City
3 Olympiacos 1 Thomas Cook Trophy
Aug 6th 2005 att 20,000
There
was a sparse crowd at the City of Manchester Stadium for this friendly against
Greek champions Olympiacos and with the top tier out of action ( they are obviously
fitting central heating to my seat!) I was in an unfamiliar location for this
final game before the real contest begins next Saturday. After a pretty boring
first half with the visitors generally on top City played better after the break
and ended comfortably winners with goals from Bradley Wright-Phillips and Vassell.
Lead
out by Reyna in the absence of Distin who is likely to be out for several weeks
the game saw the home debut of new signings Cole and Vassell.
There
was a small but very noisy Greek contingent present and I must say for the most
part they were noisier than the rest of the crowd put together
A
foul by Reyna on Stltidis in the 4th minute gave an early chance to the Greek
side. Yaya Toure their new signing from Donetsk sent in a curling shot.
which
was saved by a diving David James.
34
year old Greek international keeper Antonis Nikopolidis in action at a City corner
Sommeil
and Jordan clash with Ivory Coast international Toure
Nikopolidis's
fist narrowly misses Sinclairs head at a corner as he punches clear
Kiki
Musampa plays with Greek defender at the edge of the box. He looks once again
to be a force on the left
Joey
Barton takes evading action as James kicks clear
After
23 minutes a diving header by 27 year old Cypriot international striker Konstantinou
is brilliantly saved by David James.
After
almost half an hour Olympiacos took the lead. At a corner from the right Yaya
Toure outjumped a static City defence to head past James .
Though
Vassell has his shot saved by the Greek keeper it would not have counted as the
flag was up for offside.
Stoltidis's
deflected shot flicks the post as James dives across to cover
James
saves at the feet of Konstantinou
Again
not on the bench, manager Stuart Pearce and Steve Wrigley watch from the Colin
Bell stand, a better position to see the patterns of play
OOh
,ah, missed me, argh as a Greek free kick hammers into the wall early in the second
half with City a goal down.
Sun
Jihai who came on as sub in the second half looked full of positive play in defence
and here in attack
Nikopolidis
again uses his fist to clear the City corner
The
Greek keeper saves right on the line
A
rejuvenated Trevor Sinclair was in good form and looks to keep the right midfield
position
Kiki
Musampa showing good balance and control
The
Greek keeper can even punch without looking
City
pressure was rewarded in the 65th minute when Coe passed to Vassell who beat the
offside trap and lobbed the keeper to equalize for City
Ten
minutes later and City went ahead. Musampa fed Ireland whose cross was headed
home by Bradley Wright -Phillips.
Four
minutes later and City went 3-1 up. It was a solo effort by BWP. Bradley beat
a couple of defenders and slotted the ball home. He is now looking much more confident
and his goal against Stoke must have really lifted him.
The
Greek supporters who had earlier been very vocal were subjected to some good natured
chants of -" You're not singing any more"
A
late substitute was Lee Croft who had a couple of good runs down the right wing.
Steve
Ireland and Bradley Wright - Phillips have come out of the friendlies with a lot
of credit and could well figure in City's early games in the Premiership especially
with the rising injury list and the slow intake of transfers to reinforce the
squad. Biggest worry will be the centre of defence with the absence of both Dunne
and Distin, key players last season. Stuart Pearce may have to switch his immediate
need from mid-field to a central defender. I hope he does not depend on Sommeil
and Onuoha the latter rather short of match practice. Barton got a good reception
from the crowd in view of all his problems but had a fairly quiet game by his
standards.
James
: Mills , Sommeil , Onuoha ( Sun Jihai) , Jordan : Sinclair ( Sinclair), Barton
, Reyna ( Ireland), Musampa (Flood) : Vassell , Cole (BWP )
City
0 West Brom Albion 0
Aug 13th 2005 att 42,983
Life
without SWP started in earnest today and there were blank spaces in the ground
as fugitives from the rain affected Test Match got to the ground. The absence
of Dunne from the warm-up was a bit of a blow so how would the City defence fare
without the double D ? This was not however a match to remember despite the first
league appearances of Cole and Vassell upfront.
As
the teams came out we wondered who was going to take the central defenders positions
without the injured Dunne and Distin
Jordan
and Reyna combine to defy Kevin Campbell
A
Greening run down the middle ended in a deflected shot and James had to save from
a deflected Wallwork shot after about 6 minutes
12
minutes on the clock and a Cole header from a Musampa cross is easily saved by
Kirkland and a minute or so later another shot flashes just wide
Cole
shoots just wide again with Kirkland desperately trying to cover his far post
Vassell
clatters Albrechtsen and has the dubious honor of becoming the first City player
to be booked in the Premiership this season
25
minutes gone and a good cross from Sinclair end with Kirkland having to make a
good save from Barton.
On
the half hour Musampa makes a run down the left but is bought down by Gera who
signals a six ( was he at the test!)
Worse
was to come for Zoltan Gera who missed an absolute sitter after 34 minutes heading
wide from close range. James then gave Jordan and company an earful after the
poor marking. To be fair it was one of the few occasions when the defence went
missing
Five
minutes before half time and Kirkland once again saved West Brom pushing a good
shot from Reyna round the post. All last season only 38 goals were scored at Eastlands
and this game was looking like a goalless draw.
Though
City continued to attack the West Brom goal Kirkland was certainly earning his
wages keeping a clean sheet upto half time.
Two
minutes into the second half and West Brom had a golden chance to take the lead.
Campbell somehow broke through and James won the one on one confrontation by blocking
the shot. What an escape.
The
biggest cheer came when Stu Pearce left his zone to get the ball from old England
colleague Bryan Robson only to slip up and give everybody a good laugh
City
might have had a penalty at this corner when Cole was held by Gaardsoe
James
had to be alert to push away a long centre cum shot from Gera
Back
on the touchline after some games in the stand Stuart Pearce was living every
move
City
were certainly in need of creativity in midfield and with Josep "Pep"
Guardiola the 34 year old ex Barcelona and Spanish star over here from the Quatari
League on 'trial' for a week I thought he might be watching the game. So I did
a 'search' and I think I spotted him in the Colin Bell stand - centre of the right
hand picture in the striped brown jumper. He may be playing for the reserves on
Tuesday evening. A great football 'organizer' ,providing his fitness is upto Premier
League standards, he would be a great asset in midfield.
After
78 minutes Barton broke through and only great save by Kirkland saved West Brom.
With
only three minutes left on the clock Wallwork a former swamp player went down
after a miskick with nobody near him. Referee Foy let play continue and West Brom
who had possession for a short while then failed to kick the ball out. However
when they lost the ball and City broke away the referee blew up much to the anger
of the City players. Notice though, as the confrontation builds up, Joey Barton
can be seen walking way. Excellent, and overall Barton was one of the best of
the City players so his anger management treatment appears to be paying off.
Ronnie
Wallwork who has made a miraculous recovery from 'his injury' then gets involved
with a handbags at close range with Danny Mills.
Both
Wallwork and Mills ended up with yellow cards but the referee should have blown
up straight way or let play continue. His indecision was a feature of his average
display
Despite
City bringing on BWP for Vassell, Kirkland kept a clean sheet for the visitors
and it all ended goalless.
James
7: Mills 6.5, Sommeil 6.5, Jordan 7, Thatcher 7: Sinclair 6.5, Reyna 7, Barton
7.5, Musampa 7: Vassell 6.5 ( BWP 6.5) , Cole 7:
other subs on for a short
period - Croft, Sibierski
