Out with a Whimper

While Newcastle has their final match next weekend, this weekend brought the season to a close for my other two teams, Oxford United and FC Nurnberg. Nurnberg had nothing to play for, already knowing they would finish in the middle of the Bundesliga table. Oxford on the other hand (as I have mentioned plenty before) were still trying to make it into the League Two promotion playoffs. Their chances were little as they had to win and 7th place Crewe Alexandra had to lose their match.

FC Nurnberg vs. Bayer Leverkusen – I’ll delay the drama for now and start with Nurnberg as they (as always) were the first match on Saturday morning. I’ll start this off by being very blunt. This match did not start the weekend off well. Nurnberg got a surprise win over Leverkusen earlier in the season, but that sure wasn’t going to happen today. Der Club went down 1-0 already in the 7th minute when Leverkusen’s Kiessling scored. Kiessling again scored in the 32nd to put Nurnberg down 2-0. Der Club would go into halftime needing to dig out of a hole.

Nurnberg at least got things moving in the right direction with the first goal of the second half. Robert Mak took a pass from Albert Bunjaku in the 58th minute to make it 2-1. However, that one goal deficit only lasted about twenty minutes as Leverkusen’s Schurrle scored in the 77th. The score line would get worse though for Der Club as Kiessling would not miss out on getting his hat trick and scored his third goal in the 89th minute. Nurnberg would lose to Leverkusen 4-1 in the final match of the season. The shot tally made it look worse too. Nurnberg just looked wasteful with 12 shots with five on goal compared to the perfect shooting of Leverkusen with 4 shots, all of which were not only on goal but went in for goals.

Nurnberg finishes the season in 10th place with 42 points and a goal differential of -11.

Oxford United vs. Port Vale – Oxford needed to win this match to have any shot of getting into the promotion playoffs. Like last week, Oxford’s starting keeper Ryan Clarke and second string keeper Wayne Brown were still out with injuries. Last week, they were able to do an emergency loan for young Connor Ripley from Middlesbrough. As he was sent back, Oxford signed another emergency loan for goalkeeper Damian Martinez, a reserve keeper from Arsenal. While only 19-years-old like Ripley, Martinez not only plays for Arsenal, but also has player in international competition for Argentina. While his credentials were better, a must win last match of the season is a hard time to throw in a new keeper.

The match started off well for the Yellows as John-Paul Pittman nearly got a goal in the 2nd minute, missing just right of the post. Oxford would take a few more tests at goal in the first half, but sadly Port Vale would be the ones to find the back of the net first. They scored in the 41st minute, putting the Yellows down 1-0 at halftime.

Besides needing to win their match, Oxford also needed Crewe Alexandra to lose their match with Aldershot. Mindful of the fact that Aldershot was winning that match at the half, Oxford manager Chris Wilder decided to throw an all out attack at Port Vale as the second half opened. The formation was changed from a 4-4-2 to a 4-4-3, and Wilder subbed in two forwards. Oli Johnson came in for forward Tom Craddock and Scott Rendell came in for defender Andrew Whing. A midfielder swap would also take place, bringing in Adam Chapman for Liam Davis.

Regretfully, the attack minded changes didn’t seem to do much… except make things easier for Port Vale. That is always the gamble of course, but Oxford really seemed to crumble in this instance. After a few tries, Port Vale would get their second goal in the 69th minute.

It quickly went for bad to worse too as in the Crewe / Aldershot match, Crewe leveled at 2-2 just a few minutes later (more or less in the 76th minute of both games). Oxford were surely out of the promotion playoffs at that point. However, Port Vale, who really didn’t care about Oxford’s status of course, put one more goal on the scoreboard in the third minute of the match’s stoppage time. The goal would give Oxford a horrible end to the season – a 3-0 loss to Port Vale and out of the promotion playoffs.

The loss also made Oxford United fall from 8th to finish 9th in the league table, being passed by Gillingham.

Newcastle United vs. Manchester City – Unfortunately for me the results didn’t get much better with Newcastle’s match against league leaders Manchester City. Newcastle of course would be looking to win to move up into a Champions League spot, but Man City would also be looking to take the victory to keep hold of the league lead and keep Manchester United at bay. As aforementioned in the last post, I was indeed glued to my laptop watching a live stream of the match.

The first half began with City keeping much of the possession with the Magpies keeping them at bay in the defending third. When Newcastle did manage to have the ball, they weren’t threatening at all and just simply passed the ball around in the back, often passing back to goalkeeper Krul for a long clearance. The Magpies were though playing mostly defense, much of it coming right in front of goal with crucial blocks. A few of those were also blocks on the goal line with Krul out of position. With sighs of relief from all the Geordies in the stands of St. James, the match went into halftime scoreless.

The second half became a cagey back and forth of near chances between both sides. City made two tactical substitutions in the 62nd and 70th, ones that proved the right choice for manager Mancini as City’s midfielder Yaya Toure got a goal in the 70th. Even at 1-0, the match was still being watched on the edge of seats as the teams were playing a back-and-forth game of near chances. Of course, Manchester City would have much nearer chances though, eventually with Toure getting his second goal in the 89th. That put the final stamp on the outcome and the match ended with a 2-0 victory for Manchester City over Newcastle.

Luckily Newcastle didn’t lose too much ground in the league table with the loss. Both Arsenal and Tottenham drew their matches, so things are still up for grabs going into the final match of the season. Chelsea was busy winning the FA Cup final so they didn’t play a league match this weekend, instead playing it on this coming Tuesday. With that said, if anything was a negative for Newcastle, it was that Chelsea now has a game in hand to make up ground. Here’s how things look in the Magpies neck of the table:

3rd place (Champions League)                             Arsenal           67 pts / 24 goal differential

4th place (Champions League qualifying rounds)  Tottenham      66 pts / 23 GD

5th place (Europa League)                                  Newcastle       65 pts / 7 GD

6th place [two matches left to play]                    Chelsea           61 pts / 21 GD

To be perfectly honest, I would be excited for Newcastle to get either a Europa or Champions League spot. Not that I wouldn’t be ecstatic for to watch the Magpies in a Champions match, but I almost feel the Europa League would be better as the team is still developing into a league leader. To get to the Champions or the Europa League though, they still have to hold off Chelsea for 5th.

Both way, I’m looking for Newcastle to win this next Sunday, making the fate of Arsenal and Tottenham decide the Toon’s European destiny. For their final match, Newcastle travel to Liverpool to take on US National Team goalie Tim Howard and his Everton teammates. Sorry Mr. Howard, you may be my favorite on the national team, but I’m hoping you’ll be picking the ball out of the net a few times next weekend.