Posts Tagged ‘Aaron Hughes’

Fulham 3-1 West Ham: Winning the First “Must-Win”

Posted: January 30, 2013 by Kyle Bonn in Postgame
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Hugo Rodallega provided the winner as Fulham grabbed a massive 3 points at home

Martin Jol said 5 or 6 wins are going to be needed to guarantee we stay away from the relegation zone, and the club are 1 win closer to securing not only safety but a respectable finish.

The birthday boy headed home the first goal of the night (he was offsides, shhhhhhh), and Hugo Rodallega, who’s got 3 massive goals this year, banged home the winner just after West Ham equalized.  It was a very exciting back-and-forth match, but showed the weakness in defense for both clubs.  Fulham are going to have to weather poor defense for the rest of the season, and it isn’t going to be fun against better clubs.

That being said, this win is massive in terms of confidence.  It got Berbatov back on track (on his birthday, no less), it slotted Fulham up to 12th in the table for the time being, and picked up some kind of points ahead of a challenging stretch of 6 games or so.

The good:

Hugo Rodallega – The offseason transfer has been a statistical nightmare this season, but Rodallega provided pace, cutting edge, and fantastic passing as he led the charge up front for Fulham.  He seemed to dictate terms with the West Ham defense, and made some excellent runs that the Fulham midfielders mostly were able to pick out.

Dimitar Berbatov – The birthday boy picked a great game to bounce back from a run of poor form.  He’d probably have been better had he not been hampered by a hamstring problem most of the match, and he pulled up lame at the end to cap it off.  Hopefully this gives him some more confidence as well. Confidence is going to be a huge thing for more than just Berbatov going forward.

Sascha Riether – By far Fulham’s most consistent defender this season, he’s making a big case to be made permanently a Fulham player at the end of the season.  His tackles are spot-on, and he provides pace down the wing.  Most importantly, though, he’s made so massive tackles this year, and that’s what Fulham are lacking at the back.  It’s hard to beat him one-on-one.  Fulham absolutely need to throw everything they’ve got at keeping him beyond this year.

The bad:

Bryan Ruiz – This one’s not on Ruiz.  It’s solely on Martin Jol.  Ruiz isn’t a winger, and clearly can’t perform well in that position.  Ruiz has played out of position since Dembele’s departure, stuck farther back in the midfield than is suited to him.  He was stuck out of position today even worse, as Jol tried to stick Berbatov in more of Ruiz’s spot.  Dejagah came on for Ruiz and played very well in his spot, so I wouldn’t expect to see the Costa Rican on the wing much more, if at all.

Philippe Senderos – He made a few good plays, but mostly he failed miserably at his job again, and even got away with a blatant handball towards the end of the match after Fulham’s third goal had been scored.  Aaron Hughes has slipped mightily, but he’s still a much better option than Senderos.  Then again, so is a cucumber.

Man of the Match: Damien Duff, without question.  His passes were incredible, crosses were on point (something Fulham’s been missing this season), and even took a few great strikes on goal, coming just wide/high on them.  Alex Kacaniklic, who was left out of the side altogether today, is going to have a real struggle to get back into it, with Duffer now at 7 assists in 19 matches, and Urby Emanuelson – who will most likely slide into either left back or left wing – heading to Craven Cottage imminently.

Last words: Fulham were lucky that West Ham were somewhat off target today and Andy Carroll only played 15 minutes, but they got the job done, and 3 points in the bank.  We’re now in 12th place and 8 points ahead of the drop, which by no means is safe, but it’s a good enough distance for a slip-up or two against the top teams, which is probably bound to happen, especially this Saturday.  West Ham, meanwhile, are in a real troubling position in 13th, just one point below Fulham but their defense looks extremely poor and attack not as good as advertised.  Getting Carroll back will be huge.

There’s also word now that not only has Tom Huddlestone’s name popped up again, but Andre Villas-Boas has confirmed Fulham have spoken with the midfielder and he’s at Craven Cottage to discuss a possible transfer.  We’ll see where that’s headed.  Happy 3 points everyone! COYW!

Chelsea 0-0 Fulham: Frantic but Effective

Posted: November 28, 2012 by Kyle Bonn in Postgame
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Apparently every camera at Stamford Bridge was trained on either Rafa Benitez or Fernando Torres, so this is what I have for you. Somewhat funny to see the new man in charge so flabbergasted.

In one of the more tactically exciting 0-0 games (at least the second half, if not the first), Fulham were able to grab a point at Stamford Bridge against one of the better teams in the league.  The last 10 minutes were very back and forth, and Fulham did well to not let one fall in under very heavy pressure. I’ll take it.

In the last 6 matches, Fulham have gone DLLDDD. They haven’t won since the 1-0 win at home over Villa. They’ve won 1 match in their last 9. And yet, this one match on its own, it’s a good result.

The defense was frantic and required lots of last minute clears that weren’t incredibly effective, but did the job.  There were chances on the other end, including a volley that Riise completely flubbed, but I’m not mad we didn’t convert.  Getting any points at Stamford Bridge are a positive.

Remember, this is still “survive till January” mode and with all the injuries and depth issues, so it’s not the end of the world where we are.  The losses to Stoke and Sunderland were killer, but the situation isn’t unredeemable, even though Fulham have now dropped out of the top 10.

The good:

The center-back partnership – Aaron Hughes in particular was good, after a few matches where he’s been below par. He and Senderos were serviceable today, especially after the last match where the Swiss was an abomination.  The wing backs were good too; Riise piled up blocks and Riether was his usual rock solid self.  Good showing without Hangeland.

The senior squad – Karagounis and Diarra were excellent in the middle today, and despite giving way for the final quarter of the match after clearly being winded, they were excellent in slowing down the attacks and allowing the defense time to regroup after each assault.

Hugo Rodallega – I was very impressed with Rodallega’s defending.  It was obvious Jol told Hugo he would be needed in the back, and that he would be up on counter attacks.  His numbers shocked me (1/5 clearances), but I thought he looked solid helping out.  His ariel play was great, despite being 0/3 in ariel clearances, and 2/4 in ariel duels.  However, clearance numbers are misleading to me, because a successful clear will sometimes fall back to the attacking team, but it still helps at least delay the attack enough to stave off the pressure.

The bad:

The finishing – typical Fulham finishing.  They only had precious few chances in this match, which is to be expected, but they didn’t convert anything. Riise absolutely botched Fulham’s best chance of the game by almost whiffing on a volley and then losing the ball over the back line after.

The clearing – Fulham defended very well, and cleared very poorly. We could have had way more chances had the clearing been effective in alleviating pressure much quicker.  They’re a bit lucky to have not allowed a cheap goal on a failed clearance falling to a Chelsea striker in a good position.

Where from here?:

December is SO VITALLY important coming up.  There are a ton of winnable fixtures that Fulham must take advantage of.  They weren’t able to do this against Sunderland and Stoke, they couldn’t finish against Reading, they couldn’t finish against Southampton.  They’ve shown today they can hang with a team like Chelsea, so it’s time to get a point at home to a surging Spurs, and then pick up 3 points against a reeling Newcastle club, QPR, and Southampton and Swansea at home. They’ve dropped points in the last 2 months, and it’s time to man up. Every club, even the champions, have stretches where they don’t play their best.  Top 10 teams learn from their mistakes and in the end use that to beat the teams they should.  That’s this time for Fulham. Jol knows it too. More reaction below, but here’s the quote that struck me from his reaction, and it pertains to what I was just talking about:

“I am a little frustrated. The team is well organised and created chances against a team that works hard, so you can see us going forward, but still we have to improve…We have the players who can change the game and we need to link with them and do it quicker, but overall I think we are watching things that are positive. We have to play with a higher tempo for the players that we have up front.”

Jol’s reaction to Chelsea:

On Riise’s miss:

“Our shape was good, they had a lot of pressure but we have three or four good chances – nine times out of ten we would have broken them. John Arne Riise’s miss was disappointing. I told him that he should have shot across the goalkeeper and into the bottom corner. He covered 80 or 90 yards and not to score was disappointing.”

On players returning:

“We had a lot of players coming back; Mahamadou Diarra was playing his first game, Giorgos Karagounis was lacking a bit of rhythm, and we leave here thinking we could have nicked it.”

Fulham 5-0 Wolves: Who Needs Zamora When We’ve Got The Pog?

Posted: March 5, 2012 by Kyle Bonn in Postgame
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This picture just about sums up the day

So, my first question, who wants to pay for me to live in London? Because clearly I have some power, some effect on the club. What a match.  Let’s get right into it.

The good:

-The instincts: It seemed everyone knew where everyone else was at all times.  It seemed like every time someone wanted to put the ball into an attacking position, there was always someone there to receive it.  What a wonderful display of attacking.  I can’t really praise the ball movement enough.  While the accuracy wasn’t always the best, the setup and player movement was outstanding.

-Pavel Pogrebnyak: Hat trick. 5 goals in 3 matches with Fulham.  Need I say more?

-Clint Dempsey’s 2nd half: While it took him a while to get warmed up, and he was somewhat invisible in the 1st half, he hit some kind of switch at halftime in the locker room because when he came back out he was on fire.  He made run after run down the middle, and someone found him every time.

-The middle men: Damien Duff, Moussa Dembele, Danny Murphy, John Arne Riise, and even debut man Mahamadou Diarra, this means you. When someone was in a good attacking position, you were always there to put a good ball to them and find your way through the Wolverhampton midfield and first line of defense.  Whether it was on the wings or in the middle of the field, the work to get the ball up front was brilliant.

The bad:

-Aaron Hughes: The poor guy looked lost on the right hand side.  As much as the whole team played well, and even Hughesy looked much better in the 2nd half than in the 1st, I still feel like he had moments where he was clueless.  He’s much better in the middle, and it’s unfortunate that Philippe Senderos is playing so well in the middle.  There’s a logjam in the middle and not enough guys who can play the edges.  That makes Riise so valuable.

-Wolverhampton: Boy were they awful.  As much as Fulham played so well, they handed the Whites so many chances with sloppy ball handling, terrible passing, and a lack of physicality they’re generally known for.  Maybe that’s a product of Karl Henry getting injured early, but they were downright terrible.  After watching that, I would not be the least bit surprised if they ended up relegated.  What a poor showing.  I actually feel sorry for Wolves fans.

Man of the Match: Pavel Pogrebnyak of course.  Who else? Well Clint Dempsey, Moussa Dembele, and even Damien Duff probably could somewhat be considered.  But Dempsey only really played one good half, Dembele faded at the end and didn’t have the sharpest passing, and Pog had a hat trick.  He now has 5 goals in 3 matches with Fulham.

My trip to the Cottage:

Figured I’d share some of this with you as well. From the Hammy End. Despite the rain and the cold, I had a wonderful time.

Fulham 1-3 Everton: Fulham In A Deep, Dark Place

Posted: October 23, 2011 by Kyle Bonn in Postgame
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Clint Dempsey, like many Fulham players, had a great match. Story of the season though, they didn't get the result.

After a match that tested the peaks and troughs of my emotional roller coaster, I don’t have much in the way of words that I can do to describe what just happened or how I am feeling.  I can only do my best to put down on “paper” what my feelings are going forward for this club.  And it’s not good. The 6 goal outburst against QPR feels like a distant memory, doesn’t it?

Now, let it be known that I am the last person to overreact, to things like this, and just so we know, that’s not what I’m doing here.  But I would be lying to you if certain thoughts weren’t creeping through my head.

It’s been well documented how much I have backed Martin Jol.  Well, maybe backed isn’t the proper word, nor is supported.  But I have defended him, saying he needs more time.  Saying things he’s being blamed for aren’t his fault.  And it’s true, I still stand by those statements.  However, I can’t help but think to myself that, after what is obviously the most important match of the young season and of his Fulham tenure, and a match that, whatever happens later in the season, you can look back on and point to, saying it was a defining match, he failed to come through in the most gut-wrenching way possible.  And for that, maybe he isn’t the right person to get the best out of the squad.  Did he do anything obvious in this match to cause me to blame him for the loss? Absolutely not.  Hell, he brought in Bryan Ruiz, who played brilliantly, scored the equalizer, and shone for the first time in White.  He brought on Aaron Hughes, who all Fulham fans know is one of the best defenders on the club (if not THE best) despite a slight knock to the knee.  Could he be blamed for when Hughes was beat for the winner by Saha? Of course not.  Who would have seen that coming? A psychic maybe, but no other.  But maybe it’s time the chatter turns to the fact that, like Jol or not, blame him or not, the results aren’t there.  And at the end of the day, those are what matter.

The other thought running through my head is even worse.  Fulham are dropping points left and right.  And from here, the gauntlet is only beginning.  With such matches as away at Wigan, Sunderland, and Arsenal as well as home vs Spurs and Liverpool on the horizon, thoughts of the worst are dancing through my head like sugar plums.  How far will they fall? Seeing as we can’t beat anyone on the road, even Wigan seems like a daunting task.

Finally, is this not one of the most unlucky stretches you can remember? Zamora converts that simple chance 999 times out of 1000.  He did so incredibly well to find himself in that position, only to kick the game away over the bar.  The phantom red cards, the unlucky misses (Riise hitting the corner post against Krakow, anyone?), despite the chance of a jinx, all this season needs is one or two serious injuries to completely set it up for a rubbishing.  The gods seem to be conspiring against us.

So where does the club go from here? The feeling around me right now is just about as dark, low, and sunk that is physically possible this early in the season.  Suggestions on changes that are needed should be left in the comment box.  Certainly Jol has to change SOMETHING to get this club going.  Or maybe they just ride out the string of bad luck until it turns around? Who even knows.  I think the term “gutted” sums up how I feel right now perfectly, and I don’t have any desire to look ahead.  Especially when it feels like the tunnel Fulham are in has a looooooooooong way to go before the light peeks through.

/depressing blog post
/overreaction

Am I really overreacting though?

Fulham Players In Action Tonight

Posted: September 2, 2011 by Kyle Bonn in Club
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A lot of Fulham players are in action tonight for the international play.  Here is a list of Cottagers in the lineups across Europe:

David Stockdale (bench) – England
Brede Hangeland (captain) – Norway
Chris Baird – Northern Ireland
Aaron Hughes (captain) – Northern Ireland
Damien Duff – Ireland

John Arne Riise is NOT in the Norwegian squad, much to the delight of Martin Jol and Fulham I’m sure.  They did send a doctor to evaluate him, so maybe that had something to do with it.  Moussa Dembele was not picked for the Belgian match against Azerbaijan.  Bryan Ruiz has been called up recently by Costa Rica but was not picked in the squad against the United States on September 6. Mark Schwarzer was the Australia goalkeeper, of course, in their 2-1 win over Thailand.

Dnipro 1-0 Fulham, Fulham 3-1 Dnipro Aggregate: Someone Hand Me An Oxygen Tank

Posted: August 25, 2011 by Kyle Bonn in Postgame
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First things first: hats off to Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.  They played their freakin asses off.  They were organized, energized, and relentless.  Their attacks were heart-pounding.  Fulham’s defense was frantic, jumbled, disorganized, and messy.

But, thankfully, adjectives don’t win soccer matches, goals do.  And Fulham, thanks to their 3-0 win at home, had more of the goal things.

Quite frankly, if I’m Juande Ramos, my first stop on my way home is a private detective’s office to find out who kidnapped my soccer team during the away leg in London, because the side that played today in the Ukraine looked completely different.  I have a very less-panicky take on this match than it may have seemed from watching, so take a read, because there are some important points I’d like to make.

Before I get into this……..breathe……in…..out…..in…..out…..ok that’s better. Haven’t done that for about 70 minutes.  Now on to the breakdown.

The good:

-Matthew Briggs: Something lost in all this was John Arne Riise’s injury that occured right before Dnipro scored their goal.  Let’s hope he’s ok.  But it may have been a blessing in disguise, because it brought on Matthew Briggs, and he was one of the saviors of the day.  He made countless vital blocks, and his tackling skills are plentiful.  He didn’t go in way too hard like many of the midfielders did, rather he stays controlled and collected while trying to wrench the ball from the opponent.  I’m excited about his future.

Update: Martin Jol says John Arne Riise could be out for “some time” after suffering a “serious” leg injury.  If that’s true, we’ll be seeing a lot more of Briggs not only in Europe but in the Premier League as well.

-Aaron Hughes: My man of the match.  Quite frankly, if you pick anyone else you didn’t watch the same match.  Hughes was the only defender who consistently beat his man one-on-one every time.  And not only that, his clears actually went far and away from the people in blue shirts (*cough*Chris Baird*cough*Brede Hangland*cough*).  He is a stud in this Fulham defense.  The rock, if you will.

-Damien Duff: The guy hates playing defense, I think that’s obivous after this match.  He was frustrated beyond belief.  But when given the all-out defend order, whether he likes it or not he did it, and did it pretty well for a winger.  And he created the only real Fulham opportunity; with about 10 minutes left, he brought the ball down beautifully, then instead of rushing a shot, he held and waited for help, which he got in Kasami.  The kid horribly missed the target, but Duff’s lay off was about as perfect as you can get on that disasterous pitch.

The bad:

-Chris Baird: I think Baird knows just as well as we do that this match was his one shot at impressing Martin Jol before he’s potentially sold.  He actually got better in the last 15 minutes or so when the pressure was absolutely pouring on, but before that he was dreadful.  His clears went nowhere, his crosses were dreadful, he was constantly out of position, and he was beaten one-on-one multiple times.  I’m not sure who’s more disappointed in his performance, Baird himself, or the fans (like me) who were begging Jol to play him.

To be honest, that’s all that was truly bad to me.  Sure, you can point to the possession (which actually ended up 56-44 surprisingly; it was 69-31 with about 8 minutes left to play).  Sure, you can point to the many misses by Dnipro.  But when you play all-out defense, you don’t want possession, you just want to spoil as many opponent’s chances as you can, and they sure did just that.  Sidwell played surprisingly good defense, and so did Etuhu, Dempsey, and the rest of the midfield (when not lunging in to challenge).  The defense itself, save Baird, was spotty but held strong when in dire straits.

You can point to how many times the club gave away the ball, and it was pretty frustrating, but I really think it’s because they weren’t really concentrating on keeping possession.  If they got it, sure.  But they completed the task they were given after the surprisingly strong start and goal by Dnipro.  I’m content, and we’ll move on from here.

I need a nap.

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