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Is big Vic on of the fastest players in England?
Cool.
Cool.
I feel like I'm saying this each week but I still feel that there is more to come from this side. We started really well and some of the passing in the final third was really good. All on the deck, one touch stuff that cut them open. A bit more luck and we could have put the game to bed in the first 15 minutes.
After that though the Germans settled down a bit and started passing through us in midfield. They never really created much however and most of their threats came from us cocking up.
So I'm kinda torn. On the one hand we've won 2-0 away in Germany and never really looked threatened. On the other hand, they didn't look good, especially in the final third. I think if we can get a decent holding midfielder then it will do us the world of good as Carsley and Ossie in the middle aren't the best.
Pros - We won reasonably comfortably away from home so you can't complain really. Yakubu continues to improve, and whilst he didn't have many chances today his general play was good. Anichebe continues his super sub role to perfection and caused no end of trouble.
Cons - The Yobo/Lescott partnership doesn't convince as both are prone to mistakes in defence and hoofs in attack. I feel we need a real leader at the back to calm the other down a bit. I'm still not convinced that Arteta isn't being wasted on the wing. When out there he seems bent on winning free kicks rather than creating.
We're pretty certain to progress to the next round though so on the whole it was a job very well done.
After that though the Germans settled down a bit and started passing through us in midfield. They never really created much however and most of their threats came from us cocking up.
So I'm kinda torn. On the one hand we've won 2-0 away in Germany and never really looked threatened. On the other hand, they didn't look good, especially in the final third. I think if we can get a decent holding midfielder then it will do us the world of good as Carsley and Ossie in the middle aren't the best.
Pros - We won reasonably comfortably away from home so you can't complain really. Yakubu continues to improve, and whilst he didn't have many chances today his general play was good. Anichebe continues his super sub role to perfection and caused no end of trouble.
Cons - The Yobo/Lescott partnership doesn't convince as both are prone to mistakes in defence and hoofs in attack. I feel we need a real leader at the back to calm the other down a bit. I'm still not convinced that Arteta isn't being wasted on the wing. When out there he seems bent on winning free kicks rather than creating.
We're pretty certain to progress to the next round though so on the whole it was a job very well done.
He is faster than the nuremberg centre back
SuitsBlue
Player Valuation: £50m
thought artetas delivery from corners and free kicks was woeful.
yakubu showed good strength and some passing acumen, but when will the side learn he simply wont challenge for the ball in the air.
didnt see so much of cahill, i watched hoping to see more of the rapier like move that we opened the game with, but it didnt happen.
howard was commanding and alert, at times he had to be.
wasnt the greatest game, certainly not the best performance, we got the win, certain to make the knock out stages, vaughan and AJ still to come back.
yakubu showed good strength and some passing acumen, but when will the side learn he simply wont challenge for the ball in the air.
didnt see so much of cahill, i watched hoping to see more of the rapier like move that we opened the game with, but it didnt happen.
howard was commanding and alert, at times he had to be.
wasnt the greatest game, certainly not the best performance, we got the win, certain to make the knock out stages, vaughan and AJ still to come back.
Not sure I agree with that actually I thought the ref was giving them a lot more, particularly in the first half. Arteta started to work him quite well in the second half though
Robert Jarvis
Player Valuation: £35m
I agree with Bruce in his summary, apart from the first quarter hour we were not realy getting in there and although Yakubu tried TBH we lacked bite upfront until Anichebe came on. Our midfield of was woeful at times and Lescott unusual for him made some real clangers. Again to many times we gave possession away which allowed them to come at us, what is with all the pass backs to Howard who then hoofs the ball upfield and gives it away?
Until Anichebe came on we were heading for a 0-0 and getting worried that they may just have a lucky strike and thankfully that cross shot went just wide of our post!!
For me MOM was Pienaar he put in a very good display.
Anichebe's goal was against all odds, shrugging off a defender and from a very narrow angle slides it between the goalies legs, that was some goal. Anichebe must be the most exciting young striker in the Prem at the moment.
I have said it before and I will say it again AJ could not have matched what Anichebe achieved, Johnson against these big lads would not have stood a chance, pity about that new contract.
Until Anichebe came on we were heading for a 0-0 and getting worried that they may just have a lucky strike and thankfully that cross shot went just wide of our post!!
For me MOM was Pienaar he put in a very good display.
Anichebe's goal was against all odds, shrugging off a defender and from a very narrow angle slides it between the goalies legs, that was some goal. Anichebe must be the most exciting young striker in the Prem at the moment.
I have said it before and I will say it again AJ could not have matched what Anichebe achieved, Johnson against these big lads would not have stood a chance, pity about that new contract.
Yak, Anichebe and McFadden are all on 4 goals. Vaughan has scored as well this season. On form it does make you wonder where AJ will fit in.
Robert Jarvis
Player Valuation: £35m
We will see when he is fit but one thing for sure he is not as strong on the ball as Vic. Defenders find it much easier to play Johnson.
Latch
Player Valuation: £15m
I thought it was a good, solid performance, we fully deserved the win.
We [Poor language removed] hit the ground running, ain't seen us start so confidently in a long time, we could easily have gone ahead inside 30 seconds, at times, especially in the first half, we looked like the home side.
The two games against Metalist, or at least the home leg is now a distant memory, against Larissa and now Nurnberg we are playing with more confidence, we are gaining vital european experience which we will need come the knock out stage, because make no mistake we will qualify, probably as group leaders, the two-legged ties to follow this group stage will be a lot more tense but i cant see us being as nervous as we were against the Ukranians, we are growing in stature the whole time.
We will face better teams than this on our journey but we should fear no-one.
Just one piece missing now, a creative midfielder,..............ok, and a decent winger, but then again we had one VDM, if only he could re-produce the class we know he is capable of!
We [Poor language removed] hit the ground running, ain't seen us start so confidently in a long time, we could easily have gone ahead inside 30 seconds, at times, especially in the first half, we looked like the home side.
The two games against Metalist, or at least the home leg is now a distant memory, against Larissa and now Nurnberg we are playing with more confidence, we are gaining vital european experience which we will need come the knock out stage, because make no mistake we will qualify, probably as group leaders, the two-legged ties to follow this group stage will be a lot more tense but i cant see us being as nervous as we were against the Ukranians, we are growing in stature the whole time.
We will face better teams than this on our journey but we should fear no-one.
Just one piece missing now, a creative midfielder,..............ok, and a decent winger, but then again we had one VDM, if only he could re-produce the class we know he is capable of!
Nürnberg Trip
By popular demand (OK, suits asked me...)
FCN vs EFC 08.11.07
This was a stunning 24 hours - what football should be all about. It's why we put up with all the moaning and the crap years and desperate teams and wondering if we will ever come good again....
Drove up in the morning through crap weather to get lost in Nuremberg and take a wrong turning past the stadium and parade grounds. Eventually found the hotel, which had been booked out by Evertonians, met up with Chris (FCN on here in various Nürnberg threads) and started out with a quick shot of rum before heading off into the centre of the city.
Checked the ticket was still OK in the fanshop and was surprised to see it flooded with Blues, some of whom were buying tickets over the counter in English (!). Had a wander around the city and its historic centre but eventually gravitated to the cellar of a brewery in the centre of the old town, where we met up with FCN fan Taliban (who also lurks here) and quite a few hundred EFC fans who had taken it over. There's a few pictures of the inside and a couple of poor quality movies on the links lower down. But it's hard to give an impression of the atmosphere inside there - at times it was hard to hear yourself think. At one point the whole (large) drinking area was full, the stairs up to the street were jam packed and a crowd outside was singing away as well. DM mentioned how the team could here the noise in their hotel during the day, and I believe him. The atmosphere in the city all day was great and as far as I could see or heard there was not a hint of trouble.
We left on the tram for the stadium a little bit early to take a walk around the old Nuremberg parade grounds which are right next to the stadium. In fact, where we ended up having some beers with the FCN fans at their coaches, was right under where the speeches were made.
Everyone had been wondering what it was going to be like getting into the stadium, how the ticketing was going to work, whether you should be hiding your colours, etc. but in the end it was painless. There were plenty of tickets on sale outside the ground, going for sale at cost price 20 minutes before the game. (In fact, there were still tickets unused once the game started.)
The FCN fans, as expected, provided a great atmosphere. Some of them have complained after the match that they were expecting more noise from the Everton support. I think what had happened was that anyone outside the official away end were dotted around in twos and threes and were worried about being chucked out, after all the crap about the ticketing, so they kept quiet for the most part (certainly in the first half). Once Big Vic was being pulled down everyone thought "sod it" and was on their feet screaming for the penalty. When that went in, most of my section and the ones around left for the exits and the Blues dotted around the stadium stayed on their feet singing.
We took the train back to the centre and then headed down to the cellar bar until the early hours of the morning, before the long walk back to the hotel. Didn't stay for the reggae dancehall do, because of the bad weather forecast (50-100cm new snow - and the autobahn with heavy snow is not fun) and managed to stay mostly ahead of the blizzard until south of Munich.
Big thanks to Nürnberg fans Chris, Taliban and others for making a memorable day out - they've had invites from all over Merseyside to visit Goodison while they still can, so hopefully we can organise something later on.
Photo Gallery - suits, no girls - the pix of the barmaids (who were not only good-looking but are also now independently wealthy from all the money they took last night) didn't come out. Chris promised he'd send you some from the dancehall competition tonight, though.
Poor quality movie clip 1 (17MB) - the guy singing in German on the left is Taliban singing a Nürnberg song, while Chris is on the other side getting another invite to Goodison
Poor quality movie clip 2 (6MB) - more of the same
(If anyone wants links to the movies, let me know in a private message and I'll send them through - don't want to crash my server with 40,000 random downloads though.)
Didn't have time to pick up any Mister Lady jeans either. Now I'm sitting at home in the mountains in the middle of the snow and I can still hear "Follow, follow, follow..." ringing in my ears.
"High risk match" - you're having a laugh!
By popular demand (OK, suits asked me...)
FCN vs EFC 08.11.07
This was a stunning 24 hours - what football should be all about. It's why we put up with all the moaning and the crap years and desperate teams and wondering if we will ever come good again....
Drove up in the morning through crap weather to get lost in Nuremberg and take a wrong turning past the stadium and parade grounds. Eventually found the hotel, which had been booked out by Evertonians, met up with Chris (FCN on here in various Nürnberg threads) and started out with a quick shot of rum before heading off into the centre of the city.
Checked the ticket was still OK in the fanshop and was surprised to see it flooded with Blues, some of whom were buying tickets over the counter in English (!). Had a wander around the city and its historic centre but eventually gravitated to the cellar of a brewery in the centre of the old town, where we met up with FCN fan Taliban (who also lurks here) and quite a few hundred EFC fans who had taken it over. There's a few pictures of the inside and a couple of poor quality movies on the links lower down. But it's hard to give an impression of the atmosphere inside there - at times it was hard to hear yourself think. At one point the whole (large) drinking area was full, the stairs up to the street were jam packed and a crowd outside was singing away as well. DM mentioned how the team could here the noise in their hotel during the day, and I believe him. The atmosphere in the city all day was great and as far as I could see or heard there was not a hint of trouble.
We left on the tram for the stadium a little bit early to take a walk around the old Nuremberg parade grounds which are right next to the stadium. In fact, where we ended up having some beers with the FCN fans at their coaches, was right under where the speeches were made.
Everyone had been wondering what it was going to be like getting into the stadium, how the ticketing was going to work, whether you should be hiding your colours, etc. but in the end it was painless. There were plenty of tickets on sale outside the ground, going for sale at cost price 20 minutes before the game. (In fact, there were still tickets unused once the game started.)
The FCN fans, as expected, provided a great atmosphere. Some of them have complained after the match that they were expecting more noise from the Everton support. I think what had happened was that anyone outside the official away end were dotted around in twos and threes and were worried about being chucked out, after all the crap about the ticketing, so they kept quiet for the most part (certainly in the first half). Once Big Vic was being pulled down everyone thought "sod it" and was on their feet screaming for the penalty. When that went in, most of my section and the ones around left for the exits and the Blues dotted around the stadium stayed on their feet singing.
We took the train back to the centre and then headed down to the cellar bar until the early hours of the morning, before the long walk back to the hotel. Didn't stay for the reggae dancehall do, because of the bad weather forecast (50-100cm new snow - and the autobahn with heavy snow is not fun) and managed to stay mostly ahead of the blizzard until south of Munich.
Big thanks to Nürnberg fans Chris, Taliban and others for making a memorable day out - they've had invites from all over Merseyside to visit Goodison while they still can, so hopefully we can organise something later on.
Photo Gallery - suits, no girls - the pix of the barmaids (who were not only good-looking but are also now independently wealthy from all the money they took last night) didn't come out. Chris promised he'd send you some from the dancehall competition tonight, though.
Poor quality movie clip 1 (17MB) - the guy singing in German on the left is Taliban singing a Nürnberg song, while Chris is on the other side getting another invite to Goodison
Poor quality movie clip 2 (6MB) - more of the same
(If anyone wants links to the movies, let me know in a private message and I'll send them through - don't want to crash my server with 40,000 random downloads though.)
Didn't have time to pick up any Mister Lady jeans either. Now I'm sitting at home in the mountains in the middle of the snow and I can still hear "Follow, follow, follow..." ringing in my ears.
"High risk match" - you're having a laugh!
Robert Jarvis
Player Valuation: £35m
Good to read your report and glad you had a good time. I know Nurnberg very well and the bar where you were. Nurnberg has a very good centre, in fact I was on holiday there just 8 weeks ago and staying with friends who live near the Volkspark where the rallies took place.
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