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