Norwich City vs. Cardiff City: Marshall Law

During my senior year of college, I lived in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.  My roommates and I rented a mouse-infested apartment situated directly above a women's hair salon.  This was probably the crappiest apartment in an otherwise very wealthy suburb of Philadelphia.  

I vacated that apartment ten years ago, but it wasn't until I started this blog that I realized "Bryn Mawr" is actually a Welsh name.  The internet tells me the translation from Welsh is "Big Hill".  It turns out that a Welsh Quaker immigrated to America in the late 1600s and decided to name his new property after his old farm back in Wales.  Who knew?

Enough with Welsh history, let's travel from Philly to Caerphilly and talk about Welsh beer!  That's right dear readers, I have once again managed to locate Welsh beers in Massachusetts.  And once again they were produced by The Celt Experience, just like the beers I mentioned in my post a few weeks ago.  

Celt Experience's "Golden" and "Native Storm" beers

This time around, I got to try out Celt's "Golden" and "Native Storm" offerings.  In this head-to-head match, my wife and I both gave the win to Native Storm.  Admittedly, the badass story on the label earned extra points from me...

"16 September 1400:  Owain Glyndwr led the greatest armed uprising against English rule in Wales, one that would last for over fifteen years and which for a few brief shining moments would produce a united independent Wales ruled by its own prince and parliament."

This story is awesome and made me think of a Welsh version of Braveheart.  You certainly don't have to try too hard to sell an American on overthrowing English oppressors.  Interestingly enough, there's also a bit of hidden dark comedy here if you fast forward to the Premier League era.

At least once a week I hear someone on one of the podcasts of which I listen bemoan the lack of Englishmen in the Premier League.  The delicious irony is that the most English team in the Premier League is...wait for it...wait for it...Cardiff City!

Once you pick your jaws up off of the floor, I encourage you to check out Celt's beers.  If you need help deciding, check out the Beer Advocate reviews for the ones I've tried so far:

• Golden (82/100 BA rating)
• Native Storm (82/100 BA rating)
• Bronze (85/100 BA rating)
• Bleddyn 1075 (86/100 rating)

Ok, back to business.  The question of the week is, "did the Bluebirds make Owain Glyndwr proud?"  

Only if he's proud of scoreless ties...which he most certainly is not.

Norwich City 0 - Cardiff City 0

• <nothing to see here>

For the love of God, where is the offense, Cardiff City?!  Norwich City is a terrible club who find themselves in their own mouse-infested craphole in the relegation zone.  But you know what?  At least they played like they gave a shit about winning.

The Canaries outshot the Bluebirds (neither team wins the battle of the nicknames) 31 to 6.  Digest that for a moment.  In 96 minutes of play, Cardiff City only ATTEMPTED to hit the goal 6 times.  The scene below is pretty indicative of the resistance Norwich City put up in the few times Cardiff City were in a position to score. 

In the absence of getting a goal, nailing you in the junk will have to suffice (Image Credit:  PA)

I don't want to slam my newly-adopted club, but something has to give.  The Bluebirds' style of play is basically "park the bus".  Meaning, stick all eleven of your players in your own third of the field and cross your fingers that your opponents don't score.

This is not a strategy for winning, it is a strategy for not losing.  And the only reason it has somewhat worked and (temporarily) kept the Bluebirds out of relegation danger is because of their keeper David Marshall.

Marshall isn't just good, he's really freakin' good.  Believe it or not he is actually the number one goalkeeper in the Premier League in terms of saves.

But you don't get to be number one in saves unless your defenders are letting opponents have their way with you.  And even with Marshall's heroics, eventually something is going to get through.  Or thirteen somethings at latest count.  

My suggestion, next match let David Marshall manage the goalkeeping on his own and the rest of you go "park the bus" in the opponents third of the field.

Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now.

The Bluebirds are now in 16th place with 2 wins, 3 draws, 4 losses.  The table below captures the full Premier League standings as of 10/29/13.  The table columns are:  Club Name, Matches Played (Pld), and Match Points (Pts).

If we cannot find good news in reality, let us find it in fantasy!  The Cardiff'rent Strokes had their best week to date!  Here's the summary of my FPL status:

• Rank (Last Week):  1,553,785
• Rank (This Week):  1,297,995
• Total Players:  3,030,230

Cardiff City's next match is the first of two highly-anticipated South Wales Derbies, at home against fellow Welsh club Swansea City on November 3rd.  

That's it for this week.  Thank you as always for reading Dragon and Bluebird!  You can find me on Twitter as well, @dragon_bluebird.