We're going low-def this weekend (in my house, anyway) for the match that will make or break our season. It'll be on Fox Soccer Plus at 10 am, with stomach-churning live coverage. I, uh, can't wait. Or maybe I can. In any case, it's going to happen.
Beat Villa, and we live to fight another day. Draw, and we're likely looking at opening against Scunthorpe or Doncaster (or Millwall...?) next season. Lose, and it's lights out and a trip straight to the npower (whatever that is) Championship. Overly dramatic? Maybe, but Villa can bury is with a win on Saturday, and Blackpool--our most serious survival opponent at this point--have a fairly weak run-in with Wigan at home this weekend and something like for of their last six games on the seacoast. (That's where Blackpool is, the seacoast.)
Oh, and we'll be doing it all tomorrow without Scott Parker, who, according to my new Android West Ham phone app (provided by FootyFocus--look for it), has an Achilles problem and won't be playing. That's right. Relegation six-pointer, do or die...and no Scott Parker. I don't even have words here. I also have no words for Bolton. Three goals conceded and not even a card to show for our troubles? Did we even send a squad, or did Bolton play XI-on-zero, still keeping 10 men behind the ball and only attacking on the counter (hence the paltry three goals)? It wasn't on TV, so I'm not sure...
Gird your loins, Irons fans. Tomorrow, the entire future of our club hangs in the balance, and our field general will be watching from the Recaro seats. Other than that, it should be an enjoyable Saturday of football...
COYI
Friday, April 15, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
No TV for Bolton v West Ham?
What's this? You mean to tell me that Bolton, the most stupefyingly boring team in English football, isn't a big TV draw? Pretty much every other Premier League fixture seems to be on US TV this weekend, but I can't find Bolton v West Ham anywhere. So, I guess it's Foxsoccer.tv, some stream or the ignominy of a Soccernet "game tracker" for fans of the Claret and Blue this weekend. Hooray.
I don't want to talk about what happened against Manchester United. Yes, I know that this blog is here pretty much solely so that I (and you, the faithful reader) can talk about that sort of thing, but I don't want to talk about it. The whole thing was just such a complete mess. Plus, I hate Wayne Rooney, and I hated him even before he buried us in the second half last weekend. So, let's move on to...Bolton?
Ugh, Bolton. What a horrible excuse for a football club. Park-the-bus, clatter-and-run claptrap. It's the antithesis of what West Ham stand for (or should), and yet Bolton never seem too bothered by the threat of relegation, whereas we constantly seem to be fighting to stay up. Well, I'd rather watch us go down fighting with some modicum of style than watch us float to safety by playing Bolton's stultifying football version of the 1990s New Jersey Devils' neutral-zone trap. (Sorry, I've been watching a lot of hockey lately.) I think I mean that. Just don't ask me if I do should we actually go down this season. Right now, I'm standing on my football principles, but in a way I'm secretly glad that I might not have to watch the match this Saturday. Freaking Bolton.
COYI
I don't want to talk about what happened against Manchester United. Yes, I know that this blog is here pretty much solely so that I (and you, the faithful reader) can talk about that sort of thing, but I don't want to talk about it. The whole thing was just such a complete mess. Plus, I hate Wayne Rooney, and I hated him even before he buried us in the second half last weekend. So, let's move on to...Bolton?
Ugh, Bolton. What a horrible excuse for a football club. Park-the-bus, clatter-and-run claptrap. It's the antithesis of what West Ham stand for (or should), and yet Bolton never seem too bothered by the threat of relegation, whereas we constantly seem to be fighting to stay up. Well, I'd rather watch us go down fighting with some modicum of style than watch us float to safety by playing Bolton's stultifying football version of the 1990s New Jersey Devils' neutral-zone trap. (Sorry, I've been watching a lot of hockey lately.) I think I mean that. Just don't ask me if I do should we actually go down this season. Right now, I'm standing on my football principles, but in a way I'm secretly glad that I might not have to watch the match this Saturday. Freaking Bolton.
COYI
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Two Weeks of Safety
Let's get the niggling little matters out of the way first. Carlton Cole, go around the keeper next time. In fact, learn to finish a chance here and there and you'll be a top striker. As it stands, you get up and down the pitch well; you play surprisingly effectively in your own end, and you set yourself up to score fairly often...but you can't finish.
If you could, we might have nicked three points yesterday. A striker has to be able to finish. It's that simple. You'll be back in the Recaro seats once Robbie Keane, Frederic Piquionne and Victor Obinna are available for the starting XI because they put the ball in the net while you hold your head in your hands. Oh, and Gary O'Neil--you still just don't impress me much. You're better than what we were throwing out there before January, but you were largely anonymous yesterday, which you tend to be most of the time.
Right, with that settled, let's talk about what went right yesterday: pretty much everything else. Aside from Cole's wastefulness--and, to his credit, he did do well to at least set himself up to score--yesterday's 0-0 draw with Spurs in sparkling HD on ESPN2 was a Premiership performance. What I mean by that is that it was pragmatic, spirited and effective. The collective effort was immense. We stole a point in a match we probably should have lost, and we weren't far from stealing all three. That's what Premiership clubs do, and with more football like the kind we played yesterday, we'll be Premiership club again next season.
We turned in way too many Championship performances prior to our recent run of success--total capitulations in which we looked disorganized, disinterested and downright beaten. I wrongly blamed Avram Grant for most of those performances; it seems pretty clear now that with a decent squad, Grant is at least a decent manager. He might even be a good one. Tactically and in terms of player selection, he got yesterday right and should take credit for his wise management and cool head.
It wasn't very West Ham of me to suggest on multiple occasions earlier in the season that Grant had to go. We've never been a club that hires and fires managers in rapid succession, and we shouldn't become one. Should we stay up this season and continue to perform as we have since the second half at West Brom, there's no reason why Grant shouldn't return for next season and many reasons why he should.
Of course, with Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City--not to mention the dreadful prospect of Bolton--all on the docket, survival is far from guaranteed. As it stands, though, we're safe for two weeks (although just barely) given next weekend's Euro 2012 qualifiers. As April begins and the pressure really mounts, we'll take on the league leaders, Man U, at home. Three points separate 13th from 20th.
Given how we've played against Spurs this season, though, who's to say that we can't steal at least a point from Man U as well? Yesterday's match was a real rarity, a thrilling goalless draw. Yes, Tottenham wasted some chances. Sure, we left a lot of open pitch in the midfield. But when Spurs got into our final third, we closed ranks with stunning effectiveness. Scott Parker and Mark Noble bot played defensive gems, and Noble nearly stole a goal with a skillful overhead kick. Thomas Hitzlsperger didn't have much going forward, but he tracked back well to clear dangerous situations. Parker was exhausted with about 15 minutes left to play but didn't leave the pitch--it appears as though Grant has fallen into the Gianfranco Zola trap of leaving our talisman on for too long, even when he's clearly wiped.
No matter, though. Even as Super Scotty's battery wore down, our back line remained superb. Somebody get Manuel Da Costa a good lawyer (hopefully he's just plain innocent) because he was immense yesterday, flying all over the pitch and just getting a foot in here and there to break up several Tottenham chances. Matthew Upson was also very good once again, and Wayne Bridge and particularly Lars Jacobsen locked down Spurs' wide game and frustrated Gareth Bale and Jermain Defoe for most of the afternoon.
And then there was Rob Green. I've long swum against the West Ham tide when it comes to our keeper, criticizing him more than praising him. But he was man of the match yesterday without question, and we probably go down 2-0 on the day if he doesn't make a couple of magnificent saves. His tip against the bar of Bale's free kick five minutes from time was easily one of our plays of the season and might end up being the difference between going down and staying up once all the points and goals are tallied. Keeping a clean sheet was of paramount importance for us not only because it snatched us a point but also because goal differential is likely to play a factor in this season's relegation battle.
Let's not forget that Spurs, for all their relative struggles in the league this season, are in the quarter-finals of the Champions League and just ousted one of the biggest clubs in Europe from that competition. Spurs can beat Milan, but they can't beat us--taking four points off of Tottenham in 2010-2011 and battling to a draw in front of a frustrated crowd at White Hart Lane was satisfying to say the very least. As loathe as we might be to admit it, Spurs are a bit club now. They have big-club money, and they're starting to get big-club results at home and abroad. Taking four of six off of them is a huge accomplishment, derby satisfaction aside.
And it should give us hope for the run-in. Clearly, Tottenham struggle in the league after playing in Europe; their domestic results this season show that. While Manchester United and Chelsea are less likely to fall into such a two-competition trap, it's entirely possibly that we'll get a tired, listless Man U side on April 2 with it's mind elsewhere. Sure, that's not exactly what Alex Ferguson's sides are known for, but Manchester United will be the hunter and West Ham the wounded animal in this situation. They'll have the weapons, but we'll have the basic need to survive on our side. That will make us the dangerous team. We'll be fighting for our lives, and there's not much greater motivation than that.
Add to all that our recent form, which is frankly superb save for one FA Cup match ruined by an incompetent referee, and I'm personally feeling very confident about our chances for survival and maybe even for finishing above 17th. Form is temporary, as always, and disaster lurks around every corner with West Ham, also as always. But we're on the up while clubs like Blackpool, Birmingham and Aston Villa are starting to struggle big time. In fact, there's a pretty good possibility that the city of Birmingham won't be represented in the Premiership at all next season, although I personally see Wigan and Blackpool (their ride is just about over) going down with a third club to be determined. At this point, I'm feeling good about West Ham not being that third club. And for the next couple of weeks, anyway, I'm going to enjoy safety, even if it is still more than a little precarious.
COYI
If you could, we might have nicked three points yesterday. A striker has to be able to finish. It's that simple. You'll be back in the Recaro seats once Robbie Keane, Frederic Piquionne and Victor Obinna are available for the starting XI because they put the ball in the net while you hold your head in your hands. Oh, and Gary O'Neil--you still just don't impress me much. You're better than what we were throwing out there before January, but you were largely anonymous yesterday, which you tend to be most of the time.
Right, with that settled, let's talk about what went right yesterday: pretty much everything else. Aside from Cole's wastefulness--and, to his credit, he did do well to at least set himself up to score--yesterday's 0-0 draw with Spurs in sparkling HD on ESPN2 was a Premiership performance. What I mean by that is that it was pragmatic, spirited and effective. The collective effort was immense. We stole a point in a match we probably should have lost, and we weren't far from stealing all three. That's what Premiership clubs do, and with more football like the kind we played yesterday, we'll be Premiership club again next season.
We turned in way too many Championship performances prior to our recent run of success--total capitulations in which we looked disorganized, disinterested and downright beaten. I wrongly blamed Avram Grant for most of those performances; it seems pretty clear now that with a decent squad, Grant is at least a decent manager. He might even be a good one. Tactically and in terms of player selection, he got yesterday right and should take credit for his wise management and cool head.
It wasn't very West Ham of me to suggest on multiple occasions earlier in the season that Grant had to go. We've never been a club that hires and fires managers in rapid succession, and we shouldn't become one. Should we stay up this season and continue to perform as we have since the second half at West Brom, there's no reason why Grant shouldn't return for next season and many reasons why he should.
Of course, with Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City--not to mention the dreadful prospect of Bolton--all on the docket, survival is far from guaranteed. As it stands, though, we're safe for two weeks (although just barely) given next weekend's Euro 2012 qualifiers. As April begins and the pressure really mounts, we'll take on the league leaders, Man U, at home. Three points separate 13th from 20th.
Given how we've played against Spurs this season, though, who's to say that we can't steal at least a point from Man U as well? Yesterday's match was a real rarity, a thrilling goalless draw. Yes, Tottenham wasted some chances. Sure, we left a lot of open pitch in the midfield. But when Spurs got into our final third, we closed ranks with stunning effectiveness. Scott Parker and Mark Noble bot played defensive gems, and Noble nearly stole a goal with a skillful overhead kick. Thomas Hitzlsperger didn't have much going forward, but he tracked back well to clear dangerous situations. Parker was exhausted with about 15 minutes left to play but didn't leave the pitch--it appears as though Grant has fallen into the Gianfranco Zola trap of leaving our talisman on for too long, even when he's clearly wiped.
No matter, though. Even as Super Scotty's battery wore down, our back line remained superb. Somebody get Manuel Da Costa a good lawyer (hopefully he's just plain innocent) because he was immense yesterday, flying all over the pitch and just getting a foot in here and there to break up several Tottenham chances. Matthew Upson was also very good once again, and Wayne Bridge and particularly Lars Jacobsen locked down Spurs' wide game and frustrated Gareth Bale and Jermain Defoe for most of the afternoon.
And then there was Rob Green. I've long swum against the West Ham tide when it comes to our keeper, criticizing him more than praising him. But he was man of the match yesterday without question, and we probably go down 2-0 on the day if he doesn't make a couple of magnificent saves. His tip against the bar of Bale's free kick five minutes from time was easily one of our plays of the season and might end up being the difference between going down and staying up once all the points and goals are tallied. Keeping a clean sheet was of paramount importance for us not only because it snatched us a point but also because goal differential is likely to play a factor in this season's relegation battle.
Let's not forget that Spurs, for all their relative struggles in the league this season, are in the quarter-finals of the Champions League and just ousted one of the biggest clubs in Europe from that competition. Spurs can beat Milan, but they can't beat us--taking four points off of Tottenham in 2010-2011 and battling to a draw in front of a frustrated crowd at White Hart Lane was satisfying to say the very least. As loathe as we might be to admit it, Spurs are a bit club now. They have big-club money, and they're starting to get big-club results at home and abroad. Taking four of six off of them is a huge accomplishment, derby satisfaction aside.
And it should give us hope for the run-in. Clearly, Tottenham struggle in the league after playing in Europe; their domestic results this season show that. While Manchester United and Chelsea are less likely to fall into such a two-competition trap, it's entirely possibly that we'll get a tired, listless Man U side on April 2 with it's mind elsewhere. Sure, that's not exactly what Alex Ferguson's sides are known for, but Manchester United will be the hunter and West Ham the wounded animal in this situation. They'll have the weapons, but we'll have the basic need to survive on our side. That will make us the dangerous team. We'll be fighting for our lives, and there's not much greater motivation than that.
Add to all that our recent form, which is frankly superb save for one FA Cup match ruined by an incompetent referee, and I'm personally feeling very confident about our chances for survival and maybe even for finishing above 17th. Form is temporary, as always, and disaster lurks around every corner with West Ham, also as always. But we're on the up while clubs like Blackpool, Birmingham and Aston Villa are starting to struggle big time. In fact, there's a pretty good possibility that the city of Birmingham won't be represented in the Premiership at all next season, although I personally see Wigan and Blackpool (their ride is just about over) going down with a third club to be determined. At this point, I'm feeling good about West Ham not being that third club. And for the next couple of weeks, anyway, I'm going to enjoy safety, even if it is still more than a little precarious.
COYI
Friday, March 18, 2011
ESPN2 for Tottenham v West Ham
Not being a morning person, I'm going to DVR this one. The good news is that our critical crunch at White Hart Lane will be live on TV here in the US. The bad news is that it's an 8:45 am EDT broadcast. (Folks on the West Coast, you might as well not even go to bed the night before.)
Back to good news, though--the game will be on ESPN2, which means high-quality HD (as opposed to FSC's fuzzier stuff). Do set your DVRs, though, as ESPN2 doesn't rerun matches throughout the week the way the Fox channels do. Miss this one, and you've probably just plain missed it, although I suppose ESPN3.com might have it available online for a while afterward.
How sweet would six points from Tottenham be this season, particularly with the detestable 'Arry Redknapp still in charge there? Spurs are chasing Champions League glory and will soon meet Real Madrid in that vaunted competition, so hopefully they'll be more worried about that than they will be about us. (In all seriousness, they're not going to win the league this season, so maybe we'll face a weakened side on Saturday--although I doubt it.) Of course, this game isn't just about beating Tottenham; it's about staying up. Robbie Keane, unleash your fury on your former club if you're in the starting XI (or not, as apparently you're still a loanee and can't play against your parent club--thanks for the tip, PW).
There seems to be an inordinate number of Spurs "supporters" here in the US and particularly here in Boston. Their numbers aren't as great as those of the Arsenal fakers or the Man U or Liverpool frauds, but that stupid chicken standing on the basketball keeps popping up around town. I really don't know why that is (and it seems to have little or nothing to do with ethnicity...), but in any case they tend to be just as intolerable as the home-grown English Spurs fans are. (Of course, no Spurs "fan" I've met here has yet been able to produce a Spurs membership card when I whip out my West Ham card to prove that I'm actually a member of the club. Funny that. And relatively few have even been to London.) I'd really love to be able to shove six points in the faces of the Spurs crowd next time I'm in the pub, so COME ON YOU IRONS! This one is personal, even for me.
COYI
Back to good news, though--the game will be on ESPN2, which means high-quality HD (as opposed to FSC's fuzzier stuff). Do set your DVRs, though, as ESPN2 doesn't rerun matches throughout the week the way the Fox channels do. Miss this one, and you've probably just plain missed it, although I suppose ESPN3.com might have it available online for a while afterward.
How sweet would six points from Tottenham be this season, particularly with the detestable 'Arry Redknapp still in charge there? Spurs are chasing Champions League glory and will soon meet Real Madrid in that vaunted competition, so hopefully they'll be more worried about that than they will be about us. (In all seriousness, they're not going to win the league this season, so maybe we'll face a weakened side on Saturday--although I doubt it.) Of course, this game isn't just about beating Tottenham; it's about staying up. Robbie Keane, unleash your fury on your former club if you're in the starting XI (or not, as apparently you're still a loanee and can't play against your parent club--thanks for the tip, PW).
There seems to be an inordinate number of Spurs "supporters" here in the US and particularly here in Boston. Their numbers aren't as great as those of the Arsenal fakers or the Man U or Liverpool frauds, but that stupid chicken standing on the basketball keeps popping up around town. I really don't know why that is (and it seems to have little or nothing to do with ethnicity...), but in any case they tend to be just as intolerable as the home-grown English Spurs fans are. (Of course, no Spurs "fan" I've met here has yet been able to produce a Spurs membership card when I whip out my West Ham card to prove that I'm actually a member of the club. Funny that. And relatively few have even been to London.) I'd really love to be able to shove six points in the faces of the Spurs crowd next time I'm in the pub, so COME ON YOU IRONS! This one is personal, even for me.
COYI
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
West Ham Shirts Half Off--Time to Worry?
I don't even want to get into the travesty that was the FA Cup loss to Stoke. Yeah, sure, we didn't play well in the first half, and Stoke took the match to us at times. But the referee was incompetent almost to the point of comedy, and if you search this site you'll find that it's very, very rare that I even mention the ref in a match. Let's just move on. We probably weren't going to win the Cup, anyway, to be perfectly frank.
The bad thing about a cup loss is that once it's over, it's over. But that's the good thing about it, too. Move on, forget about it. Concentrate on the league. Stay up. That's all we have left to do now. Hopefully our loss to Stoke--which I'd gladly trade for a spot in the Premiership next season--hasn't stopped the momentum we've been building since the fightback at West Brom. We pummeled Stoke in the match that really mattered, the 3-0 win at home.
And we will need momentum. Oh, yes we will. Tottenham, Manchester United, Bolton, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Manchester City all await--in that order. And we must record--what?--at least six points from those six games. That would get us to 37 points and leave us with three more matches to get to the magical number 40, which wasn't so magical last time we went down and might not be this season, either. But there's a logjam from Stoke in 12th all the way down to Wolves in 19th, and it's hard to say right now how many wins we'll need to break it. Oddly enough, we could conceivably finish 9th, but 17th would be fine.
One win over a Tottenham or a Man U would be absolutely massive, obviously, and would send a message to the rest of the league that we're not npower material yet. As far as messages go, though, I got what I consider something of an ominous one this week. The West Ham Online Megastore e-mailed me (along with everybody else who gets those e-mails) to say that replica shirts are now half-off. What's bad about that? Well, aside from the fact that it'll probably end up costing me money, there's a feeling that the club is giving up somehow.
Replica shirts usually go on sale at the end of the season, and we're not anywhere near the end of the season right now. Somehow, half off after our FA Cup loss has the feel of the club desperately wanting to unload shirts before we go down. Maybe I lived in France for too long, but this feels like some sort of surrender. It's nothing, I know--rationally, anyway. We're still very much in this fight. I'd just feel more comfortable if the club started discounting shirts because the season is ending (and we're safe) and the shirts will be obsolete by the fall. That's not the case right now. It's just too early. Forgive me for freaking out, but I'm a West Ham supporter. You know how it goes.
COYI
The bad thing about a cup loss is that once it's over, it's over. But that's the good thing about it, too. Move on, forget about it. Concentrate on the league. Stay up. That's all we have left to do now. Hopefully our loss to Stoke--which I'd gladly trade for a spot in the Premiership next season--hasn't stopped the momentum we've been building since the fightback at West Brom. We pummeled Stoke in the match that really mattered, the 3-0 win at home.
And we will need momentum. Oh, yes we will. Tottenham, Manchester United, Bolton, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Manchester City all await--in that order. And we must record--what?--at least six points from those six games. That would get us to 37 points and leave us with three more matches to get to the magical number 40, which wasn't so magical last time we went down and might not be this season, either. But there's a logjam from Stoke in 12th all the way down to Wolves in 19th, and it's hard to say right now how many wins we'll need to break it. Oddly enough, we could conceivably finish 9th, but 17th would be fine.
One win over a Tottenham or a Man U would be absolutely massive, obviously, and would send a message to the rest of the league that we're not npower material yet. As far as messages go, though, I got what I consider something of an ominous one this week. The West Ham Online Megastore e-mailed me (along with everybody else who gets those e-mails) to say that replica shirts are now half-off. What's bad about that? Well, aside from the fact that it'll probably end up costing me money, there's a feeling that the club is giving up somehow.
Replica shirts usually go on sale at the end of the season, and we're not anywhere near the end of the season right now. Somehow, half off after our FA Cup loss has the feel of the club desperately wanting to unload shirts before we go down. Maybe I lived in France for too long, but this feels like some sort of surrender. It's nothing, I know--rationally, anyway. We're still very much in this fight. I'd just feel more comfortable if the club started discounting shirts because the season is ending (and we're safe) and the shirts will be obsolete by the fall. That's not the case right now. It's just too early. Forgive me for freaking out, but I'm a West Ham supporter. You know how it goes.
COYI
Monday, March 7, 2011
West Ham 3-0 Stoke: Life Begins at 29
Read it and stop weeping. For the first time all season, or at least since I can remember, we're out of the relegation zone on a semi-permanent basis. Game 29 was the springboard, and in in a 3-0 win over Stoke we looked good enough to beat anybody in the Premier League, at least in East London.
I say semi-permanent because Birmingham, which dove into the red lines in table this weekend, still have two games in hand on us. This survival fight isn't just about West Ham and Birmingham, though. It now engulfs nearly the entire bottom half of the table, with Stoke in 12th only three points clear of us in 17th.
And speaking of Stoke...whether they gave us their best effort or not last Saturday is irrelevant. We were not going to lose. We were unbeatable. I don't care if I slip into hyperbole here because that performance was our best of the season, including the 1-0 win over Tottenham and the 3-1 win over Liverpool. Whistle to whistle, for 90 minutes, we dominated Stoke. We could have put two or three more in with an extra dip or curve of the ball here or there.
Our 4-3-3 is on fire. Carlton Cole and Frederic Piquionne were very good up front teaming with the superb Demba Ba, who chased every ball he came near on Saturday and earned his reward with a goal that was much more difficult than it looked. His passing was also pinpoint excellent. Ba and Thomas Hitzlsperger are looking like the saviors of a side that badly needed to shed some dead weight after a horrendous first half of the season.
Hitz, of course, roofed a tremendous insurance goal late, and even Manuel Da Costa, so up and down throughout his West Ham career, managed to score on an excellent header and generally played very well. In fact, the back line of Da Costa, Wayne Bridge, Matthew Upson and James Tomkins (arguably the weakest link of the four, although he was more than adequate on Saturday) was arguably the best we've put on the pitch all season. Even the absence of the always excellent Lars Jacobsen didn't derail a fine defensive effort.
And then there was that midfield. Living legend Scotty Parker, West Ham homeboy Mark Noble and der Hammer aus Deutschland absolutely dominated a Stoke side that desperately needed points and threw everything they had at us. Parker was again stupendous, despite a nagging shoulder injury that obviously bothered him, particularly after he crashed hard into the advertising boards. He is the Claret and Blue Pele, a talisman who has found a home in East London and a budding West Ham legend. Long may he wear our colors.
As tremendous as Saturday was, though, there are, of course, little niggling issues surround West Ham as always. First and foremost, there's our brutal run-in, which includes away matches to Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester City and a home tussle against Manchester United. Then there's our away form, which remains questionable at best. As solid as our 4-3-3 looks at home, will we be able to use it on the road? And will it continue to click? With the matches we have upcoming, that is a massive question mark still hanging over our season.
Then there's the FA Cup. We take on Stoke (again) on Sunday, and Avram: We must field a weakened side. Look, I love the FA Cup and I know how long it's been since we've won a trophy. But we need every arrow in our quiver if we want to stay up this season, and we must stay up. We're finally healthy, for the most part (knock on wood); we'll go into Tottenham with Victor Obinna, Robbie Keane, Ba, Cole and Piq among our choices of forwards.
That is immense. I don't want to see any of them against Stoke this weekend, honestly. We will, I know, but I'd gladly trade an FA Cup exit for survival. Dig up Freddy Sears, Zavon Hines and Benni McCarthy, if they're healthy. Unearth Gabbidon, Boa Morte, Kovac, Ilunga, Faubert, Barrera...anybody who's still on our roster and healthy but who has been relegated to the Recaro seats of late. And give Johnny Specs a run out, too. We might actually need him for the run in.
More importantly, let's let our tired players rest and heal and come back on March 19 ready to drop the hammer(s) on Tottenham. We've got a real Premiership side now, one that really does look capable of competing with any club in the competition. We'll probably drop points to somebody we should beat, but I'm also very confident right now that we can take three points from at least one of Tottenham, Chelsea, Man U and City--and maybe from more than one of them. But we don't need the distraction of the FA Cup.
Look what we've done since we crashed out of the Carling Cup. Outside of an awful loss to Birmingham at home (which could still prove costly) and that dreadful first half at West Brom, we've been downright unbeatable. Sure, the main catalysts to our success have been the additions of actual Premiership players to the squad and the time they've had to work together, but it hasn't hurt, in my view, for us to concentrate on the league rather than chasing a cup. (Conversely, look at Birmingham's recent league form.)
Avram Grant loves Cup competitions, and that's fine...usually. But this season, we have to be all about the points. After 29 games, we're not only off the bottom of the table but out of the drop zone. Now is the time to solidify ourselves and keep our league momentum going. We can do this. Watch the Stoke match again. We're not dead-certain relegation fodder anymore. We're alive.
COYI
I say semi-permanent because Birmingham, which dove into the red lines in table this weekend, still have two games in hand on us. This survival fight isn't just about West Ham and Birmingham, though. It now engulfs nearly the entire bottom half of the table, with Stoke in 12th only three points clear of us in 17th.
And speaking of Stoke...whether they gave us their best effort or not last Saturday is irrelevant. We were not going to lose. We were unbeatable. I don't care if I slip into hyperbole here because that performance was our best of the season, including the 1-0 win over Tottenham and the 3-1 win over Liverpool. Whistle to whistle, for 90 minutes, we dominated Stoke. We could have put two or three more in with an extra dip or curve of the ball here or there.
Our 4-3-3 is on fire. Carlton Cole and Frederic Piquionne were very good up front teaming with the superb Demba Ba, who chased every ball he came near on Saturday and earned his reward with a goal that was much more difficult than it looked. His passing was also pinpoint excellent. Ba and Thomas Hitzlsperger are looking like the saviors of a side that badly needed to shed some dead weight after a horrendous first half of the season.
Hitz, of course, roofed a tremendous insurance goal late, and even Manuel Da Costa, so up and down throughout his West Ham career, managed to score on an excellent header and generally played very well. In fact, the back line of Da Costa, Wayne Bridge, Matthew Upson and James Tomkins (arguably the weakest link of the four, although he was more than adequate on Saturday) was arguably the best we've put on the pitch all season. Even the absence of the always excellent Lars Jacobsen didn't derail a fine defensive effort.
And then there was that midfield. Living legend Scotty Parker, West Ham homeboy Mark Noble and der Hammer aus Deutschland absolutely dominated a Stoke side that desperately needed points and threw everything they had at us. Parker was again stupendous, despite a nagging shoulder injury that obviously bothered him, particularly after he crashed hard into the advertising boards. He is the Claret and Blue Pele, a talisman who has found a home in East London and a budding West Ham legend. Long may he wear our colors.
As tremendous as Saturday was, though, there are, of course, little niggling issues surround West Ham as always. First and foremost, there's our brutal run-in, which includes away matches to Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester City and a home tussle against Manchester United. Then there's our away form, which remains questionable at best. As solid as our 4-3-3 looks at home, will we be able to use it on the road? And will it continue to click? With the matches we have upcoming, that is a massive question mark still hanging over our season.
Then there's the FA Cup. We take on Stoke (again) on Sunday, and Avram: We must field a weakened side. Look, I love the FA Cup and I know how long it's been since we've won a trophy. But we need every arrow in our quiver if we want to stay up this season, and we must stay up. We're finally healthy, for the most part (knock on wood); we'll go into Tottenham with Victor Obinna, Robbie Keane, Ba, Cole and Piq among our choices of forwards.
That is immense. I don't want to see any of them against Stoke this weekend, honestly. We will, I know, but I'd gladly trade an FA Cup exit for survival. Dig up Freddy Sears, Zavon Hines and Benni McCarthy, if they're healthy. Unearth Gabbidon, Boa Morte, Kovac, Ilunga, Faubert, Barrera...anybody who's still on our roster and healthy but who has been relegated to the Recaro seats of late. And give Johnny Specs a run out, too. We might actually need him for the run in.
More importantly, let's let our tired players rest and heal and come back on March 19 ready to drop the hammer(s) on Tottenham. We've got a real Premiership side now, one that really does look capable of competing with any club in the competition. We'll probably drop points to somebody we should beat, but I'm also very confident right now that we can take three points from at least one of Tottenham, Chelsea, Man U and City--and maybe from more than one of them. But we don't need the distraction of the FA Cup.
Look what we've done since we crashed out of the Carling Cup. Outside of an awful loss to Birmingham at home (which could still prove costly) and that dreadful first half at West Brom, we've been downright unbeatable. Sure, the main catalysts to our success have been the additions of actual Premiership players to the squad and the time they've had to work together, but it hasn't hurt, in my view, for us to concentrate on the league rather than chasing a cup. (Conversely, look at Birmingham's recent league form.)
Avram Grant loves Cup competitions, and that's fine...usually. But this season, we have to be all about the points. After 29 games, we're not only off the bottom of the table but out of the drop zone. Now is the time to solidify ourselves and keep our league momentum going. We can do this. Watch the Stoke match again. We're not dead-certain relegation fodder anymore. We're alive.
COYI
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Feeling Stronger Every Day
I have been a living metaphor for West Ham United lately, so I'm going to lean toward the positive and set the mood for this post with an old Chicago tune that I think and hope describes both me and the club. (Man, that band had some tight brass. I just love it. Also, yes, I said brass.)
So, I got sick. Not (just) sick of West Ham, but actually sick--sinus infection, ear infection, laryngitis, fever, vice-grip headaches, that sort of thing. I was sick for quite a while, close to a month. And since I write for a living and just finishing what I had to do for work over the last few weeks nearly killed me, I haven't even logged on here for weeks. It was nothing personal--I just didn't have it in me.
But now I'm back...and, although I have no idea how, so are West Ham. After the compete debacle at West Brom--yes, the fightback from 3-0 down was nice, but why were we 3-0 down in a relegation six-pointer to begin with?--the Hammers have been on fire, as you well know. The 5-1 FA Cup win over Burnley gave us a taste of what we've been missing with the absence of Thomas Hitzlsperger, and today's victory over Liverpool at the Boleyn (broadcast in glorious HD on Fox Soccer Channel) was simply divine.
In my time away from the blog, I spent a lot of time wondering what had gone wrong so far this season for West Ham. I finally had to admit what no fan wants to realize: Our players might have been the problem. I'm still no particular fan of Avram Grant, but his enthusiasm of late has signaled that he actually cares about his job, even after the club's owners very publicly tried to oust him and failed.
To Grant's credit, we've managed to build a side that looks relatively little like the one that capitulated at Villa to start the season. It's not surprising that we look better now than we did before the January window opened. Hitz is everything we thought he could be now that he's healthy. Wayne Bridge has settled well and is useful, if not fantastic.
Gary O'Neil isn't the fastest player on the pitch but provided good service for Demba Ba's goal against Liverpool. Ba himself has been magnificent. Robbie Keane will be a welcome addition when he returns. Lars Jacobsen continues to be superb; Jonathan Spector looks very good (and even earned a "U-S-A" chant on Saturday) now that he's finally playing at his natural position, and Scotty Parker is Scotty Parker.
Even Carlton Cole, playing in the role of super sub today, looks potent, and he's finally using his big frame to muscle defenders off the ball and create chances in the area. Just look at what he did today in scoring our third goal--he looked like Earl Campbell shaking of a tackler in the Astrodome in 1979. He's a beast when he wants to be; maybe he's just not a 90-minute player. Whatever he's doing, though, it's working.
Perhaps what's more important to look at, though, is who isn't on the pitch. Our new arrivals and a few old faces have started to click together, but they've also kept some notorious slackers and under-performers planted in those fancy claret-and-blue Recaro seats on the non-competitive side of the touchline. That might be helping us more than anything else--the old principle of addition by subtraction.
Luis Boa Morte, who got a lot of playing time earlier this season, is becoming a stranger. Julien Faubert is as long-forgotten as France's last great military victory. We no longer have Pablo Barrera stumbling around in the midfield on a regular basis, and Radoslav Kovac's golden hair is doing little more than reflecting the beams that shine down from the stadium floodlights.
Wayward hero Herita Ilunga and likely cheeseburger aficionado Benni McCarthy no longer look like constant threats to take the pitch, and little Freddie Sears, despite his goal v Burnley, isn't our sadly lacking savior in waiting anymore at the end of a match when we need a goal. Fewer mediocre to poor players on the pitch means fewer mistakes, more consistent possession (something we excelled at today), fewer stupid goals conceded and more chances created. Better players equals better football. Who knew?
The most important thing about the win over Liverpool is that it's the kind of game we're going to need to win if we're going to stay up. We've squandered too many chances against the Birminghams and West Broms and Wolves (Wolveses?) of the world to count on those "easy" games for picking up points. We're going to have to do things the West Ham way now, the tough, nearly impossible way. We'll need to beat Stoke in an NHL-style home-and-home over the next week if we want to escape the relegation zone and move on in the FA Cup.
Then, it's away to Tottenham, home to title-chasing (as usual) Manchester United, away to bogey club Bolton, home to Villa, away to Chelsea... Well, you get the idea. Our opportunities to rack up points against our fellow relegation strugglers are just about gone. But we can do this. Yes, West Ham, with six wins this season, are still alive and very well in the race for survival. Maybe we need big matches; we've slain both Tottenham and Liverpool at home this season, and we're usually good for a famous road win or two every season.
There are issues to address, to be sure. Our back line is still a hodgepodge, and James Tomkins got a bit of a runaround on Liverpool's goal today. More than anything, we need to play the rest of the season the way we played today, with passion, commitment, determination and maximum effort from everybody on the pitch. Finally, we might just have the players in place to do that. We've got 10 games left to play, more than a quarter of the season. We're one step away from climbing out of the relegation basement. We're starting to play West Ham football. We have, I hope, cured what ails us. Right now, anyway, we are feeling stronger every day.
COYI
So, I got sick. Not (just) sick of West Ham, but actually sick--sinus infection, ear infection, laryngitis, fever, vice-grip headaches, that sort of thing. I was sick for quite a while, close to a month. And since I write for a living and just finishing what I had to do for work over the last few weeks nearly killed me, I haven't even logged on here for weeks. It was nothing personal--I just didn't have it in me.
But now I'm back...and, although I have no idea how, so are West Ham. After the compete debacle at West Brom--yes, the fightback from 3-0 down was nice, but why were we 3-0 down in a relegation six-pointer to begin with?--the Hammers have been on fire, as you well know. The 5-1 FA Cup win over Burnley gave us a taste of what we've been missing with the absence of Thomas Hitzlsperger, and today's victory over Liverpool at the Boleyn (broadcast in glorious HD on Fox Soccer Channel) was simply divine.
In my time away from the blog, I spent a lot of time wondering what had gone wrong so far this season for West Ham. I finally had to admit what no fan wants to realize: Our players might have been the problem. I'm still no particular fan of Avram Grant, but his enthusiasm of late has signaled that he actually cares about his job, even after the club's owners very publicly tried to oust him and failed.
To Grant's credit, we've managed to build a side that looks relatively little like the one that capitulated at Villa to start the season. It's not surprising that we look better now than we did before the January window opened. Hitz is everything we thought he could be now that he's healthy. Wayne Bridge has settled well and is useful, if not fantastic.
Gary O'Neil isn't the fastest player on the pitch but provided good service for Demba Ba's goal against Liverpool. Ba himself has been magnificent. Robbie Keane will be a welcome addition when he returns. Lars Jacobsen continues to be superb; Jonathan Spector looks very good (and even earned a "U-S-A" chant on Saturday) now that he's finally playing at his natural position, and Scotty Parker is Scotty Parker.
Even Carlton Cole, playing in the role of super sub today, looks potent, and he's finally using his big frame to muscle defenders off the ball and create chances in the area. Just look at what he did today in scoring our third goal--he looked like Earl Campbell shaking of a tackler in the Astrodome in 1979. He's a beast when he wants to be; maybe he's just not a 90-minute player. Whatever he's doing, though, it's working.
Perhaps what's more important to look at, though, is who isn't on the pitch. Our new arrivals and a few old faces have started to click together, but they've also kept some notorious slackers and under-performers planted in those fancy claret-and-blue Recaro seats on the non-competitive side of the touchline. That might be helping us more than anything else--the old principle of addition by subtraction.
Luis Boa Morte, who got a lot of playing time earlier this season, is becoming a stranger. Julien Faubert is as long-forgotten as France's last great military victory. We no longer have Pablo Barrera stumbling around in the midfield on a regular basis, and Radoslav Kovac's golden hair is doing little more than reflecting the beams that shine down from the stadium floodlights.
Wayward hero Herita Ilunga and likely cheeseburger aficionado Benni McCarthy no longer look like constant threats to take the pitch, and little Freddie Sears, despite his goal v Burnley, isn't our sadly lacking savior in waiting anymore at the end of a match when we need a goal. Fewer mediocre to poor players on the pitch means fewer mistakes, more consistent possession (something we excelled at today), fewer stupid goals conceded and more chances created. Better players equals better football. Who knew?
The most important thing about the win over Liverpool is that it's the kind of game we're going to need to win if we're going to stay up. We've squandered too many chances against the Birminghams and West Broms and Wolves (Wolveses?) of the world to count on those "easy" games for picking up points. We're going to have to do things the West Ham way now, the tough, nearly impossible way. We'll need to beat Stoke in an NHL-style home-and-home over the next week if we want to escape the relegation zone and move on in the FA Cup.
Then, it's away to Tottenham, home to title-chasing (as usual) Manchester United, away to bogey club Bolton, home to Villa, away to Chelsea... Well, you get the idea. Our opportunities to rack up points against our fellow relegation strugglers are just about gone. But we can do this. Yes, West Ham, with six wins this season, are still alive and very well in the race for survival. Maybe we need big matches; we've slain both Tottenham and Liverpool at home this season, and we're usually good for a famous road win or two every season.
There are issues to address, to be sure. Our back line is still a hodgepodge, and James Tomkins got a bit of a runaround on Liverpool's goal today. More than anything, we need to play the rest of the season the way we played today, with passion, commitment, determination and maximum effort from everybody on the pitch. Finally, we might just have the players in place to do that. We've got 10 games left to play, more than a quarter of the season. We're one step away from climbing out of the relegation basement. We're starting to play West Ham football. We have, I hope, cured what ails us. Right now, anyway, we are feeling stronger every day.
COYI
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