Sunderland AFC

Spurs Preview

Smalls — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:56:01 +0000

Yeah, I’ve been gone a bit again. I need to start budgeting my time and get some more posts on my blog. Well, last week was tough. A loss in PKs to Villa and a draw with West Ham at home. Of course we would have loved to get wins in both of those matches, but we’re a little thin right now. Caught the replay of the West Ham game and loved the free kick by Reid and one word AWESOME. Reid is a man possessed right now and how he doesn’t get called up to the Republic of Ireland national team, I have no idea. I hear the coach doesn’t like him much, well suck up your pride buddy, because this man is legit. Anyways, lets move on to the Spurs game.

This is definitely going to be a tough matchup with Spurs having a solid year to date, currently fifth in the standings. Defoe and Keane have been remarkable with 11 goals combined. We always seem to step up the game on the road against a quality opponent and I think we’ll be able to do it again. I believe Cana is out with the yellow card max, always tough losing your captain. Bent will not let his return to Tottenham go to waste. He wants to show management what they lost. Definitely expect him to come up big. Now for my keys to the game.

Big Game Bent. Darren Bent needs to come up huge and I think he will. I expect him to be able to get free and put at least one in the back of the net.
Solid in goal. Gordon needs to be good in the back and stop the attacking Spurs. Again, I think this is doable. I really like our net minder and since he’s been in goal the Black Cats have been great defensively and it’s a shame he got the loss in the Carling Cup against Villa. Gordon steps up his game another notch tomorrow.
Strong in the midfield. Once again the midfielders without Catermole have to be good and I think they can. Henderson needs to continue to get the job done and improve each game. Your age and inexperience is not an excuse.

Well, I’ll be back after the game tomorrow and my prediction for the game is a 1-1 draw although I think they can pull off the upset.

Birmingham Aftermath

Smalls — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:44:43 +0000

Well, it’s taken me a couple days to cool off from this loss. Obviously, none of the keys were hit below and Birmingham completely dominated the middle 70 minutes of this game. It was just a tough game for me to watch.

Sunderland was not able to convert on set pieces and just looked all out of sort. They turned the ball over way to much in midfield and Andy Ried had a really tough game. I guess you’re allowed one occasionally. It still looks like Jones is lazy! I cannot figure this guy out at all! Come, work hard and play hard. I’m just not seeing it out of him. I’d like to see Frazier and Bent get some work together. Don’t want to talk much more about that game; it’s time to move on.

I’m curious to see what kind of lineup Bruce decides to field for the Carling Cup against Aston Villa this week. I would assume it’s time to start going strong in this tournament now that it’s coming down to the EPL teams, very good teams at that. Hoping I’ll be able to catch this game on Setanta, but haven’t checked their scheduling lately.

That’s all for now. I’ll be back in a couple days.

M.I.A…but I’m back with a Birmingham preview…

Smalls — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:55:05 +0000

My apologies to those few people who may actually look at this blog and it looks like very few if any do. Feel free to leave a comment or two and let me know your at there, but I’ll try to be more consistent. Three weeks between blogs is my fault. Anyhow, two great games by Sunderland the last two weeks that I was able to catch in between my hung over nights…

The game against Man U was devastating at the end when they got their last goal in extra time, but an excellent job by the boys nonetheless. The way Jones went up for that ball and dominated the goalie was amazing! It’s like watching a linebacker on the soccer field or “pitch” as they call it. Getting a point there was huge!

Beating Liverpool on the “beach ball goal” as it’s been referred to, was fun to see. Sunderland dominated the game from start to finish and Liverpool deserved to lose that game. It was great to see the club come out and play some great futbol, offensively and defensively.

Now for tomorrow’s game. Going on the road is never easy, but they need to pick up three against a lower team in the table. Birmingham is four from the bottom and getting these points could shoot Sunderland into the top 4. I’m really looking forward to the young Jordan Henderson in the middle taking over for Cattermole, which is a huge loss. Lee has been tremendous, but with his injury and being out for three months, Henderson needs to step up and provide a boost and show no drop off. I think he’s ready and am excited for him to get a chance. Now for my three keys to the game, a new segment I’m going to add to the pregame analysis:

Convert opportunities on goal. It seems like the boys have had plenty of opportunities, but just haven’t been able to put the ball in the net. Even with Bent’s 8 goals and Jones’ 5, it’s been a struggle to convert. I look for them to press hard and convert tomorrow.
Be strong in the middle. This is where Henderson needs to flex his muscle and aggressiveness. He needs to come hard at Birmingham and create opportunities for the two power forwards. He’ll have some help from Andy Reid, but Jordan is going to have to do his share to give Sunderland the ability to score.
Come through on set pieces. An aspect of the game where I’d like to see Sunderland improve is the set pieces. Convert on a corner or two and there is no looking back.

Now for the prediction. Sunderland is two strong up front and should keep Birmingham on their heals all day. There shouldn’t be too much work for the defenders and goalie. The boys should pull this one out with ease 3-0.

Let’s go out and destroy!