Before They Were Famous

 

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Tuesday 25 April 2023
Result	Arsenal U18 1 West Ham United U18 5
Competition	FA Youth Cup 2022-23 Final
Hopstats	My third visit to the Emirates Stadium. Impulsive purchase when I stumbled across the fixture earlier in the day.
Context
Routes to the final: Arsenal: Millwall (h) 6-0, Newcastle U (a) 3-2, Watford (a) 4-2 (from 0-2 down), Cambridge U (h) 3-2, Manchester C (h) 2-1 aet. West Ham: Sheffield U (a) 3-1, Burnley (a) 1-0, Stoke C (a) 4-1, Ipswich T (a) 4-2 aet, Southampton (h) 6-1. In their league campaign, West Ham have considerably out-performed Arsenal and won the U18 South division by a huge margin. Arsenal are managed by Jack Wilshere, West Ham by Kevin Keen.
In One Sentence
A promising start by Arsenal was washed away by a ruthlessly efficient performance from West Ham once the team had settled.
So What?
West Ham win this trophy for the first time since 1999 and the days of Michael Carrick and Joe Cole.
Match Report
The sensible ticket pricing had attracted a crowd of 34,000 of which 7,000 were filling the visitors’ section. They were in very good voice and the first action of note saw West Ham keeper Mason Terry make a flying save to keep out a free-kick by Michal Rosiak. Arsenal looked comfortable on the ball and clearly practise turning on the proverbial sixpence. It wasn’t long before they took a deserved lead. A surging but unchallenged run was made from his own half by Ruell Walters, who fed the ball out to Amario Cozier-Duberry, who’d already looked dangerous when running at defenders. Terry pushed the first shot away but the ball fell to Omari Benjamin on the left corner of the box, and he finished superbly. West Ham kept their heads and the equaliser came from another direct run down Route One. George Earthy found the back of the net and headed for the corner flag to celebrate in front of the home fans like a real pro. In just one more minute they took the lead. Callum Marshall had a tap-in to finish an incisive move down the right ending with Gideon Kodua’s cross. The celebration was duly repeated. The game then settled into a less frenetic pattern. Arsenal kept probing, though sometimes you could detect priority given to keeping the ball rather than risking a threatening move. Then, just before half-time, disaster. A miskick by Josh Robinson in the Arsenal defence let in Kodua who lifted the ball over home keeper Noah Cooper from distance. This prompted a celebration at the opposite corner flag, and an Arsenal team huddle at the instigation of captain Bradley Ibrahim. It would be essential for Arsenal to score first in the second half, and they created several half chances. Cozier-Duberry hit the side netting after good approach play from Robinson, and Terry made a close-range block from Rosiak. Cooper saved well to deny Earthy a second goal. Generally, though, West Ham kept a good shape and looked defensively brave and strong despite the efforts of the Arsenal subs. As time ebbed away, a growing sense of frustration spilled over and we saw two yellow cards at the end of some pushing and shoving. West Ham added two late goals from corners of their own, the first of which started the exodus from the home sections. The scorers were Kaelan Casey with a far-post header and Josh Briggs with his first touch. On the final whistle, another Arsenal huddle for managerial words of wisdom, and West Ham heading to their own supporters. I was willing to wait for the presentation but the setting up of the corporate staging took far too long, so it was time to head back to the trains. This was undeniably a great occasion for these young players, and I’ve listed all the names below so we can look back in a few years to see which ones break through to the elite level. The only advice I can sensibly give? Ditch the yellow shirt, Noah. No good will come of it … Arsenal U18 West Ham U18 Noah Cooper (gk, yellow) Mason Terry (gk, grey) Michal Rosiak Oliver Scarles Josh Robinson Regan Clayton Reuell Walters Kaelan Casey (Sean Tarima 79) Lino Sousa Ryan Battrum (Josh Briggs 90) Bradley Ibrahim (c) Lewis Orford Myles Lewis-Skelly Patrick Kelly Jimi Gower (Osman Kamara 46) George Earthy (Daniel Rigge 85) Amario Cozier-Duberry Gideon Kodua Omari Benjamin  (Sebastian Ferdinand 85) Divin Mubama Ethan Nwaneri Callum Marshall
Ground Pix
This is an undeniably impressive stadium, and the club leaves you in no doubt about its history, its characters, and its intended culture. The reminders cover the vast majority of internal and external wall space. I combined the game with a chance for some exercise, walking the two-and-a-bit miles each way from St Pancras Station, which takes around 45 minutes at moderate pace.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update
Usually accompanied by a pre-match prediction on Twitter just before kickoff. Working towards being able to compute a respectable statistical significance test by the end of the season. The full keeper top performance table from my last 269 matches is here, on this separate page. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Away Win Was the prediction correct? Yes % of correct predictions so far 44% (55 from 124) Based on conventional 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw, but also -1pt for a goal conceded (GC) and +5pts for a clean sheet (CS).  Colours ranked on a points per game (PPG) basis. The odd decimal places were caused either by undeniable half-and-half tops or lower league sub keepers in a different colour.  The Fire Cracker colour was confirmed with the help of the social media team at Dulux UK.  All of this arises from a comment attributed to Petr Cech (and supported by anonymous scientists of some description) that orange is the best colour for a goalkeeper because it changes the behaviour of other players around the box. It is supposedly because of an innate primeval human reaction to the colour and the colour “spreads” more in the vision of a striker at the key moment of decision. Genius or garbage? The evidence is gathering here, and is leaning towards the latter.
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! I’ll also be going to Arsenal v Wolfsburg in the semi-final second leg of the Women’s Champions League at the same stadium next Monday. At the time of writing, 55k tickets have been sold.

 

Astra Felipe and West Ham Flop

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Thursday 26 August 2016 at the London Stadium
Result	West Ham United 0 Astra Giurgiu 1 Astra win 2-1 on aggregate
Competition	UEFA Europa League Play-Off Second Leg
Hopping	591 on the lifetime list and I am here to complete “The 92” and “The 116” and cheer for an English side in a European competition.
Pre-match preparation
Decided to heed the social media warnings and go by public transport.  The tie is level at 1-1 after West Ham conceded a late equaliser in the first leg.  The club’s public pronouncements are expecting a home win even though Astra beat West Ham at this same stage last season.  I won’t get a chance to see Dmitri Payet, Manuel Lanzini and Andy Carroll who are all injured.  I might get a chance to see former WBA fringe midfielder Felipe Teixeira. I think I last saw him on 28 August 2007 in a league cup game at Peterborough.  For the record, the match ticket was £20+1.
This match in one sentence
A cool finish on the break by the aforementioned Teixeira was the key moment in a textbook away European performance by FC Astra.
So what?
I never, ever have to go into Stratford on a West Ham match night ever again. Ever.  Plus West Ham have 85 fewer fixtures this season and will need to keep their squad members happy with adult colouring books or something.
The drama unfolds
The journey was horrendous for starters.  Massive Central Line delays meant that I had to switch via Bow Road to the DLR and then walk to the ground from Pudding Lane.  Fortunately fans have already trampled a shortcut over a perimeter fence and I managed to avoid spraining an ankle as I allowed gravity to pull me down a bank.  I had time for a few snaps and I picked up a programme but I got to my seat sweating profusely, without food or water, just as the teams were coming out.  The security checks had been ridiculously inadequate and I could easily have brought in a picnic hamper.  When I saw the food stall prices later I realised my error of omission. Anyway, to the match.  This will have been well-documented elsewhere for anyone interested so I will be brief.  FC Astra lined up with a red-topped Silviu Lung in goal facing up to Darren Randolph’s orange which did not bode well.  Slaven Bilic doesn’t follow this blog, clearly.  The game started at European pace in line with the warm evening.  West Ham used their wide players whenever possible and I liked the look of Sam Byram.  As a West Brom fan I don’t get to see full-backs very often.  Lung looked dodgy.  However, there was no end product and West Ham were often muscled off the ball by very organised and strong opponents.  0-0 at half-time would have been OK, but the classic away goal sucker punch was coming. A crossfield ball to the other fullback Reece Burke left him with too much to do.  In the split second to make a decision he kept going forward but the ball was lost leaving Astra the chance to break into the wide open spaces behind him.  Filipe Teixeira arrived from midfield like an untracked express train and finished really well.  A game changer, and West Ham would now need two. Bilic sent on Enner Valencia at the break and West Ham started the second half with more urgency.   They created several half-chances with Winston Reid in particular being unlucky that he couldn’t keep a bullet header down below the bar.  On the rare occasions that the defensive line was breached, Lung was now showing Hollywood form. The systematic time-wasting by the Astra players contributed to a grim spectacle and the home fans were getting restless.  A scuffle broke out to my left.  A target of two goals in one half became one goal to take the tie to extra time as West Ham reverted more and more to hit-and-hope tactics.  It never looked like coming and home fans with better knowledge of local infrastructure were leaving in the proverbial droves well before the end.  To be fair, another 45 minutes for extra time and penalties would probably have left people like me sleeping rough overnight in the Olympic Park.  There was a late flurry of yellow cards.  James Collins was sent on as a targetman, which must be a sign of desperation.  There was a weary resignation about the place as the whistle went and the small posse of away fans celebrated with their heroes.  Final score 0-1
Ground Pix
I like the stadium.  It doesn’t look like a ground with a running track.  I like the shapes, the lines, the angles.  I’m not bothered that West Ham have been very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to be here.  The infrastructure still needs huge improvement to give an acceptable matchday experience to fans and local residents and businesses.  I didn't like the atmosphere inside which was muted and disappointing.  There were plenty of football tourists like me and lots of empty seats.  I never got the sense that the Hammers fans were that bothered about the Europa League.  If there had been a late equaliser, thousands of them had already given up the chance of watching extra time. The red structure nearby is The Orbit, original design by Anish Kapoor.  I last went to the top in 2012 during the London Olympics and a tunnel slide experience has now been added.
Match Pix
These days I don’t get the chance to watch football from high places that often so I tend to choose the upper tier and enjoy the ebb-and-flow rather than the blood-and-thunder of lower leagues.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
As “expected”, red beats orange and adds another clean sheet.  Here’s the latest from the last 88 games I’ve seen. 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw, -1pt for a goal conceded (GC) and +5pts for a clean sheet (CS).  Ranked by points-per-game (PPG). P W D L GC CS Pts PPG Red 7.0 4.0 0.0 3.0 6.0 3.0 21.0 3.00 Green 45.0 25.0 5.0 15.0 69.0 13.0 76.0 1.69 Maroon 4.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 6.0 1.0 6.0 1.50 Blue 24.1 9.0 5.0 10.1 40.0 8.0 32.0 1.33 Grey 32.5 14.0 7.0 11.5 48.5 8.0 40.5 1.25 Orange 14.5 4.0 3.0 7.5 18.5 4.0 16.5 1.14 Purple 9.0 4.0 2.0 3.0 20.0 2.0 4.0 0.44 Yellow 17.0 4.0 5.0 8.0 31.0 4.0 6.0 0.35 Black 3.0 1.0 2.0 0.0 7.0 0.0 -2.0 -0.67 Pink 10.0 1.0 4.0 5.0 23.0 1.0 -11.0 -1.10 Radioactive Bile 9.0 2.0 0.0 7.0 23.0 0.0 -17.0 -1.89 White 0.9 0.0 0.0 0.9 3.0 0.0 -3.0 -3.33
What Next?
Watch @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details!  Work commitments mean that all decisions are last-minute until further notice.  My Step 2 priorities for this season will be Fylde, Poole, Bromsgrove Sporting (landlords to Worcester City) and Darlington (on the move soon) to restore “The 160”.