The End is Near, Qulification Looms

I’ve been dragging so far this week with any enthusiasm for writing, so before I get too far past Saturday’s action I thought I better get some sort of recap on the blog.  I thought this would be a quick update, but in writing a got wrapped up in the tight league standings that both Oxford and Newcastle find themselves.  That’s not to say that I’m not excited by the fact that Nurnberg is completely free from the danger of the drop…

FC Nurnberg vs. Hamburg SV – Now safe from relegation, and without many games left, Nurnberg can safely cruise through to the end of the 2011 / 2012 Bundesliga season.  That’s exactly what they seemed to do against Hamburg on Saturday.  The first half had little to write about with just a single yellow card, a substitution (because of injury for Hamburg), and only six shots total between the two teams.  It didn’t take too long into the second half though for a goal with Hamburg taking a 1-0 lead in the 59^th minute, beating Nurnberg’s keeper Schaefer with a shot to the bottom corner.  Der Club however woke up after Hamburg’s goal and got a goal themselves just five minutes later in the 64^th.  Daniel Didavi was the goal scorer, converting from a cross from Timmy Simons.  Besides a few substitutions, the match action would end there.  Theoretically Nurnberg should have gotten more than a 1-1 draw out of the match as Hamburg is three spots below them in the table, but it is a great solacing fact that this increased their unbeaten run to four matches.  They have not lost since their match with Bayern Munich on March 31^st, having two draws and two losses since then.  That has clearly helped them hold 11^th place in the standings.

Oxford United vs. Plymouth Argyle – To put it bluntly, this match was the disappointment of the weekend.  Oxford went into this game in 7^th place hoping to secure their place in the promotion playoffs with playing 21^st ranked (4^th from the bottom) Plymouth Argyle.  Almost at the opening whistle did the game go horribly for Oxford.  In just the 2^nd minute, Oxford’s defense again gave up an early goal with Plymouth scoring off of a free kick from 20 yards out.  As much as I was yelling at my laptop while following the match tracker in the first half, Oxford did finally score a leveler in the 36^th minute.  Asa Hall was the goal scorer.  Nothing much changed in the second half either unfortunately.  Asa Hall almost had his second, but the shot hit the post.  That was Oxford’s best chance at goal in the half and the match ended in a 1-1 draw. 

Making matters worse, Crewe Alexandra, who were in 8^th place and tied on points with Oxford before the match day started, won their match.  That bumps them into 7^th place above Oxford, putting the Yellows in 8^th and currently out of the promotion playoffs.  With two matches remaining it’s still a jumbled mess in the table from 6^th through 10^th.  To give the rundown of those teams that mathematically still have a chance for the playoffs you have:

6^th – Cheltenham Town             71 points (currently in the promotion playoffs)

7^th – Crewe Alexandra               70 points (currently in the promotion playoffs)

8^th – Oxford United                   68 points (first team out of the promotion playoffs)

9^th – Gillingham                        66 points

10^th – Rotherham United           65 points

Although Gillingham and Rotherham could still make a run, it’s more realistically just a battle between Cheltenham, Crewe, and Oxford for the last two playoff spots.  Bringing that back to just Oxfords chances, they play Southend this weekend (currently in 5^th) and play Port Vale (currently in 13^th) to finish off the season.  With that said Oxford really need to win both matches to have the best chance for the playoffs.  Come on you Yellows!  

Newcastle United vs. Stoke City – To end the post on a high note, Newcastle continue their fine run, picking up a 3-0 win against Stoke City, and continuing their winning streak to six straight matches.  Goalkeeper Tim Krul also takes his clean sheet streak to four matches as well.  In the match against Stoke, Yohan Cabaye was the man of the match.  He scored twice, in the 14^th and 57^th minutes, but also provided the perfect pass for Cisse to score in the 18^th.  It was an impressive win for the Toon.

Things also went Newcastle’s way in the league table.  Not only did Chelsea draw their match, keeping them in 6^th place, but better yet, Tottenham lost their match.  This allowed Newcastle to jump them in the table and move from 5^th up to 4^th.  This puts the Toon currently in a Champions League qualifying position.  Still, things will be very tight in Newcastle’s remaining four fixtures.  The 3^rd through 6^th place teams go as follows:

3^rd – Arsenal                       65 points (currently qualify for Champions League)

4^th – Newcastle                   62 points (currently qualify for Champions League)

5^th – Tottenham                  59 points (currently qualify for Europa League)

6^th – Chelsea                      58 points

It should also be mentioned that Arsenal has played one more match than everyone else, giving all the others a game in hand to catch up.  

Newcastle sit right in the thick of it and could really move up or fall down.  For me, I would personally be happy if they just simply qualify for the Europa League.  At the beginning of the year, I didn’t expect them to challenge for European competition at all.  I simply hoped that would just finish safely in the middle of the Premier League.  I’m a bit conflicted as qualification for Europe will help Newcastle attract more star players or helps keeps the ones they have, but it will also stretch the squad a bit thinner, as they will have more matches on the fixture list.  I’ll happily settle with Newcastle staying on their current course, continuing their hot winning streak, and just seeing what happens. 

Another Weekend for Just the Teams with Colors

Newcastle had this weekend off, so like a weekend back in February it was just the teams with colors this weekend – Oxford United’s colors being yellow and blue, Nurnberg’s being red and black. (Newcastle is black and white.) It was also a weekend for the sides that have the most to play for. Nurnberg of course have still been fighting relegation where as Oxford are doing the opposite – fighting for promotion.

FC Nurnberg vs. FC Kaiserslautern – Der Club were the first match on Saturday. The match started at 8:30 my time but I didn’t wake up with my alarm so I started watching the match about thirty minutes in. I was able to find a very decent live feed however. The play in the end of the first half was more back and forth than any match I had watched in a long time. There was barely any true defense. One team would take a shot at one end, the other team would get the ball from the rebound or from a goalie catch, and then the ball would go back to the other end for the same thing to happen. Kaiserslautern seemed to be throwing everything they could into the match, hoping to keep just a thread of hope alive against relegation for the season. While obviously not the greatest side in the Bundesliga this year, Nurnberg is better than they were playing. Luckily, they came out of the funk in the 43^rd minute to get a goal. A long pass was made up field which was flicked over to a very open Daniel Didavi. Didavi struck a nice laser beam type shot from outside the box, catching the Kaiserslautern keeper off guard, and going in for a 1-0 lead for Nurnberg.

The second half started out with a near leveler for Kaiserslautern, but Nurnberg’s goalie Raphael Schaefer kept out the shot with a last second full-stretch foot save. After that the match continued with much of the back and forth action from the first half. The play did settle down though as the legs tired, and that was when Nurnberg took greater control. In the 73^rd minute Der Club got their chance to go up 2-0. Daniel Didavi was on the ball again, taking a breakaway run with it into the box. Closing in on goal, he made a ground cross over to Tomas Pekhart who got the goal for the two goal lead. A short while later, in the 82^nd minute, Hanno Ballitsch nearly had a third goal for Nurnberg but his shot hit the bar. The game would end as a 2-0 Nurnberg win over Kaiserslautern.

After the rest of Saturday matches and Sunday’s matches were over, Nurnberg moved up a place from 12^th to 11^th place. More important than placing though is the points spread from them to relegation. Nurnberg now sits at 38 points. Cologne in 16^th (the relegation playoff spot) has 29 points. With only three games remaining, the worst case scenario would have Cologne catching up to Nurnberg on points. However, Nurnberg has such a greater goal differential than Cologne that Nurnberg would still be safe. That means no relegation for Nurnberg! Even better, Nurnberg currently sits closer to European play contention than they do to relegation. They’re just seven points down from 6^th (the final Europa League spot). It’s realistically too much ground to make up in just three games, but really, I’m more than happy just having Nurnberg safe from relegation.

Oxford United vs. Gillingham – The Yellows were looking to get a win over Gillingham to not only keep themselves in the promotion playoffs, but also to gain a buffer over 8^th place Crewe. Unfortunately, this game wouldn’t do that for them. In the grand scheme, it wouldn’t be negative for them either. The match would be a blah game with a blah result. Neither Oxford nor Gillingham could manage a goal. It wasn’t the worst match for shooting though, especially for the Yellows. Gillingham had seven shots with four being on goal, whereas Oxford did better with eleven total shots, seven of those on goal. Still as I mentioned, none of the shots taken in the match would make it past the keepers. The match would go down in a 0-0 draw.

Fortunately for Oxford, 8^th place Crewe also drew their match. Oxford and Crewe then still sit in 7^th and 8^th respectively at 67 points, with Oxford being nine higher in goal differential. Zooming out in the league table, Cheltenham Town sit four points higher in 6^th and Gillingham sit four points lower in 9^th. With just three games remaining, the situation is very tight. Oxford has one way to ensure their spot in the promotion playoffs – win.

Nurnberg Net a Nice Win

With Nurnberg sitting very close to relegation, I keep looking at the remaining fixtures to forecast which matches Der Club will win, lose, or draw. Yesterday’s match against Schalke, sitting third in the league, was written off as a loss in my predictions. I figured their great striking duo of Raul and Huntelaar would be too much for Nurnberg’s defense, just as they have been for other defenses this season. Well, it’s good to be proven wrong sometimes – and man was I.

As all weekday matches always are, this match took place while I was at work. I wasn’t able to peek at the score until the 55^th minute. When I did see the score – a surprising 3-0 lead for Nurnberg at that point – I let out a flabbergasted exclamation of “holy hell!”, one that was probably much too loud for the office. All three of those goals were scored in the first half as well. Hanno Balitsch scored with a header in the 25^th minute, Timmy Simons converted a penalty in the 37^th, and Daniel Didavi header just before halftime. Der Club were on their way to not only a win, but a smashing win over a high-ranking opponent.

The match was quieter in the second half, but Schalke did manage to pull one back. It took awhile but Schalke got one past Nurnberg keeper Raphael Schaefer in the 85^th minute, much too late for a comeback to be possible. Nurnberg’s Daniel Didavi even went further to stamp out any miracle comeback thoughts from Schalke by scoring his second for Nurnberg just two minutes later in the 87^th minute, scoring on a long free kick from outside the box. That put the finishing stamp on the match, giving Nurnberg the 4-1 victory over Schalke.

Nurnberg didn’t move from their 12^th spot in the league table, even with the great win. However, they did gain points to move further away from relegation. They now are six points away from the 16^th relegation playoff spot. This enormous win over Schalke might be the turning point in the last bit of the season. I’m not taking anything for granted yet, but it looks very promising for Der Club to fight off being relegated. With the final four matches of the season to play, they fortunately have a relative easy set of matches. They play Kaiserslautern who are currently 18^th (last place), Hamburg currently in 14^th place, Hoffenheim currently in 9^th, and Bayer Leverkusen now sitting in 6^th. Nurnberg was able to notch a surprise win earlier in the year against the highest placed of those teams in Leverkusen, so that makes it the outlook even more promising.

Monday's Magic Goals

I finally found videos online of the two great goals from Monday’s matches. Sure, I was mainly looking so I could see them for myself, but I thought I would share them here for everyone too.

First up is Hatem Ben Arfa’s goal in Newcastle’s 2-0 win over Bolton. Ben Arfa doesn’t really do any fancy footwork in his breakaway run with the ball, but simply has perfect touches on the ball when defenders close in. With his first touch he pivots around a defender, but after that he basically runs a straight line toward goal. The last touch before kicking it home is just brilliant, tapping it just over the defender’s poke. This video also features manager Alan Pardew at the 52 second mark, applauding the goal how a proper Englishman should.

This second video is of Oxford United’s Adam Chapman scoring his direct corner kick goal in their draw with Torquay. Chapman seems either very unassuming or very cheeky in taking the kick. It seems like it was his plan all along to go at the goal as he sets the ball down, quickly takes a few steps back, and then unleashes the kick. The ball’s path didn’t look like it was meant for any teammates as it’s curling into the goal’s far top corner the whole time.

I also love this video for the pure rawness. It’s taken by some fan up in the stands during the game.