Yohan Cabaye in WaterworldIn a match that seemed more suited to swimming trunks and armbands rather than a football kit, Newcastle and Fiorentina braved the atrocious weather in order to win the final friendly of pre-season.
Plumes of water shot up from every foot fall, a wake of rain tracked the ball through it’s journey around the hallowed turf and most annoying of all, the ball had a tendency to stick with each pass. Not the best of days to play football, then.
Contrary to popular belief, rain makes for amazing weather to play football in. You’re constantly moving to keep warm and every tackle gives you a new mark of war as mud tracks along your body and clothes – nothing better on a Sunday afternoon if you ask me. On the other hand, when you’re playing a match against the purple clad Italian giants, a kickaround with your mates doesn’t really seem to come close.
From the kick off Newcastle looked to put the opposition on the back foot and short of a beautiful passing display by the Italians, they never really looked like scoring. There were times when we overcommitted and almost conceded but Tim Krul showed some very safe hands to keep the scoreline level. (more…)
S. Taylor at the wrong end of the pitch again!Leeds United 3 (Patrick Kisnorbo 5, Lloyd Sam 66, Billy Paynter 85)
Newcastle United 2 (Steven Taylor 35, Haris Vuckic 77)
Apologies if this report is very belated this time, however recent events concerning a certain Mr.J.Barton, and other things got in the way. However I spent quite sometime on it, so I’m going to publish it anyway, late or not!
The first news of any note was that first choice defenders, Fabricio Coloccini and the recently controversial left back, Jose Enrique wouldn’t be playing in this game. In his usual pre match bloviations, Newcastle United manager, Alan Pardew, said that Newcastle would be “really threatening the goal”, however he omitted that his team would be offering an open invitation to Leeds to do the same thing. By many accounts, Fraser Forster has impressed in his loan spells at Norwich and Celtic, but he certainly didn’t when, barely five minutes into the game, he fumbled an attempt to gather a fairly innocuous ball by Leeds’s Robert Snodgrass, with the resulting spill falling straight to the feet of another Leeds player, Patrick Kisnorbo, who smashed the ball stright into the back of Newcastle’s net from point blank range. Leeds United 1 – 0 Newcastle United.(more…)
Newcastle United failed to produceHeat problems, turf issues and a collection of cartoon characters stood in the way of today’s game. Undeterred, Newcastle United went to watch a game of football – and that’s about all they did.
Immediately after kick off, the lads were forced to defend as Orlando City threw everything they had at us. Misplaced pass after misplaced pass plagued our team who were unable to escape their half of the pitch for the opening 5 minutes. Short of some smart runs and passing play (including a 1-6 between Alan Smith and Cheik Tioté), Orlando controlled the game.
In that time Ryan Taylor, who was playing at left back, managed to pick up a knock and was substituted on the 25th minute for Jose Enrique. Here’s hoping that knock is minor and he was taken off as a precaution.
Just so you have an idea of Orlando’s dominance, we had conceded around 4 or 5 corners at this stage – compared to the 0 Orlando had conceded.
Once the 35 minute mark had hit, Newcastle sprung to life and charged out of their end of the pitch, thanks to Enrique, and tried to keep the play beyond the centre circle. Dinks from Jonas (playing on the right!) was blocked, and as the ball was kicked out wide to Dan Gosling, he promptly ran into an Orlando defender. Canny. (more…)
Down but not outNewcastle United get their US pre-season tour underway with a 0-0 draw against Sporting Kansas City and Ben Arfa is stretchered off with a leg injury.
The 100 degree Fahrenheit climate was described as ‘brutally hot’ in Kansas as Newcastle lined up to take on Sporting Kansas City in the first of three matches as part of a pre-season tour of the United States.
The weather, combined with an in-form opposition who are unbeaten in 11 games, transpired to create a 0-0 draw.
Newcastle started with:
Tim Krul.
Ryan Taylor, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Jonas Gutierrez.
Peter Lovenkrands, Dan Gosling, Cheik Tiote, Sylvain Marveaux.
Hatem Ben Arfa, Demba Ba.
Jonas played at left-back, Lovenkrands was on the right wing and Ben Arfa was up front with Demba Ba.
Sporting Kansas tried to take advantage of our unfamiliarity with such hot weather by keeping the tempo of the game high but we were up to the task, at least defensively. (more…)
Jose Enrique with WBA hat-trick hero, Somen Tchoyi.Although this was the last game of the season, with both Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion safe for the season, one would have thought that the ‘Baggies’ would have had something to play for, not least finishing above local rivals, Aston Villa, in the Premiership’s final reckoning.
There was also the chance for West Brom to complete a top flight double over the Magpies for the first time since the 1977/8 season. Roy Hodgson seemed to be up for a game too, naming an almost full strength side for the game. Newcastle’s injury woes continued too, as Jonas Gutierrez wasn’t able to make the teamsheet with a thigh injury picked up in the previous draw against Chelsea, and midfield miscreant, Cheick Tiote rested lest he pick up yet another card. Leon Best, who was thought to be out for the rest of the season after undergoing an ankle operation was a surprise inclusion on the bench though. Despite their almost full strength side, West Brom were poor in the first half, leavibng Newcastle coasted to an easy 2-0 lead in the first half. (more…)
