 

And how good is this team?  I’ve said before that in a parallel universe we could be top of the league, but that’s probably excessively optimistic.  While we could have beaten Arsenal, that would have been a bit fortunate.  I can concentrate on Dempsey’s miss as evidence that we should have won, but Arsenal could point to the silly and freakish first minute goal and all kinds of other craziness in a counter-argument.   I think it’s reasonable to say that we made a decent fist of a difficult match.  And that football is a very random game.

The next game against Bolton was won without *that* much trouble.  It wasn’t particularly pretty but you wouldn’t expect it to be.  We got by because Smertin’s low drive flicked off a nearby heel and flew into the net, so luck was with us then.   Middlesbrough… well, until McBride’s freakish injury we were in absolute control. I’m not going to go through the subsequent bad luck again.  We all know what happened and it still makes me angry.  While we played badly against Villa in the second half, that was a combination of exceptionally brave and forthright play from Villa (4-2-4 is rare but wonderful), Chris Baird’s dismissal and the rest of our team wilting in the scorching sun (that’s how it looked anyway). 

So yes, football can be a very random game.  For average teams like us things are decided on hundreds of little turning points, and so far this year they’re mainly going against us (except the ones that are going for us! Lehmann and Smertin).  We as human beings tend not to like the idea that luck is so central to our lives, it makes us feel helpless and that our destiny is beyond our control.  But as we’re seeing, luck is everywhere this season.  These weird events are happening in ways that directly and severely hurt Fulham, but the laws of averages suggest that this has to change soon.   Things aren’t as bad as they seem.  And even if you don’t buy the luck thing, we’re not going to concede in the last minute of every game are we?

It can be argued that performances are just as important as points, and on this front we really are doing okay.  Excuse me if this is nothing new, but with all the negativity flying around I wanted to have another look at things.  And I think I was right: we are on the right lines.   The problem is that we’ve now got a dangerous Spurs side on the horizon, then a trip to a resurgent Wigan.  Decent performances in these games might earn us 2-3 points, but anything else and we could be firmly anchored to the bottom of the table.  And while a rational mind would surely say “don’t panic” and look at the longer-term prognosis (when the luck will even out), since when has rational thought applied to football?   The pressure is on.

I’ve been at Fulham for a long time so making the move is a bit emotional,” he said. “I’ve made a lot of good friends at Fulham and have seen a lot of people come and go – I feel part of the furniture so it’s definitely a hard decision to make. Hopefully I’ve made the right one.

Zat Knight

And that is that. With little warning and not a lot of explanation, Zat Knight is on his way to Aston Villa for a reported £3.5 million with options to £4 mil. Evidently Lawrie Sanchez was not too keen on the inconsistent Knight. As I have posted previously, no one has ever doubted the central defender’s athletic ability. But it has always been more of a case of consistency. One game he made all the right decisions and then the next you wondered if he really understood the game at all.

So what to do know with the vacancy at the central defender spot? I was thinking the other day that giving the captain’s arm band to Carlos Bocanegra when Barid went off the other day was sort of a large step in the direction of Sanchez saying that he likes the defender. And quite frankly, both on the U.S. team and for Fulham he has not had another strong central defender to play next to. Though arguably some will say stalwart Eddie Pope was quality. But when Bocanegra started playing full time at the central defender spot for the U.S., Eddie was on the slide physically and not what he once was. So my point being, that if Hughes is the central defender he is made out to be, and with Konchesky on the outside of Bocanegra, it could help his game to become more consistent. At least we can only hope.

But with all that said, it still seems to leave the team thin at that position. Could Ian Pearce have a resurgence under Sanchez? Or perhaps there is someone waiting in the wings who Lawrie is bringing in at the last moment?

But back to Zat, he said that Aston Villa was his boyhood club and he has always been a supporter. So that made the decision a bit easier. In parting words he said,

I would like to say a massive thank you to all the Fulham fans. I wish all the fans and staff the best.

Brian

Last night Hade and I wandered up to Greenwich to see Prince at the O2.  We’ve never been Prince fans really - I think we’ve owned about four of his albums between us over the years - but his career has run contemporaneously (did I need the “ly” there?) to our post-childhood existences so he has some relevance to us as an artist.    Really the whole thing was just pure entertainment:  massive venue, tonnes of exciting purple lights, loud and far-reaching sounds, well-known (and good) songs, and a small man with remarkable musical skills pulling the strings down there in the middle. 

If watching Fulham is occasionally wonderful but usually frustrating, last night was just pure escapism.  He played for 2 hours and it felt like 5 minutes.  When did that last happen at the Cottage?

Martin kept me posted of the football happenings.  So while Prince belted through 1999 Southend were scoring against Watford, although news of Fulham was not so encouraging yet.   He ploughed on through his back catalogue, at one point stopping mid-song to congratulate himself:  “Damn, I got too many hits!” which made us laugh.   Then, during a spikey and exciting version of “U Got The Look” Mart passed on the news that Diomansy Kamara had scored.  “Yes!” I thought, and allowed my inner boogie to take hold properly.

This morning we learn that Liam might be off to Reading after all, that we’re after Sheffield Utd’s Rob Hulse, that things are still Happening.   Back later with a proper consideration of transfer issues.  Also, I might just stand up in the Johnny Haynes Stand on Saturday and shout “Somebody, anybody, scream!” and we’ll see what happens.  Everybody did it when Prince asked. 

Just for the fun of it! I was doing a quick Google search for photos of Shrewsbury’s new stadium, New Meadow. In the process I found this cool web cam of the stadiums interior. You have to update every now and again but I’m hoping they keep it active during the game. Might be sort of fun to check in on things from time to time while following on Soccernet’s Gamecast. They had the sprinklers on a while ago and now someone has put down some training disks for warm ups.

Also, if you are looking for photos this seemed to be a good place to go.

So here is the line up for today. Looks like the rumors about Zat may be true.

Half Time Stats

Full Time Stats

Whew! I was watching the reports come in on line and was done with my work day right at half. I was in a hurry to get home and check on the score. I remembered after looking at the gas tank that I was on empty and needed to stop to fill the car up. It was also raining which made traffic really bad and really slow. I was anxious to get home and check on the score as if it made any difference. Like watching a text report of the game will change the outcome..but still. A control thing I guess? I rushed into the house, flipped up the laptop and logged in and YES! It’s final…Kamara scores in the 59th to make it 1-0 Fulham. It sounds as if we couldn’t find the back of the net even though we dominated with shots, possession time and corner kicks. I have to say it is quite a relief knowing we won. Particularly in light of the fact that Sunderland got trounced 3-0 to Luton and Wigan were beat by Hul 1-0.

So for today, 1-Nil Fulham sounds just fine to me!

Brian

Another new Fulham blog:  welcome, Rob!   Following the Fulham started last week, so hop on over and say hello.

Also, there’s the small matter of the Coca-Cola Cup tonight (or whatever it’s called now).  We’re away to Shrewsbury for a game which can only really go wrong.    Needless to say, I won’t be there (we’re off to see Prince, in fact), but will keep an ear out for what’s happening.    One of the things Lawrie wants to do is make us more of a Cup force, and this’d be a good place to start.    We’ll see how that plays out.  A 6-0 win would help morale; a narrow defeat might just destroy it. 

This morning we learn that Zat Knight may be on his way to Villa for £4million. Which is a strange thing.  

Our supporters have consistently targeted Zat as being a dangerous man to have around.  He flatters to deceive:  good one week, great the next, but then something will happen and he’ll find his way to daydreaming through the next two games, with dire consequences for everyone involved.    It was this that Chris Coleman was talking about at the start of last season after Zat’s England call-up.   Cookie believed that the achievement went to the big man’s head and adversely affected his form.

And so Knight was rested at the start of last year, but soon came into the side and seemed to have improved.  His form in the early part of the season was pretty good.   Then he broke his jaw under dubious circumstances and wasn’t the same after that.   I had the misfortune of watching he and Ian Pearce combine for some of the worst defending I’ve ever seen in that godforsaken Sheffield Utd away game last year, and he was equally poor in the 4-0 hammering Spurs gave us the week before that (or was it after?).   Either way, he had a ‘mare.   A visit to Coleman’s crowded doghouse followed.

Then with the managerial change came another new dawn.  He played well for Lawrie Sanchez, very well.  And it continued in the early part of this year, with a superstar showing against Arsenal and decent performances against Bolton and Sheffield Utd after that.  I thought he was less than commanding on Saturday, but he may have been slightly injured.  That or the Villa players were too much of a handful; they were certainly very good.

So we find ourselves considering the possibility that he’s moving to that very Villa side.  Why?  I wonder.  We’re not in a sufficiently strong position to be selling players like this, and even if Zat isn’t your idea of a mainstay, his value as a squad player is considerable.    And despite a squad full of central defenders, it’s not like any of them are clearly better or more reliable than Knight.  So what gives?

Money, for one.  Sanchez has spent a lot of it and might need to recoup some of that for further purchases.   He’s performed wonders in trimming the dead weight from the squad, but a couple of higher value sales would certainly help too.   But if you sell Knight, where then?    You have Christanval (out of favour and surely on his way), Hughes (injured, yet to play for the club), Bocanegra (occasionally excellent, but, like Knight, not error-proof), Pearce (off to Brighton they say), Leijer (not for the present.. or is he?), Baird (bingo!) and probably someone else I’ve forgotten (Smertin does it for Russia). So it’s not like we’re short of bodies back there.   We’re just lacking a couple of really good defenders.

Surveying that list it seems that a Hughes/Baird combination is not beyond the realms of possibility (this is what Lawrie did for NI, I think), with either Liam or Volzy coming in at right back.   I think that could work.   The rumours linking us with the gigantic (Sammy?) Traore would make sense too, if Zat is off.  

The one worry for me is that our defence is a bit like Newcastle’s of recent years: a bermuda triangle into which even good defenders may not survive.   I’d always put that down to poor coaching under Coleman, but this season we’ve still managed to let in 7 goals in 4 games, which isn’t awful but isn’t great either.   Unless we can cleverly unearth some secret-hero defender from somewhere nobody else is looking (Leijer?!) we’re going to have to make do with more middle of the road defenders, which might help and might not make the slightest difference.  Perhaps the defence is simply being poorly supported by the midfield?   Certainly at the end of Saturday’s game we had four defenders, with the combined might of Davis and Smertin helping, Simon Davies not really doing much, and Clint Dempsey looking in desperate need of a lie down.  Meanwhile, Collins John was our “outlet”.  

All of which is a long way of deciding that we can afford to lose Zat, but that the puzzle is still far from solved.

It’s true, if Rich and I didn’t have real jobs to keep food on the table and pay the utility bills and to keep our houses warm in the winter, we could bring you all sorts of news and commentary. But because we do, we can only briefly bring you up to date on what Fulham news we’ve been hearing about the last 3 or 4 days.

Last week after Kasey Keller was signed, U.S. Soccer (ussoccer.com) called Kasey Keller and got the lowdown directly from Kasey on the hows and the why’s he signed for Fulham. This is all done in the form of a podcast. By the way, even if you are not a U.S. citizen. Stop by the US soccer web site sometime. They used to have a horrible web site and just before the last World Cup they upgraded it to arguably the finest national team web site on the internet. In particular check out their “Sights and Sounds” area along with the Nikes Studio 90 stuff.

And speaking of goalkeeping, evidently David James can write really well. Here he breaks down the art of catching the ball, unlike some keepers who will always do the punch thing. A technical article broken down to make it entertaining. Yes, I know it’s not Fulham but it is certainly worthwhile. Thanks to Bruce at Dunord.blogspot.com for this one.

Also last week, Lawrie Sanchez confirmed that he had actually been trying to lure Celtic midfielder Thomas Gravesen to the Cottage. I don’t really understand this one as Graveson has seemed to piss off managers everywhere he has gone, including the last two clubs of Real Madrid and Celtic where he now plays and has been sitting on the bench. But I will let you be the judge of this and shut my mouth for now. Not sure I want a player who says he’d rather sit out the two years and collect his money.

Then, Sanchez spoke last Friday about captain Brian McBrides injury and return date. He then went onto say that he felt that McBride and Healy had a special understanding. That Healy seemed to understand where McBrides flick on’s would go.

He also spoke quite candidly about the fact that at this time there have been no offers for Diop or Rosenior. He also said they are looking for a big center forward and he finally told us they had an offer for Watford’s Darius Henderson turned down. Has anyone beside me noticed how vocal Sanchez has been and how much Fulham FC have been parading him in front of the cameras? I have to say he is quite good and pretty candid. I like knowing what’s inside the managers head and hope Fulhamfc.com continue to give us video interviews of our manager.

I still think the squad is thin despite what has been said about how much has been spent.

Lawrie Sanchez

Then there is word from Sky that up and comer Port Val keeper Joe Anyon is not interested in Fulham. There was also word that Va’s manager Foyle was quite unhappy with Fulham as they received an offer for Anyon then were told that they had picked up Kasey Keller instead.

It’s also reported that the Serbian forward Danijel Ljuboja has been training with Fulham and is on trail. The 28 year old Ljuboja had been tossed by Stuttgart after demanding higher wages even though he was never really an influence at there.

Lastly Tom Wille from Fulham USA checks in and has a nice preview of the Carling Cup game today vs Shresbury. Perhaps we will hear from Rich today for a bit of insight on the this game.

Brian

On the way out of the ground someone was lamenting the club’s start to the season.  “How long can we say we’re unlucky?” he said.  “When does it just become bad?”  “No,” I said, “it’s mainly bad luck. We’re doing okay.  We just have to keep playing, the results will come.”  I think that’s right, but this has been a terrifying start to the season, with so much hope, so much good work, so many chances, and a year’s worth of misery already.

We started well.  With McBride and Bouazza out, Fulham lined up with Clint Dempsey and David Healy up front and Diomansy Kamara sacrificing himself on the left wing.  It was a move that made sense given the playing style of the three, and one that paid off early on:  Dempsey found space to the left of the penalty spot and, left footed, smashed his chance high and hard beyond Carson.  1-0 in six minutes.  Clint had found his shooting boots.

The game progressed well from there, although Villa improved with time.  Carew hit the angle of bar and post with a header from a corner, and Paul Konchesky continued his fine start to the season with some terrific defending.  On the other side Chris Baird was given a harder time: he was booked very early for failing to avoid a charging Young, and would receive a second yellow later on for the same thing.  Two quite harsh bookings from a referee who had a poor match overall.  From the latter Villa scored directly, but were given no advantage.

The game’s turning point came straight after half time when Kamara seized possession on the edge of the Villa box, and bent a first time shot around Carson but onto the very inside of the post.  The ball crawled across the line and out.  An inch to the left and we’d have won.   But this year has been all about ifs, and so far luck is against us.

Villa switched to 4-2-4 in the second half, a thrilling configuration that will test better teams than us.  Reo-Coker and Barry were the 2, threading passes to and fro’ and marshalling the forward line beautifully.  Ashley Young, a pain throughout, equalised with a shot from wide that went in off Zat Knight (who was soon replaced).   The home team continued to press, forcing a good save from debutant Keller, and sending a succession of shots hurtling narrowly wide.  The shot count moved past 20.

As time expired an exhausted Dempsey found one last burst of energy, slipping to the back post from a Davies corner.  He rose, met the ball perfectly, heading the ball hard and low towards the Villa goal.  Scott Carson threw out a foot in desperation, and *just*, *just* kept it out.

Villa went up the other end and scored.

Pics:

Clint Dempsey

Paul Konchesky was excellent again:

Zat towers:

Doom is seconds away:

Every game is an adventure, an exploration, a discovery and a lesson these days.  We’re starting to understand our new players, but nobody really knows what’s what yet.   

Tomorrow’s trip to Villa is particularly intriguing, as our opponents are sort of what we’re aspiring to.   Which sounds a little unexciting now it’s written like that, but Villa have spent money (more than us) and are now aiming for one of those places in the top of the second third of the league, in which a little good luck can see you end up in Europe.    They’re not that good yet, but Martin O’Neil has bought quite a few nice players (and they’ve Scott Carson in goal on loan) and there’s no doubting the difficulty of tomorrow’s task.

The good news is that this Fulham team could quite easily have 9 points from 9 at this point.  That we haven’t is largely down to luck and a couple of unforgiving mistakes at either end of the field.  But weird mistakes are a rarity and the overall picture is one of a team moving in the right direction, and in a hurry.   Which is why tomorrow’s game is so interesting.

There’s that away form thing you see.   Lawrie Sanchez has said that he’ll improve on the team’s ability to get away results.  Well he nearly did it at Arsenal so you’d have to think that Villa is doable.   Nobody quite knows why teams win at home and not away, but at least now we have some pace (Kamara) and look very solid at the back.  That has to help.  

Tomorrow’s team is likely to be similar to what finished against Boro.  McBride’s out for months, Bouazza’s out for weeks, and Sky Sports are reporting that Kamara will play and that Tony Warner will get another run out in goal.  Left wing could be interesting, being an away match I wonder if we’ll see something odd like Volzy there to stiffen the defence and help out with those pesky Villa wide players…. which is exactly what Chris Coleman would’ve done…. so…. we’ll see.   Nice to see Clint get another go, even if it is marooned on the wing again.  

It’s going to be difficult, but I’m hopeful.  0-0 seems possible.  We’ll see.

I’m driving up earlyish tomorrow morning in the hope of finding a nice car park space in a nearby school.   Won’t be back until Sunday night so there won’t be a report until then, but hopefully Brian’ll be in with some stuff in the meantime.

Good piece on David Healy in the Guardian, by the way.

As we all know, Fulham have had their ups and downs with goalkeeping as of late.  Tony Warner had a huge game against Arsenal and then gave gifts to both Bolton and Middlesboro. Well, it seems everyone including the manager has been asking for a reasonable back up to the #1 Niemi and Al-Fayed has answered with an OK to pick up the unemployed Kasey Keller.

Keller has been one of my favorite keepers for years. Yes, because he’s an American but also because he’s a really good guy on top it all. That is not to say he is not competitive because he is extremely competitive but he is also a family man and a true team player who also has a good sense of humor. I think he will fit into this Fulham team well giving it a lot of experience between the posts.

Keller had done very well for Borussia Mönchengladbach and was a fan favorite there. I saw him once on a Youtube video tackling the Mönchengladbach mascot after a home win by doing a full American wrestling body slam, much to the crowd’s delight. After the team was relegated this past season Keller and Borussia Mönchengladbach parted ways mutually as his contract was up. Keller wanted to come back to the States and play in MLS as a “Designated Player”, meaning he could exceed the teams salary cap. These positions have been created to allow the David Beckhams, Claudio Reynas , Juan Pablo Angels and Blancos to sign. But teams seemed reluctant to play that much money for Keller as there are many very good keepers in the U.S. that they could get for a lot less money. So Keller remained unemployed up until today.

The downside of Keller is that he is 38 years old. Even as goalkeepers go, he is starting to get up there. Keller has certainly slowed down. We all saw that at the Copa America this past summer. He looked slow on coming out of goal at times and even a bit indecisive. His shot stopping was not quite as quick either. Not like the Keller I watched for years. But no one on that team looked quite as sharp as manager Bob Bradley played a 2nd string U.S. team against the best Argentina had to offer. So it’s hard to judge Keller on those outings alone.

I do think that Keller can help the other keepers on the team and will be a very positive #2 for the team. And knowing Keller’s competitive nature, don’t think for a minute that he won’t be working every day for that #1 spot.

Brian (AKA bq)

CCN goes to Wembley

Okay, done. I was expecting to be thrilled but it just didn’t happen.

Let’s start at the start. We got the train up to Elephant & Castle and switched to the Bakerloo line. It began to fill up. A load of lads were standing in front of us. One, stood directly before me, wore a slightly gormless expression and a slight overbite. He had jeans, white trainers and a designer t-shirt of sorts. And he looked remarkably pleased with himself. 5 minutes in he started to sing: “Ten German Bombers…” Eyes all around the carriage shifted upwards. I felt tempted to kick him in the shin. His mate gently punched him in the stomach and implored him to stop, but he sang louder.

Behind him three middle aged Fast Show types stood, hands in belt buckles, cheesy vacancy all over their faces, which were red and shiny. They looked delighted with themselves too, and joined in.

We changed at Baker Street and caught the Metropolitan Line. A lad stood in front of us, and, transfixed and glaring into nothingness, shouted “English ’til I die”, etc, etc. Indeed, I thought. It’s not many people who change nationality. He was on a mission from God to tell people this. On it went. The German fans around us chuckled in quiet bemusement.

It got better at the stadium. Better in one respect, in that the moron quotient fell dramatically. But the stadium, not dissimilar to Collier’s Wood Sainsbury’s inside, was slightly disappointing at first glance. I’d been to the old place and loved it, from the usual romanticisms about TWin Towers to the joyful feeling of just being in the f*cking place. It was awesome (and I was a child, which might explain some of my feeling). The new thing? Giant… shopping centre?

Bad mood on the way, I tried to get excited. I was watching England v Germany. England v Germany! We went up our five escalators and found the concourse food bit. A cheese/bread thing cost £4 and went down a treat. We found our seats, high in the sky, and waited for the action.

Here come the players. The ball is stroked around nicely, and look, Frank Lampard has scored! Weird feeling: Yay! Oh! Lampard… oh well. Boo? No. Clap. Clapping, incidentally, is reserved for very special occasions, namely any crossfield ball, a cushioned back header to the ‘keeper, and substitutions. Otherwise we cheer, one of a few strangely disjointed songs, or a boo whenever Jens Lehmann might be involved.

The game, anyway. Freed from the torture that is watching Fulham, it felt strangely unengaging. England were 1 up, which was nice, but then Germany equalised in a fine three man move: the cross came in from the German winger, Paul Robinson, volley ball style, served it up perfectly for Kevin Kuranyi, and the German forward did the rest. Woops.

It got worse for Robinson, as he waved at one of patented Woops Another Piledriver Past Me shots. The Guardian said that he could’ve done nothing about this shot, but how many times does Robinson need to be beaten from 30 yards before someone notices that perhaps there’s a flaw here? He was hauled off at half time and David James joined in.

England looked okay. The right hand side was terrific, with Dave Beckham marshalling Micah Richards up and down the wing like his own private yo-yo. Richards, a wonderfully entertaining footballer, spent a lot of time beyond Beckham, and to great effect. Next he’d be back behind the Galaxy hero. It worked really well and might count as A Weapon for England in the future. On the other flank Joe Cole caused trouble, as did Shaun Wright-Phillips when he came on. In between Lampard did as Lampard does and Michael Carrick confirmed his pointlessness to me. Gareth Barry came on and did a nice job in his place. The forwards looked okay but slow (including Owen), and the defence was alright (the delightful Richards being the exciting exception).

We left in the 81st minute to beat the tube rush, and got home quite quickly. There was a slight scrum to get out, so I can only imagine what it must’ve been like at full-time.

England? Meh. We have tickets for the Russia qualifier, which’ll be good in that it’s a competitive fixture and there’ll be a chance to see some more exotic players, but I don’t know that I’ll go there again unless Fulham do something weird in a cup competition. It was okay, but the whole experience just confirmed that the game is going the wrong way. If the old Wembley was a big Craven Cottage, the new one is a giant Emirates. Which is better? Depends who you ask and what their motivations are, but I know what I prefer. We were both tired after working all day, and it was a fun (if expensive) way to spend an evening, but it didn’t excite as perhaps it ought to have (the bland footballers we send out these days didn’t help either). Still, if New Wembley helps get us a World Cup at some point it’ll have been worthwhile.

Pics:

Fulham had 10 players representing their county this past Tuesday and Wednesday. Let’s check in and see how they faired.

-Chris Baird-, -Steven Davis- and -David Healy- were all called in for Northern Ireland in this European qualifier against Liechtenstein. All three players started and it sounds as if Northern Ireland had this game under control from the start. Chris Baird wore the captains armband for the missing Aaron Hughes. (see below) The very much on-fire David Healy picked up two more goals for his country. This guy is sizzling hot right now. Between Fulham and N. Ireland he has 4 goals in the past 2 weeks and would have had another last Saturday if the linesman had not been so inept. Everyone seems to be praising Healy at the moment. Another interesting note, Kyle Lafferty, who plays for Burnley but has been linked with Fulham off and on this transfer season, picked up the third goal for the Green and White. Northern Ireland wins 3 - 1.


-Clint Dempsey- and -Carlos Bocanegra- both lined up for the Red, White and Blue. Carlos had a good game as he wore the armband for the U.S. and was pretty solid in the back. Sweden’s Ibrahimovic gave the States back line trouble all night but it was Onyewu who was taken advantage of most the time and Tim Howard of Everton had to have a huge game which he did by making a few spectacular stops. The U.S. had their fair share of possession in the midfield but as is often a problem, their final ball in and their finishing was not good. Dempsey was involved with a play in the 4th minute that helped spring former City player now with Rangers, DaMarcus Beasley a shot which he stroked wide of the net. In my opinion Dempsey had a somewhat disappointing afternoon. He was paired up front with Landon Donovan and the two did not seem to have the chemistry they did in the Gold Cup this past summer. Many substitutions were made through the second half and as each player came in the intensity of the game dwindled. Sweden wins this friendly 1 - 0.

-Papa Bouba Diop- and -Diomansy Kamara- were called up for Senegal to play against Ghana on Tuesday evening. Although both players were in the squad, hard as I tried I couldn’t find any information on the line-ups for this game. However, I do know soon to be transfered Diop saw playing time as I saw a photo of him defending against a Ghana player. It did end up being a cracker of a game with El Hadj Diouf scoring for Senegal to draw the game 1-1


-Ricardo Batista- got the nod for his Native Portugal’s Under-21 match against Malta. Batista starting and recording the clean sheet beating Malta 3-0.


-Adrian Leijer- recent signing for Fulham wore the captains armband for Australia’s Under-23 side who played Iraq in an Olympic qualifier. The match took place in very warm and humid Qatar. From all accounts the Socceroos controlled many aspects of the game with the outcome a 0 - 0 draw.

-Simon Davies- was in the starting 11 that played for Wales in a game against Bulgaria. Reports say that both teams had periods of possession with Wales ending up on top and Davies being quite active for his team. He was involved with several chances on goal. Wales ends up on top 1 - 0.

-Hameur Bouazza- was also called up but with his injury this past weekend against Boro he was not able to fulfill his duties to Algeria who were beaten by Brazil 2-0. That had to be quite a disappointment to the young man. Who wouldn’t want to play Brazil?

-Aaron Hughes- was not called up but would have been if he had not been injured. Aaron is still recovering from a preseason ankle injury and told FulhamFC.com the other day that he is hoping to return to action for the Spurs game September 1st. Hughes is usually the captain for his Northern Ireland team who are working to qualify the the Euros next summer.

Finding information on some of these games such as the U-21’s and the African games is like pulling teeth. Not a plesent experiance and big gaps after much work. If anyone has any more information on any of these games I would like very much to hear from you.

Brian (AKA-bq)