Being the dedicated researcher that I am, I always keep my eyes open for relevant pop culture tidbits to round out my Premier League education. I was fortunate enough to uncover a gem of a movie as part of my prep for this week's rematch between Cardiff City and West Ham United. Green Street Hooligans.
Pete Dunham: "F$&k it, I will take you with me. You might learn something..."
Matt Buckner: "About soccer?"
Pete Dunham: "No mate. Not about soccer, AND FOR F$&K'S SAKE, STOP SAYING SOCCER!"
Pete (Charlie Hunnam of Sons of Anarchy) is an Englishman who has been forced to babysit his American brother-in-law by marriage Matt (Elijah Wood of Lord of the Rings) for a day. Matt is a Journalism major and all-around wuss who has just been thrown out of Harvard because he volunteered to take the fall for his rich roommate's recently-discovered stash of cocaine. It's never made clear why Matt agreed to do this, but I think you're supposed to just accept that it's something that Elijah Wood is likely to have done.
As any good babysitter would, Pete takes Matt to get wasted at a pub. Delightfully, Pete tells his goon friends that Matt is tougher than he looks and was the inspiration for The Karate Kid.
After the pub, Pete takes Matt to a West Ham United home match. The club's performance is irrelevant to Pete and yet as the movie progresses we come to understand that the club as a concept is his entire reason for being.
Following the match, Pete and his friends have scheduled a fight with supporters of the opposing club. Matt sanely declines an invitation to join them. But despite his objections, Matt is dragged into the world of hooliganism. His fighting style turns out to be less Karate Kid and more Bart Simpson in the classic episode "Lisa on Ice".
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| If you get hit, it's your own fault. |
I'll come back to Green Street Hooligans in a few minutes, because limp-wristed (ankled?) assaults are as good a segue into this past week's match as any...
Cardiff City 0 - West Ham United 2
- Cole (WHU) 42'
- Noble (WHU) 90'
There are three reasons why this loss was a particularly bitter pill to swallow:
- The Hammers are terrible. They had lost their previous three matches by a combined 13-1.
- The Bluebirds were not only favored to win this match, but they were also billed as almost three times more likely to win than to lose according to Premier League betting sites.
- The Bluebirds are under new management and for the past few days an unusual sense of optimism and positivity had descended upon the fanbase.
It will of course take time for new manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (OGS) to put his stamp on Cardiff City, but just the same I had expected this match to be a blowout in our favor.
No such luck.
The visitors were unexpectedly aggressive coming out of the gate. Hammer James Tomkins almost gave them a 1-0 lead just three minutes into the match. All credit goes to David Marshall for another miraculous save.
Then about thirty minutes into the match, Cardiff City's Kim Bo-Kyung gave us a reason to believe...
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| The yellow blob on the net is the WHU goalkeeper's water bottle. The ball is the faint image on the goal line. |
I wish we had the wherewithal on Dragon and Bluebird to bring you a GIF of this shot so that you could truly appreciate the divine injustice. But in essence what happened was Kim's shot hit the upper bar of the goal and came straight down onto the goal line.
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| A mild breeze would have put the Bluebirds up 1-0. |
I think that this miss burned off any optimism I had built up coming into the match.
Goal opportunities are few and far between for Cardiff City and I've reached the point where I truly assume that every time the opposing team touches the ball, Cardiff City are in imminent danger of losing.
Does that make me a fair-weather or battle-hardened Bluebird fan?
I take notes on my phone during matches and this is what I wrote following Kim's non-goal:
"36 minutes part of me thinks I should shut this off now. Then again Cardiff have waited until last ten minutes to blow the game lately, so this is likely the good part."
Which naturally lead to West Ham United's Carlton Cole scoring a few moments later and putting the Hammers up 1-0.
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| Hammer Carlton Cole didn't bother watching the result of his attempt (Image Credit: Getty Images) |
Cardiff City were the better club in the second half. And believe it or not the statistics will tell you that the Bluebirds were actually the better club for the entire match. The following are the match stats (Cardiff first, then West Ham United):
- Time of Possession: 63%-27%
- Shots: 19-10
- On Target: 7-3
- Corners: 8-7
- Fouls: 7-16
- Yellow Cards: 1-4
- Red Cards: 0-1
Alas, Cardiff City were not the better club in the only stat that ever matters...Goals Scored.
West Ham United's defense was able to maintain the lead, even when down a man. Hammer Mark Noble's goal in the match's final minutes was insult piled upon injury.
In Green Street Hooligans, Matt embraces the hooligan ethos. I won't spoil the movie for you, but there comes a moment when he is faced with a decision to leave England and let down his new comrades or to stay and risk his life in a fight against Millwall supporters.
Intending to convince him that it's ok to not get his face bashed in, Matt's sister tells him, "You know that back home no one is going to care about your rep here, right?"
Matt takes this to mean, "I think you're a wuss, go back home and embrace your mediocrity". Instead of running away, he joins up with his friends and stands his ground.
I think there's a lesson to be learned from Green Street Hooligans, by Cardiff City and at least this supporter.
No, I'm not advocating tossing firebombs into the pubs of opposing team's fans.
If you'll pardon the analogy, "home" for the Bluebirds recent history at least has been the Football League Championship (i.e. tier 2 of English football). If Cardiff City don't man up and start playing up to their potential, they will be going home. And no one there will care that they made a fair go of it in the Premier League.
It's time for Cardiff City to stand their ground and fight back. And it's time for me to stop sulking about these losses. Not even my dog wants to hear it anymore.
The Bluebirds are in 18th place with 4 wins, 6 draws, and 11 losses. The table below captures the full Premier League standings as of 01/14/14. The table columns are: Current Position (POS), Last Position (LP), Club Name (CLUB), Matches Played (P), Wins (W), Draws (D), Losses (L), Goals Fielded (GF), Goals Allowed (GA), Goal Differential (GD), and Rankings Points (PTS).
You read that correctly. Cardiff City are now in the relegation zone. But the Bluebirds still have plenty of time to turn things around. OGS will be a positive influence on their play style, new players have been added to the roster (more on this next week), and favorable matches are coming in February.
Oh and Jordon Mutch, whose jersey is hopefully making its way across the Atlantic as I write this post, will hopefully be back from injury soon.
I haven't dinged OGS for his managerial performance in part because it's his first week on the job and in part because I'm experiencing my own failures as a leader. The Cardiff'rent Strokes took another dive this past week.
- Rank (Last Week): 1,271,016
- Rank (This Week): 1,324,294
- Total Players: 3,144,478
The time has come for me to utilize one of my two "wildcards" (i.e. unlimited team hiring/firing for one week). So far I've booted out 11 members of my 15 man team. Let's hope this shakeup leads to some success!
The Bluebirds' next match is on January 18th away at Manchester City. Cardiff City began the season with a 0-2 loss to West Ham United and immediately followed with a shocking 3-2 win against Manchester City. Having just lost to the Hammers again 2-0, will history repeat itself next week against the Citizens?
Tune in to Dragon and Bluebird next week to find out!
Thank you as always for reading. You can follow me on Twitter @dragon_bluebird. And feel free to leave some comments on my posts via Blogger. Would love to hear your thoughts on the season so far and I'm always open to suggestions for any features or topics you'd like to see on this blog. See you next week!
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