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…)
SKC v ToonNewcastle United take on Sporting Kansas City tonight in the first match of their 2011 pre-season tour of the United States.
Sporting Kansas City are currently 5th (out of 9 teams) in the Eastern Conference division of America’s MLS, but they’re on the rise with 3 wins and 2 draws (or ‘ties’ as the Americans call them) in the last five games. In fact they’re currently on an unbeaten 11 game run in the league. They did however lose their last game 2-0 away to the Richmond Kickers in the US Open Cup.
Although the English Premier League might lay claim to a higher quality of football than the MLS, this will still be a tough pre-season test for the Toon. They’ll be up against a team in mid-season who are on a run of form and the climate they’ll be playing in is likely to be a fair bit warmer than they’re used to. (more…)
Newcastle's starting 11 against Darlington.Now being a Geordie expatriate in London, I wasn’t at the Darlington game personally, but from what I can gather, manager, Alan Pardew lined his troops in the increasingly popular ‘4-2-3-1’ formation.
When I say “increasingly popular”, I mean within the English Premier League as many overseas teams have utilised this formation for quite some time now. Since it’s inception some time around the 1980s, there has been some debate on whether this is what could be described as an ‘attacking’ formation, or merely a variation on the 4-5-1 system, making it more flexible in attack by allowing three of the central five to move forward to support an old fashioned ‘number nine’ type figure who can both hold the ball and shoot.
Anyway, in Newcastle United’s case on Friday evening, this line up involved the use of Leon Best upfront, supported by Hatem Ben Arfa in a kind of midfield playmaker / second striker type role. On either side of Ben Arfa were Haris Vuckic on the left with Joey Barton in his right sided role from last season. Playing the more defensive role further back in midfield there was Alan Smith and Danny Guthrie, with (L to R) Shane Ferguson, Steven Taylor, Mike Williamson and Danny Simpson making up the usual back four (see picture). Admittedly, the personnel were much changed later on as is usually the case in such friendly games, but the principle remained much the same throughout most of the game. In an interesting side point though, much vaunted new signing, Yohan Cabaye was later used in the more defensive midfield two after poor Danny Guthrie had to come off with an ankle knock sustained after only eleven minutes of the game. (more…)
WindyAlan Pardew thinks Newcastle United’s upcoming tour of America is the ideal preparation for the new season.
Alan Pardew has been talking again, which will come as no surprise to anyone, but this time he’s been extolling the virtues of the pre-season stint to the US of A.
It’s mid-season for Americas football (‘soccer’) leagues, so we’ll be facing players who are well into their competitive stride. This will be a hard test of our fitness as we look to complete a yankee triple over Sporting Kansas City, Columbus Crew and Orlando City.
Pardew feels the tour will set us up nicely for the new season though, saying:
“It is not a money-making exercise by any stretch of imagination.
“It is purely a break-even tour, which we feel is beneficial for the team.
“We go there because the facilities will be first class. It is going to be hot, so it will test us.” (more…)
Fiorentina: A stiff test for the lads.Newcastle United have announced a friendly match against Italian Serie A side, Fiorentina. The match will be played at St James’ Park on Saturday, 6th August with kick off at 3PM.
So far, Newcastle had previously announced two friendly games against Darlington at the Darlington Arena (15th July), and Leeds at Elland Road (31st July). Between these fixtures, the club will be on a three match tour of the United States where the Magpies will face Sporting Kansas City (July 20), Orlando City (July 23) and Columbus Crew (July 26).
The Fiorentina game is the first home friendly to be announced, and of course, the side from Florence should provide the stiffest test so far of the Magpies’ pre season fixtures, and should give us a good look at how the new signings fare against quality opposition. Last year, they finished ninth in Italy’s Serie A under Serbian manager, Siniša Mihajlović, and their squad features players such as World Cup winning Italian international, Alberto Gilardino.
The one and only previous meeting between the two sides was in the final of the 1972/3 Anglo Italian Cup in Florence, which Joe Harvey’s Magpie team won 2-1, with a goal from SkySport’s very own David Craig along with a home goal from Fiorentina keeper, Superchi. Here’s hoping for a repeat of that at our place 38 years on! (more…)
