Newcastle United vs. Everton – I was treated to a Saturday ESPN fixture of Newcastle United playing against Everton. Everton of course has American goalkeeper Tim Howard between the posts, so for me you could have basically called this Newcastle versus Tim Howard.
With that said, the match began wonderfully well for Newcastle and was a disaster for Howard. In the 12th minute, one of Everton’s defenders tried to block and clear the ball from the goal but instead deflected the ball straight into the net for an own goal. To make it worse, Tim Howard was positioned perfectly to get it, but the defender went right in front of him. I felt bad for Howard, but more importantly my Newcastle were up 1-0.
Seventeen minutes later, Newcastle would find goal by themselves with Ryan Taylor hitting a screamer past Howard and into the net. He found a clearance from Everton outside the 18 yard box, chested it down, and then struck a curling strike past Howard. His shot had nice pace and curled from right to left, into the bottom left corner. Even up 2-0, the Magpies kept the pressure on and kept getting free kicks in the attacking third. Sadly however, Everton would end up getting the next goal, a nice header in the second minute of the first half’s stoppage time to make it 2-1.
As far as goals were concerned, that’s where it ended though. Newcastle just held firm and kept things level in the second half. There were only substitutions and yellow cards. There were two subs for both teams and three yellows for Everton, two for Newcastle.
Both teams would end up using their three substitutions, some of those due to injuries however. In the first half, Everton had to substitute their team veteran Phil Neville and Newcastle had to take out Cabaye for Gosling. Unfortunately, Newcastle had to make a second injury substitution in the second half with Sammy Ameobi coming on for Sylvain Marveaux. From what I saw, they didn’t appear to be anything major but still it is a concern. From other reports, striker Leon Best seems to have an injury as well. Of course, it is nice to get a win but it would better without the injuries. Luckily though they have two weeks off for international break, so hopefully they can heal before November 19th’s match league leaders Manchester City.
Nurnberg vs. Freiburg – Playing against Freiburg, a team that is below Nurnberg in the standings, I was really hoping they would be able to bounce back from last weekend’s pounding by Bayern Munich. I also got my hopes up for the match some of Der Club’s injured players were returning. Defender Pinola was back in central defense and first string goalkeeper Rafael Schaefer was back protecting the goal.
Nurnberg would start things off well, finding the goal first in the 32nd minute. Thomas Pekhart took a shot on goal that midfielder Mike Frantz then deflected into the net. Sadly though, the 1-0 lead wouldn’t last. Just two minutes later, Freiburg would level. As we had weekend company, I was just following this on a match tracker so I couldn’t see or hear any commentary. Because of this, I really wonder if the quick goal was at least partially due to Schaefer and Pinola both returning from injury at the same time. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to have a shaky center back in front of a shaky goalie.
Returning from halftime, the match was basically where it began with all things level. The one change however is that Schaefer was taken out of the game and replaced with Alexander Stephan. This was probably a good move to hold on defensively and try to win the game, but unfortunately it was not done for tactical reasons. Apparently, (according to all reports that I can find) Schaefer had to be taken out for an injury. Hopefully he didn’t injure himself further and he was just taken out to be cautious. I guess we’ll see.
Much like Newcastle’s match, this second half was also just substitutions and yellow cards. However, there was a goal at the very end. Remember how I said that replacing Schaefer with Stephan would be good tactically? Well, maybe not so much. In the third minute of stoppage time, Stephan committed a foul in the penalty area on Freiburg’s Jan Rosenthal. This gave Freiburg a penalty kick, which they converted and won the game. That probably was the worst way to lose a match, ever. With the disheartening 2-1 loss, Nurnberg now sits just two points above the relegation zone. Sadly though that’s maybe what one should expect when you look at the sickening fact that they haven’t won a game since September 11th.
Oxford United vs. Southend United – The Yellows were up for a tough match against league leaders Southend. It would indeed prove to be that. For much of the first half, the match was goalless. However, Southend would go up 1-0 before the first half. In the second minute of the half’s stoppage time, Southend crossed a freekick into the box and headed a goal past Oxford’s Ryan Clarke.
It would take a bit of time in the second half, but Oxford would level. In the 62nd minute, Damian Batt would score with a header into the top corner from the center penalty area. However, despite having one of the lowest goals against tallies on the season, Southend would score their second goal just five minutes later. Their Ryan Hall hit a nice goal from outside the 18 yard box, a goal that would prove to be the winner.
Luckily though, Oxford gets a chance for revenge this Tuesday against Southend with a Johnstone’s Paint Trophy match. This time the game is in Oxford so hopefully the outcome will be different.
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