Craven Cottage Newsround

Well, the rumor mill has been running rampant on whether Michael Parkhurst really is negotiating with Fulham for the winter transfer. This previous post I made stated my feelings on the New England Revolution defender.

But just today we had a comment made by a Steven Erickson who seems to be a Revolution supporter. The original post I made is over a week old and has fallen off the front page of Craven Cottage Newsround. But there have been so many still leaving comments on that post that I thought I would link to it again in case you missed it first time around or perhaps didn’t read all the comments sent in by our terrific readers.  Big tip of the hat to robbyrevsfan who has also had some good insight too, being a …well…a Revs fan and all.

So Steven had this to say today:

November 21, 2007 at 6:36 pm
According to a reporter in NY:

“Parkhurst is staying put. A very good source has told me that Parkhurst will play out the remaining year on his MLS contract and weigh his options after the 2008 season. That is great news for the Revs and a smart move by Parkhurst, who will have the freedom to decide if he really wants to leave or whether he will stay in MLS under a new, and larger contract. He likes playing in MLS and isn’t in a hurry to leave.”

Sorry guys. He’s staying home.

So with the help of my friend Google, I was able to link this last paragraph to a “Big Soccer discussion and from there link it to Ives Galarcep’s blog, “Soccer by Ives”. What’s strange is that I read Ives blog daily and saw the original post but evidently he went back and made an update which I missed. You can find that post here.

I’m a big Ives reader and he is one of the premier soccer writers in the States. I was originally turned onto him by my buddy Bruce from DuNord. Ives isn’t always right but most of the time he is. I will trust his word on this one.

So as Ives says, it looks like Parkhurst will not be coming to Fulham. To bad, he’s a good one. But I’m still hoping there all wrong.

Back in the early to mid 90’s, when I was loading up on coaching licenses and clinics, I was perusing through a second hand book store one day and came across a football training book called “Soccer: Guide to Training and Coaching”, by Allen Wade.  The book was copyrighted in 1967.  I thought it might be a bit outdated.  But as I read on I found the book was originally published as “The F.A. Guide to Training and Coaching”.  This piqued my interest.

Now one must understand that the U.S. built their football association, United States Soccer Federation, (USSF), around the principles of the FA.  They could have used models from other countries, but I’m guessing because we spoke the same language and had so many expatriates living here, it probably made a lot of sense to use the FA as a model.  Britons have also been key in the hands on development of players here in the U.S.  Many British trainers have  come to the U.S. in search of fortune in the coaching profession. Some have done well and some have gone home or changed professions.  But they  have certainly (and still do) influenced our training methods and  techniques.

So I purchased the book and found that Allen Wade was a former Director of Coaching for the FA.  In general there were many parts of the book that were a bit dated.  But the tactical portion was a gem.  The formations used were different but the concepts were still the same.  Compact defense, width in attack… In fact I pulled the book out and dusted it off in order to write this piece and in doing so realized that I need to give the book a going over again.

But perhaps the jewel of the book was a piece on analyzing the game. Now contrary to what many a football fan believe, watching a football (soccer) game and analyzing a football game are altogether two different things. Sometimes I watch a match as a fan.  Then there are other times I have to switch into my coaching mode and view it from a much more analytical perspective. In general this is not as much fun.

Sometimes when watching a match as a fan I find myself asking questions of why a particular problem is happening for a team. So I will for a short while start observing the game as a coach to analyze.  For me it’s sort of like turning on or off a light switch.  I know when I used to coach it was more or less second nature to observe a game and analyze.  The light switch was always turned on.

I also believe your own experience also influences how closely we pay attention to the game. If you grew up with a high level of training as a youth player and experienced this for many years, you might very well find it second nature to read the game well.  But I have heard stories of some great players who in their later years took coaching classes and ended up making comments like “if only I had understood these things when I was still a player”.

Even when I was coaching there were moments in games where the skill of a particular player or the flow of passing for a team would knock you sideways and you would end up like everyone else, dazed and amazed at that special moment in time when the game transcended everything and it was just this beauty.  Then you would need to bring yourself back into the coaching mode and see what really happened. It can be extremely gratifying to analyze a game and then make adjustments to your team that make a difference in the outcome.

So we all come to this spot as Fulham fans by different routes. But if you are reading this blog you most likely have an opinion of how Fulham should be playing football and what they might do better.  As we in the States call, the “armchair quarterback”.

Tomorrow I will delve into the the “how to’s” of analyzing the game. But for now, here is a quote from the book regarding “reading the game”.

Reading the game is the ability to understand what is happening and as a consequence, to anticipate immediate or future developments.  Some players appear to have a natural capacity for it while sometimes, even experienced player have only a shallow grasp of it, probably because, in their formative years, they were merely told what to do and not why is should be done.  Until a player can read a game he cannot play an authoritative part, in the widest sense, in directing it’s course. All players should, therefore, strive to develop their ability to read the game. An analysis of a game must be methodical to be accurate.

Coleman not on Birmingham radar.

The excellent Sid Lowe on Northern Ireland’s chances tonight.  An upset is not out of the question, he says, and does a great job of explaining why that might be.

This despite:

 On Saturday night, Spain defeated Sweden 3-0 with a performance that not only saw them qualify but was so good the press was falling over itself to proclaim them favourites for Euro 2008. One in which Spain had over 70% of first-half possession, in which Sweden did not have a shot at goal in the entire match, in which Xavi Hernández completed a ridiculous 137 passes (and, yes, that does say one hundred and thirty-seven), and in which by far the least impressive of Spain’s midfielders was Cesc Fabregas - arguably the best player in the Premiership.

Northern Ireland’s best player, meanwhile, plays for Fulham. Then there are the boys from Scunthorpe, Glentoran and Bristol City. Spain don’t have a single player in the squad playing outside the top half of the Primera. That’s not all. After that dodgy start back in 2006, Spain are statistically Europe’s best team in 2007, they have never lost in the Canary Islands, and the last four times Northern Ireland have played in Spain they have been beaten, running up an aggregate score of 14-2.

Meanwhile, Simon Hattenstone has a good piece on David Healy.

Here’s the nub:

Here is the deal. David Healy has just scored his 33rd goal for Northern Ireland in 60 games. That is an extraordinary 0.55 goals per game in a rubbish team often pitted against quality. It is 20 more goals than the next best ever for Northern Ireland (Colin Clarke and Billy Gillespie, and the latter scored his last the best part of a century ago). And it is 29 more than the second top scorer in the current squad. That is a footballing miracle.

In scoring his 33rd he broke the record for the number of goals scored in a European Championship qualifying campaign, resetting it at 13 which is 76.5% of his country’s total. Then there is the quality of the goals. Many are exceptional: the classic hat-trick against Spain, the rocket against England, Saturday’s audacious chip against Denmark.

Most remarkable of all, the man who made his professional debut for Manchester United has never repeated his form at club level. How can a man be so brilliant for the Irish and so mediocre for Port Vale, (16 league games, three goals), Preston (139 games, 44 goals), Norwich (13 games, 2 goals), Leeds (29 goals in 111) and Fulham (13 games, three goals)?

Another really good read.

New Fulham blog alert:  the brilliantly named “White Lines”.   Pop over and say hello.

At last I’ve updated the links too, so this is in, The Offside is in, and Chopper’s blog is now correctly titled.

Not Fulham, but a great article at the Guardian about Javier Zanetti.  To me Zanetti’s always been a refreshing player, someone who quietly gets on with being brilliant.    This is very rare.  

As a reminder, here’s that beautiful goal he scored against England:

Still not quite Fulham news, but it sounds like Wayne Rooney is recovering from his injury at a worrying speed.   Here’s hoping he’s not quite ready for the Fulham match in early December.  The same applies to Michael Owen, who should still be injured when we play Newcastle later that month.   Small things, but potentially important to us.

News: PAUL ROBINSON DROPPED!  If I’ve said it once…

Following the Fulham

Hurray!

David Healy wasn’t the only white to score an international goal this weekend.  Here’s Shefki Kuqi bundling home for Finland against Azerbaijan.  As if you couldn’t tell, his is the third….

Thanks to Jari’s Mullet at TFI.

We’ve been linked to Portsmouth long-range goal specialist Matthew Taylor.

Taylor’s a good player, but is left-footed. Currently we have Paul Konchesky at left-back, ably backed up by Nathan Ashton. In front of them there’s Hameur Bouazza, who has made a very promising start to his Fulham career, Seol Ki-Hyeon, and Lee Cook. Taylor wouldn’t come cheap, so are we really going to spend big money for a player we don’t need?

There’s an unsubstantiated rumour that the Michael Parkhurst thing is a done deal. I say unsubstantiated because it really is. Anyone out there know any more?

I haven’t mentioned my trip to Southend on Saturday yet. We had a great time. Martin, who you know as my co-author on the Fulham Review, is a Southend fan, so we’ve been trying to get to games here and there. Anyway, it just so happened that with it being the international break there was no Fulham ‘action’ to distract us, so off we went: Southend v Cheltenham Town.

Southend were relegated from The Championship (Division 2 in old money) last year, and sold their star player, Freddie Eastwood, to Wolves soon after. Many, or me, expected them to bounce back up (I have money on it), but this season has not been consistently successful for Southend. Wins and performances have been punctuated by meltdown, including a recent shambles against Nottingham Forest. So we weren’t really sure what to expect: on the one hand, Cheltenham were bottom of the league; on the other, Southend’s top scorer Leon Clarke was suspended after doing bad things in that Forest game.

We sat down four rows in. I took a picture and was instantly gestured at by a steward. “Don’t do that again” he seemed to be saying. “Fine,” I thought, “well done for keeping me in line.” What possibly harm could my photographing the empty away end have done?

The game started quite well. On loan forward Dean Morgan (not good enough for Luton, apparantly) surged through a number of defenders and set up Matt Harrold. Harrold was clean through with no defender near him, but rushed his shot, which flew straight at the ‘keeper and off for a corner. Turning point, we thought.

Indeed it was. Cheltenham scored twice soon after. I remember little about either, except that neither seemed unpreventable. Then a free-kick on the verge of half-time was headed against the side of the Southend post. It would’ve been 3-0 at the break, at home; not far off a disgrace given the standard of the opposition.

Steve Tillson had work to do.

Soon things were better. Mark Gower, an old fashioned three-quarter paced winger, adept at dribbling with either foot, worked a splendid opening to pull a goal back. I think it was deflected on the way in, but we had a supporting post in between us and the point of impact, so it was hard to tell. Then Steve (?) Hamill surged through on goal, more neat buildup play, and stuck home a second. Hurray! Embarrassment avoided Southend sat back a bit, then rolled up their sleeves for one last push.

But it was not to be.  2-2 was sort of fair given how Cheltenham started, but after half time Southend showed what a fine midfield they have, and will probably be upset at not winning.  We left the ground happy to have seen some nice football and a good, open game. A game played by Steves and Daves and Kevins too. Almost everyone was English, which is not an issue to ponder here, but was refreshing nonetheless.

Football as it was some time ago, I felt. And in many ways the better for it.

As of today we’ve passed 50,000 visitors, according to my wordpress stats.  

Small beer for most sites, but a milestone for us.

Hurray, and thanks for coming! 

Watching the U.S. play S. Africa on Saturday morning was not exactly the highlight of my weekend.    The U.S. won the Nelson Mandela Challenge Cup by a first half goal by Bundesliga player, Steve Cherundolo, but let’s be honest, South Africa dominated most of the second half.

Captain Carlos Bocanegra was subbed out at half and his captaincy was certainly missed as the defense was never able to stay organized after that.  It made me realize what an asset he has become to the MNT even if he does have the occasional mental lapse.

Dempsey played 65 minuets before being subbed out for the wonder kid Jozy Altidore of the N.Y. Redbulls and who was rumored as of late to have interest from Real Madrid. Bob Bradley, manager of the U.S. squad, was trying to get some new players into the mix and see how they looked. This saved players like Dempsey and Bocanegra from overwork and allowed them to go home fit but not worn down.

But here’s my observation: every match I watch Dempsey play for the U.S., he almost always lays down a pass or two that I say to myself, “That was genius”! Creative, unexpected, with the right pace and backspin or swirl. He did it again on Saturday. Several fine balls to slice open the defense of South Africa to players making runs. In one instance he hooked up with young Freddy Adu from Benfica and Adu should have scored (he didn’t) as the ball left him one on one with the keeper.

But here’s what makes me wonder.  Why don’t we ever see Dempsey creating those same sort of passes for Fulham.  Seems we could surely use some of that as there have been many times this season that everyone complained that we played uninspired, uncreative football.  You can’t say it’s the difference between international play and league play.  After all, you see teams like Arsenal and Liverpool do it all the time.  And there are lesser teams (table wise) that also can cut you up with nifty diagonal runs and wonderful throughballs.  Plays that can in a split-second turn the game on it’s head.

So I started asking myself, why do you so rarely see the throughball played at FFC? I can think of a whole lot of reasons why it hasn’t happened but don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t happen.  But instead of me expounding on my theories, I was wondering if anyone else has thought about this and why you think it’s happening, or not happening in this case?

Can this man play or what?

I don’t know how to embed Daily Motion videos, but here’s the link.

Northern Ireland’s David Healy scores a wondergoal against Denmark.

[dailymotion id = 3PLRHSlfgdgGnoKEM]

That breaks the European Championship qualifying record for individual goals scored. He now has 13 in I guess 11 games.

I don’t know how people can say he’s not Premiership class with a straight face. He’s a goalscorer. Some nights he won’t look all that special. But he scores goals. He has to play. You don’t score this many international goals against top teams without knowing what you’re doing.

I know I made a post earlier today concerning Clint Dempsey. But I just finished watching this video on Youtube from U.S. Soccer called, Mens National Team Outreach in Africa. As posted previously, the U.S. Mens National team is in South Africa preparing for a friendly.

A quote from U.S. Soccer, explaining the video, “The U.S. MNT works along with the U.S. State Department to put on a clinic for young students in South Africa to promote HIV awareness”.

All teams do charity work. So what’s so special about this clinic? Pay attention to Clint Dempsey interacting with these kids. The guy is nothing but class. I don’t think you could have said this a few years ago. But Clint is growing up and he is turning into a quality individual both on and off the field. In this video, you can tell he’s truly enjoying himself and seems to relate to these guys. Maybe it’s his personality or maybe it’s because he grew up in the trailer parks of eastern Texas. I know what your thinking; No, Texas is not Africa and no he’s not black. But I think that there are many ways that Clint can relate to these youngsters. No matter, it’s a joy watching Dempsey involve himself with these kids.

Watching this video makes me proud that Dempsey wears the Red, White and Blue and when in England pulls on the Black and White FFC kit.

Also, damn can that boy (Dempsey) juggle!

Pretty hot but the altitude with the heat is a killer according to Clint Dempsey. He also praises the hospitality of South Africa, the location of the U.S. National teams game on Saturday. Dempsey is definitely getting better in front of the mic than he used to be.

U.S. Soccer has this interview with Clint. You can either right click here to download or just click to listen.

No Fulham, which means that there will be no misery this weekend.

After last weekend’s Second Annual Fulham Review Staff Road-trip To The North-West, this weekend we’re having the Second Annual Fulham Review Staff Road-trip To Watch Southend Utd.

That’s right, it’s Southend v Cheltenham!  Lock up your daughters, etc.

It will be great to watch a game without being in some sort of pain, be it emotional (usually) or physically (e.g. at Liverpool because there wasn’t enough leg-room).   I can just sit back and enjoy the game.   Roots Hall is a fantastic little ground too, plopped in the middle of some streets and boasting some wonderful old-school stands, some of which have Hi-Tec plastered all over them.

So that’ll be good.  Elsewhere something is happening that might decide England Euro 2008 future, but with today’s news that Steve McLaren is fielding a Cole-Lampard-Gerrard-Beckham midfield tonight I really am past caring.   To me, McLaren’s one redeeming feature was that he has picked the better team over the Famous Names recently.  With Barry and Gerrard the team was ticking along nicely, functioning even.  Now?  Whatever.   I don’t care.   

If it means we’re spared a load of empty drivel in the media next Summer and can get on with watching some other teams playing football, all the time reminding our players that they’re not as good as they think they are, and that playing well “when it matters” means playing well ”all the time”, well good.   I’d much rather watch some excitable young Bulgarian make a name for himself than see this bunch of overpaid tools underperform again. 

Last Sunday I attended the first ever Copa Minnesota. A game that featured David Beckham, Landon Donovan and the Los Angles Galaxy versus my local team, the Minnesota Thunder. The event drew 20,000 fans. With the help of General Manager Djorn Bucholz, I was able to attain a field pass and spent my time at the Hubert Humphrey Metrodome taking photos and conducting interviews with fans, staff, players and yes, even David Beckham. I did an audio story of the whole event in a sort of BBC/NPR style. I’m very pleased to say it seems the audio has been picked up and linked to by a number of blogs around the U.S.

So I thought I’d share my audio story with our loyal Craven Cottage Newsround readers and give you a chance to listen - if you’re interested.

You can either right click here to download or just click to listen.

This is all hosted on Blue Sky Soccer in which I also have photos of the event posted here.

Imagine a team that has played 38 games, a full season.  They won 13, drew 13, and lost 12.   Fairly average.  Not out of the question for Fulham, although perhaps next year.

How did that team get those results?

Here are five random sequences.

DDDLDWLLWDDL DWWWWWLWLDLDDLDWDWLWLDLLWW
LWLLLLWLDLDD DWWLWLDDDDWWWWDDWLWLWDWLDD
WLDWDLDWDWDL DLWLWWLWLDWLDWWDLLLDDDWWDL
DWWDDWDDWDDD LWLDWWDWWDWLLLWLLLLLDDWLWL
DLDDDWDWLWWW DLWLLWLDWLWWDLWWLLWLDDLDDD

All five teams are exactly the same.   They end with the same number of points.  If you were to judge each team after 12 games you would come to vastly different opinions.

Team 1 looks a bit like us this year.
Team 2 looks like it’s in a bit of trouble.
Team 3 is doing okay.
Team 4 hasn’t lost yet.
Team 5 is doing quite well too.

This is stretching a point - football isn’t random - but equally, it does show how one team could get to the same point in very different ways, and that, by judging the team after 12 games, we’re missing the bigger picture.