Tag Archives: Clint Dempsey

The View from South Texas — Tottenham Hotspur FC v. Fulham FC

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by HatterDon

Fulham Steady, Tottenham Unready

Fulham made the short trek to North London today to face the Tottenham side who had demolished them 0-3 earlier in the season. There was little hope that the Southwest London side could get anything from the return fixture. Spurs were at home, in the top four, and their best player – Gareth Bale – did not participate in their midweek Europa League tie. Add to that the fact that Fulham have been a woeful eyesore on the road this season, and the match promised to be the Tottenham walkover that most pundits, including the South Texan writing this report, predicted.

But funny things happen on the way to the final whistle, and many of them occurred at White Hart Lane today. In the first half, Fulham displayed the football that has driven so many of their supporters nuts this season. Each possession featured multiple sideways and backwards passing until, eventually, the ball was surrendered to the team in white. It’s hard to moan about these losses of possession. If your [apparent] game plan is to get from your penalty area to the opponent’s penalty area in no fewer than 27 passes, chances are at least one will go awry. And so it was that Steve Sidwell took Fulham’s first shot in the 41st minute, and arced it a good 40 yards above the crossbar.

While Fulham’s “attack” was sputtering along going nowhere, their defense looked solid almost from the start. Spurs decided to rest Defoe and Lennon – who had niggling injuries – and persist with Adebayor up front despite season-long indifferent form. Bale looked a bit the worse for wear after a challenge, and Assou-Ekotto looked more than out of place in midfield. Dembélé was excellent, but the pieces that made up the Spurs XI didn’t seem to fit. Much of this was down to the consistency of Fulham’s defense. After twice conceding possession in dangerous positions within the first 70 seconds – Karagounis and Riise the culprits – Fulham’s back four settled down well, and were mightily assisted by Karagounis and Sidwell.

It didn’t take the White Hart Lane faithful long to express their frustration. EVERY Spurs pass that went sideways or backwards was greeted by growls of disapproval. I have to wonder how they’d like watching Fulham every week. They’d all be hoarse inside 30 minutes.

The second half looked like more of the same until the always-dangerous Ashkan Dejagah won possession in his own half, managed to slip past Dembélé and then feed Sascha Riether wide on the right. From deep midfield, Dimitar Berbatov streaked upfield with pace I didn’t know he possessed. Cross, calm conversion, and 0-1. Our 3rd shot in the match was our 1st shot on goal and a goal – all in minute 52. Not too shabby. For the next 20 or so minutes, Fulham dominated the pitch. Far from being gored into fighting back, Tottenham had their hands full keeping Fulham from a second. Hangeland, playing on the left wing [!] won a corner and then was presented with a clear header with half the goal to aim at. Somehow, he put it wide, and increased the acid content in my stomach exponentially.

How much were Fulham in charge? Clint Dempsey, who was subbed on at half time – first affected the play guarding Senderos in a succession of Fulham corners about 15 minutes later. Adebayor, despite working very hard, was mastered all day by his man-marker Philippe Senderos. Riether and Riise were tidy on the wings and Hangeland took care of everything else from his goal line to the center circle.

Tottenham did make some inroads, most especially when Jermain Defoe came on after the hour mark, but one brilliant Mark Schwarzer save aside, everything Defoe, Dempsey, Adebayor, and Bale threw at Fulham was meat and drink for an extremely well-organized and disciplined defense. I’ve seen Spurs play many times this season, and I’ve never seen them create so few clear chances.

Do I have quibbles about today’s performance? Of course. It is beginning to appear as if Karagounis actually came to us from the Royal Shakespeare Company. I haven’t witnessed such serial anguish since I saw King Lear. But mostly, I think there’s some kudos to pass along. Dejagah, who can be forgiven for not getting Fulham’s second late in the match, was a massive pain in the ass for everyone in white today. Riether was excellent. Duff did a fine job – especially in defense – and Schwarzer’s late save from Defoe was amazing when you consider how little he had been called upon to do.

HatterDon’s Man of the Match is Philippe Senderos. Part of this award is in recognition of dozens of cool and efficient decisions he made in his own penalty area in pressure situations. Part is in recognition of him marking Adebayor out of the match. And, of course, part is to piss off the huge cohort of Senderos haters who, each week, have less and less reason to despise him so.

Great result today and, given today’s other outcomes, we just might be clean and clear. Well done the lads and, if nobody gets hurt during the international break, it might be fun against QPR in a fortnight’s time.

COYW

Derek Boateng and Giorgos Karagounis to restore familiar midfield partnership?

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The backbone of Roy Hodgson‘s Fulham team was its balance between the midfield and defence. First of all you had Brede Hangeland and Aaron Hughes; any weaknesses they had were made up by the other’s strengths. Then you had the underrated duo of Danny Murphy, the captain, and Dickson Etuhu. The midfield was pivotal in Fulham being able to stand up to some of the best teams in European Football: Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus, Hamburg and Wolfsburg, all succumbed to the partnership consisting of two aging Premier League underachievers who, simply, complimented each other perfectly. Fast-forward a few years and the Cottagers find themselves struggling to rebuild their midfield after the unfortunate departures of former skipper, Murphy, the fantastic Moussa Dembélé and the once hero, Clint Dempsey.

When Mahamadou Diarra signed for Fulham in February last year, Martin Jol essentially had a £24 million player at his disposal. With the aforementioned Moussa Dembélé being deployed in a deeper, central midfield role, there was a new partnership in the making. Both of them were strong, quick, very good on the ball and excellent defensively. Dembélé would maraud forward, linking midfield to attack, while Diarra would act as the more conservative member of the two, opting to break up opposition midfield play. Due to Diarra’s prolific injury absences and, of course, Dembélé’s £15 million exit to Spurs, yet another combination had gone down the pan. Manager Martin Jol has experimented with many different alternatives so far this campaign. Baird & Sidwell, Sidwell & Baird, Diarra & Sidwell and Sidwell & Karagounis have all been tried and tested; the latter being the most successful due to the refreshing influence of Giorgos Karagounis.

Many football fans would’ve looked at the Bosman transfer of the Greek as an unimaginative signing; inadequate compensation for not bringing in midfield replacements in the summer. Ten appearances into his Fulham career and the former Panathinaikos man has impressed with his boundless energy and passion for the team. His performances make you wonder why he didn’t come to the Premier League sooner.  Similar to Carlos Tevez, he doesn’t let his size or physique get in the way, using his tenacious streak to make the middle of the pitch his own. He offers something Fulham have been lacking over the past four or five months: the ability to pass effectively in a number of different ways. Chris Baird showed signs of being able to fill the ‘creative midfielder’ void but has tailed off in recent weeks; showing his ineptness when being pressed by a more clued-up side. West Brom, early season, gave Baird all the time and space in the world and because of that, it looked as if Xavi Hernández had secretly slipped on a Fulham shirt.

Derek Boateng looks set to seal a £2 million deal to West London from Ukrainian outfit, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk. After the Ghanaian returns from African Cup of Nations duty, there may be a return of a midfield play style reminiscent to Fulham’s most successful years. The combination of Danny Murphy and Dickson Etuhu was the ideal blend of playmaker and powerhouse. Murphy had all the tools to unlock a defence with his inch-perfect passing and incredible vision. His one downside was his lack of athleticism. Similar to how Hughes and Hangeland combined, Etuhu made up for that flaw. Being a 400 metre runner in his youth, the Nigerian could run and he could carry on running for as long as he wanted. His job was to do all the unattractive donkey work that Murphy was, perhaps, not capable of doing. It was often difficult to tell the difference between Etuhu and a bulldozer when he was in full flow; uncompromising in the tackle and not afraid to put his opponent in their place early on in a match. He, like Murphy, had his own drawbacks: his distribution. Although his role involved getting the ball and giving it to the nearest creative player, his passing really wasn’t on other players’ level.

The potential collaboration of Boateng and Karagounis (or the Greek and the Ghanaian?) is as close as you can get to the Europa League Final central midfield partnership. Karagounis can do his own running and Boateng will instil some bite back into the Fulham team. There’s little doubt over is physical presence, but whether he’ll be able to make the huge leap from Ukrainian football to the Premier League is not yet clear.

The View From South Texas — Liverpool v. Fulham FC

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by HatterDon

Historic Victory for Fulham At Uninspired Liverpool

Ho-hum, yet another double by the Mighty Whites.

There’s a point to be made that Liverpool purposely fielded a weakened XI against Fulham Tuesday evening, since they have the FA Cup Final on Saturday. And Ian Darke made that very point 273 times during the 90+ minutes of his “commentating.” I’m sure there will be plenty of press decrying Liverpool’s makeshift side, and using this fact to denigrate Fulham’s victory. Truth be told, there was only one side showing any creativity out there and that was Fulham. Despite fielding Kuyt, Carroll, and Maxi, the three most creative players on the pitch were Dembélé, Dempsey, and Kacankifrei. Ably assisted by Danny Murphy who pulled the strings masterfully, Fulham basically played without being under sustained pressure for a moment. And the result? The fact that despite the typical crowd size, the “few Fulham supporters who bothered to make the trip” [this quote again from Darke] could be heard clearly. I especially loved the “Take Me Home, Al Fayed” and Moussa’s song.

Fulham fielded three ex-Reds, with Special K joining Riise and Murphy in the lineup. The young left winger looked very dangerous early on, and it was a neat combination play between him and Dempsey that resulted in the goal. Dempsey put Special K through and, with Pogrebnyak pressuring Liverpool’s defense, Martin Skrtel put into his own net off his shoulder. And that was pretty much that. Liverpool fired off a raft of shots, but the majority of them hit everything nowhere near Mark Schwarzer’s goal. They nearly scored after an unusual gaffe by the Fulham keeper, but Jonjo Shelvey’s weak shot was cleared off the line by the excellent Brede Hangeland.

Liverpool’s most threatening shot on goal came from the forehead of Andy Carroll, but Tha Big Aussie had little trouble with it. Most of the evening the local “faithful” groaned as pass after pass was misdirected. Initially, most of the interceptions came from and active alert defending up and down the pitch. In the end, though, Fulham scarcely had to move to gain possession as Liverpool players – out of original ideas – passed across the pitch to a wide open Fulham player time after time.

Fulham might have scored twice more. Dempsey set up Frei, who came on for Kacaniklic, and the youngster hammered a fierce shot that threatened to shatter Doni’s right hand post. Later, some brilliant close control by Moussa Dembélé put Dempsey through, but the Texan’s curler was met with a brilliant piece of goalkeeping by Doni. Skrtel attempted to screw up a back pass to his keeper and, possibly, open up yet another opportunity for Dempsey, but there was barely a foot between the two Liverpool players, and Clint was lucky to be able to put a boot on it.

How did Fulham look? Composed, controlled, a bit disjointed when the passing came to Pogrebnyak (The Russian received a pass from a teammate and passed it to another teammate in the 73rd minute. This was, to my knowledge, the only time this sequence occurred). Kacaniklic started off brightly and troubled the right side of Liverpool’s defense for about 15 minutes, but Liverpool’s Kelly soon figured him out and his contribution was reduced to dribbling too long and giving up possession. He is DEFINITELY a prospect. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him make the left wing position his by Christmas. Frei was a good substitute for Special K, and his pace and quick movement was also troubling. But after his wood-work adventure, Frei became less and less vital to the attack. He was, however, brilliant in defending Downing who came in to cause some threat from the Red right wing. Dembélé left with a knock, as did Pogrebnyak, but the Belgian should be giving several Liverpool players nightmares as he ran and juked through their side with the ball seemingly velcroed to his boot.

Fulham’s defense was very good. Except for a near suicidal 5 minutes from Aaron Hughes in the second half, the Liverpool attack didn’t trouble them much. The most enjoyable matchup was the Carroll v. Hangeland affair. The Houston-born Norwegian won most of the 50-50s, but Carroll was a creditable presence up front.

The best player on the pitch tonight was Clint Dempsey. The enigmatic Texan helped create both our goal and Frei’s near second. He also had a good shot beaten away by a superior goalkeeping effort.

HatterDon’s Man of the Match is Clinton Morrison Dempsey. A close second is Alexim Kacankifrei.

And so we have matched our points total from last season, and, with two matches left we’ve put three points between us and West Bromwich Albion. We’re equal on points with Liverpool, albeit 6 down in goal difference. We could pass them, though, as they have a couple of tough matches to come after their FA Cup Final against Chelsea. We’ll see.

On to Sunderland at the Cottage. COYW

 

The View from South Texas — Bolton Wanderers v. Fulham FC

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by HatterDon

All You Need is Duff

Fulham cruised to a famous victory today in front of nearly 30,000 in the Reebok Stadium, totally dominating a desperate Bolton Wanderers side. The three-goal defeat flattered Bolton, as 0-6 would have been a better reflection of the difference in quality and organization between the two sides. Clint Dempsey got his 14th and 15th league goals of the season – keeping him in the top five on the scoring charts and eclipsing Louis Saha as Fulham’s single-season scoring leader in the Premier League – followed by a first-ever goal for the impressive Mamahadou Diarra.

Bereft of a healthy striker – again – Fulham started with Dempsey and Ruiz up front. Kacaniklik started on the left and, along with Diarra, were the only two changes from the XI that started against Norwich. Pogrebnyak’s ankle injury persisted and Danny Murphy was, perhaps, rested for Monday’s match against Chelsea. In any case, neither were on the substitute’s bench.

Despite the strong commitment of Petrov, Reo-Coker, and Ricketts, Fulham dominated the first half – in reality if not statistically. Bolton’s tendency to fall back en masse whenever Fulham gained control in and around our penalty area, gave the defense plenty of time to stroll forward. These strolls often ended in defense splitting passes generally through the middle of the pitch. The presence of Special K and Damian Duff on the wings kept Bolton’s defense spread thin, and Dempsey and Ruiz exploited those gaps with the assistance of great passing from Dembélé, Diarra, and Hangeland.

The goal came as the result of a 35 yard free kick awarded after some sloppy defensive work by the Wanderers. As the entire FulhamUSA.com chatroom bristled in excitement – was this going to be the time for our first Riise blockbuster? – metaphoric heads dropped as Dempsey took control. But, somehow, even at that distance his accurate curling strike had the giant Adam Bogdan beat, and it was 0-1.

Early in the week on Friends of Fulham, I began a thread requesting posters to name a situation that, once it had been seen, would cause supporters to respond “It’s about time.” One popular response was “scoring from a free kick. Have we done that yet this season?” Well, there you go. Another was OUR inability to score late in the half. And this came to pass as well. Fully expecting Fulham’s complete dominance to result in a razor-thin 0-1 lead, I was delighted to watch Damian Duff skin Marcos Alonso yet again, and curl in a delicate right-foot cross. The wide-open Dempsey made no mistake and, with fully five seconds left in the first 45, we were up 0-2.

Anyone would have expected Bolton to make adjustments and take that game to us. And, as it turned out, Bolton’s dual substitution looked like turning the match around. Eagles and Kevin Davies came in for Miyachi and Pratley and suddenly Bolton were a danger. And yet, after scarcely 10 minutes of concerted effort, Bolton completely ran out of gas. This happened for two reasons: Fulham’s defense was resolute and Damian Duff was enjoying a second helping of Roast Alonso. Bolton’s last real threat was snuffed out by a gorgeous intervening tackle from Riise that dispossessed Ngog cleanly well into the penalty area. A few minutes later, Diarra was on hand to clinically put away a great cross by Riise and it was 0-3.

Fulham’s defense looked brilliant. Kelly and Hughes [with the help of Duff] kept Petrov and Alonso under control, and Hangeland cut out Bolton threats like the skilled surgeon he is. Riise’s tackle on Ngog was the defensive highlight of the day – if not the season. Schwarzer didn’t have many saves to make, but I thought his decisiveness and distribution was as good as I’ve seen it this season.

Fulham’s midfield was excellent. Diarra-Dembélé proved as effective as Murphy- Dembélé has at any point since they became partners. Kacaniklik didn’t contribute as much as he did against Norwich, but he looks at home on the left wing, and is not shy about going for goal. He can stay. Duff was brilliant. You’d have to go back 10 years to find any match where he looked better and more effective than he did today. Credit Adam Bogdan with keeping the score down as Duff had two second-half opportunities to score that only highly-skilled goalkeeping prevented.

Dempsey and Ruiz worked well up front. Their telepathic understanding is growing. In truth, this was more of a 4-5-1 today with Dempsey very much taking over leadership up front. It’s not his best position, but – hey – he got two goals and might have had an assist. Ruiz looked physically strong today, and helped out in defense when called upon. He passed very well and was a concern at all times to the home team.

So, Fulham came to town to face a side desperate for points, dominated them completely, and got their third away win and second double of the season. Job done, and job well done. A salute to Jol for persisting with youth today, including a late-match cameo by Trotta. Marcello [which is Italian for Del-boy] had a good turn and shot on goal which was good to see. He looked absolutely terrified in his previous appearance against Everton. If Ruiz’s late injury proves to be serious, I think it wouldn’t hurt to run Trotta or Orlando Sa against Chelsea on Monday.

A couple of notes. In the “in my day” category, I must say I never expected to watch a football match IN ENGLAND where the goalkeepers were dressed in Lime Green and Pink. The fact that Bodgan is a redhead playing in pink played hob with my color control. Lime green and pink, I ask you.

The other comment is about our travelers. I heard the attendance today announced as a shade under 30,000. Very few of them were Fulham – at least to look at the empty area we were attacking in the second half – but all of them were clearly audible. Buoyed, no doubt, by the Marauding Fulham Scandies, they were loud and proud. I knew that Etuhu was warming up the moment I heard them singing “Dickson, Dickson, what’s the score?” Well represented lads and lasses, and I’m glad you got the reward you deserved.

Finally, [b]HatterDon’s Man of the Match[/b] was the matchless [u][i]Damian Duff[/i][/u]. That, boys and girls, is what a veteran winger can do to a pretty good fullback. I feel sorry for all of those in England who didn’t get to see him play today. Absolutely wonderful.

Now, let’s get three more against The Undead on Monday – COYW