I can feel it, just for a minute and then it’s gone: Villa 2-1 Fulham
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:
Being that I missed this one I’m very curious about the flow of the game. From the game reports it sounds as if Villa were all over us the second half. I have a friend that watched the game and he said it was all Aston Villa.
I have a link here from Sentanta Sports which show some really interesting statistics. Passing success was equal as was territorial advantage. But time of possession was clearly weighted towards Villa as were shots off target, 15-5 Villa. But shots on goal, the ones that count were even up. Corners which are often as telling as anything were far in favor of Villa 12-3.
Also, after all the banter we had last week about Keller and me saying that I thought he would be fine in goal and many of you saying you thought he was slow and old and not up to the task, I am wondering how he looked? According to Setanta’s ratings, Keller and Dempsy got the highest ratings. Is this correct? I read the Konschesky was a monster on the field. Seems he should too should have had a 7 then.
As Rich has been saying, he thinks Dempsey is far more effective up front then on the wing, and I would agree. Sounds as if he did well there.
How did Healy do? Not a lot of mention about him.
Baird’s ratings were not good. I know some have been criticizing him, whereas others say he is playing great. Some of those others being the manager. Was he just overloaded on that side or are teams playing their best on his side because they see a weakness in speed?
I also read a report that Sanchez says the officals got it wrong again. A missed spot kick that should have been coming to us in the first half. Not to much in the reports on that one. What happened?
So many questions I have.
bqfootball
27 Aug 07 at 11:35 am
Hi Brian
Keller: Looked good. Claimed some crosses, made one good save where he positioned himself well and was therefore able to flip it wide when required. Most of the Villa shots were narrowly wide so he didnt’ actually have many saves to make.
Healy: Did his thing, basically, but didn’t get a chance. I think we’ll see games like this from him, he’ll be invisible for long periods but that’s what some goalscorers do.
Penalty: Not mentioned in the report because I didn’t see it, but yeah, Kamara hit a good shot and the Villa defender handled it while charging it down. Clear pen on TV replay, might’ve been hard to see at the time, but another one that’s not gone our way.
Baird was an easy target for poor marks owing to the cards. He didn’t really get into the game but as usual, I think he did okay. The second yellow was, I think, very harsh, especially as Villa scored directly from the incident but had it called back with lack of advantage.
I sometimes do the Observer fan thing, and my marks out of ten were: Keller 6, Baird 6, Knight 6, Boca 7, Konchesky 8, Davies 6, Smertin 7, Davis 8, Kamara 6, Dempsey 7, Healy 6.
weltmeisterclaude
27 Aug 07 at 12:00 pm
I only saw the highlights, but Keller didn’t look so great on Villa’s second. When he came out, he did more of a forward dive instead of making himself big and getting horizontal (I hope that description makes sense).
Nordy
27 Aug 07 at 3:25 pm
Thanks, WMC.
Just what I was thinking - bad luck or bad play? Maybe a bit of both? The “last-10-minutes-bug” is evidently still in the Fulham bloodstream.
I was pleased to see Dempsey get a full 90 minutes. The club owed him that. Since he arrived, he has been more or less ignored by Coleman and only allowed on the pitch for brief periods by Sanchez. So, well done,. Clint. I think it`s in hs nature, though, to be a hero one week and villain the next.
A couple of media grouches: they all noted the slight deflection that took the ball into Dempsey`s patch but not the deflection that sent Young`s of-target shot past Keller. And was Maloney off side when the pass was played thorugh to him?
Interested to see what team Sanchez puts out tomorrow. Shall we see some youngsters / second-choicers?
Wing Half
27 Aug 07 at 5:12 pm
Don’t want to be the negative commenter, but Fulham did not look good out there. A few points: 1) Ashley Young was tormenting Baird on the right leaving the latter no choice but to foul - both yellows were fully deserved - and yet Sanchez let this go on until it was too late (i.e. Baird was sent off). Volz did a much better job (in a relatively short outing, however) by squeezing Young to the sideline and not allowing him room to operate. Liam would have done a better job defensively, and offered way more going forward, than Baird did; 2) Kamara was impressive in that he covered lots of ground and was heavily involved in three of Fulham’s four chances (the goal, the hand-ball, and the post); 3) Collins John is fast, but has no clue what he is doing - he could have had a breakaway if not for the MLS-level first touch; 4) Healy didn’t do much, but that’s clearly an aberration; 5) Keller may not look too spry, but didn’t make any mistakes either. He couldn’t have done anything on either of the two goals: on the second, Bocanegra slid into Maloney causing the latter to stumble and Keller to go for the ball, but Maloney stayed on his feet and easily slid it past Keller; 6) Deuce had two great chances, one of which he finished and produced a good save from Carson on the other (the fourth Fulham chance). He didn’t get any opportunities to run at the defense with the ball, perhaps because of Fulham’s slipshod possession game. In any event, he looks like he will get better, unlike 7) I kept forgetting that Smertin, Davis and Bocanegra were even on the field - in the latter’s case that may have been a good thing, but I was reminded of his presence (rather lack thereof) when he contributed to that gaping hole for Maloney to score a touchdown through.
Ilya
27 Aug 07 at 6:31 pm
I meant Davies, Davis has quality.
Ilya
27 Aug 07 at 6:34 pm
cheers, Ilya, nice work.
Smertin, I felt, was getting on and doing a lot of the dirty work in there. Davies had a quiet game and never got going. Baird I’m defending, purely because he’s been harshly judged in the past few games when I’ve felt he’s played really well. He did struggle a bit out there on Saturday but these things will happen. I also felt that Zat was uncommanding again (if he could be consistent…). You make a good point about Kamara, but he was extremely frustrating in the first half when he kept running into trouble/slipping over/both. No matter, he’ll get a good run up front at some point.
btw, I’ve never seen a footballer so tired as Dempsey was towards the end. He was walking around, doing his best, but the tank was obviously empty. The header was a good one, and on another day would’ve gone in, further evidence that he has a nose for making space.
weltmeisterclaude
27 Aug 07 at 6:56 pm
Have you tried eating some of those ribs Deuce likes eating? I shocked he’s not obese.
Ilya
27 Aug 07 at 8:28 pm